Clancy Wiggum
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| The Simpsons character | |
Clancy Wiggum |
|
| Clancy Wiggum | |
| Age | Early 40s |
|---|---|
| Gender | Male |
| Hair color | Blue (Black in some earlier episodes) |
| Job | Police Chief |
| Relatives | Father: Iggy (Deceased) Mom: Martha Son: Ralph Wife: Sarah (See Also Wiggum family) |
| First appearance | Homer's Odyssey |
| Voice actor | Hank Azaria |
Police Chief Clancy Wiggum (voiced by Hank Azaria) is a fictional character from the animated television series The Simpsons.
Contents |
[edit] Profile
Clancy Wiggum was possibly born in Baltimore, Maryland. He mentioned he used to sell ribbons there with his father, Iggy. Iggy was a war veteran who died in a parade float accident in 1979, along with Arnie Gumble, Sheldon Skinner, Etch Westgrin, and Griff McDonald, all members of Abe Simpson's Flying Hellfish. Apparently he did however grow up in Springfield and was among the same class and age group as Homer Simpson, Lenny Leonard, Carl Carlson, Barney Gumble, and possibly Marge Simpson.
Wiggum is the chief of police of the Springfield police department. He is an extreme stereotype: morbidly obese, dim witted, ignorant, grossly incompetent, lazy, with a fondness for doughnuts and "Chintzy Pop". His voice is based on Edward G. Robinson's. He has little regard for individual rights or even public safety. He is disturbingly uninformed ("Some Chinese people claimed they were celebrating New Year's in February ... good food though") and flaunts his power, albeit with good intentions most of the time. He, along with the rest of Springfield's government and police force, is also corrupt, having asked for or taken bribes several times. As an example of this, in The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase he moves to New Orleans after being kicked off the Springfield Police Force for massive corruption, although this segment was something of a spoof. He has also notably solicited Troy McClure and Homer Simpson for bribes in exchange for "looking the other way" to their criminal activities. He has a strained relationship with Mayor Quimby, as the two men vie to have control over the city (once leading to a serious argument over who takes over during an emergency during the Monorail crisis). Wiggum claims to have compromising photographs of the mayor ("You don't scare me; that could be anyone's ass!"), which may help to explain why he has retained his job despite his inability to do anything his job requires of him.
He is often assisted by his more intelligent (but still quite lazy and often rather cocky) "top cops" Lou and Eddie. He is completely ignorant of Springfield's laws and often quotes sayings from the police handbook which cannot actually be found in the book ('like the book says, if you can't beat them, join them').
Since an early age, playing cops and robbers with Homer and other kids his age, Wiggum had a clear ambition to become a successful cop. When he was 16 he was a hall monitor during High School, and possibly at the same time, a part-time security guard at Springfield State University. Wiggum was present in one of the University's germ research labs (run at that time by Prof. C. Montgomery Burns) when Mona Simpson and the hippie activist group she was part of sabotaged the germ experiments. Apparently his early attempts to get into the Police Force were unsuccessful on account of his asthma, so when Wiggum inhaled the fumes during the attack it cured his asthma (but had no effect whatsoever on his acne). This allowed him to pursue his ambition to become a professional police officer. Having entered the Police Academy by age 24, Wiggum managed to work around his many shortcomings and finally become a full fledged officer and by 32, he had managed to work his way into becoming Police Chief of Springfield. Although its implied that he had managed to get by despite his shortcomings by coaxing methods such as using his apparently great skill with back massages and charm since his Academy days to eventually land himself into his position as Chief. Regardless, Wiggum had accomplished his childhood ambition.
He is the husband of Sarah Wiggum, whom he met when arresting her for possession of drugs that he planted on her to "make her notice him", and is the father of Ralph Wiggum. He has a cousin called Mark, who went to Penn State ("fat kid... played a lot of Tetris") and an unnamed brother who, after attending Military School, presumably went crazy and now "owns and operates a famous cave."
