Carl Carlson

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**Carl Carlson**
The Simpsons character
Image:Carl Carlson.png
Age	30s
Gender	Male
Hair Color	Black,wooly
Job	Co-worker of Homer Simpson at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, job title: Homer's supervisor
Relatives	Mentioned he has a family several times
First appearance	Homer's Night Out
Voice actor	Hank Azaria

Carl Carlson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons. Along with Lenny, Carl is not just Homer's co-worker (sometimes identified as Homer's supervisor) at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant but one of his best friends since childhood, and he likes to call himself "an urban Lenny." He also attended Springfield A&M University.

Carl is an African-American, and a Buddhist with a master's degree in nuclear physics, fond of bowling and drinking at Moe's Tavern. (Carl demonstrates his talent for science in the episode "Fat Man and Little Boy"). He probably leans left politically, having described local conservative talk show host Birch Barlow as "a right-wing crackpot". He has mentioned having a family, but mostly keeps things to himself due to his rather abrasive tongue.

1 Origins
2 Personality
3 Romantic Life
4 Popularity
5 Miscellaneous

[edit] Origins

Carl was raised, or at least born, in Iceland. An article purporting to give Homer's NFL predictions on Foxsports.com claimed that Carl was from Cincinnati, but such claims are considered non-canon. [1]

[edit] Personality

Carl is one of the few characters on the Simpsons who is not extremely stupid or strange. He often serves as taciturn straight man to Homer and company, probably because of his harsh opinions of others, as seen when he makes everyone in Moe's tavern cry and then turns to the camera, explaining: "See, this is why I don't talk much."

[edit] Romantic Life

There is a frequent allusion to a homoerotic element in the Lenny's and Carl's relationship, although Carl seems rather oblivious to it. Lenny dreamily recalls carving "Mount Carlmore", a huge bust of Carl in the side of a hill, during "one wonderful summer." (Lenny says that he has never discussed the sculpture with Carl). In another episode, various characters look at the stars to "see into their souls." Lenny sees an image of Carl, and Carl sees an image of himself. In another episode Bart pays Carl and Lenny $1,000 to kiss, and the two later ask each other: "Hey, did we ever get that money?" (Although this was in the rather noncanon "Behind the Laughter" episode). However, in the episode "Ice Cream of Margie," Lenny says he can't tell apart the remains of his sculpture with Carl's, Carl then says "it's stuff like this that makes everyone think we're gay." At times, Carl gets annoyed at Lenny. When Carl learns that he is paired with Lenny in a team-building exercise on a power plant retreat, his irritated response is, "Aw, nuts. I mean... aw, nuts."

Carl is (or has been) married, as indicated when he wanted to give his wife a Super Bowl ring for their anniversary in one episode.

[edit] Popularity

Mr. Burns appears to prefer Carl to Lenny, as Burns orders Homer to hurl pudding at Lenny, but protests when Carl is hit with the pudding, and says, "What are you doing, man? That's Carl!" People generally seem to have a higher regard for Carl (e.g., Marge was impressed when Carl knew Rod and Todd Flanders had his blood type, exclaiming "Wow, Carl!"). Although Homer sometimes cannot distinguish Lenny and Carl (as he once wrote on his hand, "Lenny = White, Carl = Black"), he tends to prefer Carl when he says, "This is Lenny? I wanted the black one!"

[edit] Miscellaneous

In an early 1991 episode, "Principal Charming", Carl's name is spelled "Karl". Homer may not have known how to spell Carl's name properly, as Homer was facetiously depicted as having a visual field resembling a Terminator-like readout device which seemed to spell everything else correctly, indicating that the writers originally spelled the name as "Karl". (After all, "Karl" is a common name in Iceland). [2] But all of this is moot at best.

Carl believes Attack of the Clones sucked more than The Phantom Menace, about which he has argued with Lenny on at least one occasion.

He was a member of The Sacred Order of the Stonecutters, a secret society, which disbanded to form the "No Homers" society.

Carl has his share of health problems. In the episode "The Dad Who Knew Too Little", Carl mentions he suffers from severe schizophrenia. Moreover, Dr. Hibbert diagnoses Carl with diabetes in the episode "They Saved Lisa's Brain".

When Carl was playing basketball with Homer, Moe, Dr. Frink and others, a racial statement is made assuming that Carl is good at the sport, to which Carl scoffs, "I'm sick and tired of everyone assuming I'm good at basketball just because I'm African American!" He suddenly makes a huge jump, with an over-dramatic shot in the basket following the cheers, "Go Carl! Go Carl! It's my birthday! it's my birthday! Three-peat! You got mail, baby!" Carl is depicted as being about 5' 11" to 6'.