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* LovingParentCruelParent: {{Downplayed|Trope}}. While both she and Homer are usually portrayed as ultimately loving parents, Marge is usually portrayed as the kinder of the two, lacking Homer's tendency to strangle Bart.
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'''Simpson Family''' ([[Characters/TheSimpsonsHomerSimpson Homer Simpson]], [[Characters/TheSimpsonsMargeSimpson Marge Simpson]], [[Characters/TheSimpsonsBartSimpson Bart Simpson]], [[Characters/TheSimpsonsLisaSimpson Lisa Simpson]]) | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsExtendedFamily The Simpsons Extended Family]] | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsElementarySchool Springfield Elementary School]] | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsGovernmentJudgesLawyersPoliceCriminals Government, Judges and Lawyers, Police and Criminals]] | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsNuclearPowerPlantShopkeepers Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, Springfield Shopkeepers]] | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsChurchDoctorsCelebrities First Church of Springfield, Doctors, Celebrities]] | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsFriendsNeighborsFamilies Friends and Neighbors, Families]] | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsOtherRecurringCharacters Other Recurring Characters]] | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsItchyAndScratchyCharacters Itchy & Scratchy Characters]] | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsOneTimeCharacters One-time Characters]]]]-]]]
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'''Simpson Family''' ([[Characters/TheSimpsonsHomerSimpson Homer Simpson]], [[Characters/TheSimpsonsMargeSimpson Marge Simpson]], [[Characters/TheSimpsonsBartSimpson Bart Simpson]], [[Characters/TheSimpsonsLisaSimpson Lisa Simpson]]) | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsExtendedFamily The Simpsons Extended Family]] | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsElementarySchool Springfield Elementary School]] | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsGovernmentJudgesLawyersPoliceCriminals Government, Judges and Lawyers, Police and Criminals]] | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsNuclearPowerPlantShopkeepers Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, Springfield Shopkeepers]] | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsChurchDoctorsCelebrities First Church of Springfield, Doctors, Celebrities]] | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsFriendsNeighborsFamilies Friends and Neighbors, Families]] | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsOtherRecurringCharacters Other Recurring Characters]] | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsItchyAndScratchyCharacters Itchy & Scratchy Characters]] | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsOneTimeCharacters One-time Characters]]]]-]]]
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[[quoteright:299:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/marge_simpson_png_3.png]]
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[[caption-width-right:319:''Hrrrm...'']]
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->Voiced by: Creator/JulieKavner
->Debut: ''"Good Night"''\\
Debut on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': ''"[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS1E1SimpsonsRoastingOnAnOpenFire Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire]]"''
->Debut: ''"Good Night"''\\
Debut on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': ''"[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS1E1SimpsonsRoastingOnAnOpenFire Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire]]"''
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->Debut:
->'''Debut:''' ''"Good Night"''\\
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* For tropes related to her, see [[Characters/TheSimpsonsMargeSimpson here]].
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* AbusiveParents: Not the physical type like Homer can be but she's shown in a few episodes to be emotionally abusive or standing in the sidelines when Homer strangles Bart.
* ActionMom: She despises violence but, somewhat ironically, is regularly shown to be very physically gifted and a skilled fighter. She was once a police officer, a bodybuilder, and won an MMA match.
* AMFMCharacterization: Her favorite singer is Music/TomJones.
* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: While not as much as Homer, she tends to embarrass her kids especially Bart.
* AmusingInjuries: Her hair often gets destroyed in various creative ways.
* AnticsEnablingWife: Marge is a classic example of this trope, often doing next to nothing to stop Homer's antics aside from glares and mild nagging while suffering in silence through the consequences.
* AesopAmnesia: No matter how often she meddles in someone else's affairs and inevitably makes things worse because she's against it for whatever reason the episode gives her and learns she shouldn't do it, she keeps doing it anyway in later episodes.
* TheArtifact: Apparently, the original reason for the giant beehive was that it hid rabbit ears. Eventually, the idea was scrapped.
* BeautyEqualsGoodness: She's considered one of the most attractive women in Springfield, and is usually kind and well-intentioned. Compare her to her husband (a bald and overweight loser who is often a jerk) and both of Marge's sisters (who are unattractive, other than being rude and unpleasant people).
* BeehiveHairdo: Yes. Some flashbacks depict her as having had it since she was a baby, though the first full-episode flashback shows her only doing it like this for her high school prom.
* BeliefMakesYouStupid: Despite her standing as the voice of reason and common sense to her husband's stupidity and impulsiveness, Marge has a tendency to let her religious views cloud her judgement, leading her to act as a narrow-minded [[TheFundamentalist fundamentalist]] at best or a [[KnightTemplar self-righteous]] MoralGuardian at worst.
* BerserkButton: Any woman who displays an interest in Homer - even when it is purely platonic - will bring about her wrath. In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS28E2FriendsAndFamily Friends and Family]]" Homer had to explain multiple times to Marge that Julia was just a friend but she still went absolutely ballistic.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Despite her conservative personality and general niceness, she's easily the scariest member of the Simpsons family when angered. You ''do not'' want to piss her off. Numerous focus episodes tend to show how vicious she can be. She shamed the entire population of Springfield because they drove Bart to suicide over a little league game. When driven past breaking point by Homer being an extra-strength jerkass, Marge finally loses her temper completely and attacks Ned with a broken bottle (Ned is stronger than he looks and admits he's having difficulty keeping Marge at bay, she did manage to stab him).
* BigWhat: Has a tendency to let these out whenever Homer says or does something insane. In other words, at least once every other episode.
%% * BoobBasedGag: She briefly had a case of this in "Large Marge" in which she was accidentally given breast implants. Amusingly the first gag about it comes from her, no less, in which she describes that her "maguppies became bazongas!"
* TheBore: Marge's incredibly bland taste in everything is a frequent source of humor. Fortropes related example; looking for some adrenaline in her life, Marge decides to stop buying regular ham, and go instead for deviled ham. Contrast this with Homer's RenaissanceMan qualities, music, language, etc. only some of which are played as one off jokes.
* ButNotTooForeign: Her and the entire Bouvier family's names and her thick curly hair indicate she might be of Creole ancestry.
* CharacterCatchphrase: "Hmmmmmm..." According to one of the DVD audio commentaries, the writers wanted to establish "I don't think that's a good idea" as her catchphrase in earlier seasons.
* ClingyJealousGirl: Any woman getting too close to Homer (even if they are genuinely just friends) will drive her insane. One of the main reasons she stays married to Homer is because she feels the need to possess him and have him dependent on her. After forgiving Lurleen, she threatens her with serious bodily harm if she comes near her husband again. Luckily for her, Homer is oblivious to all attraction other women have as Marge is the only woman he loves.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Definitely downplayed compared to Homer, but she still has moments that show her to be on the loopy side.
-->'''Marge:''' Why don't you bring this potato? It's pretty big.\\
'''Bart:''' Mom, you're always trying to give us potatoes. What is it with you?\\
'''Marge:''' I just think they're neat.
* CloudcuckoolandersMinder: That said, she's typically the one who prevents Homer from doing anything too foolish.
* TheComicallySerious: Noted for her rather dull and no-risk demeanor, occasionally getting dizzy thrills out of monotonous activities like household chores (she does desire excitement and diversity every once in a while however, which is revealed to be a partial reason she likes Homer).
* CoveringUpYourGray: "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E22SecretsOfASuccessfulMarriage Secrets of a Successful Marriage]]" reveals that Marge has been "gray as a mule" since she was 17 and that she has been dying it to cover it up. This is expanded on in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS22E13TheBlueAndTheGray The Blue and the Gray]]", where it's revealed that every time she has her hair dyed, she forgets that she has gray hair, thus making her horrified when she gets what she thinks is her first gray hair. She initially goes for a complete gray look, then goes back to dying it to help combat her jealousy issues.
* CovertPervert: In some episodes, she does some perverse things including getting drunk. Also this line from when Homer was reading Kama Sutra.
-->'''Homer:''' Hey, look, Marge, they took our idea.\\
'''Marge:''' Ooooh.
* DaddysGirl: This isn't very apparent, as said dad has very few appearances and isn't mentioned very often, but "Fear of Flying" seems to imply that Marge was close to her father. So finding out his UnmanlySecret was shocking to her.
* {{Determinator}}: Whenever Marge ''really'' wants something, she will stop at nothing to get it.
* DoubleStandard: In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS1E9LifeOnTheFastLAne an early episode]], she has several dates with a man who makes numerous explicit romantic overtures with her, and she only backs out from sleeping with him while she's driving to a rendezvous to do just that. In the [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS1E10HomersNightOut very next episode]], she finds a photo of Homer platonically dancing with a bellydancer at a stag party and acts like she cheated on him, to the point of yelling at him and throwing him out of his own house. Although part of it was because Homer lied repeatedly that there won't be a stripper, and Bart is the one that took photos of it and she thinks it will set a terrible precedent for him on how to treat women.
* DudeMagnet: Many men were attracted to her, like Moe, Mr. Burns, or her high school classmate who was still obsessed with her after 20 years.
* EducationMama: Especially with Bart, she even home-schools him for a period of time. It's {{Justified}} due to Bart being such a lazy and poor student and Marge being right to worry about his future. Notably, Bart shows more improvement when she homeschools him than he ever did at Springfield Elementary.
* ExpressiveHair: Marge's hair being disheveled is usually a sign of her being upset or stressed. The RunningGag of characters getting advice and arguing with their brain goes up to eleven with Marge when her ''hair'' is the entity giving her advice.
* ExtremeDoormat:
** As Homer became more of a {{Jerkass}}, Marge appeared to be more and more of a doormat, forgiving him over and over again, not only for stupid accidents and acts of ignorance, but huge acts of genuine deceit. While Bart and Lisa weren't willing to put up with it in many cases, Marge overlooked almost everything he did. Finally addressed in the movie where Marge declares she has put up with Homer's jerkass nature and shenanigans long enough and decides to leave him. Homer spends the rest of the movie figuring out why Marge left him and what he can do to correct it. Some episodes show that this behavior came from how Patty and Selma treated her.
** This isn't limited to just the family. In "Kill Gil: Volumes I & II", after feeling guilty about indirectly getting MallSanta Gil fired, she allows him to move into the home, where he quickly and repeatedly takes advantage of their hospitality. Whereas Marge could have put her foot down at any point, her soft boundaries and his manipulation stops her. Once he finally leaves the home with a new job across the country, she buys him a summer home after getting him fired again.
* FanHater: In-universe example. When at her worst, Marge is willing to protest anything she despises because others like it, even outright ''admitting'' this in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS21E3TheGreatWifeHope The Great Wife Hope]]".
* FanServicePack: She was originally designed to look kind of dowdy, befitting an overworked housewife (hence the exaggerated BeehiveHairdo). But as Homer is expressly overweight and slovenly [[UglyGuyHotWife she came across quite a bit more attractive in comparison]]. A couple of episodes take advantage of this.
** The main plot of the episode "Large Marge" is all about her accidentally gaining huge boobs (they were meant for Mayor Quimby's female intern). She in fact went into plastic surgery for light liposuction after developing some body image insecurities.
** In some Halloween specials she is more busty than in regular episodes, especially when based on fanservice-heavy genres like Slasher films.
** After getting mugged Marge started weight training and exercising regularly, developing a much more fit, athletic body compared to her normal softer figure. Then when she gets into competitive bodybuilding it becomes FanDisservice, as her heavily muscled shoulders and arms looks unsettling in her traditional green dress.
* FeminineWomenCanCook:
** Marge seems to buy into this quite a lot, as she does take a lot of joy in preparing household meals. But a long-running background joke is that Marge can be a pretty bland cook, once claiming that her secret ingredient was salt.
** Though averted in one episode, where she apparently made bad sundaes.
--->'''Marge:''' What's wrong with my sundaes?!
* FictionalFanRealCelebrity: Marge was a fan of Music/RingoStarr in particular when younger, making various paintings of him and even sending him one. When she was a kid, she was a big fan of Davy Jones, of Franchise/TheMonkees.
%%* TheFinickyOne: DependingOnTheWriter.
* {{Flanderization}}:
** She went from being a loving, prepared, [[WomenAreWiser down-to-earth]] mother who lectured Bart whenever he was up to his old tricks to [[HelicopterParents overprotecting him and being paranoid about his well-being]].
** Her somewhat no-nonsense personality was also Flanderized somewhat. In early episodes, she was merely [[WomenAreWiser wiser]] and something of a nag, though she ''did'' cut loose on several occasions. In later episodes she is extremely boring and un-impulsive by nature, getting hyped up by ''household chores and monotonous hobbies''.
** In the earlier episodes of the show, Marge was a very supportive mother and the family's voice of reason and moral authority when Lisa's personality was not yet fully developed (actually, Lisa's SoapboxSadie tendencies were lifted from Marge). However, she was NotSoAboveItAll at times (like in "Rosebud", where she lampshades it with a "Well, why can't I be greedy once in a while?"). In later episodes, her good parenting became an InformedAttribute due to [[TookALevelInJerkass her transformation]] into a StepfordSmiler ("Catch 'Em If You Can " is a good example) and [[TookALevelInDumbass she became more likely]] to join Homer and the rest of Springfield in whatever stupid shenanigans they were getting into in the episode.
** It could be partly thanks to Homer's Flanderization into a gluttonous manchild, but Marge used to call Homer out on his behaviour. As Homer became more of a {{Jerkass}}, Marge became a StepfordSmiler who wanted their marriage to succeed no matter what crazy things he did. Then Homer became a greedy, selfish, lying alcoholic who endangered and abused his family. Since Marge chastising her husband every time he's stupid would get boring, she started by forgiving him impulsively at the end of every episode and now seems completely blind to his flaws. But Fox seems to have enough problems with showing Homer being locked out of the house for the night, let alone Marge filing for divorce, so by doing nothing, she's basically an enabler.
** Her boringness. The first time Marge learned her husband and children thought she was no fun, in season 5, Marge was actually hurt and angered by this. In later years, Marge actively ''seeks'' the best ways to be duller than dishwater, and make other types of fun illegal.
* {{Foil}}: To Homer. While Homer is goofy, aggressive, and unintelligent, Marge is serious, calm, and rather smart. Typically she's the one who prevents Homer from doing anything too foolish.
* FormerTeenRebel: "Marge the Meanie" reveals that Marge was ThePrankster at her middle school and that ''she,'' not Homer, [[HiddenDepths is probably the source of Bart's love for mischief]].
* FriendlessBackground: A fact made clear several times is that Marge has little to no actual friends, for a variety of reasons. One big reason is Homer himself, who it's implied has routinely (accidentally, mind) driven away anyone who might want to socialize with her. A secondary reason is due to being a card-carrying wet blanket, as shown at the beginning of "The Twisted World of Marge Simpson".
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: In the times where she ''is'' shown to have friends they're either shown to be extremely judgmental of her for either her parenting style or marriage, or find her to be extremely dull and boring.
* TheFundamentalist: It's not overt, but Marge is incredibly intolerant when Lisa decides to convert to Buddhism, first saying she couldn't get dessert and later trying to bribe her with a (fake) pony on Christmas, and when Bart decides to become Catholic, she even kidnaps him from the Catholic School. Marge hates Catholics and thinks they are strange... despite being proud of and "knowledgeable" of her French heritage. France is a historically Catholic nation with the Christian population of France being ''overwhelmingly'' Catholic with over 13 million members, in comparison the Protestant population is only around 500,000. Likewise, she's outraged when Homer desires to forgo church in lieu of passively worshipping God from his couch, going as far as calling him ''wicked'', or when he joins Bart in becoming Catholic. She eventually accepts her family's choices, as long as they perform lip-service at Church on Sunday. This is a really weird trait for her to have, as one episode showed that she hadn't even bothered to have her children baptised. Marge's moralizing is so infamous that the entire town knows about it. When the townspeople are debating whether to adopt legalized gambling, Mayor Quimby asks if there are any moral objections. Everybody in the room immediately turns towards Marge, who actually supports it.
* TheGamblingAddict: In the episode where a casino is built in Springfield, Marge loses quite a fortune at the slots. Since then, her gambling is mostly under control, though it is mentioned every now and then.
-->'''Comic Book Guy:''' Hey, I'm watching you!
* GreenEyedMonster: In "Friends and Family", the prospect of Homer getting a new female best friend named Julia causes her to become irate with him and complain that if another woman is his best friend then that makes their marriage feel less important if Marge herself isn't his best friend. She of course comes around to her senses ([[NeverMyFault but feels right being angry at him anyway]]).
* GoodCannotComprehendEvil: Marge tends to be oblivious to bad people such as bullies. However, as seen in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS16E3SleepingWithTheEnemy Sleeping with the Enemy]]", she ''does'' seem to be aware of Nelson's bullying as she asks him if he was the boy who beats up her son, suggesting that she is either naive towards bullying or is easily manipulated by the bullies.
* GoodParents: She is a very loving and caring mother who has a close bond with all her children. She has her issues and sometimes argues with Bart or Lisa, but her intentions are good, and is always willing to support her children and give them advice.
* GossipyHens: She does love her gossip. When Maggie's baby monitor picks up on phone calls, she becomes addicted to listening to it.
* HairstyleInertia: {{Zig Zagg|ingTrope}}ed. Depictions of her earlier years vary between her having the same BeehiveHairdo (sometimes shorter than it usually is) or a different style. Typically as a child she has a beehive while during her teen years she's always shown with having her hair straight and worn down.
* HammerspaceHair: Her total height including the hair is eight foot six. Her hairdo is strong enough to hold everything from Maggie to a beach umbrella to a jar full of money to a ten-pin bowling ball.
* HappilyMarried: For most of the show's run with Homer. Despite the many conflicts they get into, they'll always find their way out of it.
* HardDrinkingPartyGirl: Occasionally, though she's normally more of a social drinker.
* HeroicWillpower: It's a common thing to have her resist mind control even when everyone around her has succumbed, as we've seen in "The Joy of Sect" and the first ''Treehouse of Horror''.
* HiddenDepths: She is great at making sculptures and wanted to be a painter once.
* HiddenEyes: In the aforementioned "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS19E6LittleOrphanMillie Little Orphan Millie]]", to keep Homer guessing her eye color.
* {{Hikikomori}}: Spends a period like this in "The Strong Arms of the Ma". She eventually overcame this after using the weight-lifting set Homer bought from Rainier Wolfcastle.
* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Zigzagged. Marge is sometimes naive towards people or tend to let her fundamentals influence her better judgement, but she's still depicted as the OnlySaneMan of the family. When Bart is told to make a Valentine's Day card for Nelson, she quickly tells him that Jesus told his followers to "love thy enemy", despite recognising Nelson's bullying history with Bart. When Bart was being hunted by Jimbo, Kearney and Dolph for having an affair with Jimbo's girlfriend Shauna, Marge genuinely believed that they were friends with Bart and told them to wait. She also unintentionally ruined the marriage of Otto and then girlfriend Becky by telling her to make an ultimatum by making him choose between her and his [[{{MetalHead}} his music]]. He chooses the latter in a heartbeat despite Marge thinking that he would choose Becky out of love.
* {{Housewife}}: While she does have a few jobs over the show's run, she spends most of her time as a housewife.
* {{Hypocrite}}:
** Begs Homer to get rid of his gun, claiming she doesn't want a gun in her house. After Homer gives it to her to dispose of, she keeps it for herself.
** In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS1E9LifeOnTheFastLane episode 9 of the first season]], Marge basically has an affair with a man she met while bowling, and only got a change of heart when driving off to a sexual rendezvous with him. The [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS1E10HomersNightOut VERY NEXT EPISODE]], Marge finds a photo of Homer dancing (with no sexual overtones) with a bellydancer at a stag party he went to (with her knowledge), and proceeds to treat him highly condescendingly, throw him out of his own house, and act like he cheated on her.
** Doubly so with Homer's platonic relationship with Lurleen Lumpkin another hundred or so episodes later, where she is against him spending any time with Lurleen (despite him being her manager) and treats it like he is cheating on her.
** She supports gay rights and is proud of Homer for marrying gay couples, but when her sister comes out of the closet she refuses to accept her sexuality.
** On one episode, when Lisa gets asylum in Canada and she even admits that she prefers Canada over the US for several reasons, Marge calls her a traitor and even plans to drag her back to the States by any means necessary. In another episode, Marge wants the whole family to move to ''Denmark'' due to its lifestyle.
* ICanChangeMyBeloved: Marge did this with Homer, and insists it worked and that now he's a "whole new person", despite the evidence that he's still an often-inconsiderate slob. Lisa's response is to just pretend to agree with her.
* IHaveNoSon: [[DownplayedTrope While she doesn't officially disown Bart nor kicks him out of the house]], she either distanced herself from Bart, became so [[DisappointedInYou disappointed in Bart]], or flat-out gave up on Bart at least four times. Three ("[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E11MargeBeNotProud Marge Be Not Proud]]", "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS10E3BartTheMother Bart the Mother]]" and "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS26E18PeepingMom Peeping Mom]]") [[JerkassHasAPoint she had reason to]] (and in the first case was convinced it was for his own good), but one ("[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS24E12LoveIsAManySplinteredThing Love is a Many Splintered Thing]]") was [[DisproportionateRetribution for petty reasons]].
* IWantGrandkids: In "The Burns and the Bees", when Marge is asked what her greatest fear is, she instantly replies, "Never being a grandmother". Another episode has Marge, who believes she is about to be executed, despairing that she wouldn't see[[Characters/TheSimpsonsMargeSimpson here]].her children grow up and start their own families, etc.
* ImpossibleHourglassFigure: Inverted. In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS19E7HusbandsAndKnives Husbands and Knives]]", she got upset when she realises her hips were too wide and she had lost her "perfect" 26-26-26 figure.
* ImpossiblyLowNeckline: Her regular dress. Once even lampshaded by a prison warden.
-->'''Warden:''' NOTHING IS KEEPING UP HER DRESS! ONLY HER MELONS!!!
* IncrediblyLameFun: Marge gets thrills out of monotonous activities such as household chores and evening walks (of which she tends to prefer the dullest route). The family actually tend to find doing Marge's ideas of fun ''more'' unbearable than Homer or Bart's troublemaking.
* InformedAttractiveness: Marge was not designed with the intention of being attractive, and is in fact described as plain or even homely looking multiple times early on. However, as the writers became more aware of the PerverseSexualLust parts of their fan base had for her (and the GenericCuteness of the art style making her not much different than other attractive characters), they turned her into a DudeMagnet who is way out of Homer's league, despite not altering her design at all.
* InsistentTerminology: She always refers to intimate times with Homer as "snuggling."
* IntimateMarks: In "Homer to the Max", Marge says she has a tattoo of Homer's name on her "You know". Implying it's on her lower back, an intimate spot, or a private area.
* ItsAllAboutMe: A minor example, but Marge often makes efforts to prevent her family from doing things they like because it might embarrass her. Then again, the embarrassment ranges from dressing inappropriately or drinking at a party to hitting the Queen of England and angering Australia.
* IWantGrandkids: Her greatest fear is dying without grandchildren.
* JerkassBall: While she's normally the most down to earth of the family, she does act more insensitive than usual in a few episodes, especially "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS17E20RegardingMargie Regarding Margie]]".
* KarmaHoudini: A combination of DoubleStandard and her status as the show's DesignatedVictim makes her this. She can be a {{Jerkass}} on the same level as Homer, but if her actions aren't ignored or played for laughs, her bad behavior is a sign that she's unappreciated or overworked. This includes things such as praying that Lisa's vegetarian diet makes her sick, tricking her into eating meat, and even trying to kill Homer because she had to take over his driving duties, and not once did she even show that she was the slightest bit sorry. There are episodes where Marge is clearly shown in the wrong, only for it to go through a HalfwayPlotSwitch so not only are her actions forgotten, she usually ends up getting exactly what wanted. Her abuse and neglect of Bart is also regularly ignored in favor of focusing on Homer's.
* TheKilljoy: DependingOnTheWriter she can go from simply just being too cautious to do something to outright refusing to let anyone else enjoy something if she doesn't, and forcing everyone to go along with her. As early as season 5, the whole town knows that if anyone's going to have an objection to an idea that everyone else is onboard with, it'll probably be Marge.
* KnightTemplar: Slips into this in some episodes when she goes too far to keep the family's life normal. A few episodes with the other family members questioning religion, for example, has her almost rival Ned in her zealotry.
* LaughingAtYourOwnJokes: She does this occasionally. She gives her best one liners when no one's around.
* LegFocus: When she and Homer get "frisky". This is explicitly mentioned by Lenny in one episode.
-->'''Lenny:''' She's got legs from here to yah-yah!
