The Simpsons Gives A Beloved Side Character An Origin Story After 36 Years
by Rafael Motamayor · /FilmSpoilers ahead for "The Simpsons" season 37 episode "¡The Fall Guy-Yi-Yi!"
"The Simpsons" is a cultural institution, one of the best and most influential TV shows of all time, and one big key to the show's success is its large ensemble of characters. As charming and beloved as the titular Simpsons family is, it is the dozens upon dozens of quirky, memorable, distinct people that populate the town of Springfield who make the show special. These are characters that could easily lead their own episodes, and often do — one of the all-time best episodes of the show being a collection of shorts about side characters.
But as beloved as the side characters of "The Simpsons" are, we still don't know a whole lot about some of them. "The Simpsons" is not like "One Piece" or "Star Wars" where every single Glup Shitto gets an extensive backstory. Instead, the show mostly just repeats flashbacks of Homer and Marge but with updated references — even if it means making fans angry because Homer and Marge are now millennials. Then there's the odd episode that reveals something big about a character we've known for decades, like when Carl is revealed to have Icelandic heritage in season 14 (then revealed his last name 10 years later).
Now, after 36 years on air, "The Simpsons" is giving another beloved side character the origin story they deserved, and it's one of the best episodes in a while. That character is Pedro Chespirito, also known as Bumblebee Man, the star of his own slapstick comedy show on Channel 8.
The story of Pedro Chespirito
The latest episode of "The Simpsons" is a love letter to Bumblebee Man, and also to Mexican slapstick comedy and stunt doubles.
We get an origin story for Bumblebee Man back when he was just Pedro. He came to the U.S. with a dream of becoming a serious Hollywood actor — only to arrive at the wrong town with a big sign on a hill. Heartbroken but refusing to give up, Pedro got a job at a brand new Spanish-language TV station called Channel Ocho Studios (or Channel 8) as a janitor. This, of course, is a reference to the original inspiration for Bumblebee Man, the late Mexican TV actor and cultural icon Roberto Gómez Bolaños, whose pseudonym was Chespirito or "Little Shakespeare" like Bumblebee Man's last name. Gómez Bolaños is best known for creating the titanic powerhouses of Latino television, "El Chapulín Colorado" and "El Chavo del Ocho," both of which aired on Channel 8 in Mexico.
One day, after trying to clean up a wasp nest behind a sound stage, Pedro's foot got trapped on a bucket and he rolled down the studio while hitting himself on every possible obstacle, before finally landing on top of some costumes and accidentally falling into a bumblebee costume. His lament about life's cruelty and irony made everyone in the studio laugh their butts off, and a producer decided to sign Pedro up on the spot and give him a slapstick comedy show. And so, Bumblebee Man was born, a tragicomic figure cursed by the cosmos, like Sisyphus or Benny Hill.
Fame finally arrived for Pedro, but it came at the cost of annihilating his body for the amusement of his viewers.
A love letter to slapstick and to stunt doubles
Bumblebee Man's new origin story is heartwarming and him actually being Mexican-American is much better than the times he's been Italian, British, and even Belgian in the comics.
The episode itself is a delightful homage to the long history and tradition of slapstick comedy in Mexico, with direct visual references to "El Chapulín Colorado." That show remains a staple of not only Mexican filmmaking, but became a cornerstone in Latin American humor big enough for the main character to appear in the "Blue Beetle" movie. The whole episode is about the value of slapstick comedy, its ability to reach all kinds of audiences and break language barriers. As Homer tells Pedro when they first meet, "I don't know Spanish, but when you get kicked in the junk by a nun, you speak the international language of crotch." Slapstick comedy is pure television entertainment, capable of escapism from our daily troubles, capable of being understood by audiences anywhere regardless of their understanding of the story or the dialogue.
Likewise, the episode spends a lot of time homaging stunt performers, in the "Simpsons" equivalent of "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" — a movie that gets referenced a few times throughout the episode. Homer becomes a stunt double for Bumblebee Man, and he immediately becomes a hero to Bart who sees the value in Homer taking all the punches behind the camera — even if the episode also pokes fun at some hoops studios go through with stunt doubles, like using brown face.
Bumblebee Man may have started out a bit as a racial stereotype, but he's as big and as beloved a Springfield figure as any of the others, and he finally got his due.