Comic Book Guy (CBG) is the common, popular name for Jeff Albertson, a recurring fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Hank Azaria and first appeared in the second-season episode “Three Men and a Comic Book”, which originally aired on May 9, 1991. CBG is the proprietor of a comic book store, The Android’s Dungeon & Baseball Card Shop. He is based on “every comic book store guy in America” and represents a stereotypical middle-aged comic-book collector. He has become well known for his distinctive accent and catchphrase, “Worst [blank] ever!”.
Comic Book Guy (claiming Jeff Albertson to be his real name in the episode “Homer and Ned’s Hail Mary Pass”) is a morbidly obese, nerdy and snobby man best known for his eloquence and sarcastic quips. He is obsessed with collecting comic books and is an avid science fiction buff. He holds a master’s degree in folklore and mythology (having translated The Lord of the Rings into Klingon as part of his thesis), as well as a degree in chemical engineering, has an IQ of 170, and is a member of the Springfield branch of Mensa. He has long hair, which he always keeps tied in a ponytail. His catchphrase is the declaration “worst/best [subject] ever”, sometimes to the point of breaking the fourth wall. For example, in the episode “Saddlesore Galactica”, he wears a T-shirt saying “Worst Episode Ever” and criticizes the idea of the Simpson family keeping a horse since that was the subject of a previous episode. Another example of breaking the fourth wall occurs in an episode when Comic Book Guy’s chair collapses, and he sarcastically says “Ooh, a fat man falls. Real original.” Despite his solitary life, in The Simpsons Movie, minutes before his likely death, Comic Book Guy says that his obsessive comic book collecting has been a “life well spent”. However, in “Treehouse of Horror VIII”, when a nuclear missile homes in on him, he says to himself, “Oh, I’ve wasted my life.” (Although the “Treehouse of Horror” episodes are not part of the normal Simpsons canon.) In the 2008 episode “Any Given Sundance” it was revealed that he is also a writer and posts to his own site called “Ain’t I Fat News,” a take on the real-life movie review website Ain’t It Cool News.