* LettingHerHairDown: Her motherly appearance comes primarily from her BeehiveHairdo making her look much older than she is. Whenever her hairstyle changes due to being wet, wearing a hat or otherwise trying a new look it is connected with her fanservice being ramped up.
* LimitedWardrobe: Her standard outfit is a strapless green dress with a pearl necklace. On some occasions she wears a green jacket when going out for the evening. When a thief came into town he removed her necklace, showing indentations in her skin. She later revealed to have a lot of replica pearl necklaces, each one being a family heirloom.
* LiteralMinded: Marge has shown multiple times to have a poor recognition of sarcasm and is sometimes literal-minded towards jokes.
** For example, when Bart makes a joke about Homer's weight disrupting satellites, she still believes it to be true despite Homer telling her it was a joke.
** Another example would be Marge becoming confused when Bart tells her that he was being sarcastic when he sarcastically clapped in celebration of Lisa's promotion to school president.
* LivingEmotionalCrutch: Her marriage to Homer is what stops him from crossing a line. Homer loves Marge so much that he's willing to let many people (such as Patty and Selma) speak to him with such cruelty and callousness. It's fair to say that without Marge's support in Homer's life, he would become a VillainProtagonist due to his abusive behavior towards Bart, alcoholism, negligence of Maggie and poor connection with Lisa despite his unconquerable love for all of his children.
* LoveMakesYouCrazy: Her possessiveness of Homer can lead her to become paranoid and a court actually finds her "insane". She suspects any woman who gets along well with Homer is actually trying to steal him away from her. She threatens to hurt Lurleen, is glad that Mindy lost her job, attempts to get rid of Julia ([[{{OneSteveLimit}} not the yandere one]]), and tries to kill Becky because she believes she is trying to take her place in the Simpson's family ([[{{TheCuckoolanderWasRight}} although in the last case she was right]]). Marge can be ''downright terrifying''.
* LustObject: Marge has gained attention from a majority of male characters like Moe, Mr. Burns and a number of celebrities. It probably helps that she's a housewife with a beehive hairdo that regularly wears a strapless dress.
* MamaBear: Any attack against her children, even though her son is a well-known troublemaker; Marge will go on the war path... even if you're part of the 99 percent of Springfield. Don't mess with the Simpson children in general. It also helps to know this same rules applies to Homer... most of the time.
* MaritalRapeLicense: She overpowers and rapes Homer in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS14E9StrongArmsOfTheMa Strong Arms of the Ma]]", and it's PlayedForLaughs.
* MasterOfTheMixedMessage: Marge is this to pretty much everyone. She presents herself as an overworked and under-appreciated housewife and mother despite repeatedly showing that she [[IncrediblyLameFun gets thrills out of monotonous activities such as household chores]]. She also becomes incredibly neurotic whenever she gets a chance to relax as seen in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS17E20RegardingMargie Regarding Margie]]".
* MeaningfulName: The name Marjorie means "pearl", which shows how valuable she is to the family, and also why she values her antique heirloom pearl necklace so much.
* MoralGuardian: In her more insufferable moments, she forces her sense of morality onto others when she does not possess the authority to do so.
* MoralityPet: To Bart and Homer. Whenever Bart and/or Homer did something too far, they'll know when their actions upsets Marge.
* MsFanservice:
** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E10GrampaVsSexualInadequacy Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy]]" has several moments showing Marge has an astounding body.
** She becomes this in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS14E4LargeMarge Large Marge]]", in which she is accidentally given breast implants and becomes a model.
** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS21E5TheDevilWearsNada The Devil Wears Nada]]" after sexy pictures of her end up on a charity calendar.
** Several of the Halloween specials have {{Fanservice}} scenes with her too.
** In RealLife she appeared on Playboy posing semi-nude!
* MsViceGirl: Marge is normally a loving wife and mother, but suffers from a gambling addiction, which can occasionally pop up every now and then. More commonly she is also something of a finicky wet blanket, often unwilling to break from her standard comfort zone, which can make her rather overbearing and humourless. It says something that as often as the kids feel more comfortable around Marge than Homer, they actually find the latter's antics more tolerable than her fussy moods.
* MundaneObjectAmazement: Her dullness is often PlayedForLaughs. She gets excited over very mundane things, such as potatoes.
* NamedByTheAdaptation: It's easy to forget that she was unnamed in the Tracey Ullman shorts.
* NervousWreck: The antics of her family sometimes drive her to nervous breakdowns.
* NiceGirl: While she can be somewhat judgemental and narrow-minded from time to time, Marge is generally portrayed as being an incredibly loving and extremely patient mother and wife.
* NightmareFuelStationAttendant: She doesn't mean it, but she often scares the crap out of people around her.
* NotMeThisTime: A non-villainous example. When the town tries to legalize gambling, Mayor Quimby asks if anyone objects, and everyone turns to look at Marge, who's okay with it.
* NotSoAboveItAll: Will join in on some antics at times. For example, when Homer starts a food fight with the Flanders, Marge (along with Lisa) hesitates for a moment before joining in with the same glee as Homer and Bart. During "Rosebud", when the family are discussing what to do with Bobo, it's Marge who suggests extorting Mr. Burns, defensively asking "well, why can't I be greedy once in a while?" During "The Old Man and the Lisa", she actually manages to get two pretty solid burns in on Burns in the space of a minute.
* OneTrueLove: "El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer" reveals her to be Homer's soul mate, and there are more than enough episodes that show that they were made for each other.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: She's primarily called "Marge" by relatives and friends alike.
* OnlySaneWoman: Most of the time. The straight man role is usually traded between her and Lisa.
* ParentalSubstitute: Marge has often become a replacement mother for characters who have either been abandoned by their own parents, live in poverty or live in a household that lacks parental love. Examples of this include Nelson Muntz ("[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS16E3SleepingWithTheEnemy Sleeping with the Enemy]]") and Dwight ("[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS19E4IDontWannaKnowWhyTheCagedBirdSings I Don't Wanna Know Why the Caged Bird Sings]]"). It's also due to her motherly personality that she is unknowingly able to convince Simon ("[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS20E3DoubleDoubleBoyInTrouble Double, Double, Boy in Trouble]]") to stay with them after his troublesome first day of pretending to be Bart.
* ParentingTheHusband: To Homer.
-->'''Announcer:''' Attention, Marge Simpson: your son has been arrested.\\
'''Announcer:''' Attention, Marge Simpson: we've also arrested your older, balder, fatter son.
%%* ParentsWalkInAtTheWorstTime
* PinkIsErotic: While trying to seduce Homer, she's known to wear a pink nightie or a pink dressing gown. When she modeled for Maxim magazine, she posed seductively while wearing a pink bandana. When she modeled for playboy, she parodied one of their previous models by wearing a pink see-through nightie while carrying doughnuts.
* ProgressivelyPrettier: Although Marge's appearance hasn't changed, how attractive she is stated to be has changed from housewife to centerfold. Also present in the original ''Series/TheTraceyUllmanShow'' shorts. Marge started out as quite dumpy, but quickly began slimming down.
* ProperlyParanoid: While Homer was oblivious to Lurleen's love, Marge is right in that she wants to sleep with him.
* SameClothesDifferentYear: Certain depictions of her as a kid have her wear a dress similar to her present-day one. They even resemble Lisa's dress, only green.
* SeriesContinuityError:
** During the episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS22E13TheBlueAndTheGray The Blue and the Gray]]" Marge is shocked to see gray hairs in her blue hair, even though it was established seasons before that her natural hair is gray and that she dyes it blue. [[AssPull Her hairstylist explains that her blue hair dye causes partial memory damage]].
** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E11FearOfFlying Fear of Flying]]" established that Marge has (or had) a [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin fear of flying]], yet in the earlier episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E2MrLisaGoesToWashington Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington]]", Marge got on a plane with no problems.
* ShipTease:
** With Ned Flanders sometimes, but it doesn't go anywhere because she loves Homer.
** It's sometimes implied that she has a crush on Homer's friend Lenny, even if she rarely interacts with him.
* ShowSomeLeg: Marge once distracted Chief Wiggum by flashing her (temporarily surgically enhanced) breasts. Which Krusty referred to as "Mugumbos". Which happened to be the control word for Stampy the Elephant.
%%* ShyBlueHairedGirl: Most notably during her youth.
%%* SilkHidingSteel
* SleepsInTheNude: There were several episodes in the early Seasons where she is shown to be sleeping in the nude instead of her nightwear, such as in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E11BurnsVerkaufenDerKraftwerk Burns Verkaufen Der Kraftwerk]]", "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E20ColonelHomer Colonel Homer]]", and "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E7BartsInnerChild Bart's Inner Child]]". And this is without first having or preparing to have sex. [[note]]Though she did end up doing so in "Colonel Homer", though she didn't know he was coming, so it still counts[[/note]].
* StacysMom: Several young characters, such as Nelson and Milhouse, have admitted to finding her attractive.
-->'''Bart:''' My ''mom'' wears earrings. Do you think ''she's'' cool?\\
'''Milhouse:''' No, I think she's '''hot'''! ...Sorry, it just slipped out...
* StepfordSmiler:
** From very early on. Marge mentions in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS1E6MoaningLisa Moaning Lisa]]" that her mother always told her to smile, otherwise people would judge her, though Marge couldn't bring herself to make Lisa do this. She frequently refuses to talk about subjects she doesn't like (such as one of her uncles going on a shooting spree). Her long-suppressed fear of flying is not helped by Marge's utter refusal to admit there actually is a problem, even when it's causing her to become increasingly neurotic.
** More pronounced as of recent, although it's understandable considering Homer's increasing {{Jerkass}}ness. Comes to the fore in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsonsMovie'' where she admits that she can't overlook Homer's jerkass qualities anymore and actually gets to the point where she decides to leave him. This immediately shakes Homer out of his jerkass bravado, making him realise what the hell he's done wrong and immediately begin to set about putting it right.
* StraightMan: Shares this role with Lisa, most of the time.
* StrongerThanTheyLook: She occasionally displays superhuman strength. She has been seen lifting Homer off the ground easily several times, including picking him up and throwing him through the bedroom door to show him that Moe taught her the bum's rush and swinging him around in a circle during a dance contest; she also once effortlessly tossed a motorcycle to Homer up a flight of stairs. She also knocked Snake out with a garbage can lid.
* StrongFamilyResemblance: Looks the same as her mother when she was her age.
* TextileWorkIsFeminine: Marge would often be seen sewing in the Tracey Ullman shorts, and would sometimes do it in the actual show.
* ThinksOfSomethingSmartSaysSomethingStupid: In "Simpsorama" (the {{Crossover}} with WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}), Marge is introduced to Leela:
-->'''Marge:''' ''[thinking]'' Oh, don't mention her eye. Don't mention her eye.\\
'''Leela:''' ''[thinking]'' Don't mention her hair. Don't mention her hair.\\
'''Marge:''' I (Eye)... am so pleased to meet you.\\
'''Leela:''' Nice to be hair.
* TokenGoodTeammate: She's the only nice one of the Bouvier sisters. Patty and Selma are much more cynical than she is.
* TokenReligiousTeammate: She is easily the most religious member of the family, as the others would likely not go to church if it wasn't for her.
* TookALevelInDumbass: While she was always prone to NotSoAboveItAll moments, later seasons crank these up to a point where she plays the OnlySaneMan much less regularly.
* TookALevelInJerkass: From approximately season 20 onwards, Marge has been depicted as much more petty and manipulative over her family, alternating between trying to live out her dreams through Lisa and passive-aggressively guilt-tripping any family member who dares to be more successful than her into giving up said passion for her sake. She also verges towards being straight-up abusive towards Homer on occasion, even when he hasn't done anything, all while being pretty quick to contemplate cheating on him herself.
%%* TrueBlueFemininity: Her hair.
* TurnTheOtherCheek: Marge often tries to forgive her wrongdoers and can sometimes be too forgiving. Her sisters, Patty and Selma, are the best examples of this as she always forgives them for bullying her in the past and trying to make her divorce Homer. With Sideshow Bob, it depends on the episode as she'll sometimes forgive him for trying to murder her son and other times, she'd jump to protect Bart from Bob.
* UglyGuyHotWife: Hot Wife to Homer's Ugly Guy. It does show that Homer was slimmer when they were dating, and early episodes has Homer bemoan his weight gain. The episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS17E8TheItalianBob The Italian Bob]]" even seems to reference it; when the end of the episode shows Marge and Homer taking a romantic gondola ride, the gondolier providing his services for the evening puts his own spin on the song ''That's Amore'', much to Homer's annoyance.
-->'''Gondolier:''' ♪''When a wife looks like that and her husband's so fat, that's immoral!''♪
* UnnamedParent: In the Tracey Ullman shorts, Homer and Marge were credited as "Mr/Mrs Simpson" or "Mom/Dad". While Homer is referred to by his final name in the shorts themselves, Marge's name wouldn't be mentioned until the series itself.
* UselessBystanderParent: She only ever offers token resistance when Homer abuses Bart; the most Marge does is acknowledge it's happening without actually doing anything to stop it.
* VocalDissonance: She's a tall and very beautiful woman in her 30s... with a raspy and croaky voice which makes her sound like she's in her 70s. This becomes more apparent after season 30, where [[Creator/JulieKavner Kavner's]] voice has grown even raspier with age, often making Marge sound like she's losing her voice.
* VocalEvolution: Marge's voice has gotten increasingly gravellier and raspier as Creator/JulieKavner has aged. By Season 30, Marge frequently sounds like she's losing her voice.
* TheVoiceless: In the episode "Krusty Gets Kancelled". She also never spoke in any Butterfinger commercials.
* WetBlanketWife: Marge started off more as a CloserToEarth spouse for Homer, though she was eventually Flanderized into a more dull and neurotic character who tends to find the least enjoyable way of doing things the most acceptable. One episode lampshaded that Marge needs Homer's reckless antics for any excitement in her life, to the point where she ended up taking his place when a JerkassRealization made him this trope instead.
* WhatBeautifulEyes: It was not until season 19 we find out the color of Marge's eyes. [[spoiler: They are hazel.]] Homer even wrote a song about her called "Beautiful Eyes."
* WomenAreWiser: She takes this to the point of parody. Homer is the archetypical dimwitted sitcom husband who nearly always needs to learn a moral lesson in any given episode, which he is almost certain to forget by the next. Marge, on the other hand, is so down-to-earth that she is incredibly boring.
* WhatDoesSheSeeInHim: Frequently asked exactly why she stays with an insane, boorish drunken clod like Homer. Usually she's able to give an answer.
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Flying, due to finding out her father was a stewardess as a child (and also because she never addressed the shame this caused her). Granted, her toy plane spontaneously combusting and getting shot at by a plane at that cornfield probably didn't help, either.
* WideEyedIdealist: Marge naively believes in the best in people and often puts her faith in love conquering all. For example, she believes everyone should be married or in a relationship despite Lisa telling her that some people prefer to be single or alone.
* ActionMom: She despises violence but, somewhat ironically, is regularly shown to be very physically gifted and a skilled fighter. She was once a police officer, a bodybuilder, and won an MMA match.
* AMFMCharacterization: Her favorite singer is Music/TomJones.
* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: While not as much as Homer, she tends to embarrass her kids especially Bart.
* AmusingInjuries: Her hair often gets destroyed in various creative ways.
* AnticsEnablingWife: Marge is a classic example of this trope, often doing next to nothing to stop Homer's antics aside from glares and mild nagging while suffering in silence through the consequences.
* AesopAmnesia: No matter how often she meddles in someone else's affairs and inevitably makes things worse because she's against it for whatever reason the episode gives her and learns she shouldn't do it, she keeps doing it anyway in later episodes.
* TheArtifact: Apparently, the original reason for the giant beehive was that it hid rabbit ears. Eventually, the idea was scrapped.
* BeautyEqualsGoodness: She's considered one of the most attractive women in Springfield, and is usually kind and well-intentioned. Compare her to her husband (a bald and overweight loser who is often a jerk) and both of Marge's sisters (who are unattractive, other than being rude and unpleasant people).
* BeehiveHairdo: Yes. Some flashbacks depict her as having had it since she was a baby, though the first full-episode flashback shows her only doing it like this for her high school prom.
* BeliefMakesYouStupid: Despite her standing as the voice of reason and common sense to her husband's stupidity and impulsiveness, Marge has a tendency to let her religious views cloud her judgement, leading her to act as a narrow-minded [[TheFundamentalist fundamentalist]] at best or a [[KnightTemplar self-righteous]] MoralGuardian at worst.
* BerserkButton: Any woman who displays an interest in Homer - even when it is purely platonic - will bring about her wrath. In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS28E2FriendsAndFamily Friends and Family]]" Homer had to explain multiple times to Marge that Julia was just a friend but she still went absolutely ballistic.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Despite her conservative personality and general niceness, she's easily the scariest member of the Simpsons family when angered. You ''do not'' want to piss her off. Numerous focus episodes tend to show how vicious she can be. She shamed the entire population of Springfield because they drove Bart to suicide over a little league game. When driven past breaking point by Homer being an extra-strength jerkass, Marge finally loses her temper completely and attacks Ned with a broken bottle (Ned is stronger than he looks and admits he's having difficulty keeping Marge at bay, she did manage to stab him).
* BigWhat: Has a tendency to let these out whenever Homer says or does something insane. In other words, at least once every other episode.
%% * BoobBasedGag: She briefly had a case of this in "Large Marge" in which she was accidentally given breast implants. Amusingly the first gag about it comes from her, no less, in which she describes that her "maguppies became bazongas!"
* TheBore: Marge's incredibly bland taste in everything is a frequent source of humor. For
* ButNotTooForeign: Her and the entire Bouvier family's names and her thick curly hair indicate she might be of Creole ancestry.
* CharacterCatchphrase: "Hmmmmmm..." According to one of the DVD audio commentaries, the writers wanted to establish "I don't think that's a good idea" as her catchphrase in earlier seasons.
* ClingyJealousGirl: Any woman getting too close to Homer (even if they are genuinely just friends) will drive her insane. One of the main reasons she stays married to Homer is because she feels the need to possess him and have him dependent on her. After forgiving Lurleen, she threatens her with serious bodily harm if she comes near her husband again. Luckily for her, Homer is oblivious to all attraction other women have as Marge is the only woman he loves.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Definitely downplayed compared to Homer, but she still has moments that show her to be on the loopy side.
-->'''Marge:''' Why don't you bring this potato? It's pretty big.\\
'''Bart:''' Mom, you're always trying to give us potatoes. What is it with you?\\
'''Marge:''' I just think they're neat.
* CloudcuckoolandersMinder: That said, she's typically the one who prevents Homer from doing anything too foolish.
* TheComicallySerious: Noted for her rather dull and no-risk demeanor, occasionally getting dizzy thrills out of monotonous activities like household chores (she does desire excitement and diversity every once in a while however, which is revealed to be a partial reason she likes Homer).
* CoveringUpYourGray: "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E22SecretsOfASuccessfulMarriage Secrets of a Successful Marriage]]" reveals that Marge has been "gray as a mule" since she was 17 and that she has been dying it to cover it up. This is expanded on in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS22E13TheBlueAndTheGray The Blue and the Gray]]", where it's revealed that every time she has her hair dyed, she forgets that she has gray hair, thus making her horrified when she gets what she thinks is her first gray hair. She initially goes for a complete gray look, then goes back to dying it to help combat her jealousy issues.
* CovertPervert: In some episodes, she does some perverse things including getting drunk. Also this line from when Homer was reading Kama Sutra.
-->'''Homer:''' Hey, look, Marge, they took our idea.\\
'''Marge:''' Ooooh.
* DaddysGirl: This isn't very apparent, as said dad has very few appearances and isn't mentioned very often, but "Fear of Flying" seems to imply that Marge was close to her father. So finding out his UnmanlySecret was shocking to her.
* {{Determinator}}: Whenever Marge ''really'' wants something, she will stop at nothing to get it.
* DoubleStandard: In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS1E9LifeOnTheFastLAne an early episode]], she has several dates with a man who makes numerous explicit romantic overtures with her, and she only backs out from sleeping with him while she's driving to a rendezvous to do just that. In the [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS1E10HomersNightOut very next episode]], she finds a photo of Homer platonically dancing with a bellydancer at a stag party and acts like she cheated on him, to the point of yelling at him and throwing him out of his own house. Although part of it was because Homer lied repeatedly that there won't be a stripper, and Bart is the one that took photos of it and she thinks it will set a terrible precedent for him on how to treat women.
* DudeMagnet: Many men were attracted to her, like Moe, Mr. Burns, or her high school classmate who was still obsessed with her after 20 years.
* EducationMama: Especially with Bart, she even home-schools him for a period of time. It's {{Justified}} due to Bart being such a lazy and poor student and Marge being right to worry about his future. Notably, Bart shows more improvement when she homeschools him than he ever did at Springfield Elementary.
* ExpressiveHair: Marge's hair being disheveled is usually a sign of her being upset or stressed. The RunningGag of characters getting advice and arguing with their brain goes up to eleven with Marge when her ''hair'' is the entity giving her advice.
* ExtremeDoormat:
** As Homer became more of a {{Jerkass}}, Marge appeared to be more and more of a doormat, forgiving him over and over again, not only for stupid accidents and acts of ignorance, but huge acts of genuine deceit. While Bart and Lisa weren't willing to put up with it in many cases, Marge overlooked almost everything he did. Finally addressed in the movie where Marge declares she has put up with Homer's jerkass nature and shenanigans long enough and decides to leave him. Homer spends the rest of the movie figuring out why Marge left him and what he can do to correct it. Some episodes show that this behavior came from how Patty and Selma treated her.
** This isn't limited to just the family. In "Kill Gil: Volumes I & II", after feeling guilty about indirectly getting MallSanta Gil fired, she allows him to move into the home, where he quickly and repeatedly takes advantage of their hospitality. Whereas Marge could have put her foot down at any point, her soft boundaries and his manipulation stops her. Once he finally leaves the home with a new job across the country, she buys him a summer home after getting him fired again.
* FanHater: In-universe example. When at her worst, Marge is willing to protest anything she despises because others like it, even outright ''admitting'' this in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS21E3TheGreatWifeHope The Great Wife Hope]]".
* FanServicePack: She was originally designed to look kind of dowdy, befitting an overworked housewife (hence the exaggerated BeehiveHairdo). But as Homer is expressly overweight and slovenly [[UglyGuyHotWife she came across quite a bit more attractive in comparison]]. A couple of episodes take advantage of this.
** The main plot of the episode "Large Marge" is all about her accidentally gaining huge boobs (they were meant for Mayor Quimby's female intern). She in fact went into plastic surgery for light liposuction after developing some body image insecurities.
** In some Halloween specials she is more busty than in regular episodes, especially when based on fanservice-heavy genres like Slasher films.
** After getting mugged Marge started weight training and exercising regularly, developing a much more fit, athletic body compared to her normal softer figure. Then when she gets into competitive bodybuilding it becomes FanDisservice, as her heavily muscled shoulders and arms looks unsettling in her traditional green dress.
* FeminineWomenCanCook:
** Marge seems to buy into this quite a lot, as she does take a lot of joy in preparing household meals. But a long-running background joke is that Marge can be a pretty bland cook, once claiming that her secret ingredient was salt.
** Though averted in one episode, where she apparently made bad sundaes.
--->'''Marge:''' What's wrong with my sundaes?!
* FictionalFanRealCelebrity: Marge was a fan of Music/RingoStarr in particular when younger, making various paintings of him and even sending him one. When she was a kid, she was a big fan of Davy Jones, of Franchise/TheMonkees.
%%* TheFinickyOne: DependingOnTheWriter.
* {{Flanderization}}:
** She went from being a loving, prepared, [[WomenAreWiser down-to-earth]] mother who lectured Bart whenever he was up to his old tricks to [[HelicopterParents overprotecting him and being paranoid about his well-being]].
** Her somewhat no-nonsense personality was also Flanderized somewhat. In early episodes, she was merely [[WomenAreWiser wiser]] and something of a nag, though she ''did'' cut loose on several occasions. In later episodes she is extremely boring and un-impulsive by nature, getting hyped up by ''household chores and monotonous hobbies''.
** In the earlier episodes of the show, Marge was a very supportive mother and the family's voice of reason and moral authority when Lisa's personality was not yet fully developed (actually, Lisa's SoapboxSadie tendencies were lifted from Marge). However, she was NotSoAboveItAll at times (like in "Rosebud", where she lampshades it with a "Well, why can't I be greedy once in a while?"). In later episodes, her good parenting became an InformedAttribute due to [[TookALevelInJerkass her transformation]] into a StepfordSmiler ("Catch 'Em If You Can " is a good example) and [[TookALevelInDumbass she became more likely]] to join Homer and the rest of Springfield in whatever stupid shenanigans they were getting into in the episode.
