Why, Bob, Why?

The first thing we have to realise is that everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, Bob did was an attempt, however misguided, to make the world a better place. And for all of it, he had his reasons.
For a start, Bob is highly educated (Yale, no less) and obviously comes froma family more used to high culture than your average set of gawpers (eg the Simpsons). However, taken on as Krusty's sidekick after accompanying his brother to an audition for the same post, he is suddenly plunged into the depths of toilet jokes, custard pie gags and humour so crude it doesn't even know how to fold a napkin correctly. Horrified by this lack of refinement, Bob takes the only course of action available to the highly-bred: he politley endures it without complaint. But the slide whistles, cannon and custard pies become too much. His cultured afro-with-a-bone-in-it (shown in "The Telltale Head") splits into many fronds, reminiscent of a palm tree and, some might say, much more fetching. Drawing ever further from hids beloved culture, he loses copious amounts of weight and his nose, once bulbous, becomes long and sharp. In fact, as his good nature is disolved in pickle brine and rancid salad cream, he starts to look less like a lovable clown and more like a stereotypical villain (Yes, I know the villain look was visible at the audition. But he's a clown in the earliest episodes. there's no pleasing some people). With this prophetic change in his looks, what else is Bob to do but turn to evil? he finally cracks under the strain in "Krusty Gets Busted". he begs for mercy when faced with the cannon, something his upbringing would never allow. His heritage now betrayed, Bob turns to crime to release him from the rut. As it seems he has got away with it, Bob realises his dream and produces his desired quality, cultural children's programming. All children love it - it's educational, interesting and not patronising. But Bart Simpson has to spoil the fun, and Bob goes to jail.
Obviously Bob doesn't have a good time in prison - he lives with a bunch of animals who steal he chapstick. He has his Emmy confiscated. He is given selma as a penpal. when he gets out, Bob is broken. Without any source of income he has to find a way to get money, or starve in the streets. What better way to do this than to marry Selma then kill her, a crime which would benefit not only him but the whole of society? yet for the attempt he is returned to prison.
When he is released for a second time, Bob is embittered, vicious and crazy. Who can blame him? I'm sure I would be in those circumstances, as would you, reader. Yet his fragile psychological state and the persistant hounding he has suffered from a nasty little boy are not taken into account when he is imprisoned again.
Next time around, bob is honestly doing what he thinks is right politically for Springfield. (Ok, so not everyone agrees with ultra-conservative views (including me, I have to say), but he does, and he believes that they are right. The whole knocking-down-the-Simpson-house-to-make-way-for-an-expressway thing may not have been politically motivated, but who can blame him for having a few mental scars? It's only natural to want revenge. And in fact Bob actually wins the election as no one votes for Quimby - the fraud is just the over-enthusiastic insurance policy of a first time candidate, excusable on account of nerves (and, as the "Springfield Shopper" says, why not let dead pets vote?). But of course, popular prejudice prevails and Bob goes to jail.
His fifth outing once again sees our Robert trying to raise the cultural brow of the city of philistines and slack-jawed yokels that is Springfield. Realising how destructive and mind-numbing television is, Bob attempts to ban it, trying once agin to stop every brain in springfield being turned to cheese. But he is too late. At first it seems that his plans will succeed, for the first time ever, but at the last hurdle he is betterd by Krusty the Clown. Experiencing a psychological flashback to the years spent being humiliated at the hands of said Mr Krustoffski, Bob sets off the bomb in a final bid to destroy the tormentor whose tauntings were the lauchpad for all his troubles. however, his essentially harmless, self-effacing, society-enriching psyche, the one which has subconciously spoiled all his plans to date, strikes again. It causes him to choose a defective bomb, thena defective plane, and Bob,his good intentions lost in the melee, is condemned once more.
And finally, the biggest injustice of all. Following a major and entirely praiseworthy exorcism of his deep-seated psychological grudges, Mr Terwilliger becomes a reformed character. he promises to stick to the law, and does so, even when persistently houndedby a pair of horrible little kids with not one ounce of trust in their bodies. He evn refrains from murder when his lovelife is refrained by said sprogs, or when he finds them rooting in his luggage. He avoids being dragged down by his mentally scarred younger brother (whose reasons are an essay in themselves). however, once again mistrust, prejudice and pigignorance win through on behalf of the law and bob is arrested in conjunction with Cecil's attempt to destroy all of Springfield, EVEN THOUGH he did nothing. EVEN THOUGH, in fact, Bob saved the malicious sprogs and did his best to stop the collapse of the dam. Bob is jailed again.
Yet every cloud has a silver lining. Bob is now in the company of someone of a similar mental and cultural framework, who will stretch his brain and keep him occupied, preventing further plotting. We Hope.

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