“The Simpsons” is pretty well known for its wide cast of colorful side-characters. One of these
characters happens to be Moe Szyslak, a surly bartender who can never seem to catch a break.
Though he can sometimes be a grouch and tends to favor his trusty shotgun, Moe isn’t that bad of a
guy. Well... he isn’t usually, though sometimes his morality can slip up a bit. Other times,
he’s the best friend and bartender that a guy like Homer could have. But of all the things
he’s done throughout 32 seasons, which have been the best and which have been the worst?
I’m Caleb with WickedBinge, and this is Moe Szyslak Deeds: Good to Evil.
We should also mention that we’re only counting canon examples.
In other words, none of these deeds will be from the Treehouse of Horror episodes,
or other non-canon episodes like “Revenge is a Dish Best Served Three Times”.
As always, we’re starting with the best and most good things that Moe’s ever done,
and will be working our way down to the not-so-good things.
Our first deed comes to us from all the way back in Moe’s childhood:
Refusing to sabotage another family business. In the season 29 episode "King Leer", we learn
that Moe had a strained relationship with his father as a result of his past. Moe’s father,
along with Moe’s younger brother and sister, ran a successful series of mattress stores.
But naturally, success leads to rivalry and competition. One night, Moe’s father asked him
to put bed bugs on all of their rival's mattress'. Moe nearly did this too, but refused to go through
with it after seeing a picture of the rival chain owner’s family. Knowing how important having a
business was to his own family, Moe didn’t have the heart to ruin someone else’s. While this was
an incredibly moral choice, it ended up backfiring majorly when the Szyslak’s mattress rivals ended
up planting bed bugs in his father's mattress store. This resulted in his father being forced
to close many of his stores, and Moe fell into a distant strained relationship with his father and
siblings. Ouch… Definitely an example of doing the right thing not always being the easiest
thing. Still, we have to give Moe credit for making the morally correct decision, even if it
didn’t work out so great for him and his family. Even when he had the chance to rectify this
‘mistake’ by putting bed bugs on his siblings’ mattresses during their mattress store war,
Moe still couldn’t bring himself to do it, showing that he still has a good heart deep down.
Next up, we have Saving Homer’s Life. When he was younger, Moe was actually a professional boxer,
though he was never too successful at it. He does get a second chance at fame however as
Homer’s boxing manager after the two discover just how good he is at taking a hit. Unfortunately,
the two of them soon get way over their heads when Drederick Tatum’s manager, Lucius Sweet,
comes looking for a fight. Moe immediately knows that Homer doesn’t stand a chance, but
quickly caves to Lucius’ peer pressure. He tells himself, Homer and Marge that Homer will be fine,
but it’s obvious that not even he believes that and the guilt soon sets in once Homer
starts getting pummeled by Tatum. But before the final punch can be thrown, Moe flies in
and airlifts Homer out of the ring, saving his life. Moe even tells him that it doesn’t matter
if the fans are mad at him, and that he only cares about Homer being alive and safe. While we had to
dock Moe a few points for purposely putting Homer in that situation in the first place,
this was more due to pressure from Lucius than actual greed. It also takes a lot of guts to ruin
your career for a friend, and after saving Homer, Moe actually uses his (stolen) paramotor to fly
around the world, helping people out and saving others from natural disasters with his flight.
Maybe it’s technically an ending credits gag, but it’s still nice to see from a guy like Moe.
Coming to another Homer-related good deed, we have Helping out Homer, Apu and Rev. Lovejoy.
Now, it’s been firmly established that Moe is pretty lonely, and is often desperate for any
sort of romantic affection. And yet, when he gets a chance to possibly hook up with one of three
different wives, he manages to act selflessly. Talk about a surprise! In the season 21 episode
“Moe Letter Blues”, Homer, Apu and Rev. Lovejoy all decide to take their kids on a Mother’s Day
ferry boat ride to give their wives a break from motherhood. Once on the ferry, however,
they all receive a letter from Moe informing them that he is running off with one of their wives.
Worried about their marriages, each of the husbands remembers a time where Moe
comforted their wives - a moment where they could have been better husbands.
