Fictional character
Kent Brockman
|
---|
|
|
First appearance
| |
---|
Created by
| Matt Groening
|
---|
Designed by
| Brad Bird
|
---|
Voiced by
| Harry Shearer
|
---|
|
Full name
| Brock Kentman
|
---|
Gender
| Male
|
---|
Occupation
| News anchor
|
---|
Family
| Dawn (sister)
|
---|
Spouse
| Stephanie (wife)
|
---|
Children
| Unnamed adult daughter
Brittany (daughter)
Walter (son)
|
---|
Relatives
| Flower (nephew)
|
---|
Kent Brockman
,
[1]
is a fictional character in the
animated
television series
The Simpsons
. He is
voiced
by
Harry Shearer
and first appeared in the episode "
Krusty Gets Busted
". He is a grumpy, self-centered, pompous local
Springfield
news anchor
.
Profile
[
edit
]
Kent Brockman hosts the
Channel 6
weekday news, as well as
Smartline
, a local current-affairs program (a parody of the national current-affairs program
Nightline
),
Bite Back! With Kent Brockman
(a parody of
Fight Back! With David Horowitz
),
Eye on Springfield
(a parody of
Eye on LA
), which focuses mostly on
Springfield's
entertainment news, the game show
Springfield Squares
,
Springfield Action News,
and has his own personal commentary segment of the 6:00 p.m. news, "My Two Cents".
[2]
In the episode "The Mansion Family", he co-hosted an award show with pop music singer
Britney Spears
.
It has been hinted that Brockman is ethnically
Jewish
, having changed his surname from Brockelstein; this was first indicated in a 1960s flashback featured in the episode "
Mother Simpson
", in which Brockman was known as
Kenny Brockelstein
early in his career. He can sometimes be spotted wearing the
Hebrew
Chai
symbol on a necklace. He is seen several times attending
Reverend Lovejoy
's
Protestant
church, and in "
Marge on the Lam
" he states his belief in the
Book of Revelation
,
[3]
suggesting he professes Christian religious beliefs.
Brockman has a daughter, Brittany, who may have been the product of his fling with the Channel 6 weather girl. He also has a wife named Stephanie. In "
Kamp Krusty
", Brockman is revealed to have during his career, reported on the
Vietnam War
, the 1979-89
Soviet?Afghan War
, and the 1991
Gulf War
.
In "
Dog of Death
", Brockman won the multimillion-dollar ($130 million) state
lottery
jackpot and left the
news desk
while still on the air. However, he remained a news anchor because he was under contract, though he also admitted that he likes making $500,000 a year. He has an ongoing feud with traffic reporter
Arnie Pye
, and has been shown to criticize Pye's reporting and also even chuckles when it was thought Pye had died in a helicopter accident. When Arnie Pye took Brockman's anchor position he admitted on the air he made out with Brockman's daughter but was sure to note it was with "the grown up one" thus revealing Brockman has an adult daughter.
Brockman's penchant for using offensive language works against him in the 400th episode, "
You Kent Always Say What You Want
", where, after Homer accidentally spills coffee on Brockman's crotch, he shouts what
Ned Flanders
calls a "super swear" that shocked everyone who watched it. Brockman was demoted to
weather man
due to the station paying a fine to the
Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) and was soon fired when the network executives deliberately mistook a ring of
Splenda
in Brockman's coffee for
cocaine
. Brockman was later given his job back to silence him (after doing an expose that was seen on
YouTube
uncovering the real reason the FCC is cracking down on obscenity in the media), with a 50% raise, making his new salary $750,000 a year.
Creation and inspirations
[
edit
]
Kent Brockman first appeared on television in the
first season
episode "
Krusty Gets Busted
", which originally aired April 29, 1990.
[4]
[5]
The character was based on
Los Angeles
anchormen
Hal Fishman
and
Jerry Dunphy
.
[6]
The director of "Krusty Gets Busted",
Brad Bird
, designed the character and modeled him after anchorman
Ted Koppel
.
[7]
Another influence on the character was
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
's
Ted Baxter
, played by
Ted Knight
.
[8]
Dunphy was proud of the fact that Brockman was based on him and would tell people that he was Kent Brockman.
[6]
Cultural influence
[
edit
]
Brockman is responsible for popularizing the
snowclone
"I, for one, welcome our new
[fill-in-the-blank]
overlords", sometimes used to express mock submission, usually for the purpose of humor.
