It could be said that some characters get worse as time goes on and their popularity grows, but others tend to evolve as characters and end up growing in one way or another. Bart Simpson is amazing. He’s only ever managed to get worse and more inventive with the things he’s done. While he’s not completely evil, he’s definitely caused a great deal of trouble since he and his family were brought to the public, and it’s easy to state that while he’s not completely bad, he won’t be seen as an angel any time soon, either. The thing is, people like Bart when he’s bad since it tends to be comical, and at certain times it can even be useful. The eldest Simpson child has been the most entertaining of the bunch for many years now, but it does make a lot of people wonder if there was ever a plan to turn him into the face of the family and perhaps redeem his actions a bit, but at this point, it feels as though Bart was meant to be bad for no better reason than because people enjoyed it, and of course, because it helped to advance the story more often than not. 

In his defense, Bart has learned how to navigate his surroundings in a way that he understands best. 

There was an episode quite a while back that highlighted how the male Simpsons possessed a gene that made them dumber over time, which sounds incredibly negative and even toxic, no doubt to some folks, but is amusing all the same. Every character is designed to play to their strengths in any given story, and book smarts have never been a part of Bart’s character. Instead, he’s been the crafty, catchphrase-spitting, slingshot-having kid that gets by more on luck and the defiance that he flaunts to everyone in such obvious ways. The way that Bart appears to see the world is far different than many others, and it’s fair to state that he’s capable of seeing other points of view. He just chooses not to. That’s not to say that Bart is pure evil since he’s shown that he has a heart of gold that shows through when it’s necessary.

His acts of defiance and his attitude are a nice counterpoint to his sister, Lisa. 

Lisa is about as opposite of Bart as she can be since she’s a good student, she follows the rules, mostly, and she’s far smarter than her brother and approaches life in a logical and reasonable manner that kind of escapes her sibling a lot of the time. They do share their likes and have a few similarities since Lisa has shown that she can be defiant as well, but more often than not, she’s the opposing force to her brother. This is necessary simply because if all three of the Simpson children were to live on a whim and a prayer at times, the household wouldn’t be what it’s been for so many years. One would never imagine that they might see Homer choking out Lisa in the same manner as Bart, which some claim is still highly toxic, but to think that Lisa would be seen as anything other than the gifted child of the bunch is a bit ludicrous. While both Bart and Lisa stray from the lanes that have been designed for them, they tend to keep to their roles more often than not. 

At the end of the day, he’s simply more enjoyable as a bad boy.

This is Bart’s role, more or less, since he’s been one of the perfect bad boys that took root in the public consciousness early and was never given much else to do because, quite honestly, he didn’t need to be given anything else. His schemes and tricks have changed and evolved over the years, but it’s safe to state that he’s been the same for much of that time. Bart is who he is, and no matter if anyone has an issue with this, it’s best that he remain the same until the day when the show is no longer considered to be popular. 

Imagine the loss of revenue if he’d been a perfect angel. 

That’s kind of an odd thought, seeing Bart Simpson as a perfect angel that minds his parents, is a good student, and is respectful toward everyone instead of being a smart-aleck kid that rides his skateboard wherever he wants and makes crank calls to the neighborhood bar. It sounds awkward to say, but kids behaving badly does manage to get more attention than kids who are bound to be completely respectful and will never do anything other than what they’re told. Bart is one of the kids that was born to be bad, that’s for certain, but his character has been great for the show over the years and would have been disastrous had he been the good kid.