Waylon Smithers

"Your new duties will include answering Mr. Burns' phone, preparing his tax return, moistening his eyeballs, assisting with his chewing and swallowing, lying to Congress, and some light typing."

- Smithers

Waylon J. Smithers, Jr. often shortened to just "Smithers" is a recurring antagonist (and sometimes an anti-hero) on The Simpsons. He is the assistant of Mr. Burns.

He is voiced by Harry Shearer, who also voiced Mr. Burns and many other characters in the series.

Role
Although normally not that bad a person he is obscenely loyal to Mr. Burns (to the point it is heavily implied he is gay) - although it is worth noting that Smithers is often the subject of abuse rather than malice on his own part: he is shown to have a jealous streak and can be rude and even physically violent towards those he dislikes and can be sneaky, like when Homer once replaced him at the plant. In general though Waylon Smithers is somewhat a recurring antagonist as well as a toadie rather than a fully-fledged evil-doer. He did rather rudely turn down a job prospect at one point.

However he does do several evil things in his career, such as always being the one to release the hounds for Mr Burns. One time when Burns came home and found the Simpsons living in his palace he got infuriated and told Smithers to release the hounds. This got Smithers to drive all the way back to the kennels and back again, saying he came as fast as he could. He is always eager to release the hounds for his boss.

One time in an episode set in the future, Smithers is ordered to release the hounds but he upturns a box of canine bones instead.

He is however a common villain and boss in The Simpsons video-game universe, appearing in many of the "Bart" games as well as The Simpsons Wrestling (where he is often surprisingly powerful).

Villainous Acts
Here are all of Smithers' evil deeds in some of the episodes he appeared in.

Season 2

 * In "Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish", Smithers helps Burns run for Governor against incumbent governor Mary Bailey in hopes of preventing their plant from being shut down after it was proven to be the cause of a three-eyed fish.
 * In "Bart Gets Hit by a Car", Burns is faced with a lawsuit after accidentally hitting Bart with his car, much to Smither's distraught. To that end, Smithers convinces Burns to pay a sum of $500,000 to the Simpsons to drop the lawsuit, but they soon learn of the Simpsons' true plan to lie in court in order to win the jury's favor for a settlement of $1,000,000. To that end, Burns gets his lawyer to put Marge on the stand and make her confess of the perjury, resulting the Simpsons to lose the trial and end up with nothing, much to both Burns and Smithers' delight.

Season 3

 * In "Stark Raving Dad", Burns deemed Homer insane due to wearing a pink shirt to work (due to Bart putting his red hat in the white laundry), so Smithers had Homer committed to an insane asylum, though Homer would later be released.
 * In "Dog of Death", Burns adopted the Simpsons family dog Santa's Little Helper (who ran away after being unappreciated by the Simpsons due to the losses over a hospital operation they had to pay to fix his twisted stomach). Burns gets Smithers to put Santa's Little Helper through torture to become a bloodthirsty killer dog to attack any intruders on Burns' property. However, Bart comes by to rescue Santa's Little Helper by reminding the latter of the good times they had, prompting Santa's Little Helper to snap out of his trance and return back to the Simpsons in peace.

Season 4

 * In "Marge vs. the Monorail", Burns and Smithers were caught dumping nuclear waste into the park by the EPA. As such, Smithers was forced to pay a fine of $3 million from Burns' wallet, much to his dismay.

Season 6

 * In "Sideshow Bob Roberts", Smithers took a role helping out with the Springfield Republican Party in having their candidate Sideshow Bob elected as Mayor of Springfield. However, he soon realized his mistake after learning that Bob rigged the election by using the names of deceased people as voters and that Bob's policies conflicted Smithers' lifestyle of choice. Acting as a whistleblower, Smithers informs Bart and Lisa of the electoral fraud by giving them one of the deceased people's names, and they tricked Bob into confessing his crime, resulting his arrest.
 * In " Two Dozen and One Greyhounds", Smithers helps Burns takes 25 puppies as the latter plots to kill them for their fur. However, Burns decides to change his mind after seeing how lovely they are, and instead decides to raise them as racing dogs, much to Smithers' relief.
 * In "Who Shot Mr. Burns Part One", Smithers aided Burns in committing many villainous acts that causes trouble for his fellow Springfield citizens, such as stealing an oil well buried beneath Springfield Elementary, which caused so many layoffs, the shut-down of Moe's tavern, the sinkhole that destroyed the local retirement home, and the injuries of the Simpson family dog. Eventually, Smithers is horrified to learn that Burns created a sun-blocking device to raise prices for the electricity he's supply for the town, inciting him to finally stand up to Burns, resulting his dismissal. Eventually, after Burns gets shot in the chest by Maggie Simpson, Smithers gets his job back while the sun-blocking device gets destroyed by the citizens.

