The Bumblebee Man, voiced by Dan Castellaneta and later, Hank Azaria, is the star of a Mexican Spanish-language television sitcom on "Channel Ocho", in which he dresses in a bumblebee costume and performs slapstick comedy. In the episode "Team Homer", his bowling shirt bears the name "Pedro" (despite that he's informally referred to as "Chespirito"). He works at the same studio as Kent Brockman. His first appearance was in "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie". Bumblebee Man is never seen to take off his costume, even when by himself; the sole exception is the episode "22 Short Films About Springfield", in which his private life is shown. In this short segment, he is portrayed as innately clumsy rather than simply acting as such.
In general, Bumblebee Man only speaks in simple, over-enunciated (and inaccurate) Spanish sentences. His catchphrases of choice are typically "¡Ay, ay, ay, no me gusta!" ("I don't like it!"), "¡Ay, ay, ay, no es bueno!" ("That's not good!") and "¡Ay, Dios no me ama!" ("God doesn't love me!"). Quite commonly, his phrases will be intentionally sloppy Spanish. For example, in the episode "22 Short Films About Springfield", there are several words used that are not real (such as "wudpequero" for "woodpecker", rather than the correct pájaro carpintero). The crude Spanish is used so that English-speaking viewers would still understand what was being said. On occasions, he also speaks English, such as briefly in "Mr. Spritz Goes to Washington". In "Bart Gets Famous", he anchored the news with an articulate English accent, filling in for the regular, Kent Brockman, who wouldn't report the news because of a missing cheese Danish.
Bumblebee Man is a caricature of El Chapulín Colorado, a character created and portrayed by Mexican television comedian Roberto Gómez Bolaños (a.k.a. "Chespirito"), and his show consists of simple skits, often involving heavy slapstick. The staff have said that whenever they watched Univision, this character was "always on", thus they created Bumblebee Man, who is also always on the air when the Spanish-language channel is depicted. His costume was based on one used in the Saturday Night Live sketch "Killer Bees".
Hank Azaria won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for voicing Bumblebee Man, and various other characters, in 2003.
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“The most evident difference between man and animals is this: the beast, in as much as it is largely motivated by the senses and with little perception of the past or future, lives only for the present. But man, because he is endowed with reason by which he is able to perceive relationships, sees the causes of things, understands the reciprocal nature of cause and effect, makes analogies, easily surveys the whole course of his life, and makes the necessary preparations for its conduct.”
—Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 B.C.)