“ | Excellent... | „ |
~ Mr. Burns's famous quote. |
“ | Release the hounds! | „ |
~ Mr. Burns's second famous quote |
“ | Oh, you all talk big, but who here has the guts to stop me? | „ |
~ Mr. Burns to Springfield |
Charles Montgomery "Monty" Burns, often known as Mr. Burns or simply Burns, is the main antagonist (sometimes anti-hero) of the long-running animated comedy television series, The Simpsons, and a minor character in the 2007 theatrical film, The Simpsons Movie. He is the founder and chairman of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant and the boss of Homer Simpson, and Waylon Smithers, his right hand man who (heavily implied) is attracted to him.
He was voiced by Harry Shearer.
Personality
Mr. Burns embodies a number of stereotypes about corporate America, as he has an unquenchable desire to increase his own wealth and power. Burns also embodies the stereotype of a manager by forgetting his employees' names (especially Homer's, despite it appearing that they interact more than Burns does with most of his employees), though this can be attributed to his senility. Burns is also unconcerned and dispassionate for their safety and well-being. His aspirations to apply obsolete technology to everyday life or references to Victorian-era people or places provide a common source of humor on the show. Recently, he has become less evil and more eccentric. He is a Republican.
Villainous Acts
Here are all of Mr. Burns's evil deeds in some of the episodes he appeared in. The ones that are underlined are where he was the main antagonist.
Season 1
- In the very first episode of the series Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire, Burns cancelled all of his workers' Christmas bonuses, which left a disappointed Homer to work as a mall Santa after learning that Marge blew all of the family's Christmas money to remove a tattoo from Bart's arm.
Season 2
- In Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish, Burns ran for Governor against incumbent governor Mary Bailey in hopes preventing his plant from being shut down after it was proven that it was the cause behind the mutation of a three-eyed fish.
Season 3
- In Stark Raving Dad, Burn deemed Homer insane due to wearing a pink shirt to work (due to Bart putting his red hat in the white laundry) and has him committed to an insane asylum, though Homer would later be released.
Season 4
- In Marge Gets A Job, Marge gets a job at the nuclear plant, and Burns attempts to woo her for himself until he learns that she is married to Homer, and fires her on the spot.
- In Marge vs. the Monorail, Burns was caught dumping nuclear waste into the park by the EPA and was forced to pay a fine of $3 million, much to his dismay.
- In So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show, Homer is in a coma (due to a April Fools joke engineered by Bart), and Burns attempts to pull the plug on Homer's life support system to prevent paying for Homer's health insurance (to no avail).
Season 5
- In Burns' Heir, he picks Bart as his new heir to the fortune, and attempts to separate him from his family to ensure of it. However, Bart refuses to leave his family behind and instead drops Burns through a trapdoor before reuniting with his family.
- In Lady Bouvier's Lover, Burns falls in love with Marge's mother Jacqueline and wants to marry her, much to Marge's disapproval. However, Jackie decides to forget about it due to Burns' boorish behavior.
Season 6
- In Two Dozen and One Greyhounds, he takes 25 puppies and plots to kill them for their fur, though he decides to change his mind after seeing how lovely they are, and instead decides to raise them as racing dogs.
- In Who Shot Mr. Burns Part One, he commits 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. He also created a sun-blocking device to raise prices for the electricity he's supply for the town, much to everyone's horror. Eventually, the sun-blocking device gets destroyed by the citizens after Burns gets shot in the chest by Maggie Simpson.
Season 7
- In Mother Simpson, it was revealed that he 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, he gets 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 crosses the Moral Event Horizon as he attempts to murder Grampa Simpson to get a collection of stolen German paintings, even attempting to drown Bart. However, Grampa saves Bart and defeats Burns while the stolen paintings are returned to the German government, leaving Burns empty-handed.
Season 8
- In The Old Man and the Lisa, Burns temporarily loses his fortune due to bad investments and turned over to Lisa for help, and she taught him how to recycle. This allowed Burns to open up a recycling plant to regain his fortune back, but is revealed he's using his new plant to catch tons of sea creatures to make a new multi-purpose edible compound, much to Lisa's horror. He even offered to pay Lisa 10% of the profits as thanks, but Lisa declines it.
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 10
- In Monty Can't Buy Me Love, Burns attempts to capture the Loch Ness Monster in order to win the heart of Springfield's population. Though he manages to capture the monster (who turns out to be friendly), the veiling of the monster turns out to be a disaster due to a fire caused by camera flashes, leaving Burns unloved. However, Homer cheers him up by saying that being loved means you have to be nice to people everyday but being hated means you do not have to do anything.
Season 11
Season 12
Season 13
Season 14
Season 15
Season 16
Season 17
Season 18
Season 19
Season 20
Season 21
Season 22
Season 23
Season 24
Season 25
Season 26
Season 27
Trivia
- Mr. Burns is generally the main antagonist of the franchise; however, in The Simpsons Movie, he is outranked by Russ Cargill.
- Mr. Burns signs his will as "Charles Montgomery Plantagenet Schicklgruber Burns" in the episode of season 22, "Flaming Moe", which implies that he is related to Adolf Hitler and a descendant of the House of Plantagenet.
- He is also one of the many Simpsons character who guest stars on the Family Guy episode "The Simpsons Guy".