Joe Quimby

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Quimby redirects to here. For the producer of the MGM animated cartoon division, see Fred Quimby.

Joseph "Joe" Fitzpatrick Fitzgerald Fitzhenry Quimby, Jr., a.k.a. "Diamond Joe Quimby", or simply Mayor Quimby (voiced by Dan Castellaneta), is a fictional character featured in The Simpsons animated series. He has long served as the Democratic mayor of the fictional city of Springfield. He appears to be a slick, sleazy politician whose only interest lies in staying in power for the fringe benefits it brings. Those benefits apparently include squandering tax dollars for personal use, and gaining access to vast hoards of nubile young women.

Joe Quimby's name partly comes from NW Quimby Street in Portland, Oregon, the hometown of show creator Matt Groening. The rest of his name, as well as his character, is from Portland mobster and chief of police, "Diamond" Jim Purcell.

Quimby speaks with an eastern Massachusetts accent, in a style resembling that of the Kennedy family. Like the Kennedys, the mayor is a Democrat, comes from great wealth, and lives on a lavish coastal estate (the "Quimby compound") with his family — not unlike the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport, Massachusetts. Quimby is married to a woman who wears a pink suit and hat similar to one Jacqueline Kennedy made famous. She may be also related to actor Rainier Wolfcastle, who is modeled after Arnold Schwarzenegger, husband of JFK's niece, Maria Shriver; Wolfcastle has been spotted at Quimby family functions. His nephew, Freddie Quimby, was once tried for assault (a reference to the William Kennedy Smith rape trial) during which Mayor Quimby tried to bribe witnesses. He does not get along with local police chief Clancy Wiggum.

Assisted by his equally slick and sleazy aides, Quimby can be expected to turn up at any public event and promise exactly what the audience wants to hear. For instance, after discovering that the only thing that interests the residents of the Springfield Retirement Home is Matlock (a TV detective series that ran between 1986 and 1995), he promptly decides to name a new freeway the "Matlock Expressway." He is known to be a womanizer, and to occasionally amuse himself with pornographic playing cards during town meetings. He frequently takes overseas vacations, which take him out of town for extended periods of time, leading to a headline in the Springfield Shopper, "Mayor Visits City." He once referred to Springfield as Springfeld at a public meeting.

Quimby's corrupt personality and love of overseas junkets is perhaps most amusingly highlighted during one episode where he announces that after a three month "fact finding mission", he has concluded that it is NOT feasible to build a high speed rail link between Springfield and the tropical paradise resort of Aruba.

It has been implied on occasion that he is connected to Fat Tony, the local Mafia Don.

Quimby was elected mayor of Springfield in 1986. He has been re-elected several times since, despite rather open admissions of fraud and wrongdoing. He once admitted to using taxpayer dollars to fund the murder of his enemies, but thanks to a clever use of a popular catch phrase ("I'm a bad wittle boy"), he was re-elected in a landslide. The fact that Quimby was a draft dodger who smokes marijuana and routinely cheats on his wife has earned him the hatred of Springfield's small but vocal Republican elite. When the party nominated Sideshow Bob as its mayoral candidate, Bob rigged the election, briefly deposing Quimby. He was re-instated when Bob was found guilty of fraud and imprisoned. He also survived a recall election in 2005, with no candidate in the race against him (candidates included Rainier Wolfcastle, Kent Brockman and Homer) garnering the 5% necessary to force a recall.

Quimby was once the subject of 27 separate paternity suits, a result, no doubt, of his frequent womanising. One of the women he allegedly impregnated was Cookie Kwan, who held up a baby remarkably similar to Quimby in both looks and mannerisms. Quimby, with characteristic evasion, immediately passed the baby to one of his minders, instructing him to "Raise the child as your own." Presumably, the paternity suits are still ongoing.

In the episode Lisa's Wedding, set several years into the future, we find out that Quimby eventually relinquished his position as mayor after being indicted for an unspecified crime (presumably fraud) and ends up being a taxicab driver for Otto's taxi company using the alias "Mohammed Jafar," a likely reference to disgraced former West Virginia Governor William C. Marland's turn as a cabbie in Chicago after leaving office.

His catchphrase is "Vote Quimby," which he always finds an opportunity to say, even during sex. On The Daily Show, Jon Stewart sometimes says this catchphrase after doing an impression of a Kennedy.

In Simpsons Comics #113, Quimby is revealed to have 4 illegitimate sons who are all at the orphanage. These kids have yet to appear in an animated episode.

Quotes

Ich bin ein Springfielder!
Er, uh... er, uh... (frequently repeated when he needs time to think)
Can't we have one meeting that doesn't end with someone digging up a corpse?
Quimby: All right, I'm in charge here.
Wiggum: Oh, run along, Quimby. I think they're dedicating a phone booth somewhere.
Quimby: Watch it, you walking tub of donut batter!
Quimby: Are they [the crowd] getting dumber or just louder?
Aide: Ah-h, [checks his clipboard] dumber, sir."
[After a violent St. Patrick's Day parade, the women of Springfield demand the mayor institute Prohibition.]
Quimby: Demand? Who are you to demand anything? I run this town! You're just a bunch of low-income nobodies!
Aide [whispering]: Election in November! Election in November!
Quimby: What? Again!? This stupid country.
[In the future, a disheveled Quimby is driving a cab for Otto's cab company.]
Lisa: Hey, I remember you. You're Mayor Quimby.
Quimby: Er, ah, no! Check my license. Mohammed Jafar.
Otto (on a video monitor): Quimby, when you're done with this fare, get your indicted ass down to the convention center!
Quimby (under his breath): I cut the ribbon at that convention center!
[At a town hall meeting held to decide how to use the money from a fine paid by Mr. Burns]
Quimby: We will now hear suggestions for the disbursement of the two million dollars.
Lisa Simpson: Don't you mean three million dollars?
Quimby:: [looks around nervously, adjusts his tie] Of course. How silly of me.
Did I, uh, hear a briefcase opening?
Can't this town go one day without a riot?
I stand by my ethnic slur.
Do you mind?! I am just trying to have a quiet meal with my secret other family!
I'll just amuse myself with these pornographic playing cards.
You don't scare me! That could be anyone's ass. [Defiantly said after Chief Wiggum threatened to expose some incriminating photographs allegedly of the mayor.]
Vote Quimby.
[From the episode "Homer Alone"]
Quimby: Now listen to me. If Marge Simpson goes to jail, I can kiss the chick vote goodbye. And if I go down, you're gonna break my fall!
Wiggum: Word to the wise, Quimby. Don't write checks your butt can't cash.
Quimby: Hear me loud and clear, Wiggum. You bite me, I'll bite back.
Wiggum: You talk the talk, Quimby. But do you walk the walk?
"People, please! We are all frightened and horny, but we can't let some killer dolphins keep us from living and scoring!"
Also I would like to say that this woman is not my wife, although I am sleeping with her. I'm telling you because I'm comfortable with my womanising.
[In response to being called an "illiterate, tax-cheating, wife-swapping, pot-smoking spendocrat"]: "I am no longer illiterate."
[His clever scheme to scare criminals by simulating his execution in the old prison's electric chair, with the chair having been re-activated the previous night by Bart and Ralph Wiggum. Bart and Ralph are watching Quimby on TV for this special broadcast.]:
Quimby I am sending a message to the criminals of Springfield! If you commit a violent crime in this town you will end up here!
Ralph: That's our play chair!
Quimby: Just to show you what you are in for, I will strap myself into this electric chair, which was deactivated over 20 years ago, and I can only assume still is.

Joe Quimby

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