sigh
Rab C. Nesbitt is a comedy caricature. Repeat this ten times. Caricature : “a representation of someone, which makes part of their appearance or character more noticeable than it really is, and which usually makes them look ridiculous”.
So anyone claiming that he is representative of ‘what we sound like in Glasgow’ is pulling your chain.
This is a myth.
You’re taking this too seriously.
About forty-nine other people have already pointed out that the show didn’t have subtitles, but thanks.
Every single person I met today had an accent exactly like the one used in that sketch. While it’s not Fisher’s own accent, it’s hardly a caricature. It’s a straightforward harsh-as-hell Govan/Easterhouse/take your pick accent. If you pick someone at random off the street (and you’re not allowed to deliberately avoid people pissing in bus shelters), you will find someone who talks like that three times out of five. Nesbitt’s lifestyle is a caricature - his accent, I can assure you, is not. It’s possible that you’re thinking of scenes where Rab was particularly drunk, and it’s true, he became less intelligible as the wine went down. But the sketch I linked to has a perfectly normal Glaswegian accent, exactly like the kind used all over Glasgow every day. Not everyone here speaks that way, it’s true, but everyone has to be able to understand it, and most Glaswegians will be able to talk that way if pushed (as a social thing). Sometimes you just have to. A good deal of this won’t apply to the more affluent areas, but hell, neither does pissing in bus shelters.
ps: never base anything on the way they speak on Scottish soap operas. The people on those use a terrifying clear version of a Scottish accent, which sounds downright weird. This is because they want to sell the show abroad.
So it seems like the Scots don’t find Willie insulting, and generally find the character funny.
But what about that episode when he greased himself up to crawl through the school vents to catch Bart’s dog? When he catches it he says, “There’s nary an animal that can escape a greased Scotsman!”
How 'bout now?
In my dad’s family (American, of Scottish extraction), yes. When I found out I was pregnant, I called my parents, and made sure I got my (Irish) mom on the line before spillng the news, because I couldn’t be sure that my dad would bother to pass it along if I told just him.
And for the record, I think that makes the Simpsons scene even more hilarious, not offensive at all.
I don’t know from Rab C. Nesbitt, but my husband and I did see a news report in England that included subtitles for a Scot they were interviewing. Now whenever his Scottish colleague gets excited and starts talking too fast to be understood, my husband just yells, “Dave - subtitles!” at him.
Does anyone remember those TV comedy sketches by Stanley Baxter called “Parliamo Glesca”? It was a spoof language course in the style of " Teach yourself Spanish". They consisted of a series of short scenes with characters speaking broad Glaswegian followed by the same characters ,speaking the best BBC English , giving a translation . Very funny . I think a follow up book was published .
I didn’t think people took the whole thing so seriously . This, believe it or not , is a summery of a lecture given at the University of Ulster in 2002 by Gavin Falconer .
*Dialectalised Scots and Comedy
In this paper I examine three theories advanced in an attempt to explain the long-established connection between dialectalised Scots and comedy. J. Derrick McClure sees the root of the association in the influence of the proto-revivalist poet Allan Ramsay, and Sheila Douglas as a form of inwardly directed racism, while Fiona Douglas (no relation) points out that Scots can be used as a kind of social cement which binds compatriots together and excludes outsiders who “don’t get the joke”. I take each theory in turn and cite literary examples which I feel fall into each category, also discussing recent television comedy such as Stanley Baxter’s ‘Parliamo Glesca’, ‘Rab C. Nesbitt’, and ‘Chewin’ the Fat’. Finally I posit the idea, that, while each theory recounted has more than an element of truth, part of the reason behind the association of Scots with certain genres might lie in the vernacular’s relationship with the “high language” of Standard English, and I sketch out a structurally based explanation. I finish with the question whether dialectalisation might not also mean “genrification”. *
Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound snarky. Just tired of the Glaswegian “whae’s like us, naebdy understands us” schtick. If it was true then why is Glasgow chock full of call-centres?
So not exactly typical of all Glaswegians then. Otherwise it wouldn’t be ‘harsh’. There’s nothing unusual about a harsh Glaswegian accent that you couldn’t say about any other major urban accent. But no-one else claims that’s how everyone speaks there.
Again, not wanting to sound snarky. 
I was born and raised in the midwestern United States (Illinois, if you must know), and I had no trouble understanding that. I’ve never lived abroad, either. Do I win something? 
She would snigger at the title, just as I did when it was released when I was a kid. Yes, she is very like me! I especially laughed because it had Michael Jackson singing the theme tune.
FTR, my mother’s family, from Rutherglen, sound very much like Rab C. Nesbitt.
Intelligability and, going on my own frustrating experiences, ability to understand accents other than your own, doesn’t seem too high on the list of requirements for call centre workers.
One of my former roommates is Scottish, and not shy about it - and he’s a pretty big Simpsons fan. I think he not only wasn’t offended by the character, he’s probably one of his favorites. He used to recite many of Willie’s quotable lines, complete with an authentic-sounding Scottish accent. 
Keep in mind that everybody on the Simpsons is portrayed as a fool. On The Beverly Hillbillies, the stuffy Mr. Drysdale and his proper secretary were greater fools than the Clampetts. Some folks gripe about Doonebury being liberal, but the liberals in the strip are just as idiotic as the conservatives.
Now, for my stereotypical dumb Yank question; How about that Sean Connery guy? Does he do a good Scottish accent?
By the way, the transplanted Scot comic Craig Ferguson is making a big splash as the new host of CBS’s Late Late Show. He pokes fun at his roots. He had his mum as a guest this week. He says, “Yes, I’m gonna keep the accent.”
For a sampling of the variations of Scottish accents visit the linky.
My husband is from the Borders region of Scotland, about 10 miles north of the English border on the West coast. He sounds more English than Scottish, but every now and then his Scottish comes out. Hey says “book” or “cook” more like “boook” or “coook.” And “murder” isn’t as smooth as I would say it. His is more like “muhr-duhr.” His kids, on the other hand, I have trouble understanding at times. It’s not so much their accent, but the lazy and fast-paced speech pattern that a lot of teenagers everywhere aquire.
RE Willy on the Simpsons: He finds him hilarious with his crap accent. For instance, Willy says Glasgow like “glass cow.” DUH! It’s Glasgow like “glaz-go.” As far as Willy’s stereotypical rough and ready nature, Ian finds it funny because his family is much like that. Thank god, I happened to get the most genteel of his family.
Whatever the quality of Mike Myers’ life as genteel or not, he was born and raised in Canada and according to the IMDb his father was an Encylopedia Britannica salesman. Not that I"m defending the quality of his accent. Or, on the whole, his acting either.
There’s a movie from Scotland called Ratcatcher that airs on the Independent Film Channel every now and then and it is shown with subtitles. The first time I saw part of it, it took me a good five or ten minutes before I realized they were speaking English.