From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (January 2007)

The Bouvier Family are fictional characters from the American animated sitcom The Simpsons created by Matt Groening, as Marge Simpson's blood relatives.

• Clancy Bouvier (Father)
• Jacqueline Bouvier (Mother)
• Patty Bouvier
• Selma Bouvier Terwilliger Hutz McClure Stu Simpson
• Marjorie "Marge" Bouvier Simpson (see also Simpson family)
• Bart, Lisa and Maggie Simpson
• Ling Bouvier (Selma's adoptive daughter)

Jacqueline Ingrid Bouvier (nèe Gurney), is the mother of Marge Simpson, Patty and Selma Bouvier, the wife of the late Clancy Bouvier, and the daughter of Jack Gurney. Her first appearance was in the episode, "Moaning Lisa". She also had a sister named Gladys, who is now deceased. Like all Bouvier women, she was voiced by Julie Kavner. Like her twin daughters, Patty and Selma, she smoked heavily and speaks more raspily than they do. She barely has any voice, she never smiles, except in "Lady Bouvier's Lover", thus seeming largely pessimistic, critical and unsociable. She also seems to disapprove of Marge's marriage to Homer (this, again, is a similarity with Patty and Selma, who share a hatred for their brother-in-law). Her favorite song is Moonlight Serenade by Glenn Miller. Jacqueline was married to Clancy Bouvier until his death. She had a brief romance with Abraham Simpson, Homer's father. However, she broke up with him when she was wooed by billionaire Montgomery Burns, whom she came close to marrying before Abraham's intervention made her decide she was better off alone. She made her last speaking appearance in Lady Bouvier's Lover but yet returned in Sleeping With the Enemy and never made anymore speaking appearances. In her past she looked just like Marge.

Clancy Bouvier is the deceased father of Patty and Selma Bouvier and Marge Simpson and the husband of Jacqueline Bouvier. His first appearance was in the episode "The Way We Was". He didn't appear again until "Fear of Flying" where it was revealed that he was one of the earliest male flight attendants. The cause or time of his death is undetermined, (in a comic in an issue of Simpsons Illustrated, Lisa attributes his death to an accident involving a roller coaster, but whether this is canon is unclear). Homer got Marge a "white-noise machine" to help her deal with her father´s death. At some point he also served in the United States Navy where he picked up a swearing problem, which nearly cost him his job as a Baby Photographer. As shown in "The Way We Was", he also did not approve of his youngest daughter Marge's relationship with Homer Simpson and commented later after meeting him; "You know, when that Simpson boy showed up, it took years off my life." To which Jacqueline replied with, "Will you stop? She went with the good one." Referring to Artie Ziff.

Aunt Gladys as seen in a "flashback" in "Selma's Choice".

Gladys Bouvier was the aunt of Marge Simpson and Patty and Selma Bouvier, and the sister of Jacqueline Bouvier. Lionel Hutz has specifically stated that she was "Ms. Bouvier". Patty and Selma considered her a role model for the two of them.

Her death was noted in the episode "Selma's Choice", in which she died of a bowel obstruction. Her funeral at the Lucky Stiff Funeral Home in Littleneck Falls was attended by the Simpson family and a few other people, who all left when they realized Gladys was not wealthy. The Reverend giving the service thought she was a man.

Her will was recorded on video tape and was played by her lawyer, Lionel Hutz (who recorded over Gladys' voice in an attempt to inherit $50,000 but was immediately caught by Marge). In it, she left Marge her collection of potato chips which resemble celebrities — which were quickly eaten by Homer. She left Jacqueline her pet iguana Jub-Jub (Jacqueline was not pleased, stating "Why didn't she just leave me the bowel obstruction that killed her!"). And finally she left Patty and Selma a grandfather clock and a warning of the dangers of spinsterhood.

While Patty seemed to be unfazed by her plea, Selma took it to heart, and immediately set out to find the right man, who could give her children. She pursued the ideas of artificial insemination and marrying Hans Moleman, but after a day at a theme park with Bart and Lisa, she decided motherhood wasn't the life for her and instead adopted Jub-Jub as her own pet (though she later would adopt a daughter named Ling Bouvier [see below] from China).

Gladys, like all Bouvier women, was voiced by Julie Kavner.

Ling Bouvier

Ling Bouvier was adopted by Selma Bouvier in China after discovering that she had reached menopause, in the 2005 episode "Goo Goo Gai Pan". She adopted Ling after lying about being married to Homer Simpson, in order to fool the Chinese authorities into thinking that Ling would be part of a traditional family as opposed to a single mother.

• Simpson family