Simon Cooper

Simon Cooper (born September 13, 1991) is a fictional character from the E4 coming-of-age British sitcom The Inbetweeners. Portrayed by Joe Thomas, he made his first appearance during the pilot episode "First Day", broadcast on 1 May 2008. He appears in every episode of the series, as well as appearing in the follow-up films The Inbetweeners Movie (2011) and The Inbetweeners 2 (2014).

Characterisation

Along with Will, he is generally seen as part of the more level-headed and mature half of the group, though he is shown to be easily swayed. He appears at times to be somewhat neurotic and prone to bouts of hysterical swearing at the slightest provocation and responds to the boys' jocular but offensive comments with extreme anger in particular scenes. He reacts similarly when interacting with members of his family. He is intelligent but lacks common sense and confidence. He is at times gullible, gormless and passive; sometimes even believing Jay's outlandish claims of sexual success, though he often manages to see through these comments. He occasionally even takes Jay's useless sex advice.

Simon has had a crush on his childhood friend Carli D'Amato since she was eight, an interest which becomes more apparent throughout the series. Despite many pathetic attempts to show her his feelings, he does not give up on her. Simon is a romantic at heart, believing in soul mates, and how he can finally win Carli's affections. One of the reasons he may have not been able to have sex with Tara may be due to the fact he didn't love her, always pushing it aside when she brought it up. Examples of his pure romantic view is when he makes a CD for Carli when they get together (if only for a few hours) and he finally tries to swim all the way to shore to win back Lucy's affections in The Inbetweeners Movie.

Simon is generally considered the most normal of the Inbetweeners possibly because his social problems are less distinctive. The main cause of Simon's poor social status is due to him hanging around with Will, Jay and Neil and also partly because of his lack of common sense and confidence, which leads him to make decisions that he often comes to regret.

Appearance

Simon is average height, with a distinctive fringe, spiked up with gel, that is commented by Jay to look like the Statue of Liberty's crown. He is quite handsome, having had the most successful female attention, and Carli even comments that he has a 'great body'. He has distinctive smiles, which make him look a little silly, but also very endearing. He wears the school sweater and can keep a low profile most of the time, avoiding school bullies, quite unlike Will.

Relationships

Friendships

Will McKenzie: He becomes best friends with Will in the first episode after initially avoiding him due to his "actual briefcase", "clumpy shoes" and "gay hair". Simon's first task of the new term is showing Will to his classes – task assigned by the head of sixth form, Mr Gilbert. At first, he sees Will as annoying, something that will bring his reputation down to a lower level. He makes a load of insults about him, including 'Gay Hair', but he eventually warms to him, relaxing, and telling Jay and Neil to lay off him. He gets respect for him when he insults every student in a pub and gets them thrown out.

As time goes by, he becomes best friends with Will, coming to him first for advice, and hanging out with him more often, to the point where Will invites him to his house willingly, and even arranges a camping trip for him when he leaves. He is also the only one to not instantly insult his car, seeing it from another point of view. Simon comes to him first for his opinion. This may be due to the fact that Will and Simon are the most alike, knowing how hard it is to 'pull' girls, having similar accents, both being down-to-earth and intelligent, and genially considerate of each other's opinions and beliefs. Out of Will, Jay and Neil, Will is the one who ultimately becomes Simon's truest friend, and this shows in their constant support of one another throughout the series and films.

Jay Cartwright: Simon has a complicated friendship with Jay. Simon claims to have known him for ten years by Series 1, and while they are friends, their conflicting personalities prevented them from becoming 'best' friends. He falls out with Jay the most throughout the series and films, but they still hang around with each other for the sole reason that they are all that they have got. By the second film, they appear to have become close friends as Simon willingly agrees to help Jay find Jane and constantly supports him throughout the film.

Jay's behaviour and personality often leads to Simon's downfalls. Such as his car going into the lake, missing his golf tournament, his car's passenger door being ripped off, falling into the ocean during their school trip, being throttled by the men at the bus stop, failing to attain an erection for Tara, humiliating himself in front of Carli and gaining his nickname "boner". Nearly every humiliating, dramatic or disastrous moment for Simon is caused by Jay.

Jay is very different from Simon. Simon is a romantic, while Jay will go for anything that moves. But despite their differences and rivalry, when push comes to shove, they will both help one and other if they need to. Examples are in series 3 episode 3 when Simon tells Will to apologise to Jay after reminding him about his breakup with Chloe, when he can see Jay is upset and in the series 1 finale, Jay agrees to turn off the music so Simon could have the chance to ask out Carli.

As the series comes to the third, Simon starts to become sceptical towards Jay's tall tales, even telling Jay to 'try them' when he doesn't believe one of Jay's many lies. He also gets pissed off at him to the point of screaming when Jay lets his car roll into the lake in the last episode, but after calming down, he does agree that it was a little shit anyway. He also has Jay to thank for hitching with Carli, Jay writing an embarrassing text that seems to catch Carli's attention, though this was done mainly as a joke.

In the films, Jay and Simon along with Neil and Will, finish A Levels and are about to head on a holiday to Malia, Crete. Whilst there, if Simon had mentioned Carli, he would get slapped in the balls. After Jay causes an incident at the hotel where the girls they met were staying, Simon angrily tells Jay off for his actions and Jay back answering about telling how Carli means nothing to Simon, they brawl out in the street, embarrassingly until both Will and Neil try to break up the fight. Later on that day at night time, the pair meet again in the quiet bar and reconcile. Jay admits how much Simon means to him, when Jay wanted to start his business and Simon was going to university, upsets Jay, wanting Simon to work with him in his business together.

