Moe's Tavern

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An exterior of Moe's Tavern, in The Simpsons.

Moe's Tavern is a fictional bar seen on the animated series The Simpsons. The bar is named for its owner, Moe Szyslak.

Located on the corner of Walnut Street, its next door neighbor is King Toot's Music Store. Across the street from it is the Moeview Motel and a factory formerly owned by Bart Simpson (until it collapsed in "Homer's Enemy").

1 Interior
2 Incarnations
3 Regular customers
- 3.1 Other regulars
4 Celebrity patrons
5 Performances
6 Other Moe's Tavern patrons
7 Address and phone number

Dark and described by Dr. Hibbert's daughter as smelling "like tinkle", the inside of the bar is dank and scant, save for a few pool tables, a dartboard and the occasional rat (this can be attributed to the episode "Homer's Enemy" in which Bart's factory collapses, and the rats are then shown to find a new home at Moe's). As female customers are so rare, Moe uses the women's restroom as an office. Moe claims that there haven't been any ladies at Moe's since 1979 (though earlier episodes show otherwise, as Ruth Powers has been seen there many times). A jar of pickled eggs perpetually stands on the bar. In "Who Shot Mr. Burns", Moe's Tavern was forced to close down because Mr. Burns' drilling operation near the tavern caused unsafe pollution. The bar serves Duff Beer, Henry K. Duff's Private Reserve and Red Tick Beer, a beer flavored with dogs.

Homer, Lenny, Carl, and Barney in Moe's Tavern

Moe's may actually be an illegal speakeasy, since in the episode "Pygmoelian" Lenny noticed that the bar's liquor license expired in 1973, was valid only in Rhode Island and was signed by Moe himself (although Moe had intended to get it updated to the current year, the correct state, and real).

In one episode it was shown that Homer could walk to Moe's Tavern from home by traveling a few doors along. This makes little sense, however, as the tavern's wider surroundings have frequently and notably been shown not to include the Simpson's home on Evergreen Terrace. It was obviously a joke describing how far Homer could walk: down the street.

Moe's Tavern is based on a real bar called Max's. It is located just off the University of Oregon campus in Eugene, Oregon.

A bar called Moe's Tavern can be seen opposite the bank in the film Dog Day Afternoon. Hank Azaria stated that Moe's voice was based on that of Al Pacino's character in the same film.

On the Middle East Broadcasting Center on the Arab version of the show, where The Simpsons is known as Al Shamshoon, the characters drink soda at Moe's Tavern because alcoholic beer is forbidden in Islam.

His bar features a love tester (which was briefly inhabited by Grampa Simpson in a fictional spinoff series), a bull-riding machine, a racing washing machine and dryer sold to him by Herb Powell, a jukebox, and a pool table, to which Barney Gumble once "made sweet love" and then "befouled," in that order.

In the episode "The Seemingly Never-Ending Story", we also find out that Montgomery Burns was once an employee of Moe's Tavern after he lost the nuclear plant in a bet. He later found and stole Moe's treasure to buy back the plant.

According to the episode "Homer Loves Flanders", Moe's Tavern always closes on Wednesdays, as Moe performs charity work by reading to the homeless at the same refuge where Flanders serves soup.

Moe's back room has often been the site of numerous illegal opperations. Among these are: smuggling Pandas (Cape Feare), Kidnapping Shamu (The Springfield Files) and running a Deer Hunter-style Russian Roulette game.

Moe's Tavern has been reinvented a few times over the years. During these times, at least, he had many more customers, including women.

When Homer's cocktail drink in the episode "Flaming Moe's" was popular, Moe renamed his tavern Flaming Moe's.
In "Homer's Barbershop Quartet," a flashback shows the bar with the name Moe's Cavern in reference to the Cavern Club where the Beatles got their start.
Moe's was briefly converted into a family restaurant called Uncle Moe's Family Feedbag in "Bart Sells His Soul." Moe reverted it when he was unable to tolerate the family atmosphere.
In "My Sister, My Sitter", it appears that Moe has moved to a new location on the Squidport named Moe's Brewing Co. Homer is amazed that Moe's moved to a fancier place. In fact, it was actually a long tunnel that lead to the original Moe's. A visitor remarked, "Hey, this isn't faux dive. This is a dive," to which Moe replies "You're a long way from home, yuppie-boy. I'll start a tab."
In the episode "Homer vs. The Eighteenth Amendment", during a brief period of Prohibition, Moe's Tavern is converted into a speakeasy. The sign on the front reads Moe's Pet Shop, and the bar and booths flip over to display pet cages when federal agents show up to bust the speakeasy.
Moe revamped his tavern for yuppie hipsters, renaming the bar m in "Homer the Moe," a parody of the "W" hotel in Chicago.^{[citation needed]}
Since Homer took a mortgage on his house to save Moe's, Marge partners up with Moe to revamp the bar as an English pub called The Nag & Weasel in "Mommie Beerest." The pub's sign indicates that Marge is the nag and Moe is the weasel. Both are puns.
When Homer convinces the town that the rapture was coming in "Thank God It's Doomsday", Moe sells his bar to Japanese businessmen who converted it into a sushi restaurant named Tokyo Roe's in reference to Tokyo Rose, the generic name given by Allied forces in the South Pacific during World War II to any female broadcasters of Japanese propaganda.
In a flashback, it is shown that Moe's Tavern was originally called Meaux's Tavern. This is in the episode: Three Gays of the Condo.

