| “ | No, don't put me away! I'll give you diamonds! Everybody wants diamonds! Diamonds will make everything all better! Diamonds! Diamonds! | „ |
| ~ Bushwell trying to bribe her way out of being arrested |
Joan Bushwell is the main antagonist of "Simpson Safari," an episode of Season 12 of The Simpsons. She is an animal researcher in Tanzania who secretly operates a diamond mine in which she forces the apes she researches into slave labor.
She is voiced by Tress MacNeille, who also voices Lindsey Naegle, Dolph Starbeam, Adil Hoxha, Francesca Terwilliger, Gino Terwilliger, Dame Judith Underdunk, Spud, Miss Goodthighs, and Agnes Skinner in the same series, as well as Mom, Ndnd, and the Slurm Queen in Futurama, Millionara Vanderbucks in DuckTales, Dil in The Land Before Time IV: Journey Through The Mists, Sarah Ravencroft in Scooby Doo and the Witch's Ghost, the Trina Twins in The Mighty Ducks animated series, Si and Am in Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure, Valkyran Guard in Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, Gilda and Dr. Steinheimer in Recess!, Anastasia Tremaine in Cinderella III: A Twist in Time, and Gretel in Disenchantment.
Early life[]
Bushwell is an animal researcher who has spent almost her entire life living among chimpanzees in Tanzania, to the point that she spends nearly every waking moment observing and recording their behavior, and even subsists on a diet of roots and water. Eventually, however, the "unrelenting loneliness and greed" of her solitary life gets to her, and she begins running a secret diamond mine, forcing the chimps to mine the gems. She has so many diamonds that she puts them in all of her furniture, and even wears them on the soles of her shoes.
In "Simpsons Safari"[]
When the Simpson family gets lost in Tanzania, they find Bushwell's wildlife sanctuary after following a chimp. They meet Bushwell, whom Lisa admires for her contributions to science and apparent love of animals, and she lets them stay until they can call for help.
Suddenly, men whom the Simpsons believe to be poachers invade the sanctuary, intent on capturing the chimps. Bushwell asks the Simpsons for their help in defending the sanctuary, and they agree, fighting off the invaders with weapons they fashion themselves.
While fighting one of the invaders, however, Lisa discovers he is wearing a Greenpeace shirt - the invaders are Greenpeace activists who are trying to rescue, not kidnap, the chimps from Bushwell, whom they expose as using the chimps to mine her diamonds. A disillusioned Lisa finds out that Bushwell's celebrated work with animals is a fraud; her "research" amounts to little more than pictures of chimps from Hollwood movies such as King Kong and Planet of the Apes.
Cornered, Bushwell says that she snapped in her loneliness and greed, and bursts into tears. Marge tried to comfort her, promising that they would get her the help she needed. Terrified, Bushwell pleaded with the Simpsons not to put her away and offers to give them all the diamonds they want if they let her go. The episode's final scene reveals that Homer and Marge took the diamonds as a bribe, with both of them calling Bushwell "a nice lady", which implies that she gets away with her crimes.
Trivia[]
She is a parody of the late Jane Goodall. The actual Jane Goodall would later appear in the episode "Gorillas on the Mast."
External links[]
- Joan Bushwell on the Simpsons Wiki
