“ | Hi there, neighbors. Uh, I'm… George Bush. Former President, George Bush. | „ |
~ George H.W. Bush after moving to Evergreen Terrace in Springfield. |
“ | I'm gonna do something your daddy should have done a long time ago. | „ |
~ George H.W. Bush as he begins to spank Bart. |
George Herbert Walker Bush is the main antagonist of the episode "Two Bad Neighbors" of The Simpsons. He is the 41st president of The United States of America and the temporary across-the-street neighbor of The Simpsons.
He was voiced by Harry Shearer.
Biography[]
In "Two Bad Neighbors", George and Barbara Bush moved into Evergreen Terrace, at the house across the street from The Simpson family. Everybody was astonished to see the former president living among them, that is, after he clarified to them who he was. Homer quickly got jealous of him for moving into his neighborhood and stealing all of the attention that used to belong to him. Ned Flanders and his family came over to visit the Bushes and Ned quickly became friends with Bush and the two shared a lot more in common than one might think. Bush was happy to be in a neighborhood with good people but Rod and Todd warned Bush that there was one little boy specifically, who wasn't a good person before Ned nervously tells them to not scare the president.
Bart came over to The Bush House to visit the president. Bush was tired after a long day of neighborhood jogging and didn't want to spend time with the kid but Barbara made him. As soon as he came in, Bart was nothing but trouble, messing with the electric card shuffler he got from Air Force One and asking him tons of annoying questions about his pictures. Bart got on Bush's nerves by calling him "George" and Bush let him know that back in his day, kids were not to refer to their elders by their first name. Bart welcomed him to the 20th century, further angering George.
Bush drove down to the Krusty Burger drive-thru and while thinking of what to order, Homer grew quickly impatient and started honking at him. Bush had his secret service agent go over to his car and disassemble his horn, much to Homer's anger.
At home, Bush becomes even more annoyed when Bart disrupts his sleep, and going into their kitchen to find some candy with Barbara suggesting that she should bake some cookies for him after Barbara tells her husband that elders don't eat much candy and Bush not remembering the last time Barbara had baked cookies for him.
Bush finally finished his memoirs only for Bart to come in and mess around with his motorboat, setting off the motor by accident, and sending it flying around the room, where it destroyed all of his possessions, including his newly-typed memoirs, which got shredded to bits in the propeller. An infuriated Bush finally becomes fed up with Bart bothering him and irritating him and had enough of Bart's behavior, that he spanked Bart's butt as punishment. Bart didn't seem to care at all but when he went home to his parents, he greatly exaggerated how horrible the experience was, to which Homer and Marge don't find it to be a suitable punishment. Homer was so mad that he marched right on down to Bush's house to yell at him and demand an apology after he becomes fed up with Bush taking away everything that was important to him. But Bush refused to apologize, telling Homer that if he was any kind of father, he would have given his bratty child proper discipline and then blocked Homer off with his security guards. Homer got mad and called Bush a "wimp", calling Bush's bluff and prompting him to start a fight with him.
Homer and Bart drew first blood, when they launched a bunch of fireworks over to his house and had them all go off, while he was trying to sleep. Barbara suggests to her husband that he should apologize to Homer, but Bush tried to get them back by putting a giant banner up on his house, reading "Two Bad Neighbors", but such Evergreen Terrace residents as Dr. Hibbert and Ned Flanders didn't get the message and just assumed Bush was calling himself and Barbara "two bad neighbors", when he was really referring to Homer and Bart. This plan backfired on Bush and so he took the banner down. Bush was later lured out of his house, where Bart covered his head in quick-dry glue and Homer slapped a clown wig on his head just before his speech to The Elk's Club after Homer places cardboard cutouts of his sons, George Walker and Jeb on his front yard to trick him. Bush tried to shave the clown wig off but he only made it even more ridiculous and he humiliated himself at his speech. Bush struck The Simpsons back by doing donuts in their front yard and tearing up their lawn.
Homer and Bart snuck down into the sewers, where they planned to send a swarm of locusts into his house from below, but Bush discovered them down and dropped into the sewers to fight with Homer in hand-to-hand combat with Bush still refusing to apologize. Bart unleashed his locusts and they all swarmed Bush and attacked him. The fight went back up to land, where Bush strangled Homer and threatened to kill him. At this time, Mikhail Gorbachev was coming over to visit and saw Bush making a fool of himself. Bush stopped the fight and tried to explain the story to Gorbachev but he wasn't having it. Finally, Barbara came up and told George that she was fed up with this little brawl and demanded he apologize to Homer once and for all. Bush was hesitant to show any sign of weakness in front of the Russians, but apologized anyway after Barbara insisted.
Shortly later, The Bush Family moved out of the neighborhood and vacated their house once again after the neighborhood brought out the worst in Bush. Immediately after, their house was bought by former president Gerald Ford, who became really good friends with Homer, as they both shared a lot of common interests, such as football and eating nachos.
In "Reality Bites", Bush was in the waiting room at the unemployment office. As a former president, Bush would've been eligible to pick up an unemployment check under the Former Presidents Act.
In 'Large Marge", Bush built a house with Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton in a pastiche of The Three Stooges. Carter accidentally knocked Bush's glasses off and angered Bush, causing him to shove his hammer up Carter's nose. Clinton laughed about this, angering Bush once again and making him knock Clinton out cold with his hammer.
Trivia[]
- This character is a depiction of the fourty-first president of the United States, "George H.W. Bush", not his son, "George W. Bush". (The episode "Two Bad Neighbors" aired in 1996, five years before his son rose to presidency in 2001 and became culturally relevant.) According to a DVD commentary on his starring episode, the writers weren't even slightly aware of his son's existence, hence the reason why the episode's dialogue addresses him with his son's middle initials.
- Homer Simpson made cardboard cutouts of George W. Bush's two sons, "Jeb Bush" and "George W. Bush, Jr.". The latter of which was a fictional person, who was a product of Homer's stupidity but rings coincidentally similar to the real George W. Bush, who, again, was completely unbeknownst to the writers at the time.
- George H.W. Bush threatened to "ruin Homer like a Japanese banquet". This is a reference to an incident that took place in 1992, where George H.W. Bush attended a political banquet with Japanese prime minister Kiichi Miyazawa and then vomited all over him.
- His interaction with Bart pays homage to Dennis Mitchell’s interaction with George Wilson from Dennis the Menace.
- Although George H.W. Bush doesn't appear in the Rick and Morty couch gag of the Season 25 finale, "Mathelete's Feat", but he was mentioned by Rick Sanchez when he tells Morty that they did an episode where George Bush was the Simpsons' neighbor.