William MacDougal, better known as Groundskeeper Willie, is a recurring character on The Simpsons, voiced by Dan Castellaneta. He is the head groundskeeper at Springfield Elementary School. Willie is almost feral in nature and is immensely proud of his Scottish origin. May 17, 2006 The Simpsons Wrestling Review In the end, wit and charm are the two most redeeming features of The Simpsons Wrestling, as it simply can't survive on its gameplay alone. John Pollock and Wai Ting revi ew two wrestling-themed episodes of the world’s most famous animated sitcom, The Simpsons. We discuss our viewing history of The Simpsons, compare the quality of the series 16 years apart, and discuss how each episode represented professional wrestling’s mainstream status at the time.

Overview

Aliens from another planet have challenged Springfield to a wrestling match! As unbelievable as it sounds, it is not another story from I. P. Freely or one of his friends. It’s assumed that the aliens spied upon Jebediah Springfield years ago when he wrestled that bear but because their planet is light years away they haven’t been able to get here until now to present the challenge. Now it’s up to the townspeople to find someone that can wrestle like Jebediah to take that challenge.

The Simpsons Wrestling is really nothing like a traditional wrestling match other than the 3-count pin to finish the round. Like other aspects of The Simpsons, this game is totally wacky and promises to be a lot of fun for fans of TV show. Join up with the whole Simpson family as well as other characters to duke, rake, Chihuahua, Skateboard, Belch, and Squishee it out to see who will take on Kang and Kodos and save Springfield.

Gameplay, Controls, Interface

Simply put, this is a fighting game with simple controls that will make your fingers very tired. Although it is called The Simpsons Wrestling, it’s not really too much like wrestling at all since it seems any sort of objects are legally allowed in the ring and anything goes. For instance, Groundskeeper Willie will use his rake to 'garden' you up whereas Bart can ride his skateboard and Mr. Burns will even throw in some explosive radioactive material while Smithers takes you on. Although each character has different and unique attacks, they are all controlled pretty much the same and seem to have the same amount of toughness (I guess it would be a bit too easy for Bumblebee Man to take on Lisa otherwise, don’tcha think?).

When you start the game, you have Homer, Marge (with Maggie), Bart, Lisa, Groundskeeper Willie, Apu, Krusty the Clown, and Barney to choose from. Each character can jump and has three main attacks: low, medium, and high power. You have an energy bar that determines which attacks you can execute and as you attack more the bar will deplete. You can also grapple your opponent and use one of the attack buttons to do a different style attack and bouncing against the ropes and hitting a button at the right time will execute a third set of attacks. There really are no actual combos aside from one that will knock over your opponent with four quick low power attacks in a row. In addition, you will receive one letter in the word 'Taunt' which shows up by your energy and health bars. When 'Taunt' is full you can execute a taunt which makes you invincible for a short amount of time. There are power-ups that appear in the ring from time to time that can restore partial or a big chunk of energy or health or give you a 'Taunt' letter or speed you up. Each match consists of three rounds (this can be set in the options menu for more or fewer, though). The best of the three wins the match. Like normal wrestling matches, the round is won when you pin and hold your opponent for a count of three. Since there are no referees the character him/herself will do the count.

Like the gameplay, the controls are also fairly simple. There are three attack buttons (one for each attack), a jump button, grapple button, and pin button. There aren’t any button combinations aside from jumping and using an attack button and no secret special moves to figure out, which really makes this game quite accessible to beginner players as well as the more seasoned wrestler. The controls are reasonably responsive and easy to manipulate which is a huge plus in my book as so many of these types of games require super fast reflexes and well timed button presses to pull off particular moves.

Don’t get me wrong, though -- just because the controls are fairly simple for this style of game, it doesn’t mean the game is easy. There are three difficulty levels: New Challenger, Defender, and Champion Circuits. The Defender Circuit is locked out until you defeat the Challenger one. Likewise the Champion will be unlocked after defeating the Defender Circuit. The differences between these can more or less be rated as easy, medium, and hard by an average gamer’s standards. As you work your way through these circuits you will fight and unlock some hidden characters such as Bumblebee Man or Moe who can be used in later matches.

Although the game supports the vibration function if you have a Dual Shock controller, it is off by default and when I turned it on, I rarely felt anything at all which was disappointing. In fact, I even went back to the in-game options and main menu options a couple times to confirm if it was on at all. There is an interesting feature related to this, however, which is that you can turn the vibration on, off, or on for only player one or on for only player two. The other options include setting the number of rounds, loading up unlocked features, checking out the credits and adjusting the game’s various volumes for effects, voices, and music.

