In a town like Springfield, there are all types of folk. From the very tall to the downright villainous, there is a person for every possible scenario, something The Simpsons has proven time and time again, from recurring characters to small one-offs. For every long-running fan of Ned Flanders, there is the elusive blue skinned Doctor Colossus. While Doctor Hibbert has been the family physician for decades, Joey Jo-Jo Junior Shabadoo can be witnessed just once at Moe’s Tavern. This is the broad DNA and rich history The Simpsons has earned, that even the one-second characters can have an impact (and there have been enough of them — more than 3,650).
For this list of the best Simpsons one-off characters, we are not counting anyone who appears in a Treehouse of Horror, or any cameos from people who play themselves (for example, Mark Hamill, Barry White, and so on). Ironically, as The Simpsons is such a broad universe with so many seasons and episodes, most of these characters do return in blink-and-you’ll-miss it moments by way of Easter Eggs, which feels only inevitable considering how deep the fandom goes and how long it has been on the air.
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10 Handsome Pete (“Bart the Fink” Season 7, Episode 15)
20th Century Fox
In the search for an assumed dead Krusty The Clown, Bart happens upon the Sea Captain’s bait shop. Inside, when shown a distorted image of Krusty on a balloon, the Captain reasons that it’s Handsome Pete - standing as tall as Bart and Lisa, Pete is a green haired dwarf that dances for nickles with an accordion.
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9 Ian the Tall Man (“22 Short Films About Springfield” Season 7, Episode 22)
In the now wildly praised 22 Short Films About Springfield episode of The Simpsons (which includes the ubiquitously memed Steamed Hams segment), Nelson Munts finally gets a taste of his own medicine when mocked by a very tall man for driving a Beetle. Simpsons Wiki reveals slightly more, even giving the Tall Man a name: “Ian is a man who goes around teaching bullies a lesson because he got bullied from second grade to high school. At the age of 18 he was 8’ 4” tall but currently he is 8’ 2." They go on to say that he is a caricature of Simpsons writer Ian Maxtone-Graham.
Once again, we’re cheating, as the tall man also appears in the episode where the Simpsons go to New York, and Ian’s legs from the seat behind on the bus are mistaken for the row in front.
8 Jacques (“Life in the Fast Lane” Season 1, Episode 9)
A fan of brunch (not quite breakfast, not quite lunch), Jacques is the mysterious, French-accented lothario more than willing to give the self-doubting Marge a tutoring or two at the bowling alley. In the very early days of The Simpsons, a mere nine episodes in, this was the first real hint at how good and how big the series would become with its drama meets everyday family politics. Once more, we’re cheating, as Jacques shows in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment in the fantastic Pin Pals episode, Singin’ in the Lane.
7 Jay Sherman (“A Star is Burns” Season 6, Episode 18)
Jay Sherman is voiced by Jon Lovitz (who would cover multiple characters in the series, most notably in Artie Ziff, who appears too many times to count on this list). In this brilliant crossover with the much lesser-known animated series The Critic, Sherman arrives as a guest judge in town for a Springfield Film Festival. Megalomaniac Elon Musk recently paraphrased Mr Burns’ “Boo or Boo-urns?” quote from this episode in his (now deleted) tweet about percentages of boos to cheers when on stage with controversial comedian Dave Chappelle.
6 Mulder & Scully (“The Springfield Files” Season 8, Episode 10)
In perhaps the best crossover ever, a strange creature has infiltrated Springfield. With a green hue and promises of bringing love, FBI agents Mulder & Scully of The X-Files are sent to investigate. Not just fantastic marketing and a time capsule of the quality of television in the 1990s (The Simpsons and X-Files would boast being played on the same Fox channel following one another at the time), this is a genuinely fantastic episode that manages to poke fun at often ridiculous X-Files. Actual stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson of course voiced their own characters, and it even featured Mr. Spock himself in Leonard Nimoy.
5 Poochie (“The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show” Season 8, Episode 14)
As Homer takes a brief stint into the world of voice acting for the fictional Itchy & Scratchy show, his debut as Poochie The Dog is universally reviled (apart from Flanders, who says it was the best episode of “Impy & Jimpy” he’s ever seen). Loud and obnoxious and totally in your face, Poochie with his surfboard and backwards cap is but a product of what is believed to be “cool” and falls entirely flat with the audience.
Killed off in literally the next episode of the show, with a binding contract to guarantee that he never returns, Poochie was made for a list like this, and an ironic sign of things to come for The Simpsons’ hubris and popularity. You can also see Poochie get ran over in the Stay Tuned parody featured in Treehouse of Horror IX.
4 Frank Grimes (“Homer’s Enemy” Season 8, Episode 23)
Frank Grimes (or “Grimey” as he liked to be called) is the straight cut version of Homer Simpson. Almost wearing the same attire, Grimes has worked hard to get to where he is today and is only repeatedly knocked down by the life around him, eventually having a breakdown and accidentally getting himself killed. Voice actor Hank Azaria said that he modeled his performance on Michael Douglass from Falling Down. His son Frank Grimes Jr. (also voiced by Azaria) would make a bid for revenge on Homer in a later episode.
3 Lyle Lanley (“Marge vs. the Monorail” Season 4, Episode 12)
As the moronic residents of Springfield are taken in by the allure of a new mode of transport in a high speed monorail, The Music Man is a pyramid scheme figure hiding behind a catchy show tune. With a promise of creating new jobs and bringing tourism to the city, the monorail itself is found out to have cut corners wherever possible and making it immediately unsafe. Conan O’Brien, who wrote the episode, performed the song live at the Hollywood Bowl in 2014.
2 Hank Scorpio (“You Only Move Twice” Season 8, Episode 2)
Trading one evil corporate villain of a boss for another, Homer moves to Cypress Creek to work under the head of the Globex Corporation, Mr. Hank Scorpio. Suddenly somehow good at his position, Homer is completely unaware that he is working for a literal supervillain. Despite that, Scorpio is still the most generous and caring bosses that Homer has ever had in his long and varied careers, urging Homer to support his family’s wishes to move back rather than stay and go bowling together. Scorpio is voiced by Albert Brooks, who would also voice the villain in The Simpsons Movie.
1 Mr Bergstrom (“Lisa’s Substitute” Season 2, Episode 19)
When Miss Hoover takes a leave of absence, she is replaced by Mr. Bergstrom. Clever and kind, he takes an immediate shine to Lisa Simpson, seeing her raw intelligence. Voiced so softly by Dustin Hoffman, Mr Bergstrom is the father figure that Lisa craves in her life at the time and shows a complete mirror opposite to the Homer she has. The note given to Lisa as the man leaves her life forever, simply reading “You are Lisa Simpson,” remains the simplest of heartbreakers for the ages. One of the best episodes in the whole damn series.
