‘The Simpsons’ Just Brought Back a 29-Year-Old, One-Joke Character

Season 36 of The Simpsons certainly hasn’t shied away from bringing back random characters that many viewers forgot all about during the Clinton administration. For example, the White Lotus parody episode “The Yellow Lotus” featured the return of sketchy salesman Nick Callahan. And the series premiere, “Bart’s Birthday,” was chock-full of cameos from decades-old minor characters like Larry Burns, the real Seymour Skinner, that guy with the big hand and even Homer’s coyote spirit guide/Guatemalan insanity pepper hallucination.

The show continued the trend with this week’s episode “Full Heart, Empty Pool,” which found Homer and Grampa inventing a brand new sport called “Noodleball.” The game, basically pickleball with pool noodles, is played in empty swimming pools. But once it takes off, Noodleball becomes a target for angry swimmers, one of whom points out that “even the very tall need a place to swim.”

Of course that “very tall” man is the same guy who first appeared on the show nearly 30 years ago, driving a cramped Volkswagen Beetle in Season Seven’s “22 Short Films About Springfield.” When Nelson gives him the “Haw-haw” treatment, the man snaps and chases the bully down and then forces him to march through the streets with his pants around his ankles. Which, in retrospect, was a pretty messed-up thing to do.

In the episode’s DVD commentary, the writers admitted that the character was “clearly modeled on” 6-foot-8 Simpsons writer (and one-time Norm Macdonald opponent) Ian Maxtone-Graham, hence why he’s known to fans as “Ian.” But Hank Azaria’s vocal performance was inspired, not by Maxtone-Graham, but by Tippi Turtle, a cartoon character that starred in three Saturday Night Live shorts back in the ‘80s.

While he may have seemed like a one-joke character, the very tall man has made appearances in a handful of Simpsons episodes over the years. That said, it’s been a while since we’ve encountered him. The last time we actually heard the very tall man talk was in Season 28’s Pokémon GO-themed “Looking for Mr. Goodbart.” The character can also be seen driving his affordable automobile in The Simpsons: Tapped Out.

Or at least he could have been before the world of Tapped Out was tragically annihilated.