Waylon Smithers - Role in The Simpsons

Role in The Simpsons

Waylon Smithers is Burns' devoted executive assistant. His father, Waylon Smithers, Sr., worked for Burns until he died of radiation poisoning after saving Springfield from a potential nuclear meltdown when Waylon was a baby. Although he is not openly gay, Smithers frequents Springfield's gay village and goes on a vacation to a male-only resort. It was revealed in a flashback that he was involved with a woman, but the two split up when Mr. Burns came between them. Smithers is shown to have a passionate and deep love for Mr. Burns and his sexual orientation has been characterized by the writers of the show as "Burns-sexual". Smithers has occasional fantasies about Burns: when we see his computer turning on, it shows a nude Burns with an audio montage saying: "Hello Smithers. You're quite good at turning me on." Smithers has openly declared his love for Burns on at least two occasions, such as in "Lisa the Skeptic", when, believing the world is ending, Smithers says "Oh, what the hell!" and kisses Burns on the lips, later explaining it to him as "merely a sign of my respect."

Burns has remained largely ignorant of Smithers' devoted adoration, much to Smithers' frustration. In later episodes, however, Burns appears to be somewhat wary of these gestures. Burns himself has been involved with several women and in "A Hunka Hunka Burns in Love", Smithers is noticeably disgusted when Burns starts looking for a female companion. Burns, for his part, views Smithers as somewhat of a lackey, albeit a highly valued one for his competence. He has "rewarded" Smithers' devotion with the future "honor" of being buried alive with him after he dies. Smithers has been shown to be somewhat dependent on his relationship with Burns. In "Homer the Smithers", Burns orders Smithers to take a vacation and Homer Simpson is hired as a temporary replacement. When Homer loses his temper and punches Burns in the face, Mr. Burns learns to become self-reliant and this results in Smithers being fired. Smithers decides that he needs to be Burns' assistant and eventually gets his job back. For all his sycophantic devotion to Mr. Burns, Smithers has been willing to challenge him on at least two occasions, most significantly in the "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" episodes, where he opposed his employer's various evil schemes and was fired. As a result of his firing, Smithers became a "hideous drunken wreck" and when Mr. Burns was shot later in the episode, Smithers thought he might have done it while he was intoxicated. When it was proven that he had not, Smithers seemingly forgave Burns and demanded that the culprit be brought to justice, offering a reward for the capture of the perpetrator.

Smithers' official job at the power plant appears to be that of executive assistant, which he says is "actually about 2,800 smaller jobs" responsible for monitoring employee attendance, and is often a disciplinarian and has won dozens of employee of the month awards. He has often hinted at wanting to be promoted to the position of executive vice president, but Burns has repeatedly squashed this dream, while whimsically bestowing the vice presidency on a dog. Smithers has the largest collection of Malibu Stacy dolls in Springfield and is the president of the Malibu Stacy fan club.