Flanders family
In the animated cartoon series The Simpsons, the Flanders are a family consisting of Ned, Maude and their two sons Rod and Todd.
Ned Flanders is voiced by Harry Shearer. Ned, along with the rest of his family, is a deeply devout Christian, and is often used to satirize organized religion. The Flanders family lives next door to the Simpsons. They are often held up as a caricature of the "perfect family", in contrast to the Simpsons. Homer's envy of Ned and his family is a recurring subtext. Ned has the habit of attaching "diddly" and other nonsense phrases to sentences ("Maude-diddly"). He quit his earlier career as a pharmacist to open a store in the mall called The Leftorium, which specializes in products for left-handed people. Ned presumably named his sons Rod and Todd because both names rhyme with God. Despite an outward appearance of exceeding meekness, Ned has an exceptionally well-built physique under his sweater-vest. This is even more impressive upon considering that Ned is actually a very young-looking senior citizen.
Ned was raised by two nihilistic beatniks whose terrible parenting skills made him a childhood terror. He was eventually put on an experimental eight-month spanking therapy program (the University of Minnesota Spankological Protocol) which taught him to suppress all feelings of anger.
Maude Flanders was a devout Christian who attended Bible camp to learn to be more judgmental. She died in a sporting accident — she was knocked off a grandstand when a volley of gift T-shirts shot from compressed-air cannons struck her while Homer was distracted from catching the shirts, due to finding a bobby-pin. Her dream of opening a Christian-themed amusement park was posthumously realized by the grieving Ned, who memorialized her with the motto: "She taught us the joy of shame and the shame of joy."
It is rumored that Maude was killed off because her voice actress demanded more money, and was denied; other sources say the actress was tired of multi-state commutes for only occasional work.
Rod Flanders is voiced by Nancy Cartwright, while Todd Flanders is voiced by Pamela Hayden.
The Greenbelt Christian arts festival sometimes runs a Ned Flanders lookalike contest in tribute to one of TV's best-known Christians.
One little known fact about Ned is that he was a huge fan of The Beatles. Over the years, he collected a large amount of Beatles memorabilia, which include the band's Ed Sullivan show suits and novelty drinks. This collection was kept in the basement of the Flanders' house; however, it was destroyed when Bart and Milhouse broke in and panicked when police came.
"Everybody Hates Ned Flanders"
The song Everybody Hates Ned Flanders was a torch song Homer wrote in episode "Dude, where's my ranch?"'. In the beginning, Homer tries to write a Christmas song when Ned comes in and irritates him by trying to assist in the song. Homer then created the song which starts...
- Everybody in the USA,
- Hates their stupid neighbor,
- He's Flanders and he's really, really lame,
- Flanders tries to wreck my song,
- His views on birth control are wrong,
- I hate his guts and Flanders is his name
See also
