The Simpsons: 10 Worst Characters Ever
5. Bernice Hibbert
Bernice Hibbert just seems like such an unnecessarily superfluous character. It’s nice for Doctor Hibbert that he has a wife, and she helps flesh out the wider town a little bit, but exactly what is her point?
Most of the wives are afterthoughts to some degree, but it’s only with Bernice that this is really noticeable. Maude Flanders, Helen Lovejoy and Sarah Wiggum are all wives first and characters second. LuAnn Van Houten, while probably on equal footing with Kirk, is Milhouse’s mother before she’s anything else.
The problem is for Bernice that these characters still have personality and are hilarious in their own brief moments. Maude argues with Ned and provides a good foil for his central role, while Kirk and LuAnn go through a divorce.
Occasionally Bernice is a gossip, but she’s nowhere near as biting or incisive as Helen. At other times she chuckles mindlessly, but can’t compete with how funny her husband is.
They lean into stereotypes hard on the show, yet there’s no trace of Bernice being sassy or spoiled and rich; relative open goals for The Simpsons writers. For whatever reason, they’ve never really wanted to laugh at her, and as a result neither have we.