Kent Brockman

Kenton "Kent" Brockman, born Brockelstein, is a recurring fictional character from the animated TV series The Simpsons, voiced by Harry Shearer. He is a local TV news "personality" for the fictional KBBL-TV (Channel 6).

Model for character

There are a few people who could be the inspiration and/or model for Brockman, including the late Los Angeles news anchors Jerry Dunphy and Hal Fishman, Lloyd Robertson, and Ted Baxter, the airhead news anchor from Mary Tyler Moore, played by Ted Knight. He has also been seen to emulate both Ted Koppel and Walter Cronkite.

Profile

Kent Brockman hosts the Channel 6 weekday news (Scott Christian is the weekend news anchor and Kent's fill-in) as well as Smartline, a local current affairs show and Eye on Springfield which focuses mostly on Springfield's entertainment news.

Brockman represents the worst of his profession; frequently judgmental, careerist to the point of absurdity, and more than willing to film and sensationalize a schmaltzy, emotion driven puff piece for the sake of a few extra ratings points. (As with most Simpsons characters, Brockman's ethics and competence vary according to the needs of the episode.) He has been seen throwing tantrums because he cannot find certain snack foods, and once blithely announced that the boom operator on his news programme was being fired the next morning (for which he took a clout on the head from the angry soon-to-be-ex-employee). He seems to command excessive levels of power within Channel 6, even having a segment of the news programme to air his own (usually highly reactionary) opinions on current issues called My Two Cents. Despite all of this, he has won a string of media awards, but is most proud of his unspecified trophy from Del Monte. He was also a war correspondent during the Vietnam War, the Soviet war in Afghanistan, and the Gulf War (although, as he just says "Iraq", he could have been referring to the Iran-Iraq War).

Brockman has a preteen daughter and a preteen son, and has jealously mentioned his sister, who is a White House correspondent for CNN. Brockman owns a collie named Jessica, whom he had "fixed", and drives a blue Mercedes-Benz S420.

In "Dog of Death", Brockman won the multi-million-dollar ($130 million) state lottery jackpot and left the news desk while still on the air. But, he remained a news anchor because he was under contract, though he also admitted that he likes making $500,000-a-year. He also has a ongoing feud with traffic reporter Arnie Pie, and has been shown to critizise Pie's reporting and also even chuckle when it was thought Pie had died in a hellicopter accident. He mentioned to Pie that he made some smart investments when Arnie complained about the size of Brockman's house.

He is also characterized by using news-speak in everyday language, for example, "This just in, go to hell!" In "Tennis the Menace", it was revealed that his "wit" is provided by a microphone, earpiece and a communications team in a nearby van. He has been seen, more than once, streching his face and removing wrinkles by clipping a clothes-pin to the back of his head. In addition to his news career, Brockman writes a column for PC Magazine called "Making the Most of Your Modem." In Homerazzi Brockman is revealed to have a "thing" for bondage.

Brockman's most famous phrase, repeated in various guises on internet message boards and within popular culture is "And I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords". Another notable quote is "I've said it before and I'll say it again, democracy simply doesn't work".

In the Simpsons Movie, he is seen commentating on life inside the dome. He encourages Springfielders to use vigilante mob violence against Homer, and he is seen suffering from the fact essential supplies are low (he comments on low botox supplies, at which point his face lags and wrinkles, but he fixes the problem with a peg holding his skin up. This implies Brockman uses botox to keep a full, stern face.)

Religion

In a flashback to the 1960s in the episode "Mother Simpson", we see that when he started out in television his name was Kenny Brocklestein and he can be seen wearing the Hebrew Chai symbol as a gold medallion around his neck in the episode "Dog of Death" suggesting Jewish ancestry. Interestingly, however, he also references the Book of Revelation in the episode Marge on the Lam during an editorial in which he states women rebelling might lead to "anarchy of Biblical proportions" (he is promptly cut off by the station). Revelation is in the New Testament, suggesting Brockman no longer observes Judaism.

Language

Brockman has been shown to have no problem with using bad or otherwise offensive language on air, and a few times he has been fired for doing so. At one point, he was fired for using the acronym "SOB" on air but was later rehired for unspecified reasons.

In the eighteenth season finale and 400th episode , "You Kent Always Say What You Want" he was initially demoted to weekend weather man, then fired for using a strong expletive on air. He was later given his job back to silence him with a 50% raise, making his new salary $750,000-a-year.

See also

• Media in the Simpsons
• Kent Brockman at TV Tropes
• Use in 2006 US Midterm elections