The Sad Story Behind Bart Simpson’s Real-Life Inspiration

It’s no secret that most members of the Simpson family were inspired by Matt Groening’s real-life relatives, which was less of a creative decision and more of a last-ditch effort to maintain the rights to his pre-existing characters (and also pay off all of his gambling debts, if Troy McClure is to be believed).

But instead of basing Bart on his childhood self — Groening says he was more of a Milhouse — the cartoonist found inspiration in some surprising places, including the classic squeaky-clean sitcom Leave It to Beaver. Specifically, Wally Cleaver’s sociopathic suck-up best friend Eddie Haskell, who Groening reasoned “should have his own show.”

And as Simpsons writer Mike Reiss recently pointed out on social media, Bart also owes his existence to a famous work by legendary photographer Diane Arbus, “Child With a Toy Grenade in Central Park.” The photo, captured in 1962, depicts a young boy with a crazed expression on his face, who happens to be holding a replica explosive device, which apparently was a perfectly fine thing to let kids play with in the early 1960s.

In a 1989 interview with NPR’s Fresh Air, which aired shortly before The Simpsons’ series premiere, Groening explained that Bart is the “center character of the series,” adding that “he’s sort of based on — do you know that Diane Arbus photo of the little kid in Central Park? Grimacing and clutching a toy gun in shorts? It’s sort of based on him.”

Although Groening also admitted that his original vision for Bart evolved thanks to voice actress Nancy Cartwright, who “made him into more of a hipster. He started saying ‘Hey man,’ and he just became more groovy, and more beatnik-like.”

While the photo may have inadvertently informed one of the most enjoyable characters in pop-culture history, the story behind it is even sadder than that meme of Homer contemplating life beneath a blanket of stars. 

The boy from the photo, Colin Wood, later revealed that he was going through a difficult time when he met Arbus. “She catches me in a moment of exasperation,” Wood explained in 2005. “It’s true, I was exasperated. My parents had divorced, and there was a general feeling of loneliness, a sense of being abandoned. I was just exploding. She saw that, and it’s like ... commiseration. She captured the loneliness of everyone.” 

In another interview, Wood claimed that he was “pissed off” at the time but “didn’t know how to articulate it. I was mobile and hostile with a smile on my face.”

Sadder still, the photo also became ammunition for bullies when Wood was a teenager. Reportedly, his prep-school classmate obtained a copy of the picture and, “as a practical joke,” plastered photocopies of it “all over campus.” At the time, he felt angry at Arbus for “making fun of a skinny kid with a sailor suit.”

It’s unclear if inspiring the “I Didn’t Do It” boy was any consolation.