No longer taking their marriages for granted, each of the men worry that their wife is going
to be the one who runs off with Moe. But, in a big twist, it’s revealed that Moe,
after seeing how troubled each of the relationships were, organized all of their
reconciliations while at the same time teaching the men a lesson through his letter about valuing
their wives. Honestly, it’s crazy to think about all the work Moe put in to save three marriages,
two of which with people who he isn’t even that close with. But in a way, it makes sense that
Moe wouldn’t want anyone to be as lonely and miserable as he was - and really, that makes
his huge gesture all the sweeter. Who would have thought that a bartender could play cupid?
Moving on, we have Being a father figure to Maggie. You would have never guessed that a
guy like Moe would have a soft spot for kids, but not even he can resist the cuteness that is
Maggie Simpson. In the episode “Moe Baby Blues”, Moe is once again feeling low, enough that he
actually decides to jump off a bridge to try and end it all. Before he can make that leap, however,
Moe ends up accidentally saving Maggie’s life after she gets flung out of the Simpsons’ car.
Because this was an accident, we can’t really count this as a good deed,
but we are going to count everything else in this episode. After forming a bond with Maggie,
Moe volunteers to babysit her. Through their little playdates,
Moe acts as a father figure to her, teaching her things and playing with her.
He even finds a way to make her laugh. With Moe doing so much and being so great at it, it’s
no wonder Homer becomes so jealous. Even after Homer and Marge forbid him from seeing Maggie,
feeling overwhelmed by all the time that he had been spending at their house, Moe doesn’t even
hesitate to help when he hears that Maggie’s been kidnapped by Fat Tony’s gang. With how dangerous
the Springfield Mafia is, Moe being willing to put himself in danger to save Maggie’s life is
definitely noble. Afterwards, Moe is allowed to babysit Maggie again, and while we don’t
see it too often in the show proper following this episode, their adorable relationship still shows
up in the comics occasionally. We aren’t sure if Moe’s necessarily the best influence on a baby,
but with how genuinely happy he makes her, we feel that this is still a good thing.
Next up is Letting go of a grudge. Maybe we’re giving Moe a bit too much credit for this one,
as it’s less a good deed and more just showing mercy. Still, we feel it’s something worth giving
a mention to. In “New Kid on the Block”, Bart falls head over heels for the new neighbor girl,
Laura. Unfortunately, Laura is an older girl who’s into ‘bad boys’ like Jimbo. When Bart learns this,
he decides to get back at the bully using one of his best running gags. He prank calls Moe,
and instead of just laughing and hanging up, he gives Moe his address as well as Jimbo’s name,
much to the bartender’s delight. With a rusty knife in hand,
Moe runs all the way over to Evergreen Terrace, ready to get his revenge. Jimbo, not being nearly
as tough as Laura or Bart thought, cowers as soon as he sees Moe start to threaten him.
Suddenly, all the anger Moe had for him just goes out the window, not having the heart to
kill him or even cut him up a little. Seeing the teen in tears, Moe decides to just forget about
any sort of revenge and go back to his bar. Now, Moe is a character that’s very much defined by his
anger, from screaming obscenities into a phone to wielding a shotgun. So seeing Moe just shrug off
the chance to finally get revenge on who he thinks has been tormenting for several months shows that
this guy is more bark than bite. Even after he gets prank called again at the end of the episode,
Moe doesn’t go out looking for revenge and instead just follows his and Bart’s usual routine.
While we’re sure he’ll never not get angry at these calls, we can give Moe a
bit of credit for not being harsh enough to actually follow through with these threats.
Wrapping up this section, we want to give a mention to all the Minor Good Deeds that
Moe’s done but doesn’t necessarily want credit for. Given his grouchy tough guy reputation, we
can’t exactly blame Moe for not wanting to reveal certain secrets about himself. Still, that’s not
going to stop us from bringing them up. In the episode “Homer Loves Flanders”, we learn that on
the nights when Moe’s is closed, Moe actually goes to hospitals and soup kitchens to read to those in
need. We get two brief scenes of this - first with him reading to a young sick girl, and then him
reading “Little Women” to a group of homeless men. He gets choked up in both these scenes, showing
off just how soft his heart is. D’aww, not even him threatening Flanders can ruin these moments.
Another good deed we hear about is from the episode “Lisa’s Pony”. Apparently, when the owner
of King Toot’s Music Store and his wife were stuck in a flaming car, Moe actually pulled them out and
saved their lives. That’s really impressive for a guy like Moe, and it’s even more admirable that he
only brought it up when he was trying to get the owner to open his store up as a favor to Homer.
