Where Did THAT Come From – Lugash and His Gym

Здравствуйте мои друзья. Как у вас дела?

Gotta love Google Translate.  Just because I know most of us (including myself) don’t speak Russian let alone read their language… it just says “Hello my friends.  How are you doing?”  But why Russian?  Stick with me folks, it’ll make sense soon enough.

So the last Episode Tie-In gave us the Fit Milhouse™ skin and you may have heard there are bonus tasks if you also owned Lugash and his Gym.  While this post is by no means a should I buy (you can find that here), I thought I’d step away from 4th of July and take the time to let you know some more info about this Russian Gymnastics teacher and where exactly he comes from.

Lugash originally entered our games during Whacking Day as a premium building/character combo for 175 donuts.  After the snake and egg madness had ended, EA decided he needed to stick around and with the latest episode tie-in, tempted non-owners into considering him again.  Whether or not you bought him though, it is fun to see just how things connect to The Simpsons, so let’s get to it.

Our first appearance of Lugash is in “Children of a Lesser Clod” (S12:E20).  The people of Springfield are all assembled at the Springfield YMCA to sample their classes.  There are etiquette classes, basketball for men over 85 (just Burns and Grampa lol) AND gymnastics.  And guess who teaches it?  That’s correctomundo… Lugash.

We learn Lugash came to the US in 1983 after cartwheeling over the Berlin Wall.  We also hear his TSTO line “NO GIGGLING!” and hear him talk about needing to attend the anger management class next door after he yells at Lisa for being 8 and calls her a Grandma.  Gotta love obscure references to Eastern European gymnastics.  This also seems relevant after the Beijing Olympics… zing!

BONUS: This episode also includes the origin of Carl’s 12 hour Pogo task.  It’d be completely reasonable to imagine him saying “Boingy Boingy Boingy” while he’s doing it.

Anywho… Lugash has another prominent spot one season later in “Little Girl in the Big Ten” (S13:E20).  Lisa stinks at gymnastics at school but as she’s the only student keeping Springfield Elementary accredited, Skinner knows something has to be done, maybe a private coach?  The school’s gymnastics coach Brunella has a suggestion.

“I know a coach but he’s tough.  He defected into East Germany!”

Seems Lugash opened up his own gym AND he apparently cartwheeled back and forth over the Berlin Wall.  But who wants to put on a leotard and get screamed at besides hookers and Spiderman?  Well Lisa obviously after a pep talk from JFK.

This is certainly a great example of transforming a building into TSTO.  Spot on designers, spot on.  Inside the gym, Lugash is one angry coach and in this episode we hear the other dialogue EA picked for his TSTO character.  Also a lot of fun to see Lisa walk the balance beam (Gymnastic Lisa skin origin).  Lisa’s reward for making progress is Lugash returning Snowball to her.  He apparently confiscated her and the other students pets to motivate them.  Lisa turns out to be a natural at gymnastics and it’s all because of her giant head which keeps her perfectly balanced.

Beyond these two appearances, Lugash is relegated to a crowd scene character.  One example is in “Dark Knight Court” (S24:E16).  Lugash is seen in the crowd of citizens getting egged courtesy of Mr. Largo’s “little disappointments” aka the horn section.

Anyone else notice that the Blue Haired Lawyer is in that scene twice?  After the shells settle, everyone is certain that Bart is responsible for the prank.  Lugash is seen again in the mob chasing poor Bartholomew J.  I had to freeze frame this one to find him.

One last little possible appearance I’ll share is from “The Fool Monty” (S22:E6).  Up to debate, but does anyone else think this is Lugash gone blond?

Lugash is a fun character in TSTO and now that you know what he has to do with the Best. Show. Ever., here’s Lugash’s task list for comparison to his hilarity on-screen.

Well, that brings this post to a close but before I go, I’m just curious if anyone besides me hears the name Lugash and thinks of the fictional Middle Eastern country from the Pink Panther?  It’s where the Pink Panther diamond comes from if you didn’t know.  Y’all stay classy as usual and keep on tapa-tapa-tapping.

Peace out, TTFN and all that good stuff… Wookiee out!