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Moe Szyslak is the owner and bartender of the Moe's Tavern in Springfield and is one of the characters from the Simpsons TV series. He is also close friends with Homer Simpson, Carl Carlson, Lenny Leonard and Barney Gumble.
Grouchy, lonely, miserable and prone to violent outbursts, Moe is constantly down on his luck, and has attempted suicide numerous times. Other running jokes featuring him include being prank called by Bart Simpson, running illegal activities from his bar, and an ambiguous ethnic origin.
He is voiced by Hank Azaria.
Personality
Moe is portrayed with a generally disagreeable personality: he has a short, violent temper, a penurious nature, a crass and undiplomatic manner of speech, and a mood that rapidly vacillates between anger, indifference and suicidal despair (the latter of which has become more apparent in later episodes of the show). He has an annual Christmas tradition of attempted suicide, but his attempts are comically unsuccessful (landing on a hot-air balloon after jumping out of a plane, for example), and he has already called the suicide hotline so many times that they've blocked his number.
He is easily irritated, frequently threatening the patrons at his bar with a shotgun he keeps behind the counter. He is also gullible, and Bart's unending chain of successful prank calls to his bar are particularly infuriating to him, inevitably prompting a torrent of Red Deutsch-style threats of gruesome bodily harm in return.
He also is, however, occasionally shown to have a sentimental and caring side to his personality, such as reading to sick children and the homeless, although he is secretive about such behavior. In his interactions with his various girlfriends, he has also shown genuine selflessness and kindness (as well as an unusual improvement in his disposition), although negative elements of his personality inevitably emerge and ruin things. In "Thank God It's Doomsday", he asks for salvation, because "I've done stuff I ain't proud of. And the stuff I am proud of is disgusting.
