'Graggle' Simpson might be the Internet’s favorite character on The Simpsons, but that doesn’t mean he ever existed. In recent weeks, Twitter and TikTok have been abuzz with Simpsons viewers recalling their favorite Graggle moments. Tweets reminding audiences about the famous supporting character of the series got tens of thousands of likes, with nostalgia for the character earning as much social media traction as The Simpsons season 33 finale.

There is just one problem with this. Graggle Simpson doesn’t exist on The Simpsons and never has. Despite people creating countless fake screenshots, Graggle (or 'Gumbly,' or ‘Weird Matt,’ as he is alternately known) has never existed on the long-running series and is an invention of The Simpsons fandom. Despite this, the character is rapidly becoming one of the most popular Simpsons supporting characters online.

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The (non-existent) “fan-favorite” Simpsons character Graggle has been digitally inserted into classic Simpsons episodes and given an in-depth character history in an elaborate online hoax. The character’s name varies, with some posts referring to him as Graggle, some calling him Gumbly, and some naming him Weird Matt (for reasons that will become clear later). However, in further proof that South Park's claim that The Simpsons predicted everything consistently proves accurate, all of the hoax’s iterations bear similarities to a classic episode of The Simpsons, “The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show” (season 8 episode 14). Whether Graggle is portrayed as a much-hated late addition to The Simpsons cast, a long-forgotten character who was dropped due to audience disinterest, or Matt Groening’s ill-fated self-insert, the non-existent character is always doomed to the same fate as Poochie.

Graggle Simpson Image 2

Graggle Simpson first appeared in a 2021 4Chan post, which claimed that the character was a self-insert made by Matt Groening early on in the production of The Simpsons. This post claimed that Graggle was eventually written out and dubbed ‘Weird Matt’ by the rest of the production staff. Obviously, all of this origin story was an urban myth (although Groening’s real least favorite Simpsons character did reappear in season 33). However, another early incarnation of the character called him Gumbly and claimed that he was a new addition to the family who only appeared in recent Simpsons episodes, prompting another poster to complain that the studio was digitally inserting Gumbly into old episodes to push the character on audiences.

This, in turn, promoted another contrasting incarnation of the character as Graggle, a forgotten Simpsons side character who had been dropped years ago due to unpopularity but who was now making a comeback. This led to fake screenshots of episodes featuring Graggle, although these were shared by posters “remembering their favorite Graggle scenes” rather than complaining about “Grumbly” being inserted into old episodes. Even though all of this was a big joke, the meme surrounding Graggle/Gumbly/Weird Matt bears a lot of resemblance to the fictional response toward Poochie, proving The Simpsons' predictive powers once again. From viewers hating the new character for ruining their favorite show to the idea of a character being cut due to bad reception, right down to one creative figure having too much say in their design and appearance, most of the meme’s iterations borrow (however unconsciously) some inspiration from how The Simpsons treated Poochie, the original Graggle/Gumbly/Weird Matt.

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