** It could be partly thanks to Homer's Flanderization into a gluttonous manchild, but Marge used to call Homer out on his behaviour. As Homer became more of a {{Jerkass}}, Marge became a StepfordSmiler who wanted their marriage to succeed no matter what crazy things he did. Then Homer became a greedy, selfish, lying alcoholic who endangered and abused his family. Since Marge chastising her husband every time he's stupid would get boring, she started by forgiving him impulsively at the end of every episode and now seems completely blind to his flaws. But Fox seems to have enough problems with showing Homer being locked out of the house for the night, let alone Marge filing for divorce, so by doing nothing, she's basically an enabler.
** Her boringness. The first time Marge learned her husband and children thought she was no fun, in season 5, Marge was actually hurt and angered by this. In later years, Marge actively ''seeks'' the best ways to be duller than dishwater, and make other types of fun illegal.
* {{Foil}}: To Homer. While Homer is goofy, aggressive, and unintelligent, Marge is serious, calm, and rather smart. Typically she's the one who prevents Homer from doing anything too foolish.
* FormerTeenRebel: "Marge the Meanie" reveals that Marge was ThePrankster at her middle school and that ''she,'' not Homer, [[HiddenDepths is probably the source of Bart's love for mischief]].
* FriendlessBackground: A fact made clear several times is that Marge has little to no actual friends, for a variety of reasons. One big reason is Homer himself, who it's implied has routinely (accidentally, mind) driven away anyone who might want to socialize with her. A secondary reason is due to being a card-carrying wet blanket, as shown at the beginning of "The Twisted World of Marge Simpson".
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: In the times where she ''is'' shown to have friends they're either shown to be extremely judgmental of her for either her parenting style or marriage, or find her to be extremely dull and boring.
* TheFundamentalist: It's not overt, but Marge is incredibly intolerant when Lisa decides to convert to Buddhism, first saying she couldn't get dessert and later trying to bribe her with a (fake) pony on Christmas, and when Bart decides to become Catholic, she even kidnaps him from the Catholic School. Marge hates Catholics and thinks they are strange... despite being proud of and "knowledgeable" of her French heritage. France is a historically Catholic nation with the Christian population of France being ''overwhelmingly'' Catholic with over 13 million members, in comparison the Protestant population is only around 500,000. Likewise, she's outraged when Homer desires to forgo church in lieu of passively worshipping God from his couch, going as far as calling him ''wicked'', or when he joins Bart in becoming Catholic. She eventually accepts her family's choices, as long as they perform lip-service at Church on Sunday. This is a really weird trait for her to have, as one episode showed that she hadn't even bothered to have her children baptised. Marge's moralizing is so infamous that the entire town knows about it. When the townspeople are debating whether to adopt legalized gambling, Mayor Quimby asks if there are any moral objections. Everybody in the room immediately turns towards Marge, who actually supports it.
* TheGamblingAddict: In the episode where a casino is built in Springfield, Marge loses quite a fortune at the slots. Since then, her gambling is mostly under control, though it is mentioned every now and then.
-->'''Comic Book Guy:''' Hey, I'm watching you!
* GreenEyedMonster: In "Friends and Family", the prospect of Homer getting a new female best friend named Julia causes her to become irate with him and complain that if another woman is his best friend then that makes their marriage feel less important if Marge herself isn't his best friend. She of course comes around to her senses ([[NeverMyFault but feels right being angry at him anyway]]).
* GoodCannotComprehendEvil: Marge tends to be oblivious to bad people such as bullies. However, as seen in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS16E3SleepingWithTheEnemy Sleeping with the Enemy]]", she ''does'' seem to be aware of Nelson's bullying as she asks him if he was the boy who beats up her son, suggesting that she is either naive towards bullying or is easily manipulated by the bullies.
* GoodParents: She is a very loving and caring mother who has a close bond with all her children. She has her issues and sometimes argues with Bart or Lisa, but her intentions are good, and is always willing to support her children and give them advice.
* GossipyHens: She does love her gossip. When Maggie's baby monitor picks up on phone calls, she becomes addicted to listening to it.
* HairstyleInertia: {{Zig Zagg|ingTrope}}ed. Depictions of her earlier years vary between her having the same BeehiveHairdo (sometimes shorter than it usually is) or a different style. Typically as a child she has a beehive while during her teen years she's always shown with having her hair straight and worn down.
* HammerspaceHair: Her total height including the hair is eight foot six. Her hairdo is strong enough to hold everything from Maggie to a beach umbrella to a jar full of money to a ten-pin bowling ball.
* HappilyMarried: For most of the show's run with Homer. Despite the many conflicts they get into, they'll always find their way out of it.
* HardDrinkingPartyGirl: Occasionally, though she's normally more of a social drinker.
* HeroicWillpower: It's a common thing to have her resist mind control even when everyone around her has succumbed, as we've seen in "The Joy of Sect" and the first ''Treehouse of Horror''.
* HiddenDepths: She is great at making sculptures and wanted to be a painter once.
* HiddenEyes: In the aforementioned "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS19E6LittleOrphanMillie Little Orphan Millie]]", to keep Homer guessing her eye color.
* {{Hikikomori}}: Spends a period like this in "The Strong Arms of the Ma". She eventually overcame this after using the weight-lifting set Homer bought from Rainier Wolfcastle.
* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Zigzagged. Marge is sometimes naive towards people or tend to let her fundamentals influence her better judgement, but she's still depicted as the OnlySaneMan of the family. When Bart is told to make a Valentine's Day card for Nelson, she quickly tells him that Jesus told his followers to "love thy enemy", despite recognising Nelson's bullying history with Bart. When Bart was being hunted by Jimbo, Kearney and Dolph for having an affair with Jimbo's girlfriend Shauna, Marge genuinely believed that they were friends with Bart and told them to wait. She also unintentionally ruined the marriage of Otto and then girlfriend Becky by telling her to make an ultimatum by making him choose between her and his [[{{MetalHead}} his music]]. He chooses the latter in a heartbeat despite Marge thinking that he would choose Becky out of love.
* {{Housewife}}: While she does have a few jobs over the show's run, she spends most of her time as a housewife.
* {{Hypocrite}}:
** Begs Homer to get rid of his gun, claiming she doesn't want a gun in her house. After Homer gives it to her to dispose of, she keeps it for herself.
** In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS1E9LifeOnTheFastLane episode 9 of the first season]], Marge basically has an affair with a man she met while bowling, and only got a change of heart when driving off to a sexual rendezvous with him. The [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS1E10HomersNightOut VERY NEXT EPISODE]], Marge finds a photo of Homer dancing (with no sexual overtones) with a bellydancer at a stag party he went to (with her knowledge), and proceeds to treat him highly condescendingly, throw him out of his own house, and act like he cheated on her.
** Doubly so with Homer's platonic relationship with Lurleen Lumpkin another hundred or so episodes later, where she is against him spending any time with Lurleen (despite him being her manager) and treats it like he is cheating on her.
** She supports gay rights and is proud of Homer for marrying gay couples, but when her sister comes out of the closet she refuses to accept her sexuality.
** On one episode, when Lisa gets asylum in Canada and she even admits that she prefers Canada over the US for several reasons, Marge calls her a traitor and even plans to drag her back to the States by any means necessary. In another episode, Marge wants the whole family to move to ''Denmark'' due to its lifestyle.
* ICanChangeMyBeloved: Marge did this with Homer, and insists it worked and that now he's a "whole new person", despite the evidence that he's still an often-inconsiderate slob. Lisa's response is to just pretend to agree with her.
* IHaveNoSon: [[DownplayedTrope While she doesn't officially disown Bart nor kicks him out of the house]], she either distanced herself from Bart, became so [[DisappointedInYou disappointed in Bart]], or flat-out gave up on Bart at least four times. Three ("[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E11MargeBeNotProud Marge Be Not Proud]]", "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS10E3BartTheMother Bart the Mother]]" and "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS26E18PeepingMom Peeping Mom]]") [[JerkassHasAPoint she had reason to]] (and in the first case was convinced it was for his own good), but one ("[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS24E12LoveIsAManySplinteredThing Love is a Many Splintered Thing]]") was [[DisproportionateRetribution for petty reasons]].
* IWantGrandkids: In "The Burns and the Bees", when Marge is asked what her greatest fear is, she instantly replies, "Never being a grandmother". Another episode has Marge, who believes she is about to be executed, despairing that she wouldn't see
* ImpossibleHourglassFigure: Inverted. In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS19E7HusbandsAndKnives Husbands and Knives]]", she got upset when she realises her hips were too wide and she had lost her "perfect" 26-26-26 figure.
* ImpossiblyLowNeckline: Her regular dress. Once even lampshaded by a prison warden.
-->'''Warden:''' NOTHING IS KEEPING UP HER DRESS! ONLY HER MELONS!!!
* IncrediblyLameFun: Marge gets thrills out of monotonous activities such as household chores and evening walks (of which she tends to prefer the dullest route). The family actually tend to find doing Marge's ideas of fun ''more'' unbearable than Homer or Bart's troublemaking.
* InformedAttractiveness: Marge was not designed with the intention of being attractive, and is in fact described as plain or even homely looking multiple times early on. However, as the writers became more aware of the PerverseSexualLust parts of their fan base had for her (and the GenericCuteness of the art style making her not much different than other attractive characters), they turned her into a DudeMagnet who is way out of Homer's league, despite not altering her design at all.
* InsistentTerminology: She always refers to intimate times with Homer as "snuggling."
* IntimateMarks: In "Homer to the Max", Marge says she has a tattoo of Homer's name on her "You know". Implying it's on her lower back, an intimate spot, or a private area.
* ItsAllAboutMe: A minor example, but Marge often makes efforts to prevent her family from doing things they like because it might embarrass her. Then again, the embarrassment ranges from dressing inappropriately or drinking at a party to hitting the Queen of England and angering Australia.
* IWantGrandkids: Her greatest fear is dying without grandchildren.
* JerkassBall: While she's normally the most down to earth of the family, she does act more insensitive than usual in a few episodes, especially "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS17E20RegardingMargie Regarding Margie]]".
* KarmaHoudini: A combination of DoubleStandard and her status as the show's DesignatedVictim makes her this. She can be a {{Jerkass}} on the same level as Homer, but if her actions aren't ignored or played for laughs, her bad behavior is a sign that she's unappreciated or overworked. This includes things such as praying that Lisa's vegetarian diet makes her sick, tricking her into eating meat, and even trying to kill Homer because she had to take over his driving duties, and not once did she even show that she was the slightest bit sorry. There are episodes where Marge is clearly shown in the wrong, only for it to go through a HalfwayPlotSwitch so not only are her actions forgotten, she usually ends up getting exactly what wanted. Her abuse and neglect of Bart is also regularly ignored in favor of focusing on Homer's.
* TheKilljoy: DependingOnTheWriter she can go from simply just being too cautious to do something to outright refusing to let anyone else enjoy something if she doesn't, and forcing everyone to go along with her. As early as season 5, the whole town knows that if anyone's going to have an objection to an idea that everyone else is onboard with, it'll probably be Marge.
* KnightTemplar: Slips into this in some episodes when she goes too far to keep the family's life normal. A few episodes with the other family members questioning religion, for example, has her almost rival Ned in her zealotry.
* LaughingAtYourOwnJokes: She does this occasionally. She gives her best one liners when no one's around.
* LegFocus: When she and Homer get "frisky". This is explicitly mentioned by Lenny in one episode.
-->'''Lenny:''' She's got legs from here to yah-yah!
* LettingHerHairDown: Her motherly appearance comes primarily from her BeehiveHairdo making her look much older than she is. Whenever her hairstyle changes due to being wet, wearing a hat or otherwise trying a new look it is connected with her fanservice being ramped up.
* LimitedWardrobe: Her standard outfit is a strapless green dress with a pearl necklace. On some occasions she wears a green jacket when going out for the evening. When a thief came into town he removed her necklace, showing indentations in her skin. She later revealed to have a lot of replica pearl necklaces, each one being a family heirloom.
* LiteralMinded: Marge has shown multiple times to have a poor recognition of sarcasm and is sometimes literal-minded towards jokes.
** For example, when Bart makes a joke about Homer's weight disrupting satellites, she still believes it to be true despite Homer telling her it was a joke.
** Another example would be Marge becoming confused when Bart tells her that he was being sarcastic when he sarcastically clapped in celebration of Lisa's promotion to school president.
* LivingEmotionalCrutch: Her marriage to Homer is what stops him from crossing a line. Homer loves Marge so much that he's willing to let many people (such as Patty and Selma) speak to him with such cruelty and callousness. It's fair to say that without Marge's support in Homer's life, he would become a VillainProtagonist due to his abusive behavior towards Bart, alcoholism, negligence of Maggie and poor connection with Lisa despite his unconquerable love for all of his children.
* LoveMakesYouCrazy: Her possessiveness of Homer can lead her to become paranoid and a court actually finds her "insane". She suspects any woman who gets along well with Homer is actually trying to steal him away from her. She threatens to hurt Lurleen, is glad that Mindy lost her job, attempts to get rid of Julia ([[{{OneSteveLimit}} not the yandere one]]), and tries to kill Becky because she believes she is trying to take her place in the Simpson's family ([[{{TheCuckoolanderWasRight}} although in the last case she was right]]). Marge can be ''downright terrifying''.
* LustObject: Marge has gained attention from a majority of male characters like Moe, Mr. Burns and a number of celebrities. It probably helps that she's a housewife with a beehive hairdo that regularly wears a strapless dress.
* MamaBear: Any attack against her children, even though her son is a well-known troublemaker; Marge will go on the war path... even if you're part of the 99 percent of Springfield. Don't mess with the Simpson children in general. It also helps to know this same rules applies to Homer... most of the time.
* MaritalRapeLicense: She overpowers and rapes Homer in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS14E9StrongArmsOfTheMa Strong Arms of the Ma]]", and it's PlayedForLaughs.
* MasterOfTheMixedMessage: Marge is this to pretty much everyone. She presents herself as an overworked and under-appreciated housewife and mother despite repeatedly showing that she [[IncrediblyLameFun gets thrills out of monotonous activities such as household chores]]. She also becomes incredibly neurotic whenever she gets a chance to relax as seen in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS17E20RegardingMargie Regarding Margie]]".
* MeaningfulName: The name Marjorie means "pearl", which shows how valuable she is to the family, and also why she values her antique heirloom pearl necklace so much.
* MoralGuardian: In her more insufferable moments, she forces her sense of morality onto others when she does not possess the authority to do so.
* MoralityPet: To Bart and Homer. Whenever Bart and/or Homer did something too far, they'll know when their actions upsets Marge.
* MsFanservice:
** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E10GrampaVsSexualInadequacy Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy]]" has several moments showing Marge has an astounding body.
** She becomes this in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS14E4LargeMarge Large Marge]]", in which she is accidentally given breast implants and becomes a model.
** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS21E5TheDevilWearsNada The Devil Wears Nada]]" after sexy pictures of her end up on a charity calendar.
** Several of the Halloween specials have {{Fanservice}} scenes with her too.
** In RealLife she appeared on Playboy posing semi-nude!
* MsViceGirl: Marge is normally a loving wife and mother, but suffers from a gambling addiction, which can occasionally pop up every now and then. More commonly she is also something of a finicky wet blanket, often unwilling to break from her standard comfort zone, which can make her rather overbearing and humourless. It says something that as often as the kids feel more comfortable around Marge than Homer, they actually find the latter's antics more tolerable than her fussy moods.
* MundaneObjectAmazement: Her dullness is often PlayedForLaughs. She gets excited over very mundane things, such as potatoes.
* NamedByTheAdaptation: It's easy to forget that she was unnamed in the Tracey Ullman shorts.
* NervousWreck: The antics of her family sometimes drive her to nervous breakdowns.
* NiceGirl: While she can be somewhat judgemental and narrow-minded from time to time, Marge is generally portrayed as being an incredibly loving and extremely patient mother and wife.
* NightmareFuelStationAttendant: She doesn't mean it, but she often scares the crap out of people around her.
* NotMeThisTime: A non-villainous example. When the town tries to legalize gambling, Mayor Quimby asks if anyone objects, and everyone turns to look at Marge, who's okay with it.
* NotSoAboveItAll: Will join in on some antics at times. For example, when Homer starts a food fight with the Flanders, Marge (along with Lisa) hesitates for a moment before joining in with the same glee as Homer and Bart. During "Rosebud", when the family are discussing what to do with Bobo, it's Marge who suggests extorting Mr. Burns, defensively asking "well, why can't I be greedy once in a while?" During "The Old Man and the Lisa", she actually manages to get two pretty solid burns in on Burns in the space of a minute.
* OneTrueLove: "El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer" reveals her to be Homer's soul mate, and there are more than enough episodes that show that they were made for each other.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: She's primarily called "Marge" by relatives and friends alike.
* OnlySaneWoman: Most of the time. The straight man role is usually traded between her and Lisa.
* ParentalSubstitute: Marge has often become a replacement mother for characters who have either been abandoned by their own parents, live in poverty or live in a household that lacks parental love. Examples of this include Nelson Muntz ("[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS16E3SleepingWithTheEnemy Sleeping with the Enemy]]") and Dwight ("[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS19E4IDontWannaKnowWhyTheCagedBirdSings I Don't Wanna Know Why the Caged Bird Sings]]"). It's also due to her motherly personality that she is unknowingly able to convince Simon ("[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS20E3DoubleDoubleBoyInTrouble Double, Double, Boy in Trouble]]") to stay with them after his troublesome first day of pretending to be Bart.
* ParentingTheHusband: To Homer.
-->'''Announcer:''' Attention, Marge Simpson: your son has been arrested.\\
'''Announcer:''' Attention, Marge Simpson: we've also arrested your older, balder, fatter son.
%%* ParentsWalkInAtTheWorstTime
* PinkIsErotic: While trying to seduce Homer, she's known to wear a pink nightie or a pink dressing gown. When she modeled for Maxim magazine, she posed seductively while wearing a pink bandana. When she modeled for playboy, she parodied one of their previous models by wearing a pink see-through nightie while carrying doughnuts.
* ProgressivelyPrettier: Although Marge's appearance hasn't changed, how attractive she is stated to be has changed from housewife to centerfold. Also present in the original ''Series/TheTraceyUllmanShow'' shorts. Marge started out as quite dumpy, but quickly began slimming down.
* ProperlyParanoid: While Homer was oblivious to Lurleen's love, Marge is right in that she wants to sleep with him.
* SameClothesDifferentYear: Certain depictions of her as a kid have her wear a dress similar to her present-day one. They even resemble Lisa's dress, only green.
* SeriesContinuityError:
** During the episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS22E13TheBlueAndTheGray The Blue and the Gray]]" Marge is shocked to see gray hairs in her blue hair, even though it was established seasons before that her natural hair is gray and that she dyes it blue. [[AssPull Her hairstylist explains that her blue hair dye causes partial memory damage]].
** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E11FearOfFlying Fear of Flying]]" established that Marge has (or had) a [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin fear of flying]], yet in the earlier episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E2MrLisaGoesToWashington Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington]]", Marge got on a plane with no problems.
* ShipTease:
** With Ned Flanders sometimes, but it doesn't go anywhere because she loves Homer.
** It's sometimes implied that she has a crush on Homer's friend Lenny, even if she rarely interacts with him.
* ShowSomeLeg: Marge once distracted Chief Wiggum by flashing her (temporarily surgically enhanced) breasts. Which Krusty referred to as "Mugumbos". Which happened to be the control word for Stampy the Elephant.
%%* ShyBlueHairedGirl: Most notably during her youth.
%%* SilkHidingSteel
* SleepsInTheNude: There were several episodes in the early Seasons where she is shown to be sleeping in the nude instead of her nightwear, such as in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E11BurnsVerkaufenDerKraftwerk Burns Verkaufen Der Kraftwerk]]", "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E20ColonelHomer Colonel Homer]]", and "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E7BartsInnerChild Bart's Inner Child]]". And this is without first having or preparing to have sex. [[note]]Though she did end up doing so in "Colonel Homer", though she didn't know he was coming, so it still counts[[/note]].
* StacysMom: Several young characters, such as Nelson and Milhouse, have admitted to finding her attractive.
-->'''Bart:''' My ''mom'' wears earrings. Do you think ''she's'' cool?\\
'''Milhouse:''' No, I think she's '''hot'''! ...Sorry, it just slipped out...
* StepfordSmiler:
** From very early on. Marge mentions in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS1E6MoaningLisa Moaning Lisa]]" that her mother always told her to smile, otherwise people would judge her, though Marge couldn't bring herself to make Lisa do this. She frequently refuses to talk about subjects she doesn't like (such as one of her uncles going on a shooting spree). Her long-suppressed fear of flying is not helped by Marge's utter refusal to admit there actually is a problem, even when it's causing her to become increasingly neurotic.
** More pronounced as of recent, although it's understandable considering Homer's increasing {{Jerkass}}ness. Comes to the fore in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsonsMovie'' where she admits that she can't overlook Homer's jerkass qualities anymore and actually gets to the point where she decides to leave him. This immediately shakes Homer out of his jerkass bravado, making him realise what the hell he's done wrong and immediately begin to set about putting it right.
* StraightMan: Shares this role with Lisa, most of the time.
* StrongerThanTheyLook: She occasionally displays superhuman strength. She has been seen lifting Homer off the ground easily several times, including picking him up and throwing him through the bedroom door to show him that Moe taught her the bum's rush and swinging him around in a circle during a dance contest; she also once effortlessly tossed a motorcycle to Homer up a flight of stairs. She also knocked Snake out with a garbage can lid.
* StrongFamilyResemblance: Looks the same as her mother when she was her age.
* TextileWorkIsFeminine: Marge would often be seen sewing in the Tracey Ullman shorts, and would sometimes do it in the actual show.
* ThinksOfSomethingSmartSaysSomethingStupid: In "Simpsorama" (the {{Crossover}} with WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}), Marge is introduced to Leela:
-->'''Marge:''' ''[thinking]'' Oh, don't mention her eye. Don't mention her eye.\\
'''Leela:''' ''[thinking]'' Don't mention her hair. Don't mention her hair.\\
'''Marge:''' I (Eye)... am so pleased to meet you.\\
'''Leela:''' Nice to be hair.
* TokenGoodTeammate: She's the only nice one of the Bouvier sisters. Patty and Selma are much more cynical than she is.
* TokenReligiousTeammate: She is easily the most religious member of the family, as the others would likely not go to church if it wasn't for her.
* TookALevelInDumbass: While she was always prone to NotSoAboveItAll moments, later seasons crank these up to a point where she plays the OnlySaneMan much less regularly.
* TookALevelInJerkass: From approximately season 20 onwards, Marge has been depicted as much more petty and manipulative over her family, alternating between trying to live out her dreams through Lisa and passive-aggressively guilt-tripping any family member who dares to be more successful than her into giving up said passion for her sake. She also verges towards being straight-up abusive towards Homer on occasion, even when he hasn't done anything, all while being pretty quick to contemplate cheating on him herself.
%%* TrueBlueFemininity: Her hair.
* TurnTheOtherCheek: Marge often tries to forgive her wrongdoers and can sometimes be too forgiving. Her sisters, Patty and Selma, are the best examples of this as she always forgives them for bullying her in the past and trying to make her divorce Homer. With Sideshow Bob, it depends on the episode as she'll sometimes forgive him for trying to murder her son and other times, she'd jump to protect Bart from Bob.
* UglyGuyHotWife: Hot Wife to Homer's Ugly Guy. It does show that Homer was slimmer when they were dating, and early episodes has Homer bemoan his weight gain. The episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS17E8TheItalianBob The Italian Bob]]" even seems to reference it; when the end of the episode shows Marge and Homer taking a romantic gondola ride, the gondolier providing his services for the evening puts his own spin on the song ''That's Amore'', much to Homer's annoyance.
-->'''Gondolier:''' ♪''When a wife looks like that and her husband's so fat, that's immoral!''♪
* UnnamedParent: In the Tracey Ullman shorts, Homer and Marge were credited as "Mr/Mrs Simpson" or "Mom/Dad". While Homer is referred to by his final name in the shorts themselves, Marge's name wouldn't be mentioned until the series itself.
* UselessBystanderParent: She only ever offers token resistance when Homer abuses Bart; the most Marge does is acknowledge it's happening without actually doing anything to stop it.
