The Simpsons: Every Main Character Ranked Worst To Best

Barney Gumble is the perfect example of how dark yet hilarious The Simpsons is. Alcoholism is a genuinely tragic thing, as a person's vices and addictions can have huge ramifications not just on them but those around them. However, The Simpsons paints Barney's liquor dependency like a total joke, and it somehow works.

Like many characters in Springfield, Barney is simple-minded, naïve and unhealthy, which causes him to be amusing. But, he's taken a step further thanks to his drunken antics. Seeing Barney go out of his way to get his hands on alcohol or the desperation he feels when he's going T-total shouldn't be funny at all, but his wacky voice and the show's writing make it a source of hilarity.

There are very few shows that could pull off a character like this, so he's an easy one to place slightly higher on the list. It's just a shame that we so rarely see a deeper side to him, excluding his film in "A Star Is Burns".