Please note that due to the characters available and the nature of this game, there are some potential matches that may seem to promote domestic violence (Homer vs. Marge for example).

Multiplayer

The Simpsons Wrestling has two-player support as long as you have a second controller. It will not allow you to even set up a two-player game unless the controller is attached.

Graphics

This game looks very true to form for a Simpsons title -- it is very cartoon-like in nature and the graphics reflect this. The characters themselves are fairly large at all times and are rendered with great detail (which may be a little too much to ask when looking at Groundskeeper Willie without his shirt on!!). One of the big plusses about the characters is that they do not look very blocky or polygon-like at all. The animation is nice and smooth. As you move around in the ring the camera will follow in a strafing fashion and will zoom in or out as necessary to keep you both on screen at all times.

There are several different rings and backgrounds that you can fight in, from Evergreen Terrace to Moe’s to the nuclear power plant to the Kwik-E-Mart and several others. Unfortunately you don’t always get to see the background as the camera is focused more on the action in the ring, but when you do you will see well done renderings of various parts of Springfield. The characters standing in the background are more two-dimensional than those wrestling.

Audio

This is one of the best parts of The Simpsons Wrestling. The sound effects are pretty average for a PlayStation game. Some of the music sounds just like that from the TV show (and probably is taken straight from it, to boot). It’s the voices that are king in this department, though. All of the voices in the game are from the original voice talents on the TV show, which is a huge plus in my book. Nothing is worse than getting a game based on some of your favorite cartoon characters and having the voices sound nothing like the TV show. Each wrestler has his or her own phrases and taunts and some are even tailored to their opponent. In addition, some of the characters in the background will say something now and then as you get somewhat close to them.

Documentation

Standard issue stuff here, you may want to take a look over it to get the gist of the controls and get an explanation of the various power-ups. This is also the only place where you’ll find the story behind the game.

Originality / Cool Features

I don’t know that I can say that The Simpsons Wrestling is so much original because if you strip out all the great graphics and sounds all you have a simple fighting game with no timer. Fortunately since the great graphics and sounds ARE there, you do have a fairly original theme slapped on a genre of games that has countless clones. Like many other fighting games, each player has his or her own pseudo-special moves but I liked the general simplicity of the controls and that you don’t need to execute some difficult controller combination to execute a cool looking maneuver.

Bottom Line

Overall I found this to be a fun game. If you are a fan of The Simpsons and of fighting or wrestling games then you’ll very likely want to check this out. There’s a good chance that people who don’t like fighting games much but that DO like The Simpsons may find some enjoyment with this game too if for nothing else than the funny taunts and such. Just don’t touch it at all if you can’t stand The Simpsons (but if that’s the case, why are you still reading this anyway?). It’s fairly simplistic controls and great artwork, sounds, comments, taunts, and varied attacks between characters contributed a lot to my desire to go back for more and made the game accessible to a wide variety of skill levels which is why I give this game a score of 85.

Dr. William MacDougal, better known as Groundskeeper Willie, is a recurring character on The Simpsons, voiced by Dan Castellaneta. He is the head groundskeeper at Springfield Elementary School. Willie is almost feral in nature and is immensely proud of his Scottish origin. He is easily identifiable by his red hair and beard, as well as his aggressive temperament and thick, stereotypical Scottish accent.

Role in The Simpsons[edit]

Groundskeeper Willie is the janitor at Springfield Elementary School and lives in a shack on the school premises. He is a Scotsman with an aggressive temper. Willie is an uncouth and unpleasant character, though is essentially harmless. His personality is depicted as being incompetent, drunken, slow-witted, and quick to anger for little or no reason. Willie has shown antipathy to both his employer, Principal Skinner, and Bart Simpson, who frequently plays practical jokes on him. In Treehouse of Horror VI he plotted revenge on the students of Springfield Elementary after getting burned to death by their parents.

The Simpsons Wrestling Homer Vs Willie Brown

Due to the deliberately inaccurate continuity of the series, he has claimed to be from various parts of Scotland during the series, most recently Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands in the 2012 episode 'The Daughter Also Rises'. This settled the previous continuity problem in which Willie had been stated to be a supporter of Aberdeen F.C, and to have lived in Glasgow. In early episodes, Willie's father was said to be dead. However, his parents were later introduced in 'Monty Can't Buy Me Love', and lived near Loch Ness; which is near Inverness. In 'The Girl Who Slept Too Little', it is revealed that he has a cousin, 'Grave Digger Billy'.

