David Cooper

0148 - Dolph Starbeam

Added 2022-10-28 08:00:03 +0000 UTC

Another surprise surname, as revealed in season 18's "24 Minutes", so I did a little digging...and it's messy, which is what we like to see.

"Starbeam" seems to come from the fact that Dolph's parents were hippies, although I have not found the episode that reveals this. We see his father beat up Homer in Moes, and his mother appears to be Starla, the woman who Kirk dates shortly after his divorce.

A later episode reveals Dolph's surname could be "Shapiro".

Dolph reveals that he goes to Hebrew school in season 17's "See Homer Run", and Shapiro is a Jewish name, so either Dolph was originally a Shapiro before becoming a Starbeam for a brief period, OR he converted to Judaism and took a Jewish name after his hippy upbringing faded away. Will season 34 clarify this for us? We can only hope.

His floppy hair is one of the most 90s things in the show.

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