Possibly the most genuinely funny character throughout the entirety of thirty seasons of The Simpsons is Ralph Wiggum. The son of Chief Clancy Wiggum and arguably the least intelligent student at Springfield Elementary has never really understood what is going on around him.
We’ve come up with a few facts about the circle-headed eight-year-old, a lot of which fans might not be aware of.
He Bent One Of His Favorite Toys
It might be one of the most iconic lines in the history of The Simpsons, so fans will know it when they see it. Ralph Wiggum bent his Wookie. While walking home with Lisa after showing off his toy to the class at school, Ralph dropped his Wookie on the floor and broke it. We wonder, where it is now?
He Has A Very Special Pet
It isn’t seen on screen very often, but Ralph Wiggum likes to tell stories of his cat and its various adventures. At one point, we learn that “my cat’s name is Mittens," and then later on, during a rambling session that is irrelevant to the conversation at hand, he explains that “my cat’s breath smells like cat food”.
He Has Some Strange Ambitions
Considering the sort of thing we see Ralph Wiggum getting up to on a daily basis, it would be fair to assume he won’t end up with the most impressive career in the world.
We saw flashbacks of the now quite successful Clancy Wiggum acting pretty normally at school, but Ralph is anything but normal. At one point, he details his life ambitions: “When I grow up, I want to be a principal or a caterpillar”.
He Has The Same Voice As Bart
The Simpsons is known for its ability to draft in voice actors capable of shifting the sound of their own voices in so many ways that they can each play a whole host of characters. Nancy Cartwright, who voices Ralph, also voices Bart Simpson, Nelson Muntz, Todd Flanders, Kearney, Database and Maggie. That's a lot of range for one lady, and an incredible repertoire full of some of the funniest characters in the history of television.
He Wasn't Always Clancy's Son
The idea of Ralph being the son of incompetent Police Chief Wiggum seems like something that goes hand in hand with the very existence of Ralph. They both have very similar ideas about life and make some incredibly questionable decisions, so their relationship seems so clear in our minds. However, this wasn't always the case. Ralph was originally just supposed to be a comedic, mini-version of Homer Simpson. He didn't technically become Clancy's son until all the way into season four. Up until then, he was just plain old Ralph.
But He Might Now Be Gay
In The Simpsons Movie, one scene caused a lot of controversy, as Bart skateboarded naked throughout the whole of Springfield.
His decency was covered throughout (aside from that one hilarious moment), but that didn’t stop Ralph from being able to catch a glimpse. “I like men now,” he explains.
He Entered A Baking Competition
Ralph gets up to quite a lot of misadventures and it seems he understands almost none of them. One particularly strange one came when he entered the Auntie Ovenfresh Bakeoff, submitting his Grilled Crayon With Thumbtacks sandwich. Safe to say he didn’t win, but it sounds delicious.
He Doesn’t Like Hans Moleman
It’s rare that fans ever see Ralph without his happy, slightly deluded smile on his face. He seems to like everyone, and despite his incompetence, everyone seems to like him.
The only person fans ever see him treat poorly is Hans Moleman, who he growls at and bullies. Considering Moleman is the king of an underground fortress of moles, fans might expect him to fight back a little more.
He Has Had A Few Close Shaves With Death
There are two separate moments suggesting the demise of Ralph Wiggum. The first comes from the end credits of Simpsorama (the Futurama crossover episode), which depicts his grave with the dates 2006-2017. Fans expected him to die in 2017, but the episode was non-canonical and Ralph was alive for many years before 2006 anyway.
Then in the 2019 episode ‘E My Sports’, he drank so much water that his body exploded. Apparently he was able to recover fully within just one week, and returned to the show unharmed.
But There Might Be A Reason Behind It All
The most stereotypical way for a child to be shown to be less-than-intelligent in a TV show is by having their parents drop them on their head as a baby. But The Simpsons would never be that obvious. Well, apparently not. Ralph began life as a normal kid until Clancy dropped him on his head. Classic.