Two Scottish Cities Feuded Over Groundskeeper Willie’s Origin Story
The Simpsons’ Groundskeeper Willie sure doesn’t seem like the most favorable representation of Scottish culture. After all, this is a character who accidentally flashed a crowd of spectators during the bogus “Scotchtoberfest” celebration, and couldn’t sell a plate of haggis to save his life.
But oddly enough, two cities in Scotland once clashed over who had the right to claim Willie as their own.
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Back in 2009, The Scotsman reported that the Glasgow City Council had included Groundskeeper Willie in their online list of “Famous Glaswegians,” alongside the names of non-cartoon celebrities like Billy Connolly and Lulu. While the city acknowledged that Willie’s roots hadn’t been totally confirmed, their claim wasn’t totally without evidence. Glasgow officials pointed to the Season Eight episode “Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious” in which Willie connects with his old friend, magical nanny Shary Bobbins. Reminiscing on their days together in the “old country,” Willie recalls that when Shary got her eyesight back “suddenly the ugliest man in Glasgow wasn’t good enough for her.”
But residents of Aberdeen immediately took issue with Glasgow’s interpretation of Willie’s backstory. At the time, Aberdeen Football Club spokesman Dave McDermid stressed that there was more support for the theory that Willie hailed from Aberdeen. “Anyone who has watched The Simpsons in any detail over the years will know that Groundskeeper Willie is very much a fan of the Dandy Dons and always will be,” McDermid said, referencing their local team. “As much as it may disappoint people in Glasgow we are in no doubt that Willie is a proud Aberdonian.”
For one thing, the episode "'Scuse Me While I Miss the Sky" includes a moment in which Willie randomly shouts "Go Aberdeen!" after being woken up from a dream. More upsettingly, “The Dad Who Knew Too Little” implies that Willie may have had a sordid past in which he was known as the “Aberdeen Strangler.”
Of course, both cities seemed to be willfully ignoring the fact that Groundskeeper Willie had already proudly declared that he was from North Kilttown in Season 10’s “Lard of the Dance.”
Possibly to ensure that their cartoon wouldn’t be the cause of a Scottish civil war, the Simpsons writers opted to settle the debate just three years later. In the Season 23 episode “The Daughter Also Rises,” Willie states, “Now here’s a myth about me I’d like you to correct: I’m not from Edinburgh. And I’m also not from Glasgow. I’m from Kirkwall in Orkney.”
“We liked the idea of him for once saying: ‘I’m not from one of these big cities,’” Simpsons writer Rob LaZebnik explained. “So we went online and spent a lot of time looking at lists of towns and cities, and we frankly loved the name ‘Kirkwall in Orkney.’”
Upon hearing this news, a Scottish member of parliament in Orkney actually wrote to the leader of Glasgow City Council to request that the city “renounce its claim.”
None of the media reports from the time say whether or not they sent a similar letter to officials in North Kilttown.