* VocalDissonance: She's a tall and very beautiful woman in her 30s... with a raspy and croaky voice which makes her sound like she's in her 70s. This becomes more apparent after season 30, where [[Creator/JulieKavner Kavner's]] voice has grown even raspier with age, often making Marge sound like she's losing her voice.
* VocalEvolution: Marge's voice has gotten increasingly gravellier and raspier as Creator/JulieKavner has aged. By Season 30, Marge frequently sounds like she's losing her voice.
* TheVoiceless: In the episode "Krusty Gets Kancelled". She also never spoke in any Butterfinger commercials.
* WetBlanketWife: Marge started off more as a CloserToEarth spouse for Homer, though she was eventually Flanderized into a more dull and neurotic character who tends to find the least enjoyable way of doing things the most acceptable. One episode lampshaded that Marge needs Homer's reckless antics for any excitement in her life, to the point where she ended up taking his place when a JerkassRealization made him this trope instead.
* WhatBeautifulEyes: It was not until season 19 we find out the color of Marge's eyes. [[spoiler: They are hazel.]] Homer even wrote a song about her called "Beautiful Eyes."
* WomenAreWiser: She takes this to the point of parody. Homer is the archetypical dimwitted sitcom husband who nearly always needs to learn a moral lesson in any given episode, which he is almost certain to forget by the next. Marge, on the other hand, is so down-to-earth that she is incredibly boring.
* WhatDoesSheSeeInHim: Frequently asked exactly why she stays with an insane, boorish drunken clod like Homer. Usually she's able to give an answer.
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Flying, due to finding out her father was a stewardess as a child (and also because she never addressed the shame this caused her). Granted, her toy plane spontaneously combusting and getting shot at by a plane at that cornfield probably didn't help, either.
* WideEyedIdealist: Marge naively believes in the best in people and often puts her faith in love conquering all. For example, she believes everyone should be married or in a relationship despite Lisa telling her that some people prefer to be single or alone.
Changed line(s) 114 (click to see context) from:
to:
[[caption-width-right:247:''I'll be in my room.'']]
Changed line(s) 117,120 (click to see context) from:
->Voiced by: Creator/YeardleySmith
->Debut: ''"Good Night"''\\
Debut on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': ''"Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire"''
->Debut: ''"Good Night"''\\
Debut on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': ''"Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire"''
to:
->Debut:
->'''Debut:''' ''"Good Night"''\\
Changed line(s) 123 (click to see context) from:
* For tropes related to her, see [[Characters/TheSimpsonsLisaSimpson here]].
to:
* For tropes related to AcademicAlphaBitch: She prides herself on her intelligence and always coming top of the class with straight 'A's. One episode has her world collapsing when she gets her very first B; another deals with an even brighter girl joining her class and Lisa's utter jealousy of her, and another when she skipped a grade and was no longer the big fish in a small pond.
* AcademicAthlete: Although generally portrayed as unathletic and disinterested in sports, she has demonstrated considerable talent in certain athletic activities such as ice hockey, soccer, lacrosse, and even gymnastics. She was even interested in joining a football team (although she mainly did this to break the norm for her own sake) only to find out that there are already girls on the team.
* AffectionateNickname: Her brother Bart often calls her "Lis".
* AgeInappropriateDress: She's an 8-year-old wearing a strapless dress and pearls. She even lampshades it in "Puffless"; her substitute teacher in "Black-Eyed, Please" questions her about it.
-->'''Mrs. Cantwell:''' What eight-year-old wears pearls?
* AdorablyPrecociousChild: As sophisticated, intelligent, and worldly as Lisa may be at 8 years old, she has more growing up to do than she thinks, and so she is not above lapsing into childish behavior if the situation calls for it.
* AllGirlsLikePonies:
** On her Christmas list, she listed "pony" over and over again. She finally got one in Season 3, "Lisa's Pony".
** The moment she's at a country club, complaining about the snobs, and sees someone riding a horse. The predictable happens.
** In "She of Little Faith", her family attempted to bribe her into converting back to Presbylutheranism by presenting her with a pony (but which is really Milhouse and Ralph pretending).
* AllGirlsWantBadBoys:
** [[PuppyLove She had a crush on Nelson]] once, [[FirstKiss and he was her first kiss]].
** She's implied to have a crush on Jimbo Jones.
** Parodied in one episode where she reveals her crush on a boy who works at the library. His "bad boy" behavior is pretty much limited to being annoyed at people who confuse the juvenile and young adult sections.
--->'''Lisa:''' Ooooh... if only someone could tame him...
** Later she only becomes interested in DoggedNiceGuy Milhouse when he acts like Creator/MarlonBrando in ''Theatre/AStreetcarNamedDesire'' and is mean to her.
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Depending on the episode, when the writers want to evidence her "misunderstood outcast" status for the sake of the plot. In "Lisa Goes Gaga", she is voted the least popular student of the entire school.
* AllTakeAndNoGive: A major flaw of Lisa's is that she believes that all her interpersonal relationships should be based solely around her own desires and worldviews, while the other party doesn't get the same consideration. Unsurprisingly, this is one of the main reasons she's unpopular with her peers.
* AloofBigSister: PlayedStraight with Maggie but inverted with her older brother, Bart. Homer is very open with his favouritism towards Lisa, his negligence towards Maggie, and his disproval of Bart. As such, Lisa often outshines her brother and sister through her intelligence and sometimes feels threatened when her siblings starts showing signs of being better than her.
* AlwaysSecondBest:
** To Allison in the episode "Lisa's Rival" where Allison was slightly better than Lisa at everything, mostly slightly more knowledgeable and better on the sax.
** Lisa's voice actress Yeardley Smith even remarked about how often Lisa would enter a contest and end up in second place; two notable examples are "Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington" and "Lisa the Beauty Queen". Also when she entered a cruciverbalism (crosswords) contest, she went to the finals and lost to ''Gil''. In the spelling bee episode, she also loses to another kid in the finals.
* AlwaysSomeoneBetter:
** She plays this to Bart, who she is often proved to be smarter and more gifted and capable than. It's revealed in a season 27 episode that Bart been upstaged by Lisa since he was 6 and his resentment of her stems from his inability to be better than her at ''anything''. Even in her earlier brattier days in the shorts, a running gag had Bart constantly bested by Lisa (and sometimes even Maggie) in his pranks and showboating.
** To Martin Prince, her school rival in Science Fair. Even if Martin's IQ is 216 (Lisa's IQ is 156 or 159), she is often stated to be the smartest person in Springfield above him.
* AMFMCharacterization: She's generally depicted as being a fan of {{Jazz}} and {{Blues}} (her saxophone playing is also one of the most memorable things about her character), with an exception in the episode [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS32E19PanicOnTheStreetsOfSpringfield "Panic on the Streets of Springfield"]] where she got really into an {{expy}} of Music/{{Morrissey}}.
* AmbiguouslyBi: While she does like boys and had different boyfriends throughout the series, later episodes seem to imply that she is lesbian or bisexual in the future, even [[ExperimentedInCollege if it's only a phase]]. In the couch gag of "Holidays of Future Passed", Lisa is seen with a girlfriend in one photo and two different girls in another. In "Mr. Lisa's Opus", Lisa's roommate seems to want to be "more than a friend", but we never learn if Lisa's interested. In the credits of "Mother and Child Reunion" when Lisa asked if any of the vision of the future is true, the oracle (Nate Silver) said, among other things, that Lisa will have 47% chance of a boyfriend and 72% chance of a girlfriend, Lisa is ecstatic about the odds (not at all bothered about the possibility of being a lesbian). In "No Loan Again, Naturally," when Bart misunderstands the phrase "family outing" and claims that Lisa is gay, she doesn't refute it, saying that it only makes sense she'd want to be gay as several of her idols are.
* AnnoyingYoungerSibling: Bart usually finds her annoying, though it's more common for Bart to be the one annoying Lisa. Lisa is also able to antagonize her brother on purpose sometimes.
* AuthorAvatar: To creator Creator/MattGroening concerning certain viewpoints of his.
* BadassBookworm: Lisa is very intelligent and able to knock out her older brother.
* BadassPacifist: She uses words, speeches, blackmail, and trickery to deal with her problems. Later, however, she becomes a lot more willing to resort to violence.
* BerserkButton: Whenever Lisa receives anything less than an A on her report cards, expect her to freak out.
* BigBrotherWorship: As a toddler, she absolutely adored Bart, to the point that her first word was her brother's name. The "worship" part went away over time, though she still loves her brother.
* BookSmart: She is a hardworking bookworm who excels academically.
* BorrowedCatchphrase:
** Like her mother and siblings, Lisa's said "D'oh" when she's frustrated or upset by something. She's borrowed some of her father's other catchphrases by imitating him drooling over his favorite foods with his tongue hanging out, and yelled "woo hoo!" when she succeeded at something.
** In a couple of episodes from the earlier seasons, she sometimes borrows her mother's "Hmmmmmm...". In "Rosebud", she even says it along with Marge.
* BrainBleach: In "Whiskey Business", Lisa seems to need some after seeing Moe in disturbingly tattered clothes. Thankfully, it looks like it's minimal:
-->''(Moe knocks at the door; Marge opens it and sees Moe in his ruined suit)''\\
'''Marge:''' Moe? What are you doing?\\
'''Moe:''' Midge, uh, the suit got a little mussed up... But I gotta ask ya... Is it noticeable? ''(turns around and shows his butt)''\\
''({{Beat}}.)''\\
'''Marge:''' Thank God, the kids aren't here.\\
'''Lisa:''' ''I was.''
* BreakTheCutie: Multiple times. One notable example is in "Milhouse Doesn't Live Here Anymore" when Bart and Lisa form a close bond, before Bart ditches her for Milhouse, causing her to start crying.
* BullyMagnet: In the occasional episode where she is the target of bullying, has been the recipient [[DependingOnTheWriter of multiple reasons]]: because she is a nerd, because she doesn't follow the clique rules of other girl students, because she is not as pretty as the rest, because she's a blonde and the bully's initial assumption is that she is a DumbBlonde, because she is a SoapboxSadie and somebody got fed up with it... in one episode she even tries to discover what makes a bully constantly beat her up and [[SpaceWhaleAesop she discovers that bullies are a]] HumanSubspecies [[InsaneTrollLogic who have a natural drive to attack people who give off certain pheromones (like nerds)]].
* BystanderSyndrome: In "Postcards From the Wedge" Bart tries to avoid studying and doing homework by driving a wedge between Homer and Marge but resorts to destroying the school when Homer and Marge decide to neglect him so that they can preserve their marriage. Lisa knew about what Bart was doing from the beginning, but chose to do nothing rather than telling her parents about what Bart is doing. This example borders on AccompliceByInaction.
* ButNotTooChallenging: She often complains about the lack of educational challenges at school, but she doesn't take it well when she gets anything other than straight A's.
* ButtMonkey: On occasion. Her family is a bunch of idiots (with the exception of Marge, although she is frequently NotSoAboveItAll in later seasons) and she gets bullied fairly often for being a nerd.
* CharacterCatchphrase: Lisa didn't have a catchphrase since the beginning of the show until she said "If anyone wants me, I'll be in my room.", which is said in the end of the episode "Bart Gets Famous". Lisa also said this in "Lisa the Vegetarian", "Grift of the Magi", and "Dude, Where's My Ranch?". She also frequently yells out a shrill "MOOOOMMMM!!!" in response to [[BigBrotherBully Bart's antics]] or "DAAAAAD!!!" whenever Homer says or does something stupid. And, of course, there is "Meh."
* CharacterizationMarchesOn:
** Throughout the Ullman Shorts, she is a disrespectful troublemaker and not particularly bright, much like her brother. The writers originally conceived her and Bart as something of an interchangeable duo of bratty kids designed to drive Homer and Marge crazy. As Bart became the rascally BreakoutCharacter, however, the writers believed having Lisa as a [[DistaffCounterpart female version]] of Bart seemed redundant, so they rewrote her as a brainy, yet socially awkward girl. However. season 1 has a mix of her two characterizations. While still a bit of troublemaker and generally plays along with Bart's antics, she is shown to be the more mature one between her and Bart
** In the early episodes, she was a big fan of ''The Happy Little Elves'' while Bart preferred to watch ''Krusty the Klown'' and ''The Itchy and Scratchy Show'' (along with horror movies and, in the episode where Homer steals cable TV, X-rated movies). Later episodes either show both of them being childish, both of them being mature or, in a lot of cases, ''Bart'' being the childish one and ''Lisa'' being the more mature one.
** Her artistic side arguably dates back the development of the show, since her saxophone solo is part of the opening credits. Another case of this would be her rebellion against her music teacher Mr. Largo. It's part of the opening credits, and is emphasized considerably in a couple early episodes. Later, not only did Lisa avoid conflict with her teachers to the point of becoming a grades-obsessed teacher's pet, but Mr. Largo has been DemotedToExtra (and in some cases, PutOnABus).
** Her attitude towards school evolved from being a teacher's pet (telling Janey that 'school is never pointless' in an early episode) to a more rebellious and disillusioned attitude towards teachers who don't return her enthusiasm for learning ('Do you remember when you lost passion for this job?' to multiple school staff in one episode). However, this is zig-zagged and often depends on the episode - she still behaves far better in class than Bart, and gets incredibly hung up on getting perfect grades. As a general rule, she wants to do well in school but is less of a sycophant towards authority figures than Martin Prince is.
** Early episodes showed her being friends with other average girls in her class, liking ponies, and having small sleepovers at her house. The later episodes established her as a sad loner who is very disliked, constantly bullied for being "smart", a very uppity GranolaGirl, and always trying to find friends ''outside'' her school and joins environmental groups and MENSA.
* TheChewToy: She has been shown to get bullied a lot in episodes like "Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily", "Bye Bye Nerdie" and "Sleeping with The Enemy". She is also not safe from slapstick. She has been punched in the face at least twice (one of those times by a man), hit in the face multiple times with a basketball, strapped to an airplane propeller that was then turned on at full speed as part of a military academy hazing, and - probably her most humiliating moment - dared by Bart into drinking canal water from the "Little Land of Duff" ride in Duff Gardens which turned her into a hallucinating, naked "Lizard Queen".
* ChildProdigy: She's 8 years old and has a genius IQ.
* CloudcuckoolandersMinder: Not as much as Marge, but she's usually this when she interacts with her BumblingDad Homer. She's also the voice of reason for other characters as well.
* TheChosenWannabe: In "Gone Maggie Gone", Lisa believed she was part of a religious prophecy that would bring world peace, only to discover that the prophecy was about [[BaitAndSwitch Maggie]].
* TheConscience: Tries hard to be this for other people, both in the family and outside of the family, often calling out others on their behavior.
* CunningLinguist: She speaks Italian, with the help of Milhouse. She also seems to understand and know Swedish to a certain degree, as seen when Professor Frink won the Nobel Prize in "Treehouse of Horror XIV", however, this is only a non-canon source.
* CuteBookworm: She just ''loves'' books, libraries and reading.
* CuttingTheKnot: Averted; Lisa often overthinks situations or she forgets how young and naive she is. In "The Girl Who Slept Too Little" she gets scared of a nearby cemetery and develops problems with sleep. She doesn't realise until the end of the episode that she could have just bought a nightlight or closed the curtains.
* DaddysGirl: While her father is a complete idiot and often manages to embarrass her, she still loves him no matter what. "In Lisa's Wedding", she stops her own wedding because her British fiance was disgusted with her family (that, and he wasn't wearing her father's cufflinks. Which look like pigs.) Homer himself usually makes a bigger effort to support her compared to Bart or Maggie. He - not once, twice - sacrificed buying an air conditioner for his family to buy Lisa a new saxophone. And he sold his ride on the Duff Blimp to enter her in a beauty pageant when she was suffering from a lack of self-esteem. Several times, she comes to realize this and loves him back.
* DescentIntoAddiction: Whether it's second-hand smoke, calling the Corey hotline, expanding her mypod playlist or collecting pins, Lisa has an addictive personality and usually needs Bart or Homer's help to bail her out.
* DependingOnTheWriter:
** Either she is the bright spot of the Simpson family and Springfield, or a self-righteous jerk who, despite her intelligence, can be as jerkish as the rest of the town.
** Her emotional maturity and brilliance. She used to be the most mature and bright of the family, and while she had her flaws, she usually managed to learn from them. But as everyone got flanderized, she became quite a jackass and not as different from her family.
** Though she is never popular, just how unpopular she is varies from episode to episode. In some episodes, she hangs out with Janey Powell and some of the other girls but in other episodes she says she has no friends with even Janey teasing her.
** Her intelligence can range from her being a ChildProdigy (159 IQ, being part of MENSA, etc.) , having above-average intelligence for her age group (being a wise and intelligent kid, but with her flaws and defects), to only getting good grades because Springfield Elementary is a SuckySchool with low standards (she struggles when she is moved to third grade).
** Similarly, while they eventually settled on her being Buddhist, there was a time when Lisa could switch between a hard-nosed skeptic, Flanders v2.0, or a New Ager at the whim of the writing staff.
** Her love for her family seems to vary as well, in some seasons she does love her family despite how much they embarrass her or make her feel like an outcast. Whereas, other times she's quick to abandon them for the greater good or for what she deems is a better life.
** Whether or not she averts AMistakeIsBorn: While Bart and Maggie were very much unplanned, the series flip flops over whether Marge and Homer actually intended to have her or if she was merely the only SurprisePregnancy they were HAPPY about.
* DivergentCharacterEvolution: Lisa started out more or less as a DistaffCounterpart of Bart (though, unlike Bart, she had a smart side and felt like an outcast compared to the other students). In "Krusty Gets Busted", we get the first evidence of the smart Lisa that we all know, as she agrees to help Bart clear Krusty's name.
* DoesNotLikeMen: Downplayed. In ''See Homer Run'', the school authorities believe that Lisa has a development disorder that will make her hate men for the rest of her life if Homer doesn't start acting like a father to her. While Lisa is known to be more aggressive to men, it's either because she and Homer have fallen out or it's because she's trying to prove herself to other feminists. When she's acting independently on her beliefs, Lisa believes women can take responsibility for themselves and the worst thing she'll say about men is that women can save themselves.
* DrivenByEnvy: It's common for Lisa to feel threatened when someone appears to be smarter than her. In "Smart & Smarter" she developed a one-sided rivalry with Maggie when the latter's IQ test stated that she was smarter than her. In "Lisa's Rival", she has Alison's project sabotaged by Bart because she felt outshined by her classmate.
* DudeMagnet: Despite being a social outcast and generally unpopular, multiple boys have had a crush on her, including Milhouse, Ralph, Nelson, and many OneShotCharacter love interests.
* EasilyForgiven: Whenever Lisa does something morally wrong, she is often quickly forgiven by her family whereas whenever Bart and Homer do something wrong, they both suffer the consequences until they apologise.
* EnragedByIdiocy: Lisa is like this sometimes.
-->'''Lisa:''' (''to Homer'') You, sir, are a ''baboon''! '''BABOON, BABOON, ''BABOON''!!!'''
* EvenNerdsHaveStandards: Lisa may be a classic nerd in a way but she has standards.
** She can't stand pöpli.
** She [[JerkassBall laughed at Bart for having a stamp collection]].
** She fakes having food poisoning to get out of Martin Prince's educational-themed birthday party in "Grade School Confidential".
* FamilyThemeNaming: With her paternal grandmother, Mona Simpson. Together, their names create [[Creator/LeonardoDaVinci "Mona Lisa"]].
* FatalFlaw: Pride and self-righteousness.
** Pride: Lisa champions herself as the smartest in the family and the source of morals, so when she thinks her position is threatened by someone smarter than she is or she falls into jealousy, she quickly tries to reassert herself by sabotaging her rivals.
*** In ''Girly Edition'', Lisa feels threatened and jealous when Bart becomes a more respected news anchor than her and she orchestrates an ambush between Bart and Groundskeeper Willie as punishment.
*** In ''Lisa's Rival'', she sabotages Allison's diorama because she felt Allison was usurping her and wanted to keep her position as the smartest kid in school.
** Self-righteousness: If Lisa believes she's in the right then she'll assume that she knows better than everyone else and act on her beliefs, no matter how complex the situation actually is or how everyone benefits from the fault.
*** In ''Pranksta Rap'', Lisa figures out Bart faked his kidnapping to attend a rap concert and shames Bart, Homer, and everyone else for knowingly going along with the lie because everyone benefitted from it (Wiggum gained a promotion, Kirk gets well-fed and has fangirls, Homer profits off of merchandise, and nobody got hurt from the lie).
*** In "Lisa Gets An A" Lisa cheats on her literacy test and gets an A+++. Even though her cheating would benefit everyone in the school, she ultimately confesses her guilt from cheating and that the school was using funds they didn't earn.
* FirstKiss: A ShutUpKiss from Nelson Muntz. Lampshaded.
* {{Flanderization}}:
** She started out as a [[NiceGirl sweet-natured and well-behaved little girl]][[note]]Well, she ''started out'' as Bart in a dress in ''Series/TheTraceyUllmanShow'' shorts, but most of her brattiness faded quickly once ''The Simpsons'' became a show in its own right, with the main vestige of that part of her nature that was retained being her enjoyment of Bart's prank calls to Moe[[/note]] who acted as the family's voice of reason, alongside Marge. As seasons went by, she became Little Miss Perfect: her largest vice, her [[DrivenByEnvy envy]], was ramped up to the point she was unable to accept when someone in her family/friend group was better than her at any given activity. Her sardonic view of society as uncultured, phony, pandering, and lowest-common-denominator-focused became extreme intellectual superiority and being HolierThanThou (as seen in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS10E22TheySavedLisasBrain They Saved Lisa's Brain]]") and her quirkiness and nerdy interests became patronizing enthusiasm for the most pretentious of vocations (as seen in "Elementary School Musical" and "The Day The Earth Stood Cool"). She went from being a model child and the voice of reason (and therefore, Bart's contrast) to a stuck-up genius prude.
** Lisa wasn't that brilliant or mature in the early episodes (for example, she believes in Santa Claus), but she was clearly quite an achiever for her age. However, over time, her intelligence was taken up to eleven, with her doing things like trigonometry [[NotAllowedToGrowUp while still in second grade]] and understanding fractions in a flashback to when she was three years old.
** Every season progressively escalated her {{Soapbox Sadie}}ness higher and higher. She started complaining about anything and everything that didn't meet such standards, her strong progressive streak became activist tendencies (as seen in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E14LisaVsMalibuStacy Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy]]," when she protested against the Talking Malibu Stacy's misogynist phrases like "Thinking too much gives you wrinkles" and "My name is Stacy, but you can call me (''(WolfWhistle)''), then full-out environmental and uber-liberal extremism (as seen in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E5LisaTheVegetarian Lisa the Vegetarian]]," "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E21TheOldManAndTheLisa The Old Man and the Lisa]]," and "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS12E4LisaTheTreeHugger Lisa the Treehugger]]").
** While she had some friends in the early seasons, including Janey, who was the closest she had to a best friend, the Lisa of later seasons has become a friendless outcast due to the Flanderizations mentioned above. This is especially true in the episode "Lisa Goes Gaga", where she is voted Springfield Elementary's least popular student.
* FlawlessToken: She is female, well-behaved (for the most part) and intelligent, playing foil to Bart who's male, a bit of a {{jerk|With A Heart Of Gold}} and BookDumb (but StreetSmart). There are occasional aversions to this (see above).
* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: Bart and Lisa are among the most extreme and well-known examples. Bart is a BookDumb mischievous troublemaker (Foolish) while Lisa is very studious, well-behaved, and respectful (Responsible).
* FriendlessBackground: Glaringly enough DependingOnTheWriter. Some episodes have her spend time with one or a bunch of them, but then the next she's so incredibly neglected by her peers with the excuse she's too smart for them.
* FriendToAllLivingThings: Given her activism streak and environmental appreciation, it's no secret that she has a tendency to befriend animals, mammals, and even insects for an episode. This extends to [[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/simpsons/images/8/8a/Lisa_Every_Simpsons_Ever.png/revision/latest?cb=20150221064106 one of the show's promotional images]], which depicts her balancing a caterpillar on her finger. The whole reason she became a vegetarian was because she bonded with an adorable little lamb at a petting zoo.
* FunnyConceptionStory: "3 Scenes Plus a Tag From a Marriage" reveals she was conceived on the fire escape in Homer and Marge's first apartment.
* GenericCuteness: She has some insecurities about her appearance and sometimes the other girls mock her for the same thing, but given the art style it is difficult to convey her as being any more or less attractive than the other girls on the show. Given the episodes that bring this up also discuss the issues with [[HollywoodBeautyStandards unrealistic beauty standards]], it can be justified.
