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Simon Bar Sinister
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Played by
Peter Dinklage
Movie
Underdog
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Polly, Commander McBragg, Klondike Kat, Miles Finch, Trumpkin
Simon bar sinister band 2
Dr. Simon Bar Sinister is the main antagonist in the Underdog cartoon show. Simon was the wickedest man in the world, and it was his ambition to rule the world, but each time, Underdog defeated him.
Voiced by Allen Swift, and based on the voice and looks of Lionel Barrymore, Simon appeared to be only two feet tall.
Simon's most famous saying was, "Simon says!" His henchman was Cad Lackey, who, though generally dull-witted, was occasionally capable of pointing out flaws in his boss's plans. Contrary to the mad scientist stereotype, Simon actually paid attention to Cad's suggestions.
In the 2007 live-action film adaptation, he is portrayed by Peter Dinklage. In the movie, Bar Sinister was originally a geneticist for a company in Capital City, using dogs as test subjects for the betterment of mankind. But after being laughed at by the mayor after attempting to have his research expanded to law enforcement, Bar Sinister began his work to create a super-power formula to get revenge and he took away Underdog's superpowers and put them in little blue pills and fed them to German shepherds and was sent to jail for his crimes. However, the incident resulted in the destruction of his lab that not only caused scarring of his forehead, the loss of some of his hair, and a limp in his right leg, but created Underdog.
Name
"Bar Sinister" is a term derived from heraldry, referring to a mark known as 'barre sinister' in French and 'bend sinister' in English. A bend sinister is a diagonal line from the top right to the bottom left of a shield, while its smaller version, the baton sinister, symbolizes illegitimacy. Although "bar sinister" is not heraldically accurate, it has been used in literary contexts to signify illegitimacy since the early 19th century. The name "Simon" is of Hebrew origin, and the word "bar" in Hebrew typically denoted a patronymic surname (see, for example, Simon bar Jonah, the birth name of Saint Peter). Thus, Simon bar Sinister's name is a doubly macaronic play on words.
Episodes in which he is prominent
"Simon Says" (first appearance): Invents a special camera used to freeze living things in photographs. He used it on the police to keep them from interfering, and then, by kidnapping Sweet Polly, he tried to use it on Underdog so he could rip up the photo and he would be gone for good. However, Underdog, armed with a mirror, reflected the ray back at him and he was turned into a picture; after unfreezing the police, Simon is later taken away to jail, where he was later unfrozen from his photograph prison in his cell.
"Go Snow": Invents the Snow Gun to turn people into snowmen and snowwomen. After he snowed Underdog into submission, Underdog managed to defrost himself and then flew around in circles, making Simon and Cad too dizzy to continue their plan.
"The Big Shrink": Desires to be the biggest man in the world, so he invents Pure Distilled Shrinking Water to shrink people to the size of his thumb. After using the shrinking chemical on Underdog and Sweet Polly, he then continues to shrink everyone else in town, but he decides he's going too slow, but he eventually decides to use his Rainmaking Machine to make it rain Shrinking Water all over the city; shortly after doing so, he even shrinks Cad. Underdog, Polly and the townspeople shrink him to the size of a flea and tickle him into telling them the cure to the shrinking water. After Simon tells the townspeople the cure, he and Cad are sent to jail.
"Weathering the Storm": Invents the Weather Machine to distort the Earth's weather patterns, but finds out he can't use the Weather Machine against Earth if he's on Earth. Cad points out they could use the Weather Machine if they weren't on the Earth. Simon and Cad ruin the Moon launch at Cape Canaveral by stealing a spacecraft with Sweet Polly as their prisoner after incapacitating the astronauts who were supposed to go with Sweet Polly. Sensing the danger, General Brainley, in charge of organizing the Moon launch, sent word for Underdog. Simon warns that if Underdog were to go to the moon, to harm Simon, Sweet Polly would be harmed. While Simon demonstrates the Weather Machine's powers, he creates a flood, which floods the Capitol Building, but Underdog makes a built-in drain, sending the flood out to sea. Then, Simon creates a lightning storm, but Underdog throws the lightning bolt into the sky. Then, Simon tries a tornado, but Underdog stops it with his atomic breath. Simon, after listening to one of Cad's suggestions, threatens to press all the keys on his Weather Machine unless the Earth agrees to make Simon dictator, and the world leaders have one hour to decide. Underdog knew it would be impossible for him to stop tornados, earthquakes, floods, hurricanes and many other natural disasters all at once, and even if Simon spotted Underdog nearing the Moon, he would press all the keys on the Weather Machine and destroy the Earth, with Sweet Polly, too. Underdog turns invisible and defeats Simon and Cad, destroys the Weather Machine, rescues Sweet Polly and returns Simon, Cad, Polly, and the stolen spaceship to Earth where Simon and Cad will be imprisoned by the military police.
