Description
Mr. Burns
Franchise: The Simpsons
Mr. Burns embodies a number of stereotypes about corporate America, as he has an unquenchable desire to increase his own wealth and power, even through criminal means if necessary. This was shown when he briefly tried to run for Governor in order to prevent his plant from being shut down, and the time when he tried to sell uranium rods to terrorists for profit. Burns also embodies the stereotype of a manager by forgetting his employees' names (especially Homer's, although it appears that they interact more than Burns does with most of his employees), though this can be attributed to his senility. Burns is also unconcerned and dispassionate for his employees' safety and well-being, even laughing at the sight of a window washer falling from a great height of a building. His aspirations to apply obsolete technology to everyday life or references to Victorian-era people or places provide a common source of humor on the show. Despite his evil nature, Burns is able to shed a sense of kindness, as he sympathized over Homer's loss of his new hair as everyone in the plant only took Homer for granted because of his hairstyle. He is also pretty close to his right-hand man Waylon Smithers due to the latter's loyalty; even taking him in as his own son following the death of Waylon's father, who sacrificed himself to prevent a meltdown during the 1960s. Even though he treats Smithers like dirt and usually stiff him out of a raise or promotion. Mostly his main goal, besides become the richest man in Springfield, is to make Homer Simpson and his family miserable and get them out of his life. Sometimes he usually fires Homer a lot of times, but he usually re-hires him back at the end. He also cherished his lost teddy bear Bobo as it reminds him of the innocence that he lost when he was a child, even telling Homer's youngest daughter Maggie to hold on to Bobo after seeing how much she loved it. Although he sometimes does not care whenever his employees are up to no good, Mr. Burns has little tolerance for anything that could cost him money. A common plot in the series is Homer getting fired because he did something so reckless that not even Burns could ignore. This further proves that while he is mostly a cheap-stake who shows little concern for his staff, Mr. Burns will fire anyone whose reckless behavior endangers lives.
Trivia
His full name is Charles Montgomery Burns.
His age can very between episodes, mainly so that the writers can make jokes about how old he is.
He is voiced by Harry Shearer who voices a plethora of Simpson characters.
When Harry Shearer stepped down from working on the Simpsons, all of his characters had to be temporarily retired until Shearer came back.
Harry Shearer based Burns' voice after the late Vincent Price.
In the episode "The Burns and the Bees", Mr. Burns' net worth is arguably $1,800,037,022. However, he lost money, and by the time of the ending of the episode, decreased to $996,036,000.
While still greedy and egotistical, he has become less villainous in the more recent seasons and more of an anti-hero, whilst in any season prior to season 9 he was portrayed most of the time as a genuine threat. However, that does not take away the fact that he is the main antagonist of the series, as he still can be evil at times.