0364 - Richie Sakai
Added 2024-08-26 08:00:01 +0000 UTCWe covered Richie Sakai a few months ago - more recently than I had realised, actually - but here he makes his speaking (and singing) debut.
He looks a little different from his previous bar hopping appearance, but he namechecks himself on stage here, so there's no doubt as to the intent of this as a cameo/Easter Egg. The song he sings is Cher's 1971 song "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves". To my knowledge, I've never heard it outside of this scene, and because of Dan's beautiful rendition here, I don't ever want to.
The Simpsonised-version of Richie shows up a few more times, and as promised last time, I'll track them all down here. Although sadly I have still not figured out what a producer does.
I've scrubbed through the final scene of season 3's "When Flanders Failed" many times to track down characters, and sure enough Richie can be seen in the Leftorium:
He is seen as one of the convicts escaping prison in Sideshow Bob's mayoral campaign ad (season 6, "Sideshow Bob Roberts"):
He's seen in the school hall in season 17's "Marge's Son Poisoning" (he looks different enough here that this might not be an intentional cameo like the others, but we'll never mention it again so I might as well document it here):
And Richie is even namechecked in season 18's "Jazzy and the Pussycats" as a jazz musician:
His design is so distinctive that I think if he ever shows up elsewhere, we'll notice it. We've got our eye on you, Sakai.
This post is part of my "Every Simpsons Character Ever" series. For a list of my rules in this project, click here.
