Throughout its 33-year history,The Simpsonshave amassed a huge number of meme-worthy pop culture references. Yet, the series' omnipresence since the ’90s and its cross-generational appeal also make it easy for fans to forget about certain characters or, sometimes, remember old beloved folks from Springfield even if they never existed; just ask Graggle.
For a while now, the internet and especially Twitter has become flooded with references to a strangeThe Simpsonscharacter going by the name of Graggle, or maybe Grumbly or Weird Matt, depending on which particular post one encounters. This has led some fans to believe the oddly shaped Graggle, a nude yellow humanoid with a bean-shaped head, big eyes. and scraggly hair is actually real, with the character even showing up in some very real-looking screenshots supposedly pulled from thegaming gem that isThe Simpsons: Hit & Run.
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It seems some Twitter users have actually succeeded in making the Graggle meme a thing, presenting “Gumbly Simpson” as a sort of forced character much in the vein ofThe Itchy & Scratchy Show’s own Poochie, who’s gone on torepresentThe Simpsonsshark jump moment. Nevertheless, despite some jokesters claiming Graggle has even been digitally added to become part of older episodes, the fact is that none of it is real. So, anyone who may briefly recall seeing him has just been played by the marvellous meme.
So what’s the deal with Graggle? If he’s not real, then where did he come from? Well, the answer is a little more complicated than just saying 4chan, because Graggle apparently owes his strange origins to a supposed screenshot posted in 2015 on a Japanese forum called 2channel, launched in 1999, 4 years before 4chan. Funnily enough,The Simpsonshave never been as popularin Japan as they are in other parts of the world, so it’s no surprise the Graggle meme took so long to get to English-speaking audiences in 2021.
Leave it then to Know Your Meme to clear up the entire situation, with the site noting that Graggle’s real origin within 2channel dates back to 2011, when he became one of the forum’s mascots, going by the name “Nan-j min.” Perhaps the sheer wildness of fake Graggle theories is a good reminder of how easy it is to make up fake news or memes nowadays and that people will usually find it easier to believe whatever they want, even if it’s that Matt Groening himself actually came up with this bizarre character.
That’s not to sayThe Simpsonshaven’t retired or rewrittentheir fair share of characters in the past, it’s just that Graggle may be a couple of levels beyond the show’s imagination.