Season 7

 * In "Mother Simpson", it was revealed that Burns was responsible for turning Homer's mother Mona into a wanted criminal, due to her involvement of shutting down his germ warfare factory by releasing antibiotics. To that rate, Smithers helps Burns to get the FBI to track down Mona, though she escapes (thanks to Homer and Chief Wiggum).
 * In "Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in Curse of the Flying Hellfish", he helps Burns in attempting to murder Grampa Simpson to get a collection of stolen German paintings. However, Grampa defeats Burns and Smithers while the stolen paintings are returned to the German government, leaving Burns empty-handed.

Season 9

 * In "The Trouble With Trillions", Burns stole a trillion dollar bill from the U.S. Government during World War 2, and kept it under his possession until he was ratted out to the FBI. Burns, Smithers and Homer were forced to evacuate to Cuba, where they lost the bill to Fidel Castro, who then banishes them back to the States, much to their dismay.

Season 12

 * In "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes", Homer learns that Smithers is helping Mr. Burns providing uranium rods to terrorists for profit. Out of disgust, Homer (taking on the name Mr. X) uses his website to expose the uranium scandal to the public, and Mr. Burns and (possibly) Smithers end up being taken by the FBI to answer for their crimes

Season 15

 * In "Simple Simpson", Homer served as Springfield's local hero known as the "Pie Man" who is giving wrong-doers their 'just desserts' by throwing pies in their faces as punishment for their crimes. He eventually threw a pie at Mr. Burns for bullying him and his co-workers, but Burns and Smithers soon learn about his identity and makes him their 'personal hitman', threatening to expose his identity to the public if otherwise. As Burns give Homer his next mission to throw a pie at the visiting Dalai Lama, Homer decides that he has had enough and reveals himself to the public, though none of the citizens believe that Homer could be the Pie Man. This left Burns and Smithers upset, realizing that Homer is no longer under their control anymore.
 * In "Fraudcast News", after Burns survives a rock slide, Smithers learns that everyone in Springfield hates Burns, so he helps Burns in buying every media outlet in Springfield to improve his image. As Lisa produces her own newspaper to combat against Burns' media ownership, Burns manages to learn about Milhouse's crush on Lisa and arranges for Smithers to expose this to the public, prompting a depressed Lisa to concede defeat. However, Lisa gets cheered up when Homer creates his own newspaper, inspiring other citizens to create their own newspapers to combat against Burns' media. Realizing now that he can't control the entire media for himself, Burns decides to put that behind by going on a shopping spree with Smithers for relief.

Season 16

 * In "The Seven-Beer Snitch", Burns bought an abandoned concert hall built by Frank Gehry (due to the town's hatred of classical music) and Smithers helped him turn it into a maximum-security prison to lock up more convicts based on old laws.

Season 21

 * In "American History X-cellent", Smithers was given full control of the plant after Burns is arrested for stealing artwork. At first, Smithers attempts to overturn Burns' tyranny to become a better businessman for the employees, but soon overhears Homer, Lenny and Carl mocking Smithers over his kindness, which finally made Smithers realize why Burns was so cruel towards humanity in the first place. Out of complete rage, Smithers becomes more tyrannical than Burns, even using wolverines instead of Burns' actual hounds to lay out on intruders. Eventually, Burns got released from jail after paying bail and Smithers was demoted back to being Burns' assistant once again, much to Smithers' relief.

Trivia

 * A running-joke in the series is Smithers' blatant homosexuality (which Mr. Burns seems oblivious to).
 * Another running joke is Smithers being Mr Burns' memory, always reminding him of who Homer Simpson is and improving his geography or political knowledge.