10 Most Underrated Simpsons Characters
9. Jasper Beardly
A resident of Springfield Retirement Castle, Jasper's mental faculties are failing and he's slowly going blind. Despite this, he's led a rich life: skipping the WWII draft to join the women's baseball league (beard in tact) and becoming minister of Springfield's church.
Old as he is, he's mobile enough to get around town. Unfortunately this is often to his detriment, as he has been killed or involved in large-scale disasters multiple times. These number being shot in the Who Shot Mr Burns?, becoming a frozen freak-show spectacle in Lisa The Simpson, and being cured of blindness by a laser, only to be blinded again seconds later.
It's this easy-going nature (probably grateful for escaping a childhood of excessive 'paddlin'), coupled with an unnatural amount of bad luck that endears Jasper to audiences - when he appears at least - but he's not as recognisable as, say Abe Simpson. It's difficult to fit Jasper into storylines, so unfortunately we're often limited to the odd surreal, inexplicable cameo.