Willie plays a supporting role in most of his episodes, but he was a main character in the episode 'My Fair Laddy', where Lisa Simpson introduced him to high culture as a science project.

Willie has a troubled, if distant relationship with his parents. In the episode 'My Fair Laddy', Willie recalls his birth and how his abusive father told him he would never amount to anything in life and would be lucky if he grew up to be 'garbage'.

On two occasions, Willie frames Bart for pulling pranks that Bart would normally pull. In 'The Father, the Son, and the Holy Guest Star', he unleashes a giant pie of rats on the Springfield Elementary medieval festival to get revenge for being cast as the village idiot and his cruel treatment. Skinner is quick to blame Bart and expels him. Willie is never shown being found out as the culprit, but it can be assumed that he is eventually found out after Bart is enrolled in Catholic school and earns his way back into Springfield Elementary. In 'Dark Knight Court', Willie causes hundreds of eggs to be splattered at the Springfield Easter celebration out of inbred hatred for the holiday. Bart is put on trial for the incident, only to be acquitted when Willie is caught and turned in by Lisa and Mr. Burns (as Fruit Batman).

Character[edit]

Groundskeeper Willie's first appearance was in the season two episode 'Principal Charming', first broadcast on February 14, 1991. Originally, the character was written as simply being an angry janitor; his Scottish accent was added during a recording session. Dan Castellaneta, who voices several other characters including Homer Simpson, was assigned to do the voice. Castellaneta did not know what voice to use and Sam Simon, who was directing at the time, told Castellaneta to use an accent. He first tried a Spaniard's voice, which Simon felt was too clichéd. He then tried a 'big dumb Swede', which was also rejected. For his third attempt, he used the voice of an angry Scotsman, which was considered to be more appropriate and was used in the episode.^[1][2] Originally thought by the directors to be a one-off appearance, Willie has since become a recurring character.^[3]Matt Groening later revealed that the character was based partially on Angus Crock, a kilt-wearing chef from the sketch comedy show Second City Television, who was portrayed by Dave Thomas^[4] and Jimmy Finlayson, the moustachioed Scottish actor who appeared in 33 Laurel and Hardy films.^[5]

A recurring joke, which was first shown in 'Radio Bart', is that Groundskeeper Willie appears to have a beer belly, but whenever he takes off his shirt, he is very muscular.^[6] One of Groundskeeper Willie's trademarks is a gruffly-spoken insulting retort, which take the writers a long time to come up with, although they do not consider them that funny.^[7]

Cultural impact[edit]

Groundskeeper Willie's description of the French as 'cheese-eating surrender monkeys'^[8] from the episode 'Round Springfield' has become widely used, particularly in the run-up to the war in Iraq.^[9] The newspaper New York Post used the phrase 'Surrender Monkeys' as the headline for its December 7, 2006 front page, referring to the Iraq Study Group and its recommendation that U.S. soldiers be withdrawn from Iraq by early-2008.^[10] The line was 'most likely' written by Ken Keeler.^[11] The phrase 'Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys' has also been used by Jeremy Clarkson and Anthony Bourdain.

In 2009, Willie was added to the 'Famous Glaswegians' webpage of Glasgow City Council, based on his line in 'Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious'. A spokesman for Aberdeen F.C. disputed Glasgow's claim to the character, citing the episodes 'Scuse Me While I Miss The Sky' and 'The Dad Who Knew Too Little'.^[12][13] In Season 23 Episode 13 'The Daughter Also Rises', first aired in 2012, it was finally stated that Groundskeeper Willie is from Kirkwall in Orkney, therefore ending this dispute.^[14]

In September 2014, Groundskeeper Willie featured in an official video in which he endorsed a vote for Scottish independence in an upcoming Scottish referendum, and put himself forward to lead a potentially independent Scotland while standing in front of the St. Andrew's Cross with a tattoo on his chest that read: 'Aye or Die!'.^[15] Following the result of the referendum where the Scottish electorate voted to remain as part of the UK, the producers released an image of Willie now standing in front of a Union Jack flag, looking depressed with his 'Aye or Die!' tattoo replaced with a picture of the Queen and empty bottles of whisky with a newspaper featuring Former UK Prime MinisterGordon Brown, who was widely credited with giving the 'No' campaign a last-minute boost.^[16]

Reception[edit]

