I’d argue that the black cop, Lou, sounds sufficiently urban-esque (“Sign’s floatin’ away, Chief.”)
Regardless of the accuracy of ethnocentric patois, we have Dr. Hibbert to thank for getting the various 70s and early 80s hairstyles right.
Smithers started out uh, Darker skinned than he is now. An early Episode in Season one shows this. On the Complete First Season DVD box set the commentary mentions, and laughs at the skin color change.
I believe the official explanation is that he had just returned from a vacation on Fire Island.
Woah-- I haven’t heard a Fire Island gag in, like, twenty years–
And then it was in a National Lampoon article by Chris Miller. Weird.
What really happened was that someone just messed up the coloring in that particular episode.
AFAIK, Lenny and Carl are not gay, nor are Homer, Bart, Grandpa, and all the other characters that have been jokingly implied to be gay at various times. In this case, the joke is that they’re straight and yet they’ll do things to strongly suggest they’re gay, whereas in the case of Smithers (who actually is gay, of course) the joke is that it’s just so obvious.
[Homer]
“Stupid sexy Flanders!”
[/Homer]
And the scary thing is, I’m only twenty eight myself. :dubious:
Wanna hear some Spiro Agnew jokes?
Isn’t he the guy who works at Mad Magazine?
First-season glitches like Smithers’ colouring are normal enough. In the early episode Homer’s Night Out, Lenny speaks with the voice later used for Moe.
You see, white guys have names like “Lenny”, while black people have names like “Carl”. Ha ha ha ha ha!
WHOOSH!!
Well, we all know that Carl is an urban Lenny. 