On last night’s episode (2/20/2005), Marge and Patty have a conversation about “what mom would want.” They don’t say “what mom would HAVE wanted,” but it still got me thinking. You don’t really see Marge’s mom anymore. Is she supposed to be dead or what?
Then, later in the episode, she is seen at the wedding, but she doesn’t have any lines. So what’s the deal with Marge’s mom?
I think you answered your own question- she’s very much alive (as she was at the wedding), but just doesn’t come around often.
She’s never been properly developed as a character. She’s just a wrinkly version of Marge.
I think they just don’t use her because she was created for a one-off, without a lot of thought, and the character isn’t really strong enough to work with in multiple episodes.
Aside from a couple of episodes, she has never had a major role. She just isn’t very interesting. I think the other problem is that she doesn’t sound very different. Julie Kavner does the voices for all the Bouviers. Mom is just Marge sounding old. And if there’s a difference between Patty and Selma’s voices, I’d like somebody to point them out.
Well, except for her late (“Don’t look at meeee!!!”) father, presumably the source of the Bouvier name.
In the DVD commentaries, they swear up and down that she does Patty and Selma’s voices slightly differently, but I can’t hear it.
Is there any reason why Marge’s mom Jacqueline Bouvier has the same name as the wife of President Kennedy?
Marge’s father comes from the side of the family, the Bouvier’s don’t talk about.
You know, someone says this in a Season 5 commentary.
But I’d bet a Coke that in a Season 4 commentary in which Kavner participated, someone asked her if she makes a difference between Patty and Selma’s voices, and she said “no.”
Because it’s humorous.
You’d lose on a technicality: it’s on a Season 3 commentary. Specifically, the one for The Black Widower, in which Selma marries Sideshow Bob. (I just happened to see this one tonight.) Kavner says it was a conscious decision on the part of the creative team to make the Patty & Selma voices identical.
What Bob said.
Semi-related to this, The Daily Show recently described Ted Kennedy as “the original Mayor Quimby”, getting a laugh from the audience.
Same reason Milhous was Richard Nixon’s middle name.
Your Coke is in the mail.
It’s probably not a good idea to mail white powders in this day and age.
Thanks to the OP for asking this question, I was wondering the same thing myself but I missed seeing the mom at the wedding.
Ladies pinch. Whores use rouge.
That’s the only Ma Bouvier line I can remember.