In 2006, Groundskeeper Willie was named the fourth-best peripheral character in the history of the show by IGN,^[17] who said 'high-points for the character were being trained to be civilized, wrestling a wolf that was let loose in the school and becoming a substitute for the French language teacher – 'Bon jourrr! You cheese-eating surrender monkeys!' IGN also named 'My Fair Laddy', the only episode which centres around Willie, the best episode of the seventeenth season.^[18] Jim Slotek of Sun Media called Willie the ninth-best Simpsons supporting character, and also made a Top Ten quotes list, which included Willie's quote 'Och, back to the loch wi' ye, Nessie', from 'Selma's Choice'.^[19]The Times reported in late-2005 that 'he is the most instantly recognisable Scot in the world: better known than Billy Connolly or Ewan McGregor, even Sean Connery.' The same article quotes Simpsons creator Matt Groening as saying 'We wanted to create a school janitor that was filled with rage, sort of our tribute to angry janitors all over the world'.^[20]

Merchandising[edit]

Three Groundskeeper Willie action figures were created by Playmates Toys for the World of Springfield series: Willie depicted in his usual appearance, released in 2001 in wave 4;^[21] 'Ripped Willie', released in 2002 as part of wave 8;^[22] and 'Kilted Willie', released in 2003 in wave 14.^[23]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

The Simpsons Wrestling Homer Vs Willie Nelson

1. ^Reiss, Mike (2002). The Simpsons season 2 videocassette commentary for the episode 'Principal Charming' (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
2. ^Reiss, Mike; Klickstein, Mathew (2018). Springfield confidential: jokes, secrets, and outright lies from a lifetime writing for the Simpsons. New York City: Dey Street Books. p. 104. ISBN978-0062748034.
3. ^Kirkland, Mark (2002). The Simpsons season 2 DVD commentary for the episode 'Principal Charming' (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
4. ^Horne, Marc (July 21, 2007). 'Groening lifts toilet lid on the real-life Groundskeeper Willie'. Scotland on Sunday. Retrieved 2007-08-02.
5. ^Simon, Jeremy (February 11, 1994). 'Wisdom from The Simpsons' 'D'ohh' boy'. The Daily Northwestern.
6. ^Weinstein, Josh (2003). The Simpsons season 3 DVD commentary for the episode 'Jean, Al' (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
7. ^Weinstein, Josh (2004). The Simpsons season 5 DVD commentary for the episode 'Sweet Seymour Skinner's Badassss song' (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
8. ^Sound recording of Groundskeeper Willie's lineAbout: Political humour. Retrieved on December 27, 2006
9. ^Wimps, weasels and monkeys – the US media view of 'perfidious France'The Guardian. Retrieved on December 27, 2006
10. ^Lathem, Niles (December 7, 2006). 'Iraq 'Appease' Squeeze on W.'New York Post. Retrieved April 3, 2015.
11. ^Mentioned in The Simpsons Season 6 DVD Commentary for the episode 'Round Springfield'.
12. ^'Famous Glaswegians'. Glasgow City Council. Retrieved June 16, 2009.
13. ^Horne, Marc (May 24, 2009). 'Civic war centres on Simpsons star'. Scotland on Sunday. Retrieved June 16, 2009.
14. ^'Groundskeeper Willie finally reveals his Orcadian roots'. The Scotsman. 3 February 2012. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
15. ^Gye, Hugo (13 September 2014). 'Groundskeeper Willie says Yes: Scottish Simpsons character 'comes out for independence' in joke campaign video'. Daily Mail. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
16. ^'The Simpsons Groundskeeper Willie gutted after Scots 'No' vote'. 2014-09-20.
17. ^Eric Goldman; Dan Iverson; Brian Zoromski (2006-09-06). 'Top 25 Simpsons Peripheral Characters'. IGN. Retrieved 2007-06-08.
18. ^Goldman, Eric; Dan Iverson, Brian Zoromski (2006-09-08). 'The Simpsons: 17 Seasons, 17 Episodes'. IGN. Retrieved 2007-08-02.
19. ^Slotek, Jim. ''Simpsons' makes jump to big screen'. Sun Media. Archived from the original on 2013-01-15. Retrieved 2007-08-02.
20. ^Turpin, Adrian (October 23, 2005). 'The strange world of Oor grown-up Wullie'. London: The Times. Retrieved 2007-08-02.
21. ^'Series 4'. The Simpsons Action Figure Information Station. Retrieved 2008-11-04.
22. ^'Series 8'. The Simpsons Action Figure Information Station. Retrieved 2008-11-04.
23. ^'Series 14'. The Simpsons Action Figure Information Station. Retrieved 2008-11-04.

The Simpsons Wrestling Homer Vs Willie Lee