Character
Groundskeeper Willie's first appearance was in the season two episode "Principal Charming". Originally, the character was written just as an angry janitor; his Scottish accent was added during a recording session. Dan Castellaneta was assigned to do the voice. Castellaneta did not know what voice to use and Sam Simon, who was directing at the time, told Castellaneta to use an accent. He first tried a Spaniard voice, which Simon felt was too clichéd. He then tried a "big dumb Swede," which was also rejected. For his third attempt, he used the voice of an angry Scotsman, which was considered to be appropriate and was used in the episode. Originally thought by the directors to be a one-shot appearance, Willie has since become a common recurring character. Matt Groening later revealed that the character was based partially on Angus Crock, a kilt-wearing chef from the sketch comedy show Second City Television, who was portrayed by Dave Thomas and Jimmy Finlayson, the mustachioed Scottish actor who appeared in 33 Laurel and Hardy films.
A recurring joke, which was first shown in "Radio Bart," is that Groundskeeper Willie appears to have a pot belly, but whenever he takes off his shirt, he is quite muscular. One of Groundskeeper Willie's trademarks is a gruffly-spoken insulting retort, which take the writers a long time to come up with, although they do not consider them that funny.
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