It appears that Moe's tavern has only six regular patrons, namely Homer, Barney, Lenny, Carl, Sam and Larry. In "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson", Moe pointed out that due to their frequent habit of drunk-driving, "91% of all traffic accidents in this city are caused by you six guys."

Barney Gumble is single, an alcoholic (after being introduced to beer by Homer Simpson as a teenager), and living in an incredibly messy apartment near the state penitentiary (or sometimes right above Moe's bar), Barney arguably remains Homer's best friend. His desperation for alcohol has been the source of many jokes. He remains friendly and good-natured despite his unfortunate condition. In early episodes, he appears to be a parody of Barney Rubble, similar appearance, hair color, clothing color, just much larger in size. In some ways, Barney also resembles Cheers' Norm Peterson, the heavy-set man at the end of the bar. He manages to make a living selling his body for medical experiments, which has led to some interesting changes. Barney has demonstrated considerable talents as a singer, filmmaker, astronaut, orator, painter, helicopter pilot, and snow plow driver, but keeps getting foiled by his various addictions. In $pringfield, he claims to have five years of modern dance training and six years of tap dance training. He has drunk a can of turpentine, a bottle of brake fluid, a can of varnish, and even a cup of quarters at Mr. Burns' Casino.

In "Days of Wine and D'oh'ses," Barney finally kicked his alcoholism and transferred his addiction to espresso, which led to the disappearance of his trademark belch. He had a relapse in "I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can" and was back on the sauce in "My Big Fat Geek Wedding" (in a scene that was a parody of Jimmy Stewart's Harvey). By the end of Season 15, he was back in all his fat, lovable, belching glory.

Barney's bar tab was so large that Moe had to send it to NASA to get it calculated. It totaled $14 billion. Initially, it was believed to be $70 billion, but that was revealed to be the cost of the Voyager space craft.

The scene is usually set in Moe's Tavern when Homer Simpson is there. While there, we often see Lenny, Carl and occasionally Charlie, Homer's colleagues at the nuclear plant. Moe's is usually the place where Homer takes newfound friends, such as Principal Skinner before his marriage or Ray Magini to hang out.

The two barflies usually seen are Sam and Larry. Sam always wears a cap and Larry has a balding head. Sam appeared to get shot by Moe in "Worst Episode Ever", but has appeared since. Virtually nothing is known about them, not unlike various barflies on the series Cheers. Simpsons Comics #9 contains "Homer Simpson's Pathetic Pal Barney Gumble: Asleep at the Well", a story about a day in the life of Barney Gumble. In it, Larry is referred to as the ear bender and Sam is the wife dodger. However, the Simpsons comics are generally considered non-canonical.

Aerosmith — "Flaming Moe's"
Stephen Hawking — "They Saved Lisa's Brain" and "Don't Fear the Roofer"
U2 — "Trash of the Titans"
Red Hot Chili Peppers — "Krusty Gets Kancelled"
Jay Leno — "The Last Temptation of Krust"
Wade Boggs — "Homer at the Bat"
Johnny Carson — "Krusty Gets Kancelled"
Joe Frazier — "Brother Can You Spare Two Dimes?"
Jamie Farr — "Fear of Flying" (An autographed photo with the Legend: 'To Moe, the Inspiration for Corporal Klinger...now where's my beer?')

A small stage stands at one end and has been host to a few performances

Aerosmith — "Flaming Moe's"
Red Hot Chili Peppers — "Krusty Gets Kancelled"
The Be Sharps — "Homer's Barbershop Quartet"
Krusty the Clown — during his "rebel comic" phase in "The Last Temptation of Krust"

The owner of King Toots
All the characters in the show voiced by Jon Lovitz drinking together
A man with glasses that are out of focus
Hugh Jass (a man who coincidentally has the same name that Bart uses for a prank call)
An unnamed person who has a cowlick and easily passes out
A gay man who was under the impression that Moe's Tavern was a gay bar
Ruth Powers
Joey Joe Joe Junior Shabadoo (a man seen in "The Last Temptation of Homer" whose name Homer uses as an alias. When Moe insults the name, Shabadoo bursting into tears and running out of the bar; Barney calls out sympathetically after him, "Joey Joe Joe!")
A potential patron was Guy Incognito, a man who looked like Homer and talked in a voice similair to his but had a moustache and wore a top hat and tails. Guy wanted to order a drink one time, but Moe thought it was Homer (Homer was banned from Moe's in that episode) in disguise and kicked him out not realising his error. Homer sees this man lying in the gutter out the front of Moe's and realises he looks just like him but instead of investigating this further, Homer chases after a dog with a puffy tail.
An unknown character who thinks Homer's name is Bill.

It was stated in the "Flaming Moe's" episode that Moe's Tavern was on Walnut Street. The phone number would be 764-8437(7), since in "Homer the Smithers," Mr. Burns tried to call Smithers but did not know his phone number. He tried the buttons marked with the letters for Smithers and called Moe's. In "Principal Charming" Bart is asked to call Homer by Principal Skinner, the number visible on the card is WORK: KLondike 5-6832 HOME: KLondike 5-6754 MOE'S TAVERN: KLondike 5-1239, Moe answers the phone and Bart asks for Homer Sexual. In "Bonfire of the Manatees", however, Homer phones the bar at 355-1337.