Barnard "Barney" Gumble born (April 20 or June 15) is a fictional character on The Simpsons, voiced by Dan Castellaneta. Barney is the Springfield town drunk, the most prominent of several alcoholic Springfieldianites. He is almost always seen in Moe's Tavern, where he is a regular. His desperation for alcohol has been the source of many jokes. He has a quavering, slightly broken voice and a distinctive loud belch (although he sings in a completely different voice, rather like Jim Nabors). He remains friendly and good-natured despite his unfortunate condition. Heavyset, slovenly, and unmarried (though occasionally seen with women), he lives in a messy, sparsely-furnished apartment while he is also seen living at Moe's Tavern. He is occasionally seen doing some sort of menial labor, such as working for his Uncle Al at Barney's Bowl-O-Rama, but has also been the owner of a successful snowplowing business and been employed as an astronaut. In the episode "A Star is Burns", Barney states that he is 40 years old.

It is told that he is at least half-Norwegian, since his mother comes from Norway. His father, Arnie Gumble, died in a 1979 parade float accident along with Sheldon Skinner, Iggy Wiggum, Etch Westgrin, and Griff McDonald, all of whom had served in Abe Simpson's WW II squad. Barney once expected to see his father (as well as a plant he'd never watered) in the afterlife.

Barney is generally portrayed as being Homer Simpson's best friend, known from when they were at school (where Barney was Harvard bound until Homer gave him a beer the night before his SATs), although they have the occasional fall-out during the series. Barney first appeared in the episode 7G08, "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", in which he worked as a department store Santa and gave Homer a tip for winning at the dog track. The season 1 DVD for the series indicates that the script writers originally intended for Barney to be Homer's next-door neighbor.

As a teenager, Barney showed much potential until Homer introduced him to beer. Later on, with Homer, he was a member of The Be Sharps barbershop quartet, which introduced his splendid singing voice. It was heard again in "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious" and in "Mommie Beerest".

He has gotten involved in several altercations at Moe's with various visiting celebrities: after severely criticizing Joe Frazier, the two men stepped outside, with Frazier victorious in the fight. Barney was more successful with Wade Boggs, knocking him unconscious after an argument over who was England's greatest prime minister, with Barney arguing it was Lord Palmerston but Boggs preferring Pitt the Elder.

In the episode 9F07, "Mr. Plow", Barney was inspired by Homer's Mr. Plow business to have his own snow removal service, calling himself the Plow King and buying a snow removal truck much bigger than Homer's. He even got Linda Ronstadt to sing on his commercials. "We've been looking for a project to do together for a while," he explained. He took away all Homer's customers and earned the key to Springfield (off Homer). Homer eventually fools Barney into travelling to "Forbidding Widows' Peak" to plow through the snow for a $10,000 bill, but is caught in an avalanche. Homer ends up saving Barney, they become friends again and team up, only to find the snow melting, and Homer's truck repossessed. Barney is seen driving his plow as the Plow King once again in Miracle on Evergreen Terrace.

Barney showed his artistic side again in the episode 2F31, "A Star is Burns", in which Barney won top prize at the Springfield Film Festival for a moving documentary about his life as an alcoholic, called "Puke-a-hontas". Also in 2F31, Barney's first name was revealed as Barnard. Since Montgomery Burns caused Moe's Tavern to close down, (2F16, "Who Shot Mr. Burns? Part I"), Barney became a major suspect for shooting Burns after Burns blocked the sun (despite his easygoing nature, Barney apparently carries around a derringer at all times).

Barney served in the United States Navy Reserve for a short time, as a submariner on the USS Jebediah (3G04, "Simpson Tide") with his own mother as his superior officer.

In the episode BABF14, "Days of Wine and D'oh'ses", Barney kicked the alcoholism habit. For his birthday, Moe gave him a gift certificate for helicopter flying lessons, not expecting Barney to actually use them. "Can you imagine this boozebag at the wheel of a whirlybird?", Moe asked. Barney went to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, became sober, and took the helicopter flying lessons. He became fairly proficient at it, though he admitted he only knew to make left turns. This new skill helped Homer rescue Bart and Lisa from a forest fire. Unwilling to lose a customer, Moe figured out a way to transfer Barney's addiction to espresso, which led to the disappearance of his trademark belch. He had relapses in "The Blunder Years" and "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). Homer also encouraged Barney to have a beer when he played Ulysses S. Grant is a reenactment of the Battle of Springfield (though this, surprisingly, did not cause him to become alcoholic again). By the end of season 15 he was back to his old, alcoholic self. Early in season sixteen, though, he briefly sobered up and got back behind the controls of his helicopter to rescue an old girlfriend from a volcanic lava flow.

Trivia

• The name "Barney Gumble" is a parody (and near homonym) of "Barney Rubble" of Hanna-Barbera's The Flintstones. Barney Rubble is Fred Flintstone's best friend. An earlier comic strip character from the 1920s was Barney Google.

• Barney pre-deceases all of his friends.

• In early episodes, fish bones would sometimes come out of Barney's mouth when he belched.

• During an episode of Inside the Actors Studio, the voice actors of The Simpsons claimed that Barney earns his money by subjecting himself to human experiments. He is supposedly also a regular at the Springfield sperm bank.

Simpsons characters | Fictional alcoholics | Fictional American television characters

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