* GeniusBurnout: She is academically gifted and has aspirations towards attending elite universities, but she is concerned about the Simpson gene that makes you get stupider over time. FlashForward episodes waffle back and forth between her attending college in England, being President of the United States and married to Milhouse still living in Springfield. In "Future Drama" specifically, Bart accidentally messes up her college admission and makes things right so that she doesn't have to marry Milhouse.
* GeniusBruiser: As Clobber Girl, she keeps her genius intellect and gains SuperStrength.
* GoGetterGirl: Lisa goes back and forth between being this and acting like a normal girl.
* GranolaGirl: Starting in season seven's "Lisa the Vegetarian." She feels guilty about eating meat after bonding with a lamb at a petting zoo, which leads to her becoming first a vegetarian, and then an ecological activist over the series.
* GreenEyedMonster: Lisa's main flaw is that she's quick to jealousy whenever she feels outshined or when she believes her title as the smartest kid in school is threatened. In "Smart and Smarter", she runs away from home because she felt outshined by Maggie. In "Jazzy and the Pussycats", she indirectly causes Bart's [[CareerEndingInjury hand injury]] by adopting wild animals after Bart supplanted her dream as a jazz musician by becoming a drummer.
* GuileHeroine: She's extremely clever and perfectly able to outsmart and manipulate her enemies like Mr Burns.
* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: She is blonde, and before {{Flanderization}} took over she was a very respectful and considerate person most of the time. Post-Flanderization, it's DependingOnTheWriter.
* HatedByAll: Zig-zagged; A recurring theme with episodes based on Lisa running for leadership always ends with Lisa losing the vote because of her low popularity. In "The Kid Is All Right", Milhouse tells her some of the kids do agree with her ideas, they just don't like ''her''. In her adulthood, Lisa is able to become president and is shown to be a reasonable, successful figure.
* HeelRealization: She has a tendency to be selfish about what she wants and judgmental about the intellectual quality of her family, but comes to realize how ungrateful she can be. In one episode she realized that while Homer sometimes takes her on outings she isn't that interested in, he still is trying to spend time with her. Likewise, Homer will take her to things she loves and he doesn't, while she acts embarrassed to be with him.
* HolierThanThou: At times due to her SoapboxSadie traits. The "a girl wants to play football" scene from ''Bart Star'' is a great example. She initially demands a place in the football team because it's male dominated. Ned welcomes her and points out that there are several girls already on the team. She loses interest, making it clear she was just pushing for affirmative action for the sake of it, and then tries to shame them for using balls she think are made out of pig skin to make herself look good, only to be told that their balls are synthetic and some of the money they pay for the balls is going to charity.
* HonorBeforeReason: Lisa is willing to bend the rules, but only if she comes to that conclusion by herself. If someone tells her to lie, cheat, or even just conceal the truth, she will refuse, even if lying, cheating or concealing the truth would be to everyone's advantage. Part of being an 8 years old child and part flanderization.
* {{Hypocrite}}: More often than the other family members, Lisa tends to become this, changing her stance on a cause in the very same episode. She ''claims'' she wants to be challenged, but whenever she finds herself challenged becomes sulky and resentful.
** A prime example of this would be "The Secret War of Lisa Simpson"; she spends much of the episode complaining how she feels "unchallenged" at school (and seems to look down on the other kids because of her "intellect"), she then sees military school as the way forward. However, when she is rejected by the boys and made to ''really'' be challenged (not just mentally but physically), she's completely incapable of living up to it. When Bart calls her out on this, she outright claims she wanted a challenge she ''knew'' she could do, not one she could actually fail at, which completely negates the concept of a challenge in the first place.
** Once after she cheated to gain a perfect score in a test, the school was awarded extra funding to buy some basics. But even after she confessed to Skinner and he requested she keep quiet for the school's sake, she confessed to the School Inspector, which ultimately would sabotage her fellow students' learning - regardless, her conscience was wiped clean.
** One episode has her buying gifts for her whole family to enjoy for Christmas, but rather than buy them gifts they'd actually want, she buys them the type of gifts that make her feel like a better person, so of course none of them like them. She becomes angry at their "ungratefulness", but thankfully Bart sees through her true intentions and soon calls her out on it; she quickly remedies it after though.
** When Todd Flanders has a crisis in faith, Lisa gives him a thumbs up after he tells the First Church of Springfield congregation he doesn't believe in God anymore. Lisa then tries to convert Todd to Buddhism, and he calls her out on it.
** She and the narrative treat Sherri and Terri in particular as awful jerks for shunning her for being different or only pretending to like her. However, she often thinks very little of them herself even when trying to approach them. She will also happily shun [[KindheartedSimpleton Ralph]] for being too different.
* ICanChangeMyBeloved:
** In "Lisa's Date With Density", she falls for [[TheBully Nelson]], gushing out how [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys dark and mysterious he is]] and insisting that only she can change him. Subverted when Lisa comes to realize that she could never change Nelson.
** In "Lucas", she inexplicably falls for a hopeless boy who wants to be a competitive eater (despite Bart's warning that he's just "[[TheDitz Ralph Wiggum]] with a dream") and then thinks about changing him. Marge fears that Lisa goes out with him because he reminds her of her father.
* ICantDance: She can do jazz dancing (as seen in "Lisa the Beauty Queen"), but she's terrible at tap and ballet (as seen in "Last Tap Dance in Springfield" and "Smoke on the Daughter").
* IdiotBall:
** A surprising number of examples, like running up hundreds of dollars in charges to a 900 number, spending the time she should have been studying for a test playing a video game (and then ''cheating'' to pass it), and downloading $1,200 of music on her [=MyPod=]. Then there's "Lisa The Simpson", where she's led to believe that she's ''biologically'' predisposed to be like this (and finds out in the end that it's actually Bart's cross to bear).
** PlayedForLaughs in "Bart of Darkness"; the Simpsons get a pool, and Lisa gains popularity among the kids of Springfield, causing her brain to leave her and Lisa to speak in a SimpletonVoice. Her brains come back when everyone leaves for Martin's pool on the other side of town.
* IJustWantToBeSpecial: She's a child academic with a bright future ahead of her and she sometimes feels like she's a victim of circumstance due to her family's poor income and lack of shared interests. She aspires to be around people who share her interests and she wants to be in a school where she feels challenged. She can be selfish about it sometimes but she wouldn't sacrifice someone else's wellbeing for her own benefit. As shown when she immediately quit an upper-class school after she found out that she only got into it because Marge offered to do their laundry in exchange for her enrollment.
* IJustWantToHaveFriends: While in some episodes, she ''does'' have friends, she is sometimes portrayed as a lonely outcast DependingOnTheWriter and this trope provides the plot of several episodes.
* IncorruptiblePurePureness: The show tries to portray her as this, although it's not always played straight (see NotSoAboveItAll). She has utterly refused to watch stolen cable with the rest of the family and has generally remained the voice of reason in crisis situations. Though sometimes tempted into giving in, she mostly remains an example of hope for humanity. Matt Groening even admitted this symbolism during an interview, saying that she might be the only character who will eventually be able to escape Springfield.
* InferioritySuperiorityComplex: Lisa Simpson's FatalFlaw is that she defines herself by being smarter then others and due to flanderization this aspect of her has only gotten worse throughout the years. Lisa has done things such as willingly staying a NormalFishInATinyPond, to completely alienating her fellow student (by being a SoapBoxSadie to those who don't share her interest and an InsufferableGenius to those that do). At her worse, Lisa will flat out sabotage someone she considers her better out of jealousy. While she will usually feel sorry for her actions it's only after she gets what she wants.
* InformedDeformity: On several occasions it has been stated that Lisa has a large backside, despite her body shape resembling most other Springfield kids.
* InformedLoner: She's supposed to be a lonely outsider. However, she occasionally hangs out with average girls of her class and has no problem getting along with her schoolmates, unless the plot wants her to be unpopular. And for all her unpopularity, many boys have shown interest in her, and she also gains popularity easily over the course of many storylines, often becoming praised and loved by many people.
* InnocentProdigy: Usually rather level headed and one of the most intelligent people in Springfield. However her brattiness and childlike naive perks up many times, especially where her SiblingRivalry with Bart is involved.
* InsufferableGenius: At her worst. She longs to be challenged, but at times it's clear she enjoys feeling smarter than her peers.
* IntelligenceEqualsIsolation: Played straight sometimes. In earlier seasons Lisa had a best friend called Janey and had quite a lot of friends, but they got pushed aside and forgotten. The latest episodes show some of those friends, Janey included, but they tend to push Lisa away whenever she shows her smarts.
* IntrovertedCatPerson: Aside from early seasons, Lisa is usually presented as a friendless loner. She has a fondness for cats and has owned several.
* ItsAllAboutMe:
** Just like [[AttentionWhore Bart]], Lisa shows many signs of this trope. She defines herself by being better then others, to the point where many of her [[SoapboxSadie worst]] moments are more about proving that she's right than proving her point.
** One example of this comes from the episode "Gone Abie Gone", Lisa gains $413,762 through gambling but loses the money. When Bart tells her that he was the user who won Lisa's money, Lisa immediately claimed ownership and thought that she would use the money to go to college and then use the rest of the money to live like a queen.
* JerkassBall: She's prone to this at times, usually when she tries to [[SoapboxSadie force her own personal beliefs on everyone else]].
* JerkassHasAPoint: When Bart is sent to a juvenile prison Lisa reassures Marge by saying that it wasn't her fault that Bart ended up the way he did, and instead blames Homer for being a bad influence. While Lisa isn't wrong in the slightest that sort of argument could have easily ended with Homer and Marge divorcing each other, especially when Homer had no influence over Bart's choice to play the prank that landed him in prison.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Post-{{flanderization}}, she's settled into this. She's generally kindhearted and well-behaved, but has a nasty tendency to [[SoapboxSadie push her beliefs into other people's throats]], [[{{Hypocrite}} change her point of view at the drop of a hat in order to look cool]], and [[InferioritySuperiorityComplex break down when she realizes someone in her family is better than her in a given activity]]. At the very least, however, she'll usually own up to her faults in the end.
* KarmaHoudini:
** In her earlier days, she was essentially a female Bart, but shrewder in her mischief, so had a much greater tendency to go unpunished than her brother. Allegedly, the creative team were stated to be dead against the suggestion of Homer violently disciplining Lisa in the same way he does Bart.
** It happens occasionally in the later seasons. While in the early seasons if she ever went too far in being AcademicAlphaBitch she would receive some form of LaserGuidedKarma, later episodes would not only do away with this, but reward her.
** Many episodes in the later seasons have treated Lisa's actions as in the right, even when people are heavily injured or even killed by having a third party actually do the deed.
* KnowNothingKnowItAll:
** The TropeNamer. Though Lisa is very smart and knows stuff people don't already know, Homer and Lisa's argument at the dinner table in "Lisa the Vegetarian" has Homer calling his daughter a "barbecue-wrecking, know-nothing, know-it-all". She does have a moment of this in "Money BART". When Lisa becomes the manager of Bart's baseball team, she claims that there have been several women managers and lists some off like Terry Francona and Connie Mack. Nelson tells her that all of her examples are men, much to Lisa's shock. At times, Lisa skirts this trope in the sense of having the knowledge and not knowing how it applies in a more practical sense.
** Several episodes also highlight that for all her intelligence, she's actually not as smart as she might think. For example, in ''Bart Vs. Lisa Vs. The Third Grade'', she aces a test and is bumped up to third grade. However, once she enters third grade, the environment is a little different and what they are taught is slightly more complex compared to second grade. One would think Lisa would have no issue with a minor change like this, but she completely crumbles and welcomes going back to being "a big fish in a small pond" [[{{Pride}} simply to make herself feel like the smartest one in the room again.]]
* KindheartedCatLover: She's usually portrayed as the "nice one" of the Simpson kids and she's a big cat fan. She is the primary caretaker of Snowball II.
* LadyAndAScholar: She's a very intelligent child who is more well-spoken and philosophical than the other kids. Despite a few InsufferableGenius moments and her SiblingRivalry with Bart, she is mostly polite, pleasant, and friendly to everyone.
* TheLancer: To Bart, whenever they take on Sideshow Bob.
* LadyMacbeth:
** In "The Spy Who Learned Me", she helped Nelson gain a great physical condition, but didn't stop him from hurting innocent kids, only commenting that "He's hard on the nerds but easy on the eyes".
** In "Dial 'N' for Nerder" she pressures Bart to prevent him from confessing about the murder and tried to offer herself as Nelson's girlfriend to prevent him from revealing her confession.
* LikeParentLikeChild: Lisa gets her morals from Marge. In some of the earlier episodes, she also has a tendency to say "Hmmmmmm..." like her.
* LikeParentUnlikeChild: Lisa and Homer share little in common.
* LimitedWardrobe: Always wears a red dress with pearls. In one episode she decides to trade her pearls to get a rare [[CrackIsCheaper Olympic Games pin to complete a collection]], which was a big deal as she considered it part of her identity.
* LittleMissBadass: She's a natural GuileHeroine despite her young age . And physically, Lisa one-hit KO'd Bart in an MMA ring and she also connects a gloriously-animated punch on Bart in the movie.
* LittleMissSnarker: Her snark is her defence mechanism amidst her dysfunctional family. She's the smart one and educated one among the uncultured and the others are boorish or stupid. Her mother alternates between being like the others or a sophisticated, artistic woman.
* MagicSkirt: Lisa's trademark red sundress; especially egregious as it's a ''dress'' with no waist, which should logically fall all the way down to her shoulders whenever she's upside down.
* MatureYoungerSibling: Lisa is much [[ChildProdigy smarter]] and [[WiseBeyondTheirYears wiser]] than her ten-year-old brother [[BrattyHalfPint Bart]], often warning him against bad ideas and such forth. In fact, in "My Sister, My Sitter", when the parents are out, she babysits him rather than the other way around.
* MiddleChildSyndrome: She often has trouble fitting in with her family, and they often have trouble understanding her. Several episodes explore this dynamic in detail.
* MoralityChain: Like Marge, Lisa often plays the conscience for the family and often becomes a morality pet for people outside of the family.
* MoralityPet: She's probably the only one of Homer's kids whom he makes a conscious effort to be a good father to. In addition, if anyone, even his wife, somehow hurts her in some way, he gets [[PapaWolf intensely angry]]. It is implied that Lisa was neglected by Homer as a baby, when Homer observes some old videos of him completely ignoring her early talents, [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone he is driven to tears in guilt.]]
* MouthyKid: Her intelligent comments earn her the ire of the rest of Springfield's citizens.
* MsExposition:
-->'''Lisa:''' Dad! The flash [of the camera] must have scrambled [the robots'] circuits!\\
'''Homer:''' [[LampshadeHanging What are you, the narrator?]]\\
'''Lisa:''' Aah, just keep taking pictures.
* MsImagination: Lisa occasionally drifts off into a fantasy world to avoid the grim reality of living life in Springfield.
* MsViceGirl: Lisa is intellectually gifted, philosophical and compassionate, and all at the age of eight years old. Perhaps because of the awareness of her gifts however, she can sometimes be incredibly egomaniacal and self righteous, with an over insistence on being the center of attention and pushing her beliefs down others' throats, and often insensitively dismissing others as stupider or less significant than her.
* NerdsLoveToughSchoolwork: From time to time. In one episode the school has to shut down, and by the time Lisa gets home she is hysterical due to withdrawal. She immediately takes out an emergency kit she keeps under the couch, which contains a picture of Springfield Elementary and a tape recording of a teacher yelling at students.
* NerdyBully: Zig-zagged. Due to AllOfTheOtherReindeer Lisa repeatedly flip flops from BullyMagnet to AcademicAlphaBitch DependingOnTheWriter.
* NiceGirl: Lisa is a nice and caring girl who usually tries to do the right thing and has a strong sense of morality, although in later seasons she becomes more rude and pushy about her beliefs.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Ironically, despite being the voice of reason, every time Homer gets into a position of power, once he takes advice from Lisa, it usually ends up meaning that things go ''horribly'' wrong and everyone jumps ship. Then again, the people working underneath Homer tend to be idiots who don't want things to change, the prime example being the Stonecutters.
* NormalFishInATinyPond: Every time Lisa finds herself in a classroom setting other than Miss Hoover's second grade class and is actually ''challenged'' by the teachers and coursework, she doesn't get the A's she's used to.
* NotSoAboveItAll:
** Though often priding herself on her intelligence and maturity, she is still a kid and enjoys some of the same things as Bart (such as ''Itchy & Scratchy'' or prank-calling Moe). Even with Bart's pranks, if she's not the first to scold them, she's likely the first to laugh at them. And as noted above, she is not above bending the rules completely.
** Later episodes show Lisa daydreaming about murdering Bart, and she was all too willing to cover up the assumed, if accidental, murder of Martin Prince to stay out of trouble. It looks as if she's not entirely immune to Springfield's corruption.
** At the end of "Lisa The Simpson", Lisa loudly cheers with a "woo hoo!" that would have done Homer proud when she finally solves the kiddie puzzle that made her question if she was losing her intellect. She immediately corrects herself to say "splendid", but she's still enough of a Simpson to borrow several of her father's catchphrases.
* OneeSama: She's Maggie's older sister and is a revered 8th grader for her high intellect.
* OnlySaneWoman: She often finds herself thrust into the role of only sane girl. Quite often, when her family (or occasionally, the entire town) is caught up in some insane course of action, she's the one who points out how absurd things have become. Her comments are usually ignored. The straight man role is usually traded between Lisa and Marge. Sometimes Lisa is also caught up in the craziness, for example with the Movementarians.
* TheParagon: Lisa is good at appealing to the better nature of others and inspiring them to be better people, even if it's short-lived. Her vow to justice can be a flaw at times, as she often puts herself in charge to do the right thing or chooses to do the right thing, even if everyone suffers from it. For example, in "Lisa the Vegetarian" she ruins Homer's barbeque because she was the only one who saw meat-eating as evil. Examples of her charisma are when she inspires Sideshow Bob to stop his evil plans in "The Man Who Grew Too Much" and inspire Mr Burns to start recycling in "The Old Man and the Lisa".
* PingPongNaivete: She switches between world-weary cynicism and childlike naiveté as the plot demands. In one instance, within seconds - she hurls a bucket of red paint at Krusty (who's wearing a coat made from some kind of animal skins), screams "Fur is murder!" then follows it with "When's the Krusty movie coming out?"
* PoorCommunicationKills: Lisa often has trouble conveying her ambitions in a positive manner. In "Lisa Simpson, This Isn't Your Life", she decides to devote herself to her education after discovering Marge's childhood achievements before meeting Homer. She wanted to have a good future and improve her education, however, an offended Marge took this as "my mother is a failure because she chose to be a housewife".
* ProudToBeAGeek: Zigzagged. There are times where she doesn't feel that way and wants to be like everyone else, and others where she takes pride in her geekier aspects.
* RidiculouslySuccessfulFutureSelf: She either becomes a successful businesswoman or the President of the United States when she grows up. Her personal life however is mixed, with a strained relationship with her husband and daughter.
* ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules: Lisa rarely compromises with her principles and never takes a bribe.
* SecretKeeper: "A Milhouse Divided" implies Lisa is Homer's confidant for stuff he doesn't want Marge to know (or at least that he ''thinks'' Marge doesn't know about).
-->'''Homer:''' There's a lot of stuff she doesn't know about!\\
'''Lisa:''' You mean like your poker shack in the swamp?\\
'''Homer:''' Yuh-huh.\\
'''Lisa:''' She ''knows.''
* SignatureInstrument: Her saxophone, of course. She's always seen playing it when she's feeling the blues or preparing for a gig. Interestingly, some of the background music involving her scenes will occasionally play a sax, even when her sax is not present.
* SmallNameBigEgo: Lisa is the schools outcast and takes pride in this and maintaining her intelligence which causes her to become envious and jealous towards anyone who outsmarts her.
* TheSmartGirl: The smartest one in the family, and easily one of the smartest people in Springfield.
%%* SmugSnake: On her bad days.
* SnapBack: Averted in "Lisa the Vegetarian." Originally, the writers wanted it to be a one-time, WhatIf thing and go back to normal the next episode. However, Paul [=McCartney=] (the episode's guest star), when originally asked to appear, would only appear if he was assured that the change would be permanent. Also averted in "Sleeping With the Enemy" when Lisa tells Homer that she still feels insecure about her body and she's not going to go back to acting like she's not. However, later episodes never again mention Lisa and her eating disorder.
* SoapboxSadie: Became one of the most infamous examples after {{Flanderization}}.
** In the "Bart Star" episode, her soapbox was deflated, as she tried to join the pee-wee football team. "That's right, a girl wants to join the team." After it was revealed that there were four girls already on the team, she tries to raise a fuss about the fact that footballs are made from pigskin. She then learns that the balls are synthetic and with each purchase, money is donated to Amnesty International. Unable to cope with not being on the moral high ground, she runs off crying.
** Lisa also has a habit of jumping on a soapbox for boys - though she already has views on the subject she will amp them up to get boys to notice her.
* SpeaksFluentAnimal: In "Mr. Lisa's Opus", when she's telling her dormmate her skills, she mentions that she speaks fluent cat, then makes subtitled cat noises.
* TheStoolPigeon:
** She's pretty much this constantly, with many many plots throughout the seasons (as an example, "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS10E7LisaGetsAnA Lisa Gets an "A"]]") revolving about someone building a lie (and sometimes the plot showing that the lie is the ''better'' thing for everybody (even Lisa herself) and everybody saying so) and Lisa trying to tell the truth regardless. She ''thinks'' of herself as a Concerned Claire-type (in that she says it's the legal/moral thing to do), but what type she ''really'' is depends on the plot at hand (at least sometimes shows to be doing it out of some desire to thumb her nose up at the liar).
** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E8BartTheDaredevil Bart the Daredevil]]": Despite trying to convince Bart the dangers of daredevil stunts, Lance Murdock is instead impressed by Bart's interest in it, which causes Lisa to tell Homer about it, fearing that he may get hurt or die despite getting the most attention.
** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS20E7MypodsAndBoomsticks Mypods and Boomsticks]]": She squeals on Bart after pulling a prank on Steve Mobbs and the rest of the consumers and employees.
* StraightMan: Lisa has the thankless task of playing foil to her entire town. In the early days she and Bart were a classic StraightManAndWiseGuy combo, and while this is still true, she often finds herself playing straight to almost everyone else in Springfield. Luckily, she is usually excellent at it. Occasionally, especially in later seasons, Lisa's more extreme personality traits will come to the fore and she gets to have someone else play off her for a change.
* StrawFeminist: Depends on the episode:
** While Lisa is normally passive in her beliefs as she speaks of the achievements of women and voices her support for leading feminists. There are a few times when she's gotten unfairly irritated toward men (Homer in particular) and in one episode, she expresses disappointment toward her mother for choosing to forgo her education after meeting Homer.
--->'''Lisa:''' Dad, put aside your selfish male ego and tell the truth!
** Especially played straight in "Bart Star" where her feminism is PlayedForLaughs and only serves to make her look foolish in one scene. She smugly declares she wants to join the football team as a YouGoGirl ("That's right. A girl wants to play football. How about that?") but after it's revealed that are already four girls on the team, she loses interest and claims that football is not her thing anyway.
* SurroundedByIdiots: She actually once voiced that she lives in a town of idiots in an issue of the comic.
* TokenGoodTeammate: She was the only member of the family who wanted to give Bobo to Burns without getting any money.
* TeachersPet: Her ego is often a result of her parents and school teachers putting her on a pedestal because of her intelligence and morals.
* {{Telepathy}}: She reads a worm's mind in "Lisa the Vegetarian". However, it is likely PsychologicalProjection, as the worm thinks exactly what she would imagine the worm to think, in exactly the bleating voice the lamb she ate for dinner used when pleading not to be eaten in the previous evening's ImagineSpot.
* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: In most Future Episodes, Maggie is usually a tough, laid-back tomboy and Lisa is usually a prim and proper girly girl.
* TooCleverByHalf: In the first "Treehouse of Horror", Kang and Kodos abduct them in their flying saucer to live in luxury. Lisa snoops around the ship and finds a book titled "How to Cook Humans". Offended at the notion, the aliens blow some dust off the book's cover revealing the title to be "How to Cook For Humans". To which Lisa points out that there is still dust on the book, with the title now "How to Cook Forty Humans". Kang then demonstrate that there is yet still more dust on the book's cover, finally revealing the book's full title "How to Cook For Forty Humans" (the Simpsons were gluttons).
-->'''Marge:''' Now you know what we mean when we say you're too smart for your own good?