"The Phoney Booths": Replaces phone booths with Phoney Booths to brainwash people who use the booths. Underdog also falls victim to the booths, being forced to rob a bank and steal the Empire State Building. Sweet Polly tries to destroy the booths after learning Underdog was brainwashed. Simon and Cad catch Polly destroying the booths and send the brainwashed Underdog after her, but Underdog's computer brain rebels against the power of the booths and he eventually snaps out of it. Underdog then destroys Simon's evil phone booths, returns everything Simon made him steal to their rightful places and Simon and Cad are once again sent to jail.
"The Forget-Me-Net": Invents a net to erase the memories of others. He planned to use the net on Underdog by robbing a jewelry store and a toy store, but Underdog was busy taming a typhoon and stopping a band of pirates. So, he decides to kidnap Sweet Polly and use the net on Underdog; doing so, they erased Polly's memory in the process. After using the net on Underdog, he realizes the cure to the net's effects is if the victim hears his or her name, so he disguises Underdog as an elderly woman who sells apples, and, of course, they will leave Polly's memory erased. Simon and Cad then plan to erase the memories of all the people in Washington D.C. After Polly regains her memory, she tries to get Underdog back to normal with a blow to the head, but it doesn't work until she says his name. Memory regained, Underdog stops Simon and Cad by using the Forget-Me-Net against them, causing both Simon and Cad to forget who they are.
"Simon Says 'No Thanksgiving' ": He plans to make himself master of the city with an army consisting of 3 airplanes, 3 tanks and 12 soldiers. Sweet Polly overheard it and the police that she informed of this laughed at the fact of Simon using 3 airplanes, 3 tanks, and 12 soldiers. He planned it on the same day of the Thanksgiving Day parade and was disappointed at that. Cad points out if Simon's plan fails, they will be the laughingstocks of the city. So he plans to go back in time and destroy Thanksgiving by having the Indians fight the Pilgrims. With that done, he'll be able to push the buttons on Main Street locking every door in the city and he'll be able to carry out his plan. Underdog and Polly as usual foiled his plan. When his army started the attack, they were quickly arrested and Simon was the laughingstock of the city.
"The Tickle Feather Machine": After the narrator makes reference to Simon's previous failed inventions to conquer the world (the Shrinking Water, the Weather Machine, the Snow Gun and the Forget-Me-Net, respectively), Simon decides to run for dictator, but quickly realizes nobody will vote for him since he's the most wicked person in the world. So Simon and Cad must vote for Simon themselves and prevent others from voting. A few of Simon's inventions fail, until he invents the Tickle Feather Machine to make people laugh so hard, they won't vote against him; knowing it was impossible to incapacitate the millions of voters across the country on foot, Simon and Cad took to the skies and dumped the tickle feathers all over the country. After firing the Tickle Feather on Underdog and Sweet Polly, he and Cad vote for him for dictator and threatened a cook, a banker, a construction worker, and Sweet Polly to do whatever he says. It may look as though Simon was legally elected, but he wasn't. Underdog found info that Sweet Polly revealed on the television like Simon Bar Sinister and Cad are convicted criminals and they weren't registered to vote. This caused those that Simon threatened with the Tickle Feather Machine to turn against him as Underdog disposes of the Tickle Feathers by blowing them off the face of the earth using his atomic breath.
"The Big Dipper": Invents the Big Dipper Machine to steal every water reservoir in the world, including oceans, seas, lakes, rivers, lagoons, ponds, and swimming pools. Underdog stops Simon from dipping all the water in the world, and Underdog restores all the water to everybody, and Simon and Cad are sent to jail again.
"Simon Says 'Be My Valentine' ": Uses his Valentine Vault to turn others into Valentine cards. Simon and his thugs intended to use the Valentine Vault on Underdog, but first they needed Sweet Polly as the bait. When Underdog arrived to rescue Polly, he was turned into a Valentine that Simon was going to use for a dartboard. When Simon and his thugs left the lab to use the Valentine Vault on the Mayor and the City's Officials, Underdog broke free of his Valentine Prison using his Super Energy Pill, rescued Sweet Polly and made it to city hall in time to stop Simon and his gang, eventually using the Valentine Vault on them.
"The Vacuum Gun": Enlists the help of Batty-Man, Riff Raff, Electric Eel, and the gangs that each one led to pull crimes all over the world. Underdog managed to defeat them all.
