Lenny and Carl - Relationship With Each Other

Relationship With Each Other

Lenny and Carl are best friends, as they are rarely seen apart; their other friends are Homer, and regulars at Moe's including Barney Gumble and Moe Szyslak. Homer repeatedly confuses Lenny and Carl, and is shocked to learn on one occasion that Lenny is white, and Carl is black. To guide himself, Homer has "Lenny = White, Carl = Black" on his hand. He once muttered to himself, "Is that right?" while reading it. In "Helter Shelter", Homer exclaims, "That's Lenny? I wanted the black one!" When Mr. Burns appears on a radio show in an attempt to boost his popularity in "Monty Can't Buy Me Love", Homer tells him that he has a list of jokes explaining the differences between white and black people; Homer later states, "White guys have names like Lenny, whereas black guys have names like Carl."

There are occasional homosexual overtones in Lenny's and Carl's relationship. In another episode, "'Scuse Me While I Miss the Sky", various characters look at the stars to "see into their souls". Lenny sees Carl's face in the sky, who also sees his own face. At times, Carl gets annoyed at Lenny. In "Mountain of Madness", 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." In the Simpsons Game, Carl and Lenny are shown arguing while bird-watching.

In the non-canon episode "Behind the Laughter", Lenny and Carl are constant companions, and Bart had apparently paid the two to kiss one another. A running gag through the series is the possibility of a sexual relationship between Lenny and Carl. When Marge's Popsicle stick sculptures of Lenny and Carl are destroyed and mashed together, Lenny states, "I don't know where Carl ends and I begin!", to which Carl replies, "See, statements like that are why people think we're gay".

Carl tells Seymour Skinner that "Marriage is gonna be great. Now you'll have someone who'll rub your back – without being asked" while glaring at Lenny, who sighs "Oh, not this again." Carl then responds "Yes, this again." In one episode, Homer runs out of gay couples to marry; he speculates that Lenny and Carl might be interested, and Marge responds with "Don't you push them – they've gotta work that out for themselves." In "Treehouse of Horror XVI", Lenny dies and sees the angels in Heaven take the form of Carl (although they're saying, "Hurry up or we'll be late for work at the plant!"). Once, Chief Wiggum remarks that Lenny's relationship with Carl is on the rocks. In "Fat Man and Little Boy", Homer quotes to Lisa "You and science go together like Lenny and Carl – the science is Carl". In "Marge and Homer Turn a Couple Play", Lenny and Carl see Homer and Marge kiss, prompting Lenny to remark, "Remember when we used to kiss like that . . . with our respective girlfriends?"

Lenny's hero worship of Carl has reached a mounting point. In "Half-Decent Proposal", it's shown he carved Carl's face on a mountain, and called it Mount Carlmore. He later leaves a burning oil field, only because Carl arrived. Lenny publishes a newspaper called The Lenny-Saver with the headline: "The Truth About Carl: He's Great." After displaying this, he sheds a tear and states that "it had to be told." In the episode "Lisa the Drama Queen", Lenny and Carl are pictured driving a sports car through the woods with their two dates in the back of contrasting background.