* TookALevelInJerkass: Zigzagged. An unfortunate aspect of Lisa's CharacterDevelopment over the seasons was her growing not only more "saintly", but also becoming full of herself, rude towards those she considered less than her, and pushy about her beliefs. Later seasons have mostly fixed this by having Lisa focus on self-improvement and making friends instead of political activism.
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Despite being a vegetarian, she really loves shrimp.
* TVGenius: Zigzagged. Lisa does at very least have InsufferableGenius qualities and on occasion is rather blindly obnoxious and self serving in her ethics, to the point of being a SoapboxSadie. These flaws obviously became less significant as the rest of the cast was Flanderized excessively but her shortcomings still show on occasion. While she sometimes has problems with IntelligenceEqualsIsolation, she's actually one of the most well-adjusted characters on the show. Her level of knowledge is totally implausible for an eight-year-old, but it depends entirely on RuleOfFunny.
* TheUglyGuysHotDaughter: What she'll grow up to be, as seen in episodes taking place in the future.
* UglyGuyHotWife: With [[spoiler:Milhouse]] in some possible future. He grows up to be balding with a gut and Lisa grows up beautifully in episodes like "Holidays of Future Passed."
* UnbuiltTrope: By way of CharacterizationMarchesOn, her earlier depictions as a ChildProdigy show that, for as much of a ''prodigy'' as she may be, she's still a ''child'' with a limited understanding of the world. [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E8LisasPony "Lisa's Pony"]] is a good example of this, where she indulges in her newfound hobby before realizing that Homer is working himself to exhaustion to support it. Also her activism is driven by a tortured conscience.
* UnknownRival:
** Lisa fears and hates Sideshow Bob as much as Bart and has outgambitted him just as often. Despite this, Bob's psychotic vendetta sticks with just Bart (and sometimes Krusty and [[RunningGag rakes]] on the side), even lampshading that he is utterly apathetic towards Lisa.
** Turned around in one of the comics, where Cecil dedicates himself to ruining Lisa even though they'd had no prior interaction, simply because they were the less favored sibling.
* VirginInAWhiteDress: In a FlashForward episode where we see[[Characters/TheSimpsonsLisaSimpson here]].Lisa's wedding, she and Marge briefly discuss this as they are a church-going family.
-->'''Lisa:''' Mom, I feel kind of funny wearing white. I mean... ''Milhouse''.\\
'''Marge:''' ''[dismissive]'' Oh, Milhouse doesn't count.
* VirtuousVegetarianism: Lisa is both the most intelligent and idealistic member of the cast and has converted to vegetarianism. Originally her conversion was to teach AnAesop about accepting the differences of others, but since learning her lesson it's remained a part of her character [[note]]largely due to Music/PaulMcCartney, who guest starred in the episode as a vegetarian icon, stipulating that he would only appear if Lisa ''remained'' vegetarian going forward[[/note]].
* WackyParentSeriousChild: Being the OnlySaneWoman and ChildProdigy genius she is, Lisa plays the Serious Child role to her Wacky Parent of a BumblingDad Homer.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Lisa will often resort to extreme methods for ideals and her methods are examined in some episodes.
** In "Lisa the Vegetarian", she ruins Homer's barbeque because she was the only one who didn't like the idea of eating a roast pig. While Lisa believes herself to be in the right, her fellow vegetarians actually call her out on this. Rather than convince people to join her vegetarianism, she inspired the anti-vegetarian backlash since they didn't understand why she was so offended about a roast pig and she didn't explain why eating meat is wrong.
** In "The Simpsons Game", she and Bart destroy a logging camp because she believed they should save the trees. However, once the pair do destroy the camp, they are confronted by a pair of loggers who are now out of work since they now lack the means to provide for their families and don't have the skills to find other means of work.
* WhiteSheep: Sometimes she's portrayed like this and is seen as TokenGoodTeammate of the family. In "Lisa's Wedding" her (future) boyfriend Hugh tells her "You're like a flower that grew out of a pot of dirt". She doesn't take it well.
* WideEyedIdealist: Lisa was this in earlier seasons. She followed her ideals the best she could but the rest of Springfield either didn't understand her ideals or didn't want to conform to them. Her vegetarianism is the best example of this, she became a vegetarian because she became horrified and guilt-ridden for eating meat after playing with a lamb. She tried to convert her family, school and friends but they couldn't understand. She became aggressive with her views but eventually calmed down after Apu, Paul and Linda [=McCartney=] taught her that aggression won't get people to understand her views but patiently influencing them will slowly get them to understand her viewpoint.
* WiseBeyondHerYears: In fact, one episode had Mayor Quimby surprised that she's a child, saying that he always thought she was a midget--Lisa explains that she isn't and that the preferred term is "little person." When she was two, she was as articulate as any person, with only a few grammar errors. Believe it or not, this is actually TruthInTelevision- some two-year-olds can have conversations with you.
* WomenAreWiser: Compared to Bart, although they play this trope to a much lesser extent than their parents. Lisa is certainly much more intelligent and mature than Bart, but Bart is the more socially adept of the two, and isn't nearly as dumb as his father.
* WorthyOpponent: After thwarting scheme after scheme with her ingenuity and sharp wit, Lisa has earned Sideshow Bob's respect as a worthy adversary.
* YoureNotMyMother: "You're Not My Mother and Father". She did this to both of her parents when they really upset her (to Homer in "Homer and Lisa Exchange Cross Words", and to Marge in "How Lisa Got Her Marge Back").
* YourTraditionIsNotMine: Lisa only inherits her morals from her mother. Other than that, she's different to her family in many ways. Unlike her family, Lisa is a vegetarian, a bookworm and a Buddhist.
* AcademicAthlete: Although generally portrayed as unathletic and disinterested in sports, she has demonstrated considerable talent in certain athletic activities such as ice hockey, soccer, lacrosse, and even gymnastics. She was even interested in joining a football team (although she mainly did this to break the norm for her own sake) only to find out that there are already girls on the team.
* AffectionateNickname: Her brother Bart often calls her "Lis".
* AgeInappropriateDress: She's an 8-year-old wearing a strapless dress and pearls. She even lampshades it in "Puffless"; her substitute teacher in "Black-Eyed, Please" questions her about it.
-->'''Mrs. Cantwell:''' What eight-year-old wears pearls?
* AdorablyPrecociousChild: As sophisticated, intelligent, and worldly as Lisa may be at 8 years old, she has more growing up to do than she thinks, and so she is not above lapsing into childish behavior if the situation calls for it.
* AllGirlsLikePonies:
** On her Christmas list, she listed "pony" over and over again. She finally got one in Season 3, "Lisa's Pony".
** The moment she's at a country club, complaining about the snobs, and sees someone riding a horse. The predictable happens.
** In "She of Little Faith", her family attempted to bribe her into converting back to Presbylutheranism by presenting her with a pony (but which is really Milhouse and Ralph pretending).
* AllGirlsWantBadBoys:
** [[PuppyLove She had a crush on Nelson]] once, [[FirstKiss and he was her first kiss]].
** She's implied to have a crush on Jimbo Jones.
** Parodied in one episode where she reveals her crush on a boy who works at the library. His "bad boy" behavior is pretty much limited to being annoyed at people who confuse the juvenile and young adult sections.
--->'''Lisa:''' Ooooh... if only someone could tame him...
** Later she only becomes interested in DoggedNiceGuy Milhouse when he acts like Creator/MarlonBrando in ''Theatre/AStreetcarNamedDesire'' and is mean to her.
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Depending on the episode, when the writers want to evidence her "misunderstood outcast" status for the sake of the plot. In "Lisa Goes Gaga", she is voted the least popular student of the entire school.
* AllTakeAndNoGive: A major flaw of Lisa's is that she believes that all her interpersonal relationships should be based solely around her own desires and worldviews, while the other party doesn't get the same consideration. Unsurprisingly, this is one of the main reasons she's unpopular with her peers.
* AloofBigSister: PlayedStraight with Maggie but inverted with her older brother, Bart. Homer is very open with his favouritism towards Lisa, his negligence towards Maggie, and his disproval of Bart. As such, Lisa often outshines her brother and sister through her intelligence and sometimes feels threatened when her siblings starts showing signs of being better than her.
* AlwaysSecondBest:
** To Allison in the episode "Lisa's Rival" where Allison was slightly better than Lisa at everything, mostly slightly more knowledgeable and better on the sax.
** Lisa's voice actress Yeardley Smith even remarked about how often Lisa would enter a contest and end up in second place; two notable examples are "Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington" and "Lisa the Beauty Queen". Also when she entered a cruciverbalism (crosswords) contest, she went to the finals and lost to ''Gil''. In the spelling bee episode, she also loses to another kid in the finals.
* AlwaysSomeoneBetter:
** She plays this to Bart, who she is often proved to be smarter and more gifted and capable than. It's revealed in a season 27 episode that Bart been upstaged by Lisa since he was 6 and his resentment of her stems from his inability to be better than her at ''anything''. Even in her earlier brattier days in the shorts, a running gag had Bart constantly bested by Lisa (and sometimes even Maggie) in his pranks and showboating.
** To Martin Prince, her school rival in Science Fair. Even if Martin's IQ is 216 (Lisa's IQ is 156 or 159), she is often stated to be the smartest person in Springfield above him.
* AMFMCharacterization: She's generally depicted as being a fan of {{Jazz}} and {{Blues}} (her saxophone playing is also one of the most memorable things about her character), with an exception in the episode [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS32E19PanicOnTheStreetsOfSpringfield "Panic on the Streets of Springfield"]] where she got really into an {{expy}} of Music/{{Morrissey}}.
* AmbiguouslyBi: While she does like boys and had different boyfriends throughout the series, later episodes seem to imply that she is lesbian or bisexual in the future, even [[ExperimentedInCollege if it's only a phase]]. In the couch gag of "Holidays of Future Passed", Lisa is seen with a girlfriend in one photo and two different girls in another. In "Mr. Lisa's Opus", Lisa's roommate seems to want to be "more than a friend", but we never learn if Lisa's interested. In the credits of "Mother and Child Reunion" when Lisa asked if any of the vision of the future is true, the oracle (Nate Silver) said, among other things, that Lisa will have 47% chance of a boyfriend and 72% chance of a girlfriend, Lisa is ecstatic about the odds (not at all bothered about the possibility of being a lesbian). In "No Loan Again, Naturally," when Bart misunderstands the phrase "family outing" and claims that Lisa is gay, she doesn't refute it, saying that it only makes sense she'd want to be gay as several of her idols are.
* AnnoyingYoungerSibling: Bart usually finds her annoying, though it's more common for Bart to be the one annoying Lisa. Lisa is also able to antagonize her brother on purpose sometimes.
* AuthorAvatar: To creator Creator/MattGroening concerning certain viewpoints of his.
* BadassBookworm: Lisa is very intelligent and able to knock out her older brother.
* BadassPacifist: She uses words, speeches, blackmail, and trickery to deal with her problems. Later, however, she becomes a lot more willing to resort to violence.
* BerserkButton: Whenever Lisa receives anything less than an A on her report cards, expect her to freak out.
* BigBrotherWorship: As a toddler, she absolutely adored Bart, to the point that her first word was her brother's name. The "worship" part went away over time, though she still loves her brother.
* BookSmart: She is a hardworking bookworm who excels academically.
* BorrowedCatchphrase:
** Like her mother and siblings, Lisa's said "D'oh" when she's frustrated or upset by something. She's borrowed some of her father's other catchphrases by imitating him drooling over his favorite foods with his tongue hanging out, and yelled "woo hoo!" when she succeeded at something.
** In a couple of episodes from the earlier seasons, she sometimes borrows her mother's "Hmmmmmm...". In "Rosebud", she even says it along with Marge.
* BrainBleach: In "Whiskey Business", Lisa seems to need some after seeing Moe in disturbingly tattered clothes. Thankfully, it looks like it's minimal:
-->''(Moe knocks at the door; Marge opens it and sees Moe in his ruined suit)''\\
'''Marge:''' Moe? What are you doing?\\
'''Moe:''' Midge, uh, the suit got a little mussed up... But I gotta ask ya... Is it noticeable? ''(turns around and shows his butt)''\\
''({{Beat}}.)''\\
'''Marge:''' Thank God, the kids aren't here.\\
'''Lisa:''' ''I was.''
* BreakTheCutie: Multiple times. One notable example is in "Milhouse Doesn't Live Here Anymore" when Bart and Lisa form a close bond, before Bart ditches her for Milhouse, causing her to start crying.
* BullyMagnet: In the occasional episode where she is the target of bullying, has been the recipient [[DependingOnTheWriter of multiple reasons]]: because she is a nerd, because she doesn't follow the clique rules of other girl students, because she is not as pretty as the rest, because she's a blonde and the bully's initial assumption is that she is a DumbBlonde, because she is a SoapboxSadie and somebody got fed up with it... in one episode she even tries to discover what makes a bully constantly beat her up and [[SpaceWhaleAesop she discovers that bullies are a]] HumanSubspecies [[InsaneTrollLogic who have a natural drive to attack people who give off certain pheromones (like nerds)]].
* BystanderSyndrome: In "Postcards From the Wedge" Bart tries to avoid studying and doing homework by driving a wedge between Homer and Marge but resorts to destroying the school when Homer and Marge decide to neglect him so that they can preserve their marriage. Lisa knew about what Bart was doing from the beginning, but chose to do nothing rather than telling her parents about what Bart is doing. This example borders on AccompliceByInaction.
* ButNotTooChallenging: She often complains about the lack of educational challenges at school, but she doesn't take it well when she gets anything other than straight A's.
* ButtMonkey: On occasion. Her family is a bunch of idiots (with the exception of Marge, although she is frequently NotSoAboveItAll in later seasons) and she gets bullied fairly often for being a nerd.
* CharacterCatchphrase: Lisa didn't have a catchphrase since the beginning of the show until she said "If anyone wants me, I'll be in my room.", which is said in the end of the episode "Bart Gets Famous". Lisa also said this in "Lisa the Vegetarian", "Grift of the Magi", and "Dude, Where's My Ranch?". She also frequently yells out a shrill "MOOOOMMMM!!!" in response to [[BigBrotherBully Bart's antics]] or "DAAAAAD!!!" whenever Homer says or does something stupid. And, of course, there is "Meh."
* CharacterizationMarchesOn:
** Throughout the Ullman Shorts, she is a disrespectful troublemaker and not particularly bright, much like her brother. The writers originally conceived her and Bart as something of an interchangeable duo of bratty kids designed to drive Homer and Marge crazy. As Bart became the rascally BreakoutCharacter, however, the writers believed having Lisa as a [[DistaffCounterpart female version]] of Bart seemed redundant, so they rewrote her as a brainy, yet socially awkward girl. However. season 1 has a mix of her two characterizations. While still a bit of troublemaker and generally plays along with Bart's antics, she is shown to be the more mature one between her and Bart
** In the early episodes, she was a big fan of ''The Happy Little Elves'' while Bart preferred to watch ''Krusty the Klown'' and ''The Itchy and Scratchy Show'' (along with horror movies and, in the episode where Homer steals cable TV, X-rated movies). Later episodes either show both of them being childish, both of them being mature or, in a lot of cases, ''Bart'' being the childish one and ''Lisa'' being the more mature one.
** Her artistic side arguably dates back the development of the show, since her saxophone solo is part of the opening credits. Another case of this would be her rebellion against her music teacher Mr. Largo. It's part of the opening credits, and is emphasized considerably in a couple early episodes. Later, not only did Lisa avoid conflict with her teachers to the point of becoming a grades-obsessed teacher's pet, but Mr. Largo has been DemotedToExtra (and in some cases, PutOnABus).
** Her attitude towards school evolved from being a teacher's pet (telling Janey that 'school is never pointless' in an early episode) to a more rebellious and disillusioned attitude towards teachers who don't return her enthusiasm for learning ('Do you remember when you lost passion for this job?' to multiple school staff in one episode). However, this is zig-zagged and often depends on the episode - she still behaves far better in class than Bart, and gets incredibly hung up on getting perfect grades. As a general rule, she wants to do well in school but is less of a sycophant towards authority figures than Martin Prince is.
** Early episodes showed her being friends with other average girls in her class, liking ponies, and having small sleepovers at her house. The later episodes established her as a sad loner who is very disliked, constantly bullied for being "smart", a very uppity GranolaGirl, and always trying to find friends ''outside'' her school and joins environmental groups and MENSA.
* TheChewToy: She has been shown to get bullied a lot in episodes like "Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily", "Bye Bye Nerdie" and "Sleeping with The Enemy". She is also not safe from slapstick. She has been punched in the face at least twice (one of those times by a man), hit in the face multiple times with a basketball, strapped to an airplane propeller that was then turned on at full speed as part of a military academy hazing, and - probably her most humiliating moment - dared by Bart into drinking canal water from the "Little Land of Duff" ride in Duff Gardens which turned her into a hallucinating, naked "Lizard Queen".
* ChildProdigy: She's 8 years old and has a genius IQ.
* CloudcuckoolandersMinder: Not as much as Marge, but she's usually this when she interacts with her BumblingDad Homer. She's also the voice of reason for other characters as well.
* TheChosenWannabe: In "Gone Maggie Gone", Lisa believed she was part of a religious prophecy that would bring world peace, only to discover that the prophecy was about [[BaitAndSwitch Maggie]].
* TheConscience: Tries hard to be this for other people, both in the family and outside of the family, often calling out others on their behavior.
* CunningLinguist: She speaks Italian, with the help of Milhouse. She also seems to understand and know Swedish to a certain degree, as seen when Professor Frink won the Nobel Prize in "Treehouse of Horror XIV", however, this is only a non-canon source.
* CuteBookworm: She just ''loves'' books, libraries and reading.
* CuttingTheKnot: Averted; Lisa often overthinks situations or she forgets how young and naive she is. In "The Girl Who Slept Too Little" she gets scared of a nearby cemetery and develops problems with sleep. She doesn't realise until the end of the episode that she could have just bought a nightlight or closed the curtains.
* DaddysGirl: While her father is a complete idiot and often manages to embarrass her, she still loves him no matter what. "In Lisa's Wedding", she stops her own wedding because her British fiance was disgusted with her family (that, and he wasn't wearing her father's cufflinks. Which look like pigs.) Homer himself usually makes a bigger effort to support her compared to Bart or Maggie. He - not once, twice - sacrificed buying an air conditioner for his family to buy Lisa a new saxophone. And he sold his ride on the Duff Blimp to enter her in a beauty pageant when she was suffering from a lack of self-esteem. Several times, she comes to realize this and loves him back.
* DescentIntoAddiction: Whether it's second-hand smoke, calling the Corey hotline, expanding her mypod playlist or collecting pins, Lisa has an addictive personality and usually needs Bart or Homer's help to bail her out.
* DependingOnTheWriter:
** Either she is the bright spot of the Simpson family and Springfield, or a self-righteous jerk who, despite her intelligence, can be as jerkish as the rest of the town.
** Her emotional maturity and brilliance. She used to be the most mature and bright of the family, and while she had her flaws, she usually managed to learn from them. But as everyone got flanderized, she became quite a jackass and not as different from her family.
** Though she is never popular, just how unpopular she is varies from episode to episode. In some episodes, she hangs out with Janey Powell and some of the other girls but in other episodes she says she has no friends with even Janey teasing her.
** Her intelligence can range from her being a ChildProdigy (159 IQ, being part of MENSA, etc.) , having above-average intelligence for her age group (being a wise and intelligent kid, but with her flaws and defects), to only getting good grades because Springfield Elementary is a SuckySchool with low standards (she struggles when she is moved to third grade).
** Similarly, while they eventually settled on her being Buddhist, there was a time when Lisa could switch between a hard-nosed skeptic, Flanders v2.0, or a New Ager at the whim of the writing staff.
** Her love for her family seems to vary as well, in some seasons she does love her family despite how much they embarrass her or make her feel like an outcast. Whereas, other times she's quick to abandon them for the greater good or for what she deems is a better life.
** Whether or not she averts AMistakeIsBorn: While Bart and Maggie were very much unplanned, the series flip flops over whether Marge and Homer actually intended to have her or if she was merely the only SurprisePregnancy they were HAPPY about.
* DivergentCharacterEvolution: Lisa started out more or less as a DistaffCounterpart of Bart (though, unlike Bart, she had a smart side and felt like an outcast compared to the other students). In "Krusty Gets Busted", we get the first evidence of the smart Lisa that we all know, as she agrees to help Bart clear Krusty's name.
* DoesNotLikeMen: Downplayed. In ''See Homer Run'', the school authorities believe that Lisa has a development disorder that will make her hate men for the rest of her life if Homer doesn't start acting like a father to her. While Lisa is known to be more aggressive to men, it's either because she and Homer have fallen out or it's because she's trying to prove herself to other feminists. When she's acting independently on her beliefs, Lisa believes women can take responsibility for themselves and the worst thing she'll say about men is that women can save themselves.
* DrivenByEnvy: It's common for Lisa to feel threatened when someone appears to be smarter than her. In "Smart & Smarter" she developed a one-sided rivalry with Maggie when the latter's IQ test stated that she was smarter than her. In "Lisa's Rival", she has Alison's project sabotaged by Bart because she felt outshined by her classmate.
* DudeMagnet: Despite being a social outcast and generally unpopular, multiple boys have had a crush on her, including Milhouse, Ralph, Nelson, and many OneShotCharacter love interests.
* EasilyForgiven: Whenever Lisa does something morally wrong, she is often quickly forgiven by her family whereas whenever Bart and Homer do something wrong, they both suffer the consequences until they apologise.
* EnragedByIdiocy: Lisa is like this sometimes.
-->'''Lisa:''' (''to Homer'') You, sir, are a ''baboon''! '''BABOON, BABOON, ''BABOON''!!!'''
* EvenNerdsHaveStandards: Lisa may be a classic nerd in a way but she has standards.
** She can't stand pöpli.
** She [[JerkassBall laughed at Bart for having a stamp collection]].
** She fakes having food poisoning to get out of Martin Prince's educational-themed birthday party in "Grade School Confidential".
* FamilyThemeNaming: With her paternal grandmother, Mona Simpson. Together, their names create [[Creator/LeonardoDaVinci "Mona Lisa"]].
* FatalFlaw: Pride and self-righteousness.
** Pride: Lisa champions herself as the smartest in the family and the source of morals, so when she thinks her position is threatened by someone smarter than she is or she falls into jealousy, she quickly tries to reassert herself by sabotaging her rivals.
*** In ''Girly Edition'', Lisa feels threatened and jealous when Bart becomes a more respected news anchor than her and she orchestrates an ambush between Bart and Groundskeeper Willie as punishment.
*** In ''Lisa's Rival'', she sabotages Allison's diorama because she felt Allison was usurping her and wanted to keep her position as the smartest kid in school.
** Self-righteousness: If Lisa believes she's in the right then she'll assume that she knows better than everyone else and act on her beliefs, no matter how complex the situation actually is or how everyone benefits from the fault.
*** In ''Pranksta Rap'', Lisa figures out Bart faked his kidnapping to attend a rap concert and shames Bart, Homer, and everyone else for knowingly going along with the lie because everyone benefitted from it (Wiggum gained a promotion, Kirk gets well-fed and has fangirls, Homer profits off of merchandise, and nobody got hurt from the lie).
*** In "Lisa Gets An A" Lisa cheats on her literacy test and gets an A+++. Even though her cheating would benefit everyone in the school, she ultimately confesses her guilt from cheating and that the school was using funds they didn't earn.
* FirstKiss: A ShutUpKiss from Nelson Muntz. Lampshaded.
* {{Flanderization}}:
** She started out as a [[NiceGirl sweet-natured and well-behaved little girl]][[note]]Well, she ''started out'' as Bart in a dress in ''Series/TheTraceyUllmanShow'' shorts, but most of her brattiness faded quickly once ''The Simpsons'' became a show in its own right, with the main vestige of that part of her nature that was retained being her enjoyment of Bart's prank calls to Moe[[/note]] who acted as the family's voice of reason, alongside Marge. As seasons went by, she became Little Miss Perfect: her largest vice, her [[DrivenByEnvy envy]], was ramped up to the point she was unable to accept when someone in her family/friend group was better than her at any given activity. Her sardonic view of society as uncultured, phony, pandering, and lowest-common-denominator-focused became extreme intellectual superiority and being HolierThanThou (as seen in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS10E22TheySavedLisasBrain They Saved Lisa's Brain]]") and her quirkiness and nerdy interests became patronizing enthusiasm for the most pretentious of vocations (as seen in "Elementary School Musical" and "The Day The Earth Stood Cool"). She went from being a model child and the voice of reason (and therefore, Bart's contrast) to a stuck-up genius prude.