Wiggum does have redeeming qualities as well. Despite his dubious escapades he appears to have quite a loving relationship with his family, especially his son whom Wiggum often supports and shows great patience towards, although he can be unfortunately somewhat clueless to Ralph's needs at times. The two apparently do much with each other, as they often do things together in the backdrop of various episodes. In "Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment" its implied that Clancy does use the money he earns as well as "acquires" for his family as much as himself. Wiggum doesn't appear to be a particularly judgemental person either, and generally gets along with others. He does on occasion even help various other characters, such as helping Homer find Marge in "Marge on the Lam", helping Lisa Simpson find Mr. Burns' assailant in Who Shot Mr. Burns? as well as helping backing her up in a school protest on one occasion in "The President Wore Pearls", or arriving just in time during a crucial moment such as the various times Sideshow Bob has attempted to kill Bart Simpson . Perhaps the best example of this is the episode "Mother Simpson," where it is implied that he leads the FBI astray in their search for Mona Simpson, allowing her to escape in gratitude for curing his asthma. Although Wiggum can often antagonize others as well, it's heavily implied that it's not out of malice but merely because he's doing his job or because he's ignorant of the situation. It is often implied as well that Wiggum genuinely wants to do good with his job, but a mix of complacency, various difficulties with being a cop, and his own limitations have made him weary of his duties.
As well as the above, some interesting quirks of the character include rather unusual ingenuity in his job such as: using police hang gliders, riding an Ostrich, speaking hippie tongue, and using loud music to flush out Seymour Skinner and Edna Krabappel out of Springfield Elementary to which they locked down to name a few. He also has a tendency to rant about things during situations, a bit of a kinky side to him as shown in particular scenes in "I Love Lisa" and "Marge on the Lam" as well as others, and a fondness for acting and the performing arts. Wiggum often orchestrates or appreciates plays and other shows in prison with the inmates, played a major role in a production of A Streetcar Named Desire in the episode "A Streetcar Named Marge", and his fondness for the artform is even specifically stated in "Wild Barts Can't Be Broken". Some may find this an interesting parallel to his son, who is hinted to potentially have a very high degree of hidden performing talent.
[edit] Marksmanship and use of standard equipment
Wiggum does not use his police handgun safely nor is he a very good shot on most occasions. There are many examples of his abuse, including the following:
- Firing into a crowd on a city street.
- When Johnny Carson told a joke about him over the TV, he attempted to shoot out the TV screen by firing his gun several times and then throwing his gun at the TV. The shots all missed but woke up his wife, who said, "Clancy, use the remote." This is perhaps also a reference to Elvis Presley, and his infamous habit of shooting televisions, although Wiggum's response seems to indicate that he genuinely mistook his gun for the remote control.
- Using his handgun to crack open nuts, then firing his gun at a nut when he was unable to crack open the shell of that nut. ("And let that be a lesson to the rest of you....nuts!")
- Attempting to shoot the third dimension.
- Using a shotgun to shoot a piñata but with a blindfold: "Am I getting warmer?"
- At the wedding of Sideshow Bob and Selma Bouvier, he left his handgun on the table with the wedding cake.
- When a cloud of the dreaded Osaka flu virus pursued him on a sidewalk, Wiggum threw his hotdog and soda at the virus before firing several shots at the cloud and then throwing his pistol at it in desperation.
- In a similar situation, as shown on "Cops: In Springfield," Wiggum was attempting to gun down a walking mummy to no avail, after which he threw his gun at the monster.
- In "Treehouse of Horror XV," he lent his handgun to Homer instantly upon request.
- In "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Marge," he taught Ralph how to aim for a kill shot. In "Brake My Wife, Please," Wiggum offers Ralph his gun if he stops the police car.
- Trying to shoot an alligator sent to kill him and unloading his entire clip at point blank range without landing a single shot.
- Trying to remove earwax.
- Shooting up a café in New Orleans with a shotgun.