Brockman's comment about believing a spacecraft was taken over by a master race of giant space ants in "
Deep Space Homer
" (1994), which generated the
meme
, is considered one of the show's classic moments. The spacecraft was carrying an ant colony, though the insects were accidentally released by Homer. This led to an ant drifting by the video feed, appearing gigantic due to its proximity to the camera, at which point Brockman contemplates if the "master race of giant space ants ... will consume the captive earth men or merely enslave them" and eventually utters the line "And I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords". Author
Chris Turner
called it "perhaps his finest hour as a journalist"
and said the scene is "simply among the finest comedic moments in the history of television."
Variations of the phrase have been used in the media, such as
New Scientist
magazine,
[12]
the
Houston Chronicle
[13]
and
Ken Jennings
on the
Jeopardy! IBM Challenge
(versus
Watson
) on February 16, 2011.
[14]
[15]
On May 6, 2014,
Stephen Colbert
made direct reference to the phrase by using it as the closing line of his television program
The Colbert Report
.
Reception
[
edit
]
The author of the book
Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Documented an Era and Defined a Generation
,
Chris Turner
, said that "if the institution of the News has a single iconic face on
The Simpsons
, it's Brockman's"
and that "in Brockman's journalism, we see some of the modern news media's ugliest biases", which he identifies as glibness,
amplification, and
sensationalism
.
MSN
called Brockman one of the worst TV news anchors.
[18]
"
You Kent Always Say What You Want
" was well received by critics.
IGN
called it the second best episode of
the season
.
[19]
Merchandise
[
edit
]
Playmates Toys
created a Kent Brockman action figure for its
World of Springfield
toy line which was released in July 2001.
[20]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Simpsons #25: Marge Attacks!"
Simpsons Comics on Parade
, p. 45 (May 19, 1998). Retrieved on April 14, 2024.
- ^
Groening, Matt (1997).
The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family
(1st ed.). New York, NY: HarperCollins. p. 41.
ISBN
0-06-095252-0
.
- ^
"[1F03] Marge on the Lam"
. Archived from
the original
on December 4, 2014
. Retrieved
February 5,
2016
.
- ^
Krusty Gets Busted
,
BBC.co.uk
. Retrieved on December 30, 2008.
- ^
"Krusty Gets Busted"
.
The Simpsons.com
. Retrieved on December 31, 2008.
- ^
a
b
Groening, Matt; Jean, Al (2003). Commentary for "
Homer Defined
", in
The Simpsons: The Complete Third Season
[DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ^
Bird, Brad; Wolodarsky, Wallace (2001). Commentary for "
Krusty Gets Busted
", in
The Simpsons: The Complete First Season
[DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ^
Woo, Stephanie (December 2004).
The Scoop on The Simpsons: Journalism in U.S. Television's Longest Running Prime-Time Animated Series
(PDF)
. pp. 5?8
. Retrieved
December 31,
2008
.
- ^
"The British government welcomes our new insect overlords"
.
New Scientist
. June 5, 2007
. Retrieved
December 30,
2008
.
- ^
"End food truck wars"
.
Houston Chronicle
. February 10, 2013
. Retrieved
February 11,
2013
.
- ^
Melissa Maerz (February 16, 2011).
"Watson wins 'Jeopardy!' finale; Ken Jennings welcomes 'our new computer overlords'
"
.
Los Angeles Times
. Retrieved
February 17,
2011
.
- ^
Zimmer, Ben (February 17, 2011).
"Is It Time to Welcome Our New Computer Overlords?"
.
The Atlantic
. Retrieved
April 28,
2012
.
- ^
Semel, Paul.
"The Best & Worst TV News Anchors"
.
MSN
. Archived from
the original
on January 21, 2008
. Retrieved
December 30,
2008
.
- ^
Canning, Robert.
"The Simpsons: "You Kent Always Say What You Want" Review: Number 400 delivers a classic"
.
IGN
. Retrieved
December 30,
2008
.
- ^
"Series 5"
. The Simpsons Action Figure Information Station
. Retrieved
December 31,
2008
.
[
permanent dead link
]
- Bibliography
External links
[
edit
]
|
---|
|
Media
| Episodes
| |
---|
Seasons
| |
---|
Shorts
| |
---|
Theme parks
| |
---|
Others
| |
---|
|
---|
Characters
| |
---|
Production
| |
---|
Hallmarks
| |
---|
Locations
| |
---|
Themes
| |
---|
Inspired
works
| |
---|
Related
| |
---|
|