** Lisa wasn't that brilliant or mature in the early episodes (for example, she believes in Santa Claus), but she was clearly quite an achiever for her age. However, over time, her intelligence was taken up to eleven, with her doing things like trigonometry [[NotAllowedToGrowUp while still in second grade]] and understanding fractions in a flashback to when she was three years old.
** Every season progressively escalated her {{Soapbox Sadie}}ness higher and higher. She started complaining about anything and everything that didn't meet such standards, her strong progressive streak became activist tendencies (as seen in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E14LisaVsMalibuStacy Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy]]," when she protested against the Talking Malibu Stacy's misogynist phrases like "Thinking too much gives you wrinkles" and "My name is Stacy, but you can call me (''(WolfWhistle)''), then full-out environmental and uber-liberal extremism (as seen in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E5LisaTheVegetarian Lisa the Vegetarian]]," "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E21TheOldManAndTheLisa The Old Man and the Lisa]]," and "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS12E4LisaTheTreeHugger Lisa the Treehugger]]").
** While she had some friends in the early seasons, including Janey, who was the closest she had to a best friend, the Lisa of later seasons has become a friendless outcast due to the Flanderizations mentioned above. This is especially true in the episode "Lisa Goes Gaga", where she is voted Springfield Elementary's least popular student.
* FlawlessToken: She is female, well-behaved (for the most part) and intelligent, playing foil to Bart who's male, a bit of a {{jerk|With A Heart Of Gold}} and BookDumb (but StreetSmart). There are occasional aversions to this (see above).
* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: Bart and Lisa are among the most extreme and well-known examples. Bart is a BookDumb mischievous troublemaker (Foolish) while Lisa is very studious, well-behaved, and respectful (Responsible).
* FriendlessBackground: Glaringly enough DependingOnTheWriter. Some episodes have her spend time with one or a bunch of them, but then the next she's so incredibly neglected by her peers with the excuse she's too smart for them.
* FriendToAllLivingThings: Given her activism streak and environmental appreciation, it's no secret that she has a tendency to befriend animals, mammals, and even insects for an episode. This extends to [[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/simpsons/images/8/8a/Lisa_Every_Simpsons_Ever.png/revision/latest?cb=20150221064106 one of the show's promotional images]], which depicts her balancing a caterpillar on her finger. The whole reason she became a vegetarian was because she bonded with an adorable little lamb at a petting zoo.
* FunnyConceptionStory: "3 Scenes Plus a Tag From a Marriage" reveals she was conceived on the fire escape in Homer and Marge's first apartment.
* GenericCuteness: She has some insecurities about her appearance and sometimes the other girls mock her for the same thing, but given the art style it is difficult to convey her as being any more or less attractive than the other girls on the show. Given the episodes that bring this up also discuss the issues with [[HollywoodBeautyStandards unrealistic beauty standards]], it can be justified.
* GeniusBurnout: She is academically gifted and has aspirations towards attending elite universities, but she is concerned about the Simpson gene that makes you get stupider over time. FlashForward episodes waffle back and forth between her attending college in England, being President of the United States and married to Milhouse still living in Springfield. In "Future Drama" specifically, Bart accidentally messes up her college admission and makes things right so that she doesn't have to marry Milhouse.
* GeniusBruiser: As Clobber Girl, she keeps her genius intellect and gains SuperStrength.
* GoGetterGirl: Lisa goes back and forth between being this and acting like a normal girl.
* GranolaGirl: Starting in season seven's "Lisa the Vegetarian." She feels guilty about eating meat after bonding with a lamb at a petting zoo, which leads to her becoming first a vegetarian, and then an ecological activist over the series.
* GreenEyedMonster: Lisa's main flaw is that she's quick to jealousy whenever she feels outshined or when she believes her title as the smartest kid in school is threatened. In "Smart and Smarter", she runs away from home because she felt outshined by Maggie. In "Jazzy and the Pussycats", she indirectly causes Bart's [[CareerEndingInjury hand injury]] by adopting wild animals after Bart supplanted her dream as a jazz musician by becoming a drummer.
* GuileHeroine: She's extremely clever and perfectly able to outsmart and manipulate her enemies like Mr Burns.
* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: She is blonde, and before {{Flanderization}} took over she was a very respectful and considerate person most of the time. Post-Flanderization, it's DependingOnTheWriter.
* HatedByAll: Zig-zagged; A recurring theme with episodes based on Lisa running for leadership always ends with Lisa losing the vote because of her low popularity. In "The Kid Is All Right", Milhouse tells her some of the kids do agree with her ideas, they just don't like ''her''. In her adulthood, Lisa is able to become president and is shown to be a reasonable, successful figure.
* HeelRealization: She has a tendency to be selfish about what she wants and judgmental about the intellectual quality of her family, but comes to realize how ungrateful she can be. In one episode she realized that while Homer sometimes takes her on outings she isn't that interested in, he still is trying to spend time with her. Likewise, Homer will take her to things she loves and he doesn't, while she acts embarrassed to be with him.
* HolierThanThou: At times due to her SoapboxSadie traits. The "a girl wants to play football" scene from ''Bart Star'' is a great example. She initially demands a place in the football team because it's male dominated. Ned welcomes her and points out that there are several girls already on the team. She loses interest, making it clear she was just pushing for affirmative action for the sake of it, and then tries to shame them for using balls she think are made out of pig skin to make herself look good, only to be told that their balls are synthetic and some of the money they pay for the balls is going to charity.
* HonorBeforeReason: Lisa is willing to bend the rules, but only if she comes to that conclusion by herself. If someone tells her to lie, cheat, or even just conceal the truth, she will refuse, even if lying, cheating or concealing the truth would be to everyone's advantage. Part of being an 8 years old child and part flanderization.
* {{Hypocrite}}: More often than the other family members, Lisa tends to become this, changing her stance on a cause in the very same episode. She ''claims'' she wants to be challenged, but whenever she finds herself challenged becomes sulky and resentful.
** A prime example of this would be "The Secret War of Lisa Simpson"; she spends much of the episode complaining how she feels "unchallenged" at school (and seems to look down on the other kids because of her "intellect"), she then sees military school as the way forward. However, when she is rejected by the boys and made to ''really'' be challenged (not just mentally but physically), she's completely incapable of living up to it. When Bart calls her out on this, she outright claims she wanted a challenge she ''knew'' she could do, not one she could actually fail at, which completely negates the concept of a challenge in the first place.
** Once after she cheated to gain a perfect score in a test, the school was awarded extra funding to buy some basics. But even after she confessed to Skinner and he requested she keep quiet for the school's sake, she confessed to the School Inspector, which ultimately would sabotage her fellow students' learning - regardless, her conscience was wiped clean.
** One episode has her buying gifts for her whole family to enjoy for Christmas, but rather than buy them gifts they'd actually want, she buys them the type of gifts that make her feel like a better person, so of course none of them like them. She becomes angry at their "ungratefulness", but thankfully Bart sees through her true intentions and soon calls her out on it; she quickly remedies it after though.
** When Todd Flanders has a crisis in faith, Lisa gives him a thumbs up after he tells the First Church of Springfield congregation he doesn't believe in God anymore. Lisa then tries to convert Todd to Buddhism, and he calls her out on it.
** She and the narrative treat Sherri and Terri in particular as awful jerks for shunning her for being different or only pretending to like her. However, she often thinks very little of them herself even when trying to approach them. She will also happily shun [[KindheartedSimpleton Ralph]] for being too different.
* ICanChangeMyBeloved:
** In "Lisa's Date With Density", she falls for [[TheBully Nelson]], gushing out how [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys dark and mysterious he is]] and insisting that only she can change him. Subverted when Lisa comes to realize that she could never change Nelson.
** In "Lucas", she inexplicably falls for a hopeless boy who wants to be a competitive eater (despite Bart's warning that he's just "[[TheDitz Ralph Wiggum]] with a dream") and then thinks about changing him. Marge fears that Lisa goes out with him because he reminds her of her father.
* ICantDance: She can do jazz dancing (as seen in "Lisa the Beauty Queen"), but she's terrible at tap and ballet (as seen in "Last Tap Dance in Springfield" and "Smoke on the Daughter").
* IdiotBall:
** A surprising number of examples, like running up hundreds of dollars in charges to a 900 number, spending the time she should have been studying for a test playing a video game (and then ''cheating'' to pass it), and downloading $1,200 of music on her [=MyPod=]. Then there's "Lisa The Simpson", where she's led to believe that she's ''biologically'' predisposed to be like this (and finds out in the end that it's actually Bart's cross to bear).
** PlayedForLaughs in "Bart of Darkness"; the Simpsons get a pool, and Lisa gains popularity among the kids of Springfield, causing her brain to leave her and Lisa to speak in a SimpletonVoice. Her brains come back when everyone leaves for Martin's pool on the other side of town.
* IJustWantToBeSpecial: She's a child academic with a bright future ahead of her and she sometimes feels like she's a victim of circumstance due to her family's poor income and lack of shared interests. She aspires to be around people who share her interests and she wants to be in a school where she feels challenged. She can be selfish about it sometimes but she wouldn't sacrifice someone else's wellbeing for her own benefit. As shown when she immediately quit an upper-class school after she found out that she only got into it because Marge offered to do their laundry in exchange for her enrollment.
* IJustWantToHaveFriends: While in some episodes, she ''does'' have friends, she is sometimes portrayed as a lonely outcast DependingOnTheWriter and this trope provides the plot of several episodes.
* IncorruptiblePurePureness: The show tries to portray her as this, although it's not always played straight (see NotSoAboveItAll). She has utterly refused to watch stolen cable with the rest of the family and has generally remained the voice of reason in crisis situations. Though sometimes tempted into giving in, she mostly remains an example of hope for humanity. Matt Groening even admitted this symbolism during an interview, saying that she might be the only character who will eventually be able to escape Springfield.
* InferioritySuperiorityComplex: Lisa Simpson's FatalFlaw is that she defines herself by being smarter then others and due to flanderization this aspect of her has only gotten worse throughout the years. Lisa has done things such as willingly staying a NormalFishInATinyPond, to completely alienating her fellow student (by being a SoapBoxSadie to those who don't share her interest and an InsufferableGenius to those that do). At her worse, Lisa will flat out sabotage someone she considers her better out of jealousy. While she will usually feel sorry for her actions it's only after she gets what she wants.
* InformedDeformity: On several occasions it has been stated that Lisa has a large backside, despite her body shape resembling most other Springfield kids.
* InformedLoner: She's supposed to be a lonely outsider. However, she occasionally hangs out with average girls of her class and has no problem getting along with her schoolmates, unless the plot wants her to be unpopular. And for all her unpopularity, many boys have shown interest in her, and she also gains popularity easily over the course of many storylines, often becoming praised and loved by many people.
* InnocentProdigy: Usually rather level headed and one of the most intelligent people in Springfield. However her brattiness and childlike naive perks up many times, especially where her SiblingRivalry with Bart is involved.
* InsufferableGenius: At her worst. She longs to be challenged, but at times it's clear she enjoys feeling smarter than her peers.
* IntelligenceEqualsIsolation: Played straight sometimes. In earlier seasons Lisa had a best friend called Janey and had quite a lot of friends, but they got pushed aside and forgotten. The latest episodes show some of those friends, Janey included, but they tend to push Lisa away whenever she shows her smarts.
* IntrovertedCatPerson: Aside from early seasons, Lisa is usually presented as a friendless loner. She has a fondness for cats and has owned several.
* ItsAllAboutMe:
** Just like [[AttentionWhore Bart]], Lisa shows many signs of this trope. She defines herself by being better then others, to the point where many of her [[SoapboxSadie worst]] moments are more about proving that she's right than proving her point.
** One example of this comes from the episode "Gone Abie Gone", Lisa gains $413,762 through gambling but loses the money. When Bart tells her that he was the user who won Lisa's money, Lisa immediately claimed ownership and thought that she would use the money to go to college and then use the rest of the money to live like a queen.
* JerkassBall: She's prone to this at times, usually when she tries to [[SoapboxSadie force her own personal beliefs on everyone else]].
* JerkassHasAPoint: When Bart is sent to a juvenile prison Lisa reassures Marge by saying that it wasn't her fault that Bart ended up the way he did, and instead blames Homer for being a bad influence. While Lisa isn't wrong in the slightest that sort of argument could have easily ended with Homer and Marge divorcing each other, especially when Homer had no influence over Bart's choice to play the prank that landed him in prison.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Post-{{flanderization}}, she's settled into this. She's generally kindhearted and well-behaved, but has a nasty tendency to [[SoapboxSadie push her beliefs into other people's throats]], [[{{Hypocrite}} change her point of view at the drop of a hat in order to look cool]], and [[InferioritySuperiorityComplex break down when she realizes someone in her family is better than her in a given activity]]. At the very least, however, she'll usually own up to her faults in the end.
* KarmaHoudini:
** In her earlier days, she was essentially a female Bart, but shrewder in her mischief, so had a much greater tendency to go unpunished than her brother. Allegedly, the creative team were stated to be dead against the suggestion of Homer violently disciplining Lisa in the same way he does Bart.
** It happens occasionally in the later seasons. While in the early seasons if she ever went too far in being AcademicAlphaBitch she would receive some form of LaserGuidedKarma, later episodes would not only do away with this, but reward her.
** Many episodes in the later seasons have treated Lisa's actions as in the right, even when people are heavily injured or even killed by having a third party actually do the deed.
* KnowNothingKnowItAll:
** The TropeNamer. Though Lisa is very smart and knows stuff people don't already know, Homer and Lisa's argument at the dinner table in "Lisa the Vegetarian" has Homer calling his daughter a "barbecue-wrecking, know-nothing, know-it-all". She does have a moment of this in "Money BART". When Lisa becomes the manager of Bart's baseball team, she claims that there have been several women managers and lists some off like Terry Francona and Connie Mack. Nelson tells her that all of her examples are men, much to Lisa's shock. At times, Lisa skirts this trope in the sense of having the knowledge and not knowing how it applies in a more practical sense.
** Several episodes also highlight that for all her intelligence, she's actually not as smart as she might think. For example, in ''Bart Vs. Lisa Vs. The Third Grade'', she aces a test and is bumped up to third grade. However, once she enters third grade, the environment is a little different and what they are taught is slightly more complex compared to second grade. One would think Lisa would have no issue with a minor change like this, but she completely crumbles and welcomes going back to being "a big fish in a small pond" [[{{Pride}} simply to make herself feel like the smartest one in the room again.]]
* KindheartedCatLover: She's usually portrayed as the "nice one" of the Simpson kids and she's a big cat fan. She is the primary caretaker of Snowball II.
* LadyAndAScholar: She's a very intelligent child who is more well-spoken and philosophical than the other kids. Despite a few InsufferableGenius moments and her SiblingRivalry with Bart, she is mostly polite, pleasant, and friendly to everyone.
* TheLancer: To Bart, whenever they take on Sideshow Bob.
* LadyMacbeth:
** In "The Spy Who Learned Me", she helped Nelson gain a great physical condition, but didn't stop him from hurting innocent kids, only commenting that "He's hard on the nerds but easy on the eyes".
** In "Dial 'N' for Nerder" she pressures Bart to prevent him from confessing about the murder and tried to offer herself as Nelson's girlfriend to prevent him from revealing her confession.
* LikeParentLikeChild: Lisa gets her morals from Marge. In some of the earlier episodes, she also has a tendency to say "Hmmmmmm..." like her.
* LikeParentUnlikeChild: Lisa and Homer share little in common.
* LimitedWardrobe: Always wears a red dress with pearls. In one episode she decides to trade her pearls to get a rare [[CrackIsCheaper Olympic Games pin to complete a collection]], which was a big deal as she considered it part of her identity.
* LittleMissBadass: She's a natural GuileHeroine despite her young age . And physically, Lisa one-hit KO'd Bart in an MMA ring and she also connects a gloriously-animated punch on Bart in the movie.
* LittleMissSnarker: Her snark is her defence mechanism amidst her dysfunctional family. She's the smart one and educated one among the uncultured and the others are boorish or stupid. Her mother alternates between being like the others or a sophisticated, artistic woman.
* MagicSkirt: Lisa's trademark red sundress; especially egregious as it's a ''dress'' with no waist, which should logically fall all the way down to her shoulders whenever she's upside down.
* MatureYoungerSibling: Lisa is much [[ChildProdigy smarter]] and [[WiseBeyondTheirYears wiser]] than her ten-year-old brother [[BrattyHalfPint Bart]], often warning him against bad ideas and such forth. In fact, in "My Sister, My Sitter", when the parents are out, she babysits him rather than the other way around.
* MiddleChildSyndrome: She often has trouble fitting in with her family, and they often have trouble understanding her. Several episodes explore this dynamic in detail.
* MoralityChain: Like Marge, Lisa often plays the conscience for the family and often becomes a morality pet for people outside of the family.
* MoralityPet: She's probably the only one of Homer's kids whom he makes a conscious effort to be a good father to. In addition, if anyone, even his wife, somehow hurts her in some way, he gets [[PapaWolf intensely angry]]. It is implied that Lisa was neglected by Homer as a baby, when Homer observes some old videos of him completely ignoring her early talents, [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone he is driven to tears in guilt.]]
* MouthyKid: Her intelligent comments earn her the ire of the rest of Springfield's citizens.
* MsExposition:
-->'''Lisa:''' Dad! The flash [of the camera] must have scrambled [the robots'] circuits!\\
'''Homer:''' [[LampshadeHanging What are you, the narrator?]]\\
'''Lisa:''' Aah, just keep taking pictures.
* MsImagination: Lisa occasionally drifts off into a fantasy world to avoid the grim reality of living life in Springfield.
* MsViceGirl: Lisa is intellectually gifted, philosophical and compassionate, and all at the age of eight years old. Perhaps because of the awareness of her gifts however, she can sometimes be incredibly egomaniacal and self righteous, with an over insistence on being the center of attention and pushing her beliefs down others' throats, and often insensitively dismissing others as stupider or less significant than her.
* NerdsLoveToughSchoolwork: From time to time. In one episode the school has to shut down, and by the time Lisa gets home she is hysterical due to withdrawal. She immediately takes out an emergency kit she keeps under the couch, which contains a picture of Springfield Elementary and a tape recording of a teacher yelling at students.
* NerdyBully: Zig-zagged. Due to AllOfTheOtherReindeer Lisa repeatedly flip flops from BullyMagnet to AcademicAlphaBitch DependingOnTheWriter.
* NiceGirl: Lisa is a nice and caring girl who usually tries to do the right thing and has a strong sense of morality, although in later seasons she becomes more rude and pushy about her beliefs.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Ironically, despite being the voice of reason, every time Homer gets into a position of power, once he takes advice from Lisa, it usually ends up meaning that things go ''horribly'' wrong and everyone jumps ship. Then again, the people working underneath Homer tend to be idiots who don't want things to change, the prime example being the Stonecutters.
* NormalFishInATinyPond: Every time Lisa finds herself in a classroom setting other than Miss Hoover's second grade class and is actually ''challenged'' by the teachers and coursework, she doesn't get the A's she's used to.
* NotSoAboveItAll:
** Though often priding herself on her intelligence and maturity, she is still a kid and enjoys some of the same things as Bart (such as ''Itchy & Scratchy'' or prank-calling Moe). Even with Bart's pranks, if she's not the first to scold them, she's likely the first to laugh at them. And as noted above, she is not above bending the rules completely.
** Later episodes show Lisa daydreaming about murdering Bart, and she was all too willing to cover up the assumed, if accidental, murder of Martin Prince to stay out of trouble. It looks as if she's not entirely immune to Springfield's corruption.
** At the end of "Lisa The Simpson", Lisa loudly cheers with a "woo hoo!" that would have done Homer proud when she finally solves the kiddie puzzle that made her question if she was losing her intellect. She immediately corrects herself to say "splendid", but she's still enough of a Simpson to borrow several of her father's catchphrases.
* OneeSama: She's Maggie's older sister and is a revered 8th grader for her high intellect.
* OnlySaneWoman: She often finds herself thrust into the role of only sane girl. Quite often, when her family (or occasionally, the entire town) is caught up in some insane course of action, she's the one who points out how absurd things have become. Her comments are usually ignored. The straight man role is usually traded between Lisa and Marge. Sometimes Lisa is also caught up in the craziness, for example with the Movementarians.
* TheParagon: Lisa is good at appealing to the better nature of others and inspiring them to be better people, even if it's short-lived. Her vow to justice can be a flaw at times, as she often puts herself in charge to do the right thing or chooses to do the right thing, even if everyone suffers from it. For example, in "Lisa the Vegetarian" she ruins Homer's barbeque because she was the only one who saw meat-eating as evil. Examples of her charisma are when she inspires Sideshow Bob to stop his evil plans in "The Man Who Grew Too Much" and inspire Mr Burns to start recycling in "The Old Man and the Lisa".
* PingPongNaivete: She switches between world-weary cynicism and childlike naiveté as the plot demands. In one instance, within seconds - she hurls a bucket of red paint at Krusty (who's wearing a coat made from some kind of animal skins), screams "Fur is murder!" then follows it with "When's the Krusty movie coming out?"
* PoorCommunicationKills: Lisa often has trouble conveying her ambitions in a positive manner. In "Lisa Simpson, This Isn't Your Life", she decides to devote herself to her education after discovering Marge's childhood achievements before meeting Homer. She wanted to have a good future and improve her education, however, an offended Marge took this as "my mother is a failure because she chose to be a housewife".
* ProudToBeAGeek: Zigzagged. There are times where she doesn't feel that way and wants to be like everyone else, and others where she takes pride in her geekier aspects.
* RidiculouslySuccessfulFutureSelf: She either becomes a successful businesswoman or the President of the United States when she grows up. Her personal life however is mixed, with a strained relationship with her husband and daughter.
* ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules: Lisa rarely compromises with her principles and never takes a bribe.
* SecretKeeper: "A Milhouse Divided" implies Lisa is Homer's confidant for stuff he doesn't want Marge to know (or at least that he ''thinks'' Marge doesn't know about).
-->'''Homer:''' There's a lot of stuff she doesn't know about!\\
'''Lisa:''' You mean like your poker shack in the swamp?\\
'''Homer:''' Yuh-huh.\\
'''Lisa:''' She ''knows.''
* SignatureInstrument: Her saxophone, of course. She's always seen playing it when she's feeling the blues or preparing for a gig. Interestingly, some of the background music involving her scenes will occasionally play a sax, even when her sax is not present.
* SmallNameBigEgo: Lisa is the schools outcast and takes pride in this and maintaining her intelligence which causes her to become envious and jealous towards anyone who outsmarts her.
* TheSmartGirl: The smartest one in the family, and easily one of the smartest people in Springfield.
%%* SmugSnake: On her bad days.
* SnapBack: Averted in "Lisa the Vegetarian." Originally, the writers wanted it to be a one-time, WhatIf thing and go back to normal the next episode. However, Paul [=McCartney=] (the episode's guest star), when originally asked to appear, would only appear if he was assured that the change would be permanent. Also averted in "Sleeping With the Enemy" when Lisa tells Homer that she still feels insecure about her body and she's not going to go back to acting like she's not. However, later episodes never again mention Lisa and her eating disorder.
* SoapboxSadie: Became one of the most infamous examples after {{Flanderization}}.
** In the "Bart Star" episode, her soapbox was deflated, as she tried to join the pee-wee football team. "That's right, a girl wants to join the team." After it was revealed that there were four girls already on the team, she tries to raise a fuss about the fact that footballs are made from pigskin. She then learns that the balls are synthetic and with each purchase, money is donated to Amnesty International. Unable to cope with not being on the moral high ground, she runs off crying.
** Lisa also has a habit of jumping on a soapbox for boys - though she already has views on the subject she will amp them up to get boys to notice her.
* SpeaksFluentAnimal: In "Mr. Lisa's Opus", when she's telling her dormmate her skills, she mentions that she speaks fluent cat, then makes subtitled cat noises.
* TheStoolPigeon:
** She's pretty much this constantly, with many many plots throughout the seasons (as an example, "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS10E7LisaGetsAnA Lisa Gets an "A"]]") revolving about someone building a lie (and sometimes the plot showing that the lie is the ''better'' thing for everybody (even Lisa herself) and everybody saying so) and Lisa trying to tell the truth regardless. She ''thinks'' of herself as a Concerned Claire-type (in that she says it's the legal/moral thing to do), but what type she ''really'' is depends on the plot at hand (at least sometimes shows to be doing it out of some desire to thumb her nose up at the liar).
** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E8BartTheDaredevil Bart the Daredevil]]": Despite trying to convince Bart the dangers of daredevil stunts, Lance Murdock is instead impressed by Bart's interest in it, which causes Lisa to tell Homer about it, fearing that he may get hurt or die despite getting the most attention.
** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS20E7MypodsAndBoomsticks Mypods and Boomsticks]]": She squeals on Bart after pulling a prank on Steve Mobbs and the rest of the consumers and employees.
* StraightMan: Lisa has the thankless task of playing foil to her entire town. In the early days she and Bart were a classic StraightManAndWiseGuy combo, and while this is still true, she often finds herself playing straight to almost everyone else in Springfield. Luckily, she is usually excellent at it. Occasionally, especially in later seasons, Lisa's more extreme personality traits will come to the fore and she gets to have someone else play off her for a change.
* StrawFeminist: Depends on the episode:
** While Lisa is normally passive in her beliefs as she speaks of the achievements of women and voices her support for leading feminists. There are a few times when she's gotten unfairly irritated toward men (Homer in particular) and in one episode, she expresses disappointment toward her mother for choosing to forgo her education after meeting Homer.
--->'''Lisa:''' Dad, put aside your selfish male ego and tell the truth!
** Especially played straight in "Bart Star" where her feminism is PlayedForLaughs and only serves to make her look foolish in one scene. She smugly declares she wants to join the football team as a YouGoGirl ("That's right. A girl wants to play football. How about that?") but after it's revealed that are already four girls on the team, she loses interest and claims that football is not her thing anyway.
* SurroundedByIdiots: She actually once voiced that she lives in a town of idiots in an issue of the comic.
* TokenGoodTeammate: She was the only member of the family who wanted to give Bobo to Burns without getting any money.
* TeachersPet: Her ego is often a result of her parents and school teachers putting her on a pedestal because of her intelligence and morals.
* {{Telepathy}}: She reads a worm's mind in "Lisa the Vegetarian". However, it is likely PsychologicalProjection, as the worm thinks exactly what she would imagine the worm to think, in exactly the bleating voice the lamb she ate for dinner used when pleading not to be eaten in the previous evening's ImagineSpot.
* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: In most Future Episodes, Maggie is usually a tough, laid-back tomboy and Lisa is usually a prim and proper girly girl.
* TooCleverByHalf: In the first "Treehouse of Horror", Kang and Kodos abduct them in their flying saucer to live in luxury. Lisa snoops around the ship and finds a book titled "How to Cook Humans". Offended at the notion, the aliens blow some dust off the book's cover revealing the title to be "How to Cook For Humans". To which Lisa points out that there is still dust on the book, with the title now "How to Cook Forty Humans". Kang then demonstrate that there is yet still more dust on the book's cover, finally revealing the book's full title "How to Cook For Forty Humans" (the Simpsons were gluttons).
-->'''Marge:''' Now you know what we mean when we say you're too smart for your own good?
* TookALevelInJerkass: Zigzagged. An unfortunate aspect of Lisa's CharacterDevelopment over the seasons was her growing not only more "saintly", but also becoming full of herself, rude towards those she considered less than her, and pushy about her beliefs. Later seasons have mostly fixed this by having Lisa focus on self-improvement and making friends instead of political activism.
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Despite being a vegetarian, she really loves shrimp.
* TVGenius: Zigzagged. Lisa does at very least have InsufferableGenius qualities and on occasion is rather blindly obnoxious and self serving in her ethics, to the point of being a SoapboxSadie. These flaws obviously became less significant as the rest of the cast was Flanderized excessively but her shortcomings still show on occasion. While she sometimes has problems with IntelligenceEqualsIsolation, she's actually one of the most well-adjusted characters on the show. Her level of knowledge is totally implausible for an eight-year-old, but it depends entirely on RuleOfFunny.
* TheUglyGuysHotDaughter: What she'll grow up to be, as seen in episodes taking place in the future.
* UglyGuyHotWife: With [[spoiler:Milhouse]] in some possible future. He grows up to be balding with a gut and Lisa grows up beautifully in episodes like "Holidays of Future Passed."
* UnbuiltTrope: By way of CharacterizationMarchesOn, her earlier depictions as a ChildProdigy show that, for as much of a ''prodigy'' as she may be, she's still a ''child'' with a limited understanding of the world. [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E8LisasPony "Lisa's Pony"]] is a good example of this, where she indulges in her newfound hobby before realizing that Homer is working himself to exhaustion to support it. Also her activism is driven by a tortured conscience.
* UnknownRival:
** Lisa fears and hates Sideshow Bob as much as Bart and has outgambitted him just as often. Despite this, Bob's psychotic vendetta sticks with just Bart (and sometimes Krusty and [[RunningGag rakes]] on the side), even lampshading that he is utterly apathetic towards Lisa.
** Turned around in one of the comics, where Cecil dedicates himself to ruining Lisa even though they'd had no prior interaction, simply because they were the less favored sibling.
* VirginInAWhiteDress: In a FlashForward episode where we see
-->'''Lisa:''' Mom, I feel kind of funny wearing white. I mean... ''Milhouse''.\\
'''Marge:''' ''[dismissive]'' Oh, Milhouse doesn't count.
* VirtuousVegetarianism: Lisa is both the most intelligent and idealistic member of the cast and has converted to vegetarianism. Originally her conversion was to teach AnAesop about accepting the differences of others, but since learning her lesson it's remained a part of her character [[note]]largely due to Music/PaulMcCartney, who guest starred in the episode as a vegetarian icon, stipulating that he would only appear if Lisa ''remained'' vegetarian going forward[[/note]].
* WackyParentSeriousChild: Being the OnlySaneWoman and ChildProdigy genius she is, Lisa plays the Serious Child role to her Wacky Parent of a BumblingDad Homer.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Lisa will often resort to extreme methods for ideals and her methods are examined in some episodes.
** In "Lisa the Vegetarian", she ruins Homer's barbeque because she was the only one who didn't like the idea of eating a roast pig. While Lisa believes herself to be in the right, her fellow vegetarians actually call her out on this. Rather than convince people to join her vegetarianism, she inspired the anti-vegetarian backlash since they didn't understand why she was so offended about a roast pig and she didn't explain why eating meat is wrong.
** In "The Simpsons Game", she and Bart destroy a logging camp because she believed they should save the trees. However, once the pair do destroy the camp, they are confronted by a pair of loggers who are now out of work since they now lack the means to provide for their families and don't have the skills to find other means of work.
* WhiteSheep: Sometimes she's portrayed like this and is seen as TokenGoodTeammate of the family. In "Lisa's Wedding" her (future) boyfriend Hugh tells her "You're like a flower that grew out of a pot of dirt". She doesn't take it well.
* WideEyedIdealist: Lisa was this in earlier seasons. She followed her ideals the best she could but the rest of Springfield either didn't understand her ideals or didn't want to conform to them. Her vegetarianism is the best example of this, she became a vegetarian because she became horrified and guilt-ridden for eating meat after playing with a lamb. She tried to convert her family, school and friends but they couldn't understand. She became aggressive with her views but eventually calmed down after Apu, Paul and Linda [=McCartney=] taught her that aggression won't get people to understand her views but patiently influencing them will slowly get them to understand her viewpoint.
* WiseBeyondHerYears: In fact, one episode had Mayor Quimby surprised that she's a child, saying that he always thought she was a midget--Lisa explains that she isn't and that the preferred term is "little person." When she was two, she was as articulate as any person, with only a few grammar errors. Believe it or not, this is actually TruthInTelevision- some two-year-olds can have conversations with you.
* WomenAreWiser: Compared to Bart, although they play this trope to a much lesser extent than their parents. Lisa is certainly much more intelligent and mature than Bart, but Bart is the more socially adept of the two, and isn't nearly as dumb as his father.
* WorthyOpponent: After thwarting scheme after scheme with her ingenuity and sharp wit, Lisa has earned Sideshow Bob's respect as a worthy adversary.
* YoureNotMyMother: "You're Not My Mother and Father". She did this to both of her parents when they really upset her (to Homer in "Homer and Lisa Exchange Cross Words", and to Marge in "How Lisa Got Her Marge Back").
* YourTraditionIsNotMine: Lisa only inherits her morals from her mother. Other than that, she's different to her family in many ways. Unlike her family, Lisa is a vegetarian, a bookworm and a Buddhist.
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* BewareTheNiceOnes: [[WomenAreWiser Lisa and Marge]] are the more courteous and caring DependingOnTheWriter compared to [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Bart and Homer]] who are far more likely to act like complete jerks (they cause most of the conflict in the series as a matter of fact). But when Lisa and/or Marge are genuinely angry, they're actually rather terrifying.
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* BewareTheNiceOnes: [[WomenAreWiser Lisa and Marge]] are the more courteous and caring of the family DependingOnTheWriter compared to [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Bart and Homer]] who are far more likely to act like complete jerks (they cause most of the conflict in the series as a matter of fact). But when Lisa and/or Marge are genuinely angry, they're actually rather terrifying.
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* BewareTheNiceOnes: [[WomenAreWiser Lisa and Marge]] are the more courteous and caring DependingOnTheWriter compared to [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Bart and Homer]] who are far more likely to act like complete jerks (they cause most of the conflict in the series as a matter of fact). But when Lisa and/or Marge are genuinely angry, they're actually rather terrifying.
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* ArchEnemy: Gerald, the baby with one eyebrow.
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* ArchEnemy: Maggie's is Gerald, the baby with one eyebrow.eyebrow. The updated intro includes a brief scene where she and Gerald shake their fists at each other in the grocery store.
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* BerserkButton: Losing her pacifier. Often she'll cry, but "Crook and Ladder" from Season 18 shows that she will rampage if she's forcibly separated from her pacifier.
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* BerserkButton: Losing her pacifier. Often she'll cry, but "Crook "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS18E19CrookAndLadder Crook and Ladder" Ladder]]" from Season 18 shows that she will rampage if she's forcibly separated from her pacifier.
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* BigBrotherWorship: She seems to get along with Bart pretty well and likes to spend time with him. In "O Brother, Where Bart Thou", Maggie is excited to see him, and she is playful with him in the final moments of "The Yellow Badge Of Cowardge".
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* BigBrotherWorship: She seems to get along with Bart pretty well and likes to spend time with him. In "O "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS21E8OBrotherWhereBartThou O Brother, Where Bart Thou", Thou]]", Maggie is excited to see him, and she is playful with him in the final moments of "The "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS25E22TheYellowBadgeOfCowardge The Yellow Badge Of Cowardge".Cowardge]]".
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* TheChosenOne: In "Gone Maggie Gone" she's revealed to be the gem child that is prophesied to bring peace to the world. [[spoiler:Marge takes her from the throne due to parental instincts, but feels guilty and selfish for disrupting the prophecy.]]
* CreepyChild: On occasion, she'll dip into this territory, for example when she hit Homer with a mallet after watching Itchy and Scratchy.
* CreepyChild: On occasion, she'll dip into this territory, for example when she hit Homer with a mallet after watching Itchy and Scratchy.
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* TheChosenOne: In "Gone "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS20E13GoneMaggieGone Gone Maggie Gone" Gone]]", she's revealed to be the gem child that is prophesied to bring peace to the world. [[spoiler:Marge takes her from the throne due to parental instincts, but feels guilty and selfish for disrupting the prophecy.]]
* CreepyChild: On occasion, she'll dip into this territory, for example when she hit Homer with a mallet after watching ''The Itchy andScratchy.Scratchy Show''.
* CreepyChild: On occasion, she'll dip into this territory, for example when she hit Homer with a mallet after watching ''The Itchy and
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* CuteMute: A series-long RunningGag is that she never speaks, at least not when anyone can hear her. Even in "Holidays of Future Passed", where she's a famous lead singer in a rock band, she's forbidden from speaking due to being pregnant, as apparently [[ArtisticLicenseBiology the vocal cords and the umbilical cords have been proven to be connected]].
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* CuteMute: A series-long RunningGag is that she never speaks, at least not when anyone can hear her. Even in "Holidays "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS23E9HolidaysOfFuturePassed Holidays of Future Passed", Passed]]", where she's a famous lead singer in a rock band, she's forbidden from speaking due to being pregnant, as apparently [[ArtisticLicenseBiology the vocal cords and the umbilical cords have been proven to be connected]].
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* DaddysGirl: Maggie's first spoken word throughout the series was "daddy". "And Maggie Makes Three" was very sweet when Homer was worried about having a third baby in the family, but the minute he saw her, she won his heart. Even more so since Maggie's been the only one who called him "daddy" as a baby instead of "Homer". In a future episode where Maggie has grown to be a teenager, she has a picture of herself with Homer above her bed.
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* DaddysGirl: Maggie's first spoken word throughout the series was "daddy". "And "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E13AndMaggieMakesThree And Maggie Makes Three" Three]]" was very sweet when Homer was worried about having a third baby in the family, but the minute he saw her, she won his heart. Even more so since Maggie's been the only one who called him "daddy" as a baby instead of "Homer". In a future episode where Maggie has grown to be a teenager, she has a picture of herself with Homer above her bed.
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** "And Maggie Makes Three" and the second half of "Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder" more or less focus on her (or rather, the father-daughter relationship between herself and Homer, who constantly neglects and forgets her existence, despite that [[spoiler:he has her baby photos at work collaged around the "Don't Forget: You're Here Forever" demotivational plaque so that it reads, "Do It For Her"]]).
** "Moe Baby Blues" focuses on her relationship and adventures with Moe after he becomes her babysitter.
** "Moe Baby Blues" focuses on her relationship and adventures with Moe after he becomes her babysitter.
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** "And Maggie Makes Three" and the second half of "Hello "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS11E6HelloGutterHelloFadder Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder" Fadder]]" more or less focus on her (or rather, the father-daughter relationship between herself and Homer, who constantly neglects and forgets her existence, despite that [[spoiler:he has her baby photos at work collaged around the "Don't Forget: You're Here Forever" demotivational plaque so that it reads, "Do It For Her"]]).
**"Moe "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS14E22MoeBabyBlues Moe Baby Blues" Blues]]" focuses on her relationship and adventures with Moe after he becomes her babysitter.
**
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** In "Treehouse of Horror X", when Marge is immediately chosen as Lisa's +1 for the escape trip to Mars, Maggie is taken with her without question.
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** In "Treehouse "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS11E4TreehouseOfHorrorX Treehouse of Horror X", X]]", when Marge is immediately chosen as Lisa's +1 for the escape trip to Mars, Maggie is taken with her without question.
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** In "At Long Last Leave", when Mayor Quimby cites that the family drove Springfield into bankruptcy due to their trademark antics, Maggie's fault was due to never crying once.
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** In "At "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS23E14AtLongLastLeave At Long Last Leave", Leave]]", when Mayor Quimby cites that the family drove Springfield into bankruptcy due to their trademark antics, Maggie's fault was due to never crying once.
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* ImprobableInfantSurvival: For the most part, especially being a baby. Maggie has shown to survive and evade situations that any character of an older age within the series would otherwise not be as lucky in. An excellent instance is in episode "The Call of the Simpsons", though there are a few other similar instances.
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* ImprobableInfantSurvival: For the most part, especially being a baby. Maggie has shown to survive and evade situations that any character of an older age within the series would otherwise not be as lucky in. An excellent instance is in the episode "The "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS1E7TheCallOfTheSimpsons The Call of the Simpsons", Simpsons]]", though there are a few other similar instances.
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* ItRunsInTheFamily: Her skills with weapons and aggressive traits may have been influenced by Bart and Homer, as they're both notable in terms of trouble making (another example of this is when Homer helps a woman raise a baby, but the baby nearly kills Maggie in a zoo and learns how to serve beer). Due to her BigBrotherWorship relationship with Bart in the episode "How Lisa Got Her Marge Back", Homer has to directly tell Bart not to influence Maggie.
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* ItRunsInTheFamily: Her skills with weapons and aggressive traits may have been influenced by Bart and Homer, as they're both notable in terms of trouble making (another example of this is when Homer helps a woman raise a baby, but the baby nearly kills Maggie in a zoo and learns how to serve beer). Due to her BigBrotherWorship relationship with Bart in the episode "How "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS27E18HowLisaGotHerMargeBack How Lisa Got Her Marge Back", Back]]", Homer has to directly tell Bart not to influence Maggie.
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[[/folder]]
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----
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'''Simpson Family''' ([[Characters/TheSimpsonsHomerSimpson Homer Simpson]], [[Characters/TheSimpsonsMargeSimpson Marge Simpson]], [[Characters/TheSimpsonsBartSimpson Bart Simpson]], [[Characters/TheSimpsonsLisaSimpson Lisa Simpson]]) | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsExtendedFamily The Simpsons Extended Family]] | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsElementarySchool Springfield Elementary School]] | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsGovernmentJudgesLawyersPoliceCriminals Government, Judges and Lawyers, Police and Criminals]] | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsNuclearPowerPlantShopkeepers Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, Springfield Shopkeepers]] ([[Characters/TheSimpsonsCharlesMontgomeryBurns Charles Montgomery "Monty" Burns]]) | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsChurchDoctorsCelebrities First Church of Springfield, Doctors, Celebrities]] | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsFriendsNeighborsFamilies Friends and Neighbors, Families]] | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsOtherRecurringCharacters Other Recurring Characters]] | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsItchyAndScratchyCharacters Itchy & Scratchy Characters]] | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsOneTimeCharacters One-time Characters]]]]-]]]
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'''Simpson Family''' ([[Characters/TheSimpsonsHomerSimpson Homer Simpson]], [[Characters/TheSimpsonsMargeSimpson Marge Simpson]], [[Characters/TheSimpsonsBartSimpson Bart Simpson]], [[Characters/TheSimpsonsLisaSimpson Lisa Simpson]]) | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsExtendedFamily The Simpsons Extended Family]] | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsElementarySchool Springfield Elementary School]] | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsGovernmentJudgesLawyersPoliceCriminals Government, Judges and Lawyers, Police and Criminals]] | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsNuclearPowerPlantShopkeepers Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, Springfield Shopkeepers]] ([[Characters/TheSimpsonsCharlesMontgomeryBurns Charles Montgomery "Monty" Burns]]) | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsChurchDoctorsCelebrities First Church of Springfield, Doctors, Celebrities]] | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsFriendsNeighborsFamilies Friends and Neighbors, Families]] | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsOtherRecurringCharacters Other Recurring Characters]] | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsItchyAndScratchyCharacters Itchy & Scratchy Characters]] | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsOneTimeCharacters One-time Characters]]]]-]]]
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* OutOfFocus: Snowball II doesn't get nearly as much limelight as Santa's Little Helper, though has been the subject of a few B-Plots in later seasons.
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* OutOfFocus: Snowball II doesn't get nearly as much limelight as Santa's Little Helper, though has been the subject of a few B-Plots in later seasons. (To put it in perspective, one of the few times she is given attention is when she DIES.)
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* TheThreeFacesOfAdam: Bart is "''The Hunter''" because he's the young rebel who takes great risks to perform pranks. Homer is "''The Lord''" because he's the family breadwinner who lets his impulses cloud his judgement but has enough skills and resources to find employment or reemployment. Grandpa is "''The Prophet''" because he's the oldest and he frequently tells wartime stories to anyone who listens.
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* TheThreeFacesOfAdam: Bart is "''The Hunter''" because he's the young rebel who takes great risks to perform pranks. Homer is "''The Lord''" because he's the family breadwinner who lets his impulses cloud his judgement but has enough skills and resources to find employment or reemployment. Grandpa Grampa is "''The Prophet''" because he's the oldest and he frequently tells wartime stories to anyone who listens.
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* AMistakeIsBorn: Some DependingOnTheWriter is in play here, but generally none of the three Simpson children were planned, something Marge and Homer make no attempt to hide from them.
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Drop The Hammer is now a disambiguation page.
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* DropTheHammer: When she sees Itchy bonk Scratchy on the head with a mallet, she does the same thing to Homer. The blow knocks him out cold and causes Marge to protest against cartoon violence.
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* TheFriendsWhoNeverHang: During the show's runtime, there hasn't been much contact between Bart and Maggie, with them finally getting a subplot in "How Lisa Got Her Marge Back", in season 27. Justified as Maggie is a non-talking baby and spends most of her time around Marge, whereas Bart has stories elsewhere in Springfield. They also don't really interact in any future episodes either.
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* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Averted, for Homer and Lisa. But played straight for Marge (Marjorie), Bart (Bartholomew) and Maggie (Margaret). This also extended a bit for the extended family: Abe (Abraham), Patty (Patricia), Jackie (Jaqueline) and Herb (Herbert).
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* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Averted, for Homer and Lisa. But played straight for Marge (Marjorie), Bart (Bartholomew) and Maggie (Margaret). This also extended the case to a bit degree for the extended family: Abe (Abraham), Patty (Patricia), Jackie (Jaqueline) and Herb (Herbert).
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->Voiced by: Creator/ElizabethTaylor, Creator/NancyCartwright, Yeardley Smith, Creator/JamesEarlJones, Creator/JodieFoster[[labelnote:*]]on different (generally non-canon) occasions[[/labelnote]]
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->Voiced by: Creator/CarolKane[[labelnote:*]]uncredited[[/labelnote]], Creator/ElizabethTaylor, Creator/NancyCartwright, Yeardley Smith, Creator/RussiTaylor, Creator/JamesEarlJones, Creator/JodieFoster[[labelnote:*]]on different (generally non-canon) occasions[[/labelnote]]
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->Voiced by: Creator/DanCastellaneta, Creator/FrankWelker
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* BabyFeverTrigger: She inspired both the Nahasapeemapetilons and the Albertsons (though Comic Book Guy himself took some convincing from Kumiko) to try for kids.
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* TroublesomePet: Santa's Little Helper is not the brightest bulb in the box. He'll eat whatever is in sight, frequently destroy items around the Simpsons' household due to his sheer size, and rarely obey commands. One particularly notable example is in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E16BartsDogGetsAnF Bart's Dog Gets an F]]", where SLH destroys a precious family heirloom, which forces him to go to obedience school. He (barely) passes, but it doesn't take very long for [[StatusQuoIsGod things to go back to square one]], as SLH apparently bit Bart shortly after graduation. [[AbusiveParents Homer didn't mind, though]].
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* FeudingFamilies: Due to the escalation of Sideshow Bob's vendetta against Bart to the point that he's dragged the rest of his own family, the Simpsons have become trapped in a one-sided feud against [[TheFamilyThatSlaysTogether the Terwilligers]] where the latter engage in schemes to murder the former (which varies between simply Bart or the family at large).
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According to the episode "I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot", Snowball II was hit by a car, and replaced by an identical cat named Snowball V, who was renamed Snowball II for convenience's sake.
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According to the episode "I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot", Snowball II was hit by a car, and replaced by an identical cat named Snowball V, who was renamed Snowball II for convenience's sake. [[NegativeContinuity Don't expect this to be referenced again]].
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* BackUpTwin: Snowball dies in "I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot", yet the episode ends with Lisa finding an identical cat, calling it Snowball II and pretending Snowball II's death never happened. [[LampshadeHanging A Lampshade is hung]] as Lisa mentions not wanting to spend money on a new food dish and Principal Skinner points out the whole thing is a cop-out, leading to Lisa calling him [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E2ThePrincipalAndThePauper Armin Tamzarian]] and Skinner withdrawing his point.
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* BackUpTwin: Snowball II dies in "I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot", yet the episode ends with Lisa finding an identical cat, cat with the exact same personality, calling it Snowball II and pretending Snowball II's death never happened. [[LampshadeHanging A Lampshade is hung]] as Lisa mentions not wanting to spend money on a new food dish and Principal Skinner points out the whole thing is a cop-out, leading to Lisa calling him [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E2ThePrincipalAndThePauper Armin Tamzarian]] and Skinner withdrawing his point.point, effectively rendering the replacement non-canon.
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* ReplacementGoldfish: The current Snowball II is actually Snowball V, the last in a series of cats bought to replace the original Snowball.
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* ReplacementGoldfish: The current Snowball II is actually Snowball V, the last in a series of cats was bought to replace the original Snowball.an earlier cat that died, this is why her name is Snowball despite being black furred.
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** Even at his worst, Bart doesn't treat Maggie the same way he treats Lisa.
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** Even Maggie's the only Simpsons family member (probably the only character, period) who's never a target of Bart's pranks or teasings. He has been known to use her as a (probably unwitting) accomplice in some of his schemes, but even at his worst, Bart doesn't treat Maggie the same way worst he treats Lisa.her better than pretty much anyone else -- he certainly never treats her like he does Lisa.
