Joseph "Joe" Quimby, Jr., aka "Diamond Joe" (voiced by Dan Castellaneta) is a fictional character featured in The Simpsons animated series. He has long served as the Mayor of the fictional city of Springfield, and appears to be a slick, sleazy politician whose only interest lies in staying in power for the fringe benefits it brings. Those benefits apparently include squandering tax dollars for personal use, and gaining access to large numbers of nubile young women. He speaks with a Bostonian accent which resembles that of John F. Kennedy. Like the president, the mayor comes from great wealth, and lives on a lavish coastal estate with his family not unlike the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport, Massachusetts. He does not get along with local police chief Clancy Wiggum.

Assisted by his equally slick and sleazy aides, Joe can be expected to turn up at any public event and promise exactly what the audience wants to hear. For instance, after discovering that the only thing that interests the residents of the Springfield Retirement Home is Matlock (a TV detective series that ran between 1986 and 1995), he promptly decides to name a new freeway the "Matlock Expressway". He is also known to be a womanizer and to occasionally amuse himself with pornographic playing cards during particularly boring town meetings.

It has been implied on occasion that Joe is connected to Fat Tony, the local Mafia Don.

Quimby, a member of the United States Democratic Party, was elected mayor of Springfield in 1986, and has been re-elected several times since, despite rather open admissions of fraud and wrongdoing. He once admitted to using taxpayer dollars to fund the murder of his enemies, but thanks to a clever use of a popular catch phrase ("I'm a bad wittle boy"), he was re-elected in a landslide. The fact that Quimby was a draft dodger who smokes marijuana and routinely cheats on his wife has earned him the hatred of Springfield's small but vocal Republican elite. With Sideshow Bob as their candidate, the party rigged a mayoral election, which briefly deposed Quimby. He was re-instated when Bob was found guilty of fraud and imprisoned.

For much of the series, Quimby's reign in Springfield was unquestioned. However, it seems that he may get into some political trouble, as his womanizing has led to a large amount of pregnancies. These woman held a protest in one of the episodes.

The mayor's surname is taken from Quimby Street, which is on the north side of Portland, Oregon, Matt Groening's hometown.

Quotes

"Can't we have one meeting that doesn't end with someone digging up a corpse?"

QUIMBY: "All right, I'm in charge here."
WIGGUM: "Oh, run along Quimby. I think they're dedicating a phone booth somewhere."
QUIMBY: "Watch it you talking tub of donut batter."

QUIMBY: "Are they [the crowd] getting dumber or just louder?"
AIDE: "Ah-h, (checks his clickboard,) dumber sir."

AIDE [whispering]: "Election year, Mister Mayor!" QUIMBY: "what, again!?"

"Did I, uh, hear a briefcase opening?"

"Can't this town go one day without a riot?"

See also : The Simpsons

Preceded by: unknown

Mayor of Springfield

Followed by: Robert Terwilliger (briefly)