0236 - Lucille Botcowski
Added 2023-07-10 08:00:02 +0000 UTCSideshow Bob was the real main "recurring" villain to come out of season 1, but they certainly gave The Babysitter Bandit a good try. She's certainly one of the more memorable characters of the show so far, partially due to a great performance by Penny Marshall, and partially due to the fact that she's really actually quite mean and unpleasant.
Of course, this isn't her only appearance in the show, just her only voiced appearance. Her fugitive status is alluded to in "Bart's Dog Gets An F":
And this is probably meant to be her appearing on a board in the police station 8in "Boy-Scoutz 'n The Hood":
Eventually she is captured and put in a mental asylum (as seen in "Hurricane Neddy"). I'd argue she's not mentally unwell, just mean, but maybe her lawyer had her plead insanity.
She's considered a big enough character to appear in the Family Guy crossover episode "The Simpsons Guy", as a boss in "Bart Vs The Space Mutants" and even gets her own trading card (although as we'll see, that's not a huge sign of popularity.)
I think these many cameo appearances speak to the fact that Botz is a memorable tertiary character that could have been recurring, but never was. I think the fact is: she's just not really that funny.
This post is part of my "Every Simpsons Character Ever" series. For a list of my rules in this project, click here.
