10 Best Simpsons Characters Who Debuted After The Golden Age

Judge Constance Harm arrived in the show in Season 13, and in doing so fulfilled some valuable roles on the show. First off, she’s actually funny, but that’s a pretty basic requirement for The Simpsons.

More importantly, she meshes well with a core part of the show. As the family (particularly Homer and Bart) resort to increasingly dangerous and destructive behaviour, the courtroom plays a huge part in a great many episodes. The town already had a judge in Roy Snyder, but he was a fairly dull, perfunctory character only there because plot demanded it. Since judges need to be authoritative and in control, the humour in those scenes typically came from lawyers.

As we all know, the prime source of that was Lionel Hutz. But following Phil Hartman’s tragic death, that avenue was closed off. Rather than bring in another inept lawyer, Constance Harm arrived as the no-nonsense judge.

Parodying Judge Judy’s strict attitude, Harm frequently passes down cruel and unusual punishments. Because of this, she’s able to have more bearing on the plot throughout, rather than just popping up at the end of each act like Snyder did.