- In Treehouse of Horror VI, Wiggum kills a very tall teenager with one shot after believing he was a monster. (Wiggum: "They're not so tough!" Lou: "Chief, that was the captain of the high school basketball team." Wiggum: "Well, he was turning into a monster.")
- Cocking a shotgun despite being in the mayor's office. He is then told to shoot it into the fireplace by an angry Mayor Quimby which he dose happily laughing as the dust rises.
Wiggum's actual skill with firearms is somewhat random in the series. There are some episodes where his aim and skill with guns is, quite frankly, atrocious, for instance when he has used all his ammunition, hurling the gun. Then in some other episodes, Wiggum shows some good skill by pulling off rather well-placed shots. The quality of Wiggum's use of various other tools at his disposal are also just as random, such as his use of a SWAT Team armored tank, the police helicopter, and various other firearms.
[edit] Springfield's finest
Wiggum's incompetence is showcased in "Homer's Triple Bypass." In a parody of FOX's COPS, Wiggum investigates a cattle rustler and uses a battering ram to knock down the suspect's door, only to find he has the wrong house. The occupant, Reverend Lovejoy, is very angry, especially since the cattle are in the neighbor's yard. Snake, the suspect that Wiggum is after, is able to make a clean getaway. Wiggum describes Snake's vehicle as "a car of some sort" and "heading in the direction of that place that sells chili" ("Suspect is hatless! Repeat, hatless!"). He has been known to use Agatha Christie novels as crime-solving reference guides. When chasing a car on a highway in Marge on the Lam, he was asked to describe his location, and replied "I'm on a road, looks to be ashphalt--aw jeez, trees, shrubs--uh, I'm directly under the earth's Sun...now."
Wiggum also often fails to comply with his police duties in a real emergency. In one episode, he refused to believe calls from people saying that an elephant (Bart's pet elephant Stampy) destroyed their property. After two calls, he thought a call reporting a "liquor store robbery in progress, officer down" was also a fake call. In another episode he mocks people who come in to report crimes to him by telling them he will "write on his invisible typewriter." This includes a man with a lighter saying "I just torched a building down town and I'm afraid I'll do it again." On several instances, he has switched off his police radio in the middle of an important call because he did not want to be bothered. This including a "riot in progress" during the episode I Love Lisa and a traveling cloud of poisonous gas in 'Round Springfield. He also leaves the station completely unmanned during night hours, save for an answering machine, once causing 75 emergencies to go unanswered (and were quickly erased). He has also expressed annoyance at the citizens he's supposed to be protecting; "Can't you people solve these problems yourselves? I mean we can't be 'policing' the whole city." He has also refused to come to the aid of citizens, claiming that they were just too busy to help, when all he was doing was playing checkers with one of the police dogs. In order to get off the phone during a state lottery drawing, Wiggum informed the caller that she had the wrong number and that "this is...912."
He once rejected Marge Simpson's claim that it was illegal to mail threatening letters, until the police handbook proved her right. At that moment, he also learned from the handbook that it was illegal to "put squirrels down your pants for the purposes of gambling", and immediately shouted to the rest of his officers to stop doing exactly that.
Despite his questionable competency at being an officer, Wiggum seems to be very attached to both the police force and his fellow officers. On the few occasions where Wiggum loses his commission, he breaks down shockingly fast (as seen in "Papa's Got a Brand New Badge"), even degrading to the level of a common mugger (as seen in "Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment"), although he isn't particularly good at this either as he had to sell the trigger and handle of his gun to feed his family. This pathetic sight prompts Homer to help him get his job back. Once in a while Wiggum will have an argument with his fellow officers, which often end in dramatic, tearful moments of reconciliation. On one occasion, Lou had thought about leaving the force to pursue a career in home security, which leaves Wiggum nearly a tearful mess. In one of The Simpsons' 'spin-off' programs featured in "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase", Wiggum stars in "Chief Wiggum P.I.", wherein he is fired from the Springfield force for corruption and moves to New Orleans to start working as a private investigator.
