Rider’s Profile: Milhouse Van Houten

Who rides a Vespa?

My original concept for this blog is to profile different personalities (real or ficticious) who are Vespa riders like myself. But I know I’ll run out of entries if I only focus on that particular area. But still, that will be an aspect that I intend to regularly share here.

Since my previous blog entries hardy got any info about myself, allow me to share some bits of (not-so) personal info. I am a big collector of different sorts of original Simpsons merchandise. My biggest claim to fame as a fanboy is having my name mentioned in this book about Collecting Simpsons and having my fanmail printed in Radioactive Man comics #679. Sounds geeky, I know! But these are things a collector’s money can buy. I even have Bart tatooed on my back.

Having said that, allow me to start this Vespa Rider’s Profile series in this blog with a character from my favorite TV show. He’s not the only Vespa rider in Springfield though. There are a a couple more. But for now, let’s focus on him.

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rider: Milhouse Van Houten
also known as: Bart Simpson’s Best Friend | Lisa’s Secret Admirer
ride: probably a Vespa 125
homebase: Springfield, USA
job: 4th Grade Student (Springfield Elementary) | Private Italian Tutor

more about the rider: (from wikipedia) Milhouse is fluent in Italian due to visiting his English-language-hating grandmother Sofie two weeks every year in Tuscany. Due to his grandmother’s beatings, Milhouse learned Italian and started to wet his bed. He has also demonstrated that he is skilled in (if not legally entitled to) operate a Vespa (with pillion passenger/backride) on public roads. It is also in this episode that Milhouse had come closest to wooing Lisa, as she even kept a picture of Milhouse in her room while practicing Italian. It is implied that she is captivated by his impressive command of the language, and a rather romantic outing to the local Italian immigrant establishment. However, he once again reaches a roadblock due to his ongoing fatal flaw when it comes to girls, his tendancy to begin acting rather ridiculously masculine complete with cliche catch phrases and mannerisms. This case of social anxiety has lost him Lisa three times now.

Here’s a clip from the episode referred above. Aptly, the dialogue is dubbed in Italian (or is it French?).

UPDATE: For an English version of this clip, just click here (sorry, didn’t see it in YouTube the first time).

D’oh!

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J0HNRANA

john[dot]rana[at]gmail[dot]com