0347 - Squirrel
Added 2024-06-27 08:00:01 +0000 UTCThe main event! The character you have all been waiting for from this episode.
You can just hear her already, can't you? "Don't do that, don't do that!" I know that technically Roger Myers Jr is a more significant addition to the Simpsons-verse from this episode, but this angry squirrel is far more memorable to me.
Could you say she was the inspiration for Sandy Cheeks? No, probably not. Could you argue that her design is a reference to Rocky of "and Bullwinkle" fame? I doubt it, they're not that similar. Could you even say that this minor appearance isn't even that big of a deal and that to get so excited by it is a bit weird? MAYBE.
But she makes my heart smile. Her wee cartoon voice is tattooed onto my brain, surpassed only by the later exchange between Itchy and Scratchy themselves, as they share a pitcher of lemonade:
"Lemonade?" "Please!"
The way minor snippets of Simpsons dialogue burrow their way into my thoughts, only to play on repeat in the background for the rest of my life, is not something that writers generally strive for. It's a happy accident, a result of watching so much of this ad-nauseum at a time when I was at my most open and impressionable. In a vacuum, these lines highlighted today are not side-splittingly funny, poignant or clever. But there's a good chance you remember the intonation and delivery of them as soon as you read them, regardless of how long ago you last heard them. There's something magic about that.
This post is part of my "Every Simpsons Character Ever" series. For a list of my rules in this project, click here.
