The Simpsons: 12 Shockingly Depressing Character Backstories

By Sam Heard /

3. Kirk Van Houten

20th Century Fox40-something Kirk Van Houten is the middle management mid-life crisis nightmare. Everything falls apart for Milhouse€™s €œweekend Dad€ when Luann demands a divorce from the pathetic figure in €˜A Milhouse Divided€™ at the Simpson€™s dinner party. Unsurprisingly Luann gets custardy of Milhouse and Kirk is forced to leave the family home and move into a pokey bachelor€™s apartment where he sleeps in a pitiful racing car bed. While Kirk€™s love life goes absolutely nowhere, he must look on as his ex-wife starts a relationship with the strapping Pyro €“ an American Gladiator who is the polar opposite of the doughy Kirk. Watching your former wife and the mother of your only child frolicking with a man who could literally tear you limb-from-limb must be a very sobering experience. The elder Van Houten becomes so desperate to win Luann back that he even attempts to cut off his own foot in €˜Large Marge€™. He is eventually sacked from his managerial role in the Cracker factor and finds re-employment as the assistant to a flier distributor. It should come as no surprise that Kirk€™s depressing post-divorce life drives him to alcoholism and even attempted suicide.