The Simpsons' Greatest Characters: A Definitive Ranking

The Simpsons' 20 Best Characters, Ranked

Characters with mouths open looking up in The Simpsons

By Guy Howie Published 5 minutes ago After joining ScreenRant in January 2025, Guy became a Senior Features Writer in March of the same year, and now specializes in features about classic TV shows. With several years' experience writing for and editing TV, film and music publications, his areas of expertise include a wide range of genres, from comedies, animated series, and crime dramas, to Westerns and political thrillers. Sign in to your ScreenRant account Summary Generate a summary of this story follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap

In its inimitable pomp, The Simpsons blazed a trail with cartoon characters more authentic and human than most of their live-action counterparts, whilst also just about the funniest thing on television. From its beloved titular family to countless fan-favorite supporting characters, the animated sitcom is populated by more iconic small-screen creations than 20 lists of this length could encompass.

Even during the show’s relative latter-day decline, one feature that The Simpsons has retained from golden-age episodes is a depth and breadth of characterization no other animated sitcom can rival. So many of the funniest cartoon characters ever created have starred across its 37 seasons.

The best Simpsons episodes are grounded in characters we can relate to, root for, and laugh with as well as at. There have been missteps along the way, like the offensive stereotypes ascribed to Kwik-E-Mart proprietor Apu, and the retconning of Principal Skinner into an imposter. But overall, The Simpsons’ best characters are the envy of every other TV show.

Since there’s only room for the best of the best, this list couldn’t include everyone’s favorite. So, here’s to honorable mentions Barney Gumble, Troy McClure, Ralph Wiggum, Maggie, Grampa and Mona Simpson, Kent Brockman, Bleeding Gums Murphy, Helen Lovejoy, Santa’s Little Helper, Itchy & Scratchy, Hank Scorpio, Frank Grimes, and so many others who’ve made the show what it is.

20 Mr. Smithers

Voiced By Harry Shearer

The Simpsons Smithers Burns Oppenheimer 7

Smithers stands in front of his Malibu Stacy collection in Season 5's "Lisa Vs. Malibu Stacy"

As the Marge-Smithers combo in Simpsons season 36 episode “Bottle Episode” demonstrated once again, Mr. Burns’ loyal sycophant is more fun than we often give him credit for. From his jealousy-fueled sabotage of Homer’s hair day in “Simpson and Delilah”, to his official (and hardly necessary) coming out in season 27, Waylon Smithers is integral to the show’s entire run.

19 Hans Moleman

Voiced By Dan Castellaneta

Hans Moleman holding his cane and sitting in the Simpsons Cover

Among the best side characters in any cartoon, Hans Moleman is responsible for several of The Simpsons’ best single-scene gags. Emblematic of the absurdist humor the show inherited from Monty Python, he’s invariably subject to devastating misfortune in the unlikeliest of circumstances. It’s his most famous line that places him here, though: “I was saying Boo-urns.” Whatever you say, Hans.

18 Mayor Quimby

Voiced By Dan Castellaneta

Mayor Quimby in a firehouse in The Simpsons

Dan Castellaneta plays the most Simpsons characters out of all the actors working on the series, but Mayor “Diamond” Joe Quimby isn’t one we’d typically associate with the voice of Homer Simpson. That’s because Castellaneta does such a good Kennedy impression that this brazenly immoral local politician has a personality entirely his own, distinct from anyone else in the show.

17 Nelson Muntz

Voiced By Nancy Cartwright

If Nelson Muntz had his own Simpsons spinoff, he’d likely become a pop culture icon comparable with Bart Simpson in the early 1990s. The juvenile delinquent from a broken home might be the bully who coined the most recognizable expression of schadenfreude in the English language, but he’s also often the closest thing the show has to a tragic anti-hero.

16 Lionel Hutz

Voiced By Phil Hartman

Lionel Hutz in The Simpsons 9

Phil Hartman’s Simpsons voices are rightly the stuff of legend, with his ingenious turn as Troy McClure probably the best work of his tragically curtailed career. But Lionel Hutz is the best character Hartman voiced, a sleazy yet outrageously incompetent lawyer who somehow kept getting hired by the Simpson family, no matter how many cases he bungled.

15 Dr. Nick Riviera

Voiced By Hank Azaria

Dr Nick waving in The Simpsons

The doctor behind some of The Simpsons’ best background jokes, Dr. Nick Riviera’s genial demeanor belies the sinister nature of his medical malpractice. As the quack Lionel Hutz enlists for legal scams, and the surgeon who accidentally attaches his wristwatch to a patient, Dr. Nick somehow manages to be lovable even when he’s making a mockery of the Hippocratic Oath.

14 Moe Szyslak

Voiced By Hank Azaria

Moe huddled like a goblin singing into a hose in Moe's Tavern from The Simpsons season 35 episode 16

A key adjunct to the Simpson household, Moe Szyslak is principally the main source of Duff beer in Homer’s life. Yet, many of Moe’s best episodes in The Simpsons revolve around his relationship’s with the rest of the family, from his unlikely emotional bond with Marge, to his failure to recognize Bart as the boy prank calling his tavern.

13 Principal Skinner

Voiced By Harry Shearer

Principal Skinner serves steamed hams in The Simpsons

The original nemesis of Bart Simpson, Principal Seymour Skinner began the show as a straight-laced disciplinarian, but his character quickly became far richer. As Skinner’s best Simpsons moment with Superintendent Chalmers exemplifies, the characteristic that defines him more than any other is the level of cowardice a side-splitting sendup of his authority demands.

12 Ned Flanders

Voiced By Harry Shearer

Ned looks in the window in The Simpsons

Ned Flanders’ development arc as a Simpsons character is one of the most impressive in the show’s history. But some things about his characteristics have never changed, and his sanctimonious joviality in the face of Homer Simpson’s neverending antagonism will always be the funniest thing about him.

11 Patty Bouvier

Voiced By Julie Kavner

Patty at her wedding in The Simpsons

Some of the best Simpsons quotes come from Patty and Selma, Marge’s deeply cynical elder sisters, whose heartfelt disdain for her husband Homer is an endless source of zingers. Patty arguably has the sharper tongue of the two, while her decision to come out as a lesbian in season 16 has given rise to several intriguing subplots in recent years.

Network TV
The Simpsons

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Who's the Simpsons character in your opinion, and why?

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