Speaking of Homer, we’d also like to use this section to mention the fact that,
if it weren’t for Moe being willing to hammer a crayon back into Homer’s brain, Homer would have
been stuck as a smart but lonely man forever, isolated from his fellow dumb Springfieldians.
We suppose that, given how dangerous Homer’s idiocy can be, it could be argued that this
wasn’t necessarily a ‘good’ deed, but hey, it made Homer happy, so we’re counting it.
Okay, that’s all of Moe’s good deeds. But like we said, this bartender can have a bit of a
dark side to him. So, let’s take a look at his evil deeds,
starting with the Bad and working our way down to the Most Evil
Flirting with ‘Midge’. Okay so, Moe’s crush on Marge is pretty obvious - so obvious in fact
that you’d have to be as dumb as Homer to not see it. His biggest attempt was in season 5’s
“Secrets of a Successful Marriage”. With Homer in the dog house (or treehouse) for revealing his and
Marge’s intimate secrets to his marriage advice class, Moe sees it as his big chance. He swoops in
with a bouquet of flowers and gets invited inside by Marge. It’s clear that he’s hoping to win her
affections despite Marge politely turning him down, but immediately backs off when a disheveled
Homer comes back into the house, not wanting to get beaten up. But while he may not actively go
after Marge while Homer’s still around, he still tries to subtly stay close to her in the meantime
just in case Homer is taken out of the picture. At one point, it was revealed that Moe had
bugged the Simpsons home in order to overhear Marge. Ironically enough, Moe himself was being
monitored by the FBI for this. So yeah, Moe can have some pretty stalker-ish behavior, and these
tendencies really don’t do much to help with his romantic life. It’s also implied that Marge isn’t
the only woman that he’s stalked. But while we can’t excuse these creepy and gross actions, we
can be thankful that they aren’t worse, especially when compared to some of Marge’s other would-be
suitors like Artie Ziff and Mr. Burns. After all, Moe helped keep the two of them together
in “Moe Letter Blues”, so he seems to respect her relationship with Homer for the most part.
Next on the list is Stealing Homer’s drink idea. In the classic episode, “Flaming Moe’s”,
Homer shares a homemade drink with Moe after his beer supply gets cut-off. The drink is certainly
an interesting one, being a mix of various leftover liquors and Krusty the Clown-brand
cough syrup that, for whatever reason, tastes great after being lit on fire. With how delicious
the drink is, it doesn’t take long for people to start to take an interest in it - and Moe
doesn’t even hesitate to take credit for the idea. Homer’s disappointment and anger at this is pretty
obvious, but any remorse Moe may have for stealing his drink feels hollow. Moe barely gives Homer a
second thought, and immediately goes into trying to merchandise himself and turn his bar into the
hottest place in town. This drives Homer into near insanity, but again, Moe can’t really seem to care
too much and doesn’t even notice when Homer says that he’s lost himself a customer. It takes a
guilt trip from his waitress/girlfriend, Colette, for Moe to agree to sell his drink and split the
money made from it with Homer, though he’s hardly happy about it. Of course, Homer spills the beans
and Moe’s Tavern once again falls into obscurity. We’re putting this deed on the higher end of bad
since Moe did try to make things right, even if he was reluctant about it. We should also add that
despite costing him a million dollars, Moe isn’t that angry with Homer, possibly seeing it as a
justified punishment for himself. It would’ve been easy for Moe to continue the cycle of revenge,
but the fact that he invites Homer back into the tavern with open arms says a lot.
Up next, we have Planning Insurance Fraud. Whenever Moe actually manages to get a girlfriend,
he usually ends up completely spoiling them. His girlfriend, Renee, was no exception,
with Moe taking her on pricey dates and giving her expensive gifts. But a bartender’s money doesn’t
last forever, and when Moe becomes worried that Renee will leave him once she realizes he’s broke,
he and Homer come up with an insurance fraud scheme involving Moe’s car. Now, to be fair, Moe’s
original plan didn’t put Homer in any real danger. It was still shady and illegal, but it wasn’t
personally awful to his best friend. Moe crosses THAT line when Homer screws up the plan and gets
caught by police. Not wanting to get thrown in jail himself, Moe throws Homer under the bus and
even uses the money that would have gone towards Homer’s bail on a trip to Hawaii with Renee.