Despite all this, there are occasional hints that Chief Wiggum has the potential to actually be a very good policeman if only he'd be less lazy and complacent. When investigating Mr. Burns' attempted murder, Wiggum displays an astonishingly skilled eye for ballistics and fingerprinting, enough to make positive identifications without any specialized equipment. In fact, Wiggum's entire investigation of the shooting is uncharacteristically dogged, showing the police talking to everyone from Seymour Skinner to Moe Syzlak to Tito Puente. In Marge on the Lam, Wiggum was remarkably able to tell the position of Homer and himself in the middle of nowhere by the position of the sun.
Another good example is the episode "Pranksta Rap," where Wiggum is charged with finding a supposedly missing Bart Simpson. It is shown here as well that Wiggum is one of the few Simpsons characters that seems quite aware of his or her own incompetence, much to his dismay and an inevitable gorging on pancakes to lessen the blow. In the end, however, much to the shock of almost everyone in Springfield, including his own men, Wiggum finds Bart by using a rather cleverly tactical method and actually performs his job admirably. He is promoted to Police Commissioner, and it seems things may be finally looking up for him. It is discovered eventually in the episode, however, that Bart's abduction was merely a hoax, distressing Wiggum greatly as he finally had done some great good but at merely the wrong time. Curiously, however, it doesn't seem that his position of Commissioner is taken away in the end of the episode, although he is never seen in this position of power again. This is most likely attributable to the series' rather notably loose continuity. Judging from his usual boredom with most cases and situations in his work, it would seem that perhaps when he is actually motivated he shows far greater skill and zeal.
Wiggum has been greviously wounded in the line of duty at least twice, once in a bank robbery, and again during an assassination attempt by mob boss Fat Tony.
[edit] Police count
One of the biggest questions in the show is whether the most often seen cops Wiggum, Eddie, and Lou are indeed Springfield's only police officers. Although this is specifically stated in an episode and often implied, there are many episodes where a much larger police force makes an appearance, usually to storm a house or make a major bust. As previously mentioned, when the police raid Lovejoy's home he is accompanied by a rather large force of SWAT team officers. Another sighting of this is in "The Springfield Connection," where Marge walks into a police briefing room and many officers are present. Yet another example is in the episode "Simple Simpson," when an army of police officers open fire on Homer's alter ego, the Pieman. The show has often made exceptions of long standing canon facts to make a point in the moment. If it were true, however, that this would at least explain some of Wiggum's faults as an officer as it is rather difficult to patrol an entire city with a force of three men. It would seem to be that most police calls are handled by Chief Wiggum, Lou, and Eddy, but Springfield does have a bigger police force when needed, much like the Futurama police officers Smitty and Url.
[edit] Possible future, Wiggum P.I.
The episode "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase" lightly suggests that Wiggum's marriage will eventually dissolve, for reasons unknown, leaving Wiggum to raise Ralph on his own by starting a private investigation business in New Orleans with Principal Skinner, who was born in that city. While this particular segment of the episode was far more plausible than the other two, it is still highly unlikely that this is the fate of the Wiggum family and is most likely to be treated as a parody (in this case, of old fashioned police/detective dramas from the 1970s and 1980s). Due to the series' status quo, this and another rather unusual possibility seen in the episode "Future-Drama" are merely possibilities and ideas to the future of the Wiggum family. Another possible future for Wiggum is to become a RoboCop like machine-officer being seen tending to a heartbroken Bart.
[edit] Trivia
- In some early episodes, Wiggum's hair is black.
- In his debut episode (Homer's Odyssey), Wiggum's uniform is black.
- Wiggum's nose is shaped like the snout of a pig, a visual joke on the derogatory term 'pigs' for a policeman or woman.
- Until Season Four, Wiggum and Ralph were not related. They were decidedly put together as father and son for the episode "I Love Lisa", but this wasn't the first aired episode where they were said to be father and son.
