0351 - Great Grandpa Simpson

One of those characters where it's debatable how much he "counts" for our little project. But if you listen closely, you can hear his grumbling as he strangles his (presumed) son. That counts as a line!

Bart refers to him specifically as "Great Grandpa SIMPSON", and so we can determine that this is Abe's father (assuming none of his other three great Grandpas are also Simpsons). We cannot definitively say that the son is Abe for a few reasons:

• Abe has potentially six other brothers, according to the Simpsons Wiki.

• Abe is not dead, so is not in heaven.

• This is possibly not actually heaven, merely a figment of Bart's imagination anyway.

But none of this is particularly important: the son doesn't have a line.

SO: Abe's father, who is he? His most well known appearance is probably in season 7's "Much Apu About Nothing", in which Abe tells us his father moved them from "the old country" to America.

In season 28's "Dad Behaviour", Abe tells another story of his father, in which he hurls his son into the sun.

Also in season 28, in "A Father's Watch", we hear another tale from Abe as he tells Bart his father was a "professional child-beater".

You'll notice all three of these appearances are recalled by Abe, an unreliable narrator - as unreliable as they come - so we cannot truly ascertain any useful information about this character from any of this. Sorry for completely wasting your time.

In season 25's "The Winter of His Content", Homer reveals to Lisa that his grandfather is alive, and that Abe never visits him - we never see him in the current timeline, however, so his current status is unconfirmed.

The Simpsons Uncensored Family Album claims his name is Orville - I think this is the primary source for this name, if you see it.

Personally I would consider it as non-canon as it gets, but Tapped Out also calls him Orville, presumably pulling from this (or it's an extremely unlikely coincidence.) The Tapped Out appearance pulls his design from the "A Father's Watch" appearance though, confusing matters further.

I almost feel like Bart's great grandpa is now more of a mystery than he was before I started writing this. Oh well.

This post is part of my "Every Simpsons Character Ever" series. For a list of my rules in this project, click here.