Moe does feel guilty eventually and confesses to Renee, but even then he’s more willing to try a
zany scheme involving faking their deaths than to be actually honest and serve his time. While
he was never completely heartless in this episode, still showing guilt for what he did to Homer, his
insistence on trying to be sneaky and deceitful paints a not-too-pretty picture of his morality.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the only crime that Moe’s done that had a serious effect on someone.
Speaking of which: Turning Snake into a Thief for Life. Yes, everyone’s favorite jailbird
wasn’t always a crook. In the episode, “The Seemingly Never-Ending Story”,
we see Moe’s brief summer romance with the new girl in town, Edna Krabappel, who had just moved
to Springfield to start teaching. When the two have the chance to leave Springfield together,
Moe realizes that he doesn’t exactly have the funds to start over. That is, until Snake,
then a polite idealistic archaeologist, comes in with his latest find: a big bag large of ancient
Mayan gold coins. Being the honest man that he is, Snake originally plans on donating
the coins to a museum. But with Snake’s hotel being just across the street from the tavern,
Moe seizes his opportunity and steals the coins from Snake. Once he realizes that he’s been
robbed, an angered and bitter Snake states that he’s going to take revenge on the world. Though,
by ‘world’, he actually just means convenience store owners. Either way, he begins a life of
crime, and it’s all Moe’s fault. Even if Snake’s not a huge threat, his burglaries and robberies
still cause quite a bit of damage. Even worse still is that after Moe and Edna break up,
Moe doesn’t even try to return the gold coins. He just puts them in his jukebox, playing his
and Edna’s favorite song over and over. While you feel bad for the guy, you can’t help but feel like
maybe it’s what he deserves for having a hand in creating Springfield’s most infamous thief.
We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention all the Illegal Activities that Moe seems to always
be holding in his bar. No matter how many times Moe tries to ‘pretty up’ his tavern and turn it
into a respectable place of business, he can never seem to hide just how shady the place really is.
Over the years, we’ve seen Moe either initiate or turn a blind eye to some pretty big crimes.
This has included smuggling pandas and orcas, hosting Russian Roulette games in his back room,
and operating an unlicensed casino. We should also mention that when prohibition
was briefly established in Springfield, Moe had no hesitations in running a speakeasy,
opening it almost immediately with Homer’s help. Looking at all this, it’s obvious that
while Moe may have a moral compass when it comes to his friends and the people he likes,
he tends to see the actual law as just a ‘friendly suggestion’. This is especially evident in that
it isn’t always clear whether or not he has an actual liquor license - and if he does,
it’s usually mentioned to be expired. While calling him a full-on ‘villain’ would be an
over-exaggeration, we can’t deny that Moe is definitely a criminal, at least partially.
To finish off our list, we have Moe’s worst deed: Killing the original Alfalfa. Okay, okay, we know
that this was most likely meant to be just a joke based on how absurd it is. Still, it’s certainly
one of the more memorable flashbacks from Moe’s life, and we’re sure you guys would bring it up
in the comments if we didn’t mention it here. So, here we go. In Season 7’s “Radioactive Man”
the town of Springfield is in a buzz, excited to be the setting of the new Radioactive Man movie.
With Hollywood on everyone’s minds, Moe decides to bring up a fun fact about himself to his bar
flies, revealing that as a child he had been part of “The Little Rascals”. Young Moe played the
role of the tough kid, Smelly, who's running gag would be looking into an exhaust pipe and getting
a faceful of soot. One day, the kid who played Alfalfa decided to steal Moe’s joke during a scene
and Moe, having some pretty big anger issues even as a kid, attacks him. Through beating him up,
he actually accidentally kills the kid, ruining his own career at the same time. It’s
a pretty dark scene, but it’s the Simpsons’ brand of dark comedy, so it works. Again,
it’s a pretty absurd scene too, so it’s easy to laugh at. As for how it applies to Moe, though he
did a pretty awful thing, he clearly regrets what he did. You could also argue that as a kid, he
didn’t realize his own strength and didn’t mean to hurt Alfalfa that badly. For those reasons, we’re
able to cut old Moe a bit of slack, but we still have to call it the worst thing he’s ever done.
Well, we think that’s enough Moe Szyslak for today. But let us know in the comment section
if you agree with our list, and tell us what we should cover next. Remember to hit that
notification bell and binge our Good to Evil playlist, where we break down the morality
of the characters in your favorite cartoons, shows and movies. But most importantly, stay wicked.