Martin Prince Jr. is a fictional character in the television animated cartoon series The Simpsons. The character is voiced by Russi Taylor.

Profile

Martin Prince is an academically brilliant teacher's pet with the stereotypical geek enthusiasms for science fiction, role-playing games, not-so-great fashion sense, and has an IQ of 216. A perfect target, in other words, for Bart Simpson and the bullies of Springfield Elementary School to pick on ruthlessly; and with Martin's fawning behavior towards adults and condescension towards his peers (such as successfully extending the school day by 20 minutes), many watchers of the show cheer his tormentors on. Despite his occasional moments of being uptight or irritating, Martin is for the most part very friendly with most. He even tries to be friendly with Nelson Muntz, the bully responsible for most of his beatings although this is almost never returned. There have been a few episodes where it is hinted that Nelson does not really want to be mean to Martin, and could even be potentially a friend, if it were not for the pressure of maintaining his bad-boy image at school. Martin is apparently a little overweight, as he is sent to the weight loss section of the hellish Kamp Krusty in the episode of the same name. Although his father calls it "image enhancement camp", Martin sees right through this. "Spare me your euphemisms! It's fat camp for daddy's chubby little secret!"

One of his more notable appearances is in an episode in which Bart takes him on for the class presidency. Martin, of course, has a comprehensive (though not particularly politically well-judged) platform which Bart, with the aid of Homer, picks apart with populist nonsense. In a debate, Martin begins to speak of the high level of asbestos in the classrooms. Bart interrupts and says "That's not enough! We want MORE ASBESTOS, MORE ASBESTOS," leaving the entire class chanting this errant nonsense. Nevertheless, Bart still loses the election as Martin and his running mate Wendell are the only ones in the class who bothered to vote on election day.

Despite the natural animosity between Bart and Martin, the two have teamed up on occasion. In fact, for most of the series they seem to be friends despite the occasional butting of heads. In one episode, Martin tutors Bart in exchange for lessons on being cool (although Martin betrays Bart at the end of their collaboration). In another, Martin and Bart work together on a soapbox racer. Bart, Martin, and Milhouse all pool their money to buy a copy of the first Radioactive Man comic. In another episode where Bart must wear corrective lenses and foot supports, he gets a taste of his own medicine by being forced to look quite nerdy temporarily and becomes an even greater target for bullying. It is during this time that Martin and a group of geeks and nerds save him until he no longer has to wear his glasses or boots. When kids from Shelbyville steal Springfield's lemon tree, Martin joins Bart as part of the gang of raiders who seek to take the lemon tree back. Martin accompanies Bart, Nelson, and Milhouse on a chaotic road trip to Knoxville, Tennessee one spring break.

Many have noted that as the seasons have passed, Bart has become less and less hostile with Martin to the point of total neutrality; this has not stopped the Springfield Elementary bullies from continuing their traditional beating however. Martin also has become less condescending and more passive as the series has progressed. He is often depicted as too passive, since even Lisa Simpson can be a bit harsh to him, such as a scene in Das Bus in which Lisa is initially blamed by Sherri and Terri for being responsible for stranding the group of children on a deserted island because she helped set up the disastrous field trip. Lisa in turn states that Martin seconded the trip, and because of that it is his fault. Martin has been known to casually hang out with Bart's group from time to time as well, and is often seen with Bart and Milhouse Van Houten in the background. Martin also sits directly in front of Bart in their fourth grade class. Although they often work together on various school projects and classwork, it is implied in many episodes that Martin and Lisa are also rivals of a sort, especially when it comes to the Science Fair.

King of the Fairies

One ongoing rather humorous quality of Martin's is his tendency to be quite open with his feminine side. For instance, he has a tendency to dress as Greek goddesses for Halloween, and perform rather un-masculine activities such as a peculiar dance he had to memorize for an international field trip in Das Bus. He was completely comfortable playing the female role of Lizzie Borden in a school play. He once in a while also makes a quick comment or slip of the tongue, such as in the episode Bart of Darkness where Martin, desperate for social status, builds a giant swimming pool in order to compete with the Simpsons' pool which had made Lisa quite popular. When two men are building the pool, he comments "My plan has come to fruition, now I'll be Queen of summertime!". Although this is implied to be a mistake as he is rivaling Lisa, this nonetheless promptly gets him a couple of concerned looks as he tries to correct himself by saying "King of summertime". It is uncertain if Martin is just very comfortable with his gender, does not know any better due to his age, or is in fact a possible homosexual although a great percentage of the cast have hints of their own from time to time as well so it is most likely playful poking by the show. In the episode There's Something About Marrying, Springfield legalizes gay marriage and in a town meeting Nelson picks up Martin while moving to legalize gay funerals, "starting with this guy!" In response, Martin denies this saying "I'm not gay! I'm nothing yet!"

Future

In "Lisa's Wedding" it is revealed that, in one possible future timeline, Martin disappears after an explosion at a school science fair and is assumed to be dead but is in fact making music in the school basement, his face disfigured and hidden beneath a mask (in parody of The Phantom of the Opera). Another possible future timeline reveals that Martin attended his senior prom with a robot date (as shown in the episode "Future-Drama", and also implying that he is gay due to the robot being male). Another possible future hinted in the Bongo comic The Rise and Fall of Bartholomew J. Simpson, a future similar to the continuity of Lisa's Wedding (but obviously still quite different) has Martin following in his father's footsteps by becoming an apparently very successful businessman whom owes Bart a debt of gratitude for performing CPR on him as a child. Due to the timeless nature of the series, all these future depictions' canon relevancy is shaky, although Martin's future is rather vague as it is.

Other information

His father works as a commodities trader. Once Martin went to work with him and made a million dollars on soy futures, but lost all but $600. He is also the inventor of a sarcastically hostile android named C.H.U.M. (Child-like Humanoid Urban Muchacho), a play on the infamous movie C.H.U.D..

In The Treehouse of Horror VI he is murdered by Groundskeeper Willie while having a dream about Latin and being an RPG esque hero (with infinite hit points to boot.) As the Treehouse of Horror episodes are not canon, this has no relevance to the main series.

Despite his enormously high IQ, Martin is curiously not a member of Springfield's branch of Mensa, which includes members such as Lisa, Dr. Hibbert and Principal Skinner.

He is also an avid Lute player and was once imprisoned in a cage during a revolt at Springfield Elementary.

Simpsons characters | Fictional American television characters | Fictional nerds

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