Neil Sutherland: He has a strong friendship with Neil. Neil is far more sensitive than Jay, trying to help and support Simon, and telling him 'Bad Luck' when he misses out on Carli time after time. In the first film, Neil comforts him when he is upset about Carli breaking up with him.

Neil and Simon never seem to manage to have a good time or friendship moment when Will or Jay are not present, such as in the series 2 finale, they struggle to even talk to each other when they are left alone together in the pub by the others - presumably because Jay and Will usually set the conversation and events which they all take part in. They are rarely ever seen alone together throughout all the series and the films. Despite this, they remain clearly good friends as they refer to each other as "mate" and "Si".

Simon is the kindest to him, not having too much of a go at him while he tries to grasp something, but he, like everyone else, believes Neil's dad is gay. Neil helps him out at the fashion show, helping him to dress, though he draws a line at putting speedos on him.

Romances

Carli D'Amato: Simon and Carli's families have been very close since the two were eight years old, which, as Simon says, is the sense which he has 'lusted after' her. The two have been very good and close friends all their life and while Simon keeps desperately trying to ask her out, these attempts always have devastating and humiliating results for Simon and often others. Carli, on the other hand, likes Simon very much; albeit as a friend, and bears no romantic feelings for him. Despite their friendship, Carli is not above using Simon to her own advantage, such as when she gets him to help her revise Geography during the run-up to exam time, despite the fact that Simon does not study Geography, and in the movie when Carli kisses him passionately on the party boat to get back at her boyfriend, who repeatedly abuses the gang. Simon eventually gets his intimate moment with her after helping Carli study, with the latter kissing him twice on the lips, giving Simon the impression that they are now dating, much to the disbelief of Jay, who tells Simon to "come back to [him] once you're wanking over her arse as she frigs herself off." Later, Simon is crushed as Carli tells him that she's back with her old boyfriend, Tom, a massive rugby player. However, at the end of the show's finale, Simon apparently gets her back after Jay, through Simon's mobile, tells her that Simon, "loves [her] from the bottom of my cock." .

This is confirmed at the beginning of the movie when Simon and Carli are shown snogging in the latter's bedroom, though it is quickly followed by a crushing breakup due to 'their relationship being "too hard to keep things going long-distance" when the two go to uni.' The truth is Carli fancied her rep in Malia, who turns out to be Carli's new boyfriend. The rejection leaves Simon in tears though he maintains his hopes for their relationship after spotting Carli in Malia due to Neil's extremely awful holiday planning. At the end of the movie, Simon realises that he means nothing romantic to Carli, and her hold over him is finally broken.

Lauren Harris: During the pilot episode of series 2, part of the school goes on a field trip to Swanage, including Lauren Harris, an Irish new girl whom Will fancies after sharing the coach with her. However, it is made very clear that Lauren prefers Simon. The brief relationship causes friction between Simon and Will, up to the point where Will manipulates Simon into choosing to meet up with Carli instead of Lauren after Simon hastily makes plans to meet them both at the same place and the same time. This results in the relationship to end. Will mentions in his narration at the end of the episode that Lauren moved away shortly after the trip and never saw Simon again.

Tara Brown: Tara is a temporary 'fifth Inbetweener' in series 3. She is Simon's first official girlfriend. In episode 2 of series 3, Simon accidentally sits on a girl called Tara after chasing Carli into school. This results in the Simon chatting her up, much to the amazement of his onlooking friends. The two arrange a date after Simon lies about being a drug dealer, which turns Tara on. Jay manages to get a hold of weed at the club for Simon, despite the dealer assuming he and Neil are "two little suburban racists, who see [him] as some kind of a stereotype". After Simon accidentally smacks Tara off the stage during 'moshing', he takes her to the back of the club. The result of the weed-head smack combination is Tara vomiting over their shoes then snogging Simon, who immediately forgets that Tara has sick in her mouth and throat. In episode 3 Simon goes so far as to dress up in a completely ridiculous getup which makes him look like a bent posh child to please Tara.

He also sets Will up with Tara's friend, Big Kerry, an extremely tall, monotonous, boring person whom Will can't stand by informing him of Kerry's claim to fame; she is infamous for, as Will angrily puts it, "giving out blowjobs like they're going out of fashion", omitting the fact that Kerry's father had recently died. In episode 4, Simon and Tara are seen snogging in Simon's bedroom, but are soon interrupted by Simon's parents, who remind of their arrangement; Simon can have girls in his room, so long as he keeps the door open, so that they "don't miss any of the good stuff." After Simon's parents leave, Tara makes plans with Simon to have sex at her sister's place at Warwick University. Jay, Neil and Will all tag along to 'offer Simon sex advice'. Simon impulsively listens to Jay's sex advice of masturbating before having sex with Tara, as a result, he couldn't retain an erection, emotionally breaks down in front of her and even begins to hit his own genitals. The night gets further ruined by Will getting peer pressured by Sophie's room-mate and his friends into eating a house plant, Neil urinating in Christian's bedroom, and Jay drunkenly propositioning and trying to seduce Sophie and Heike into having sex with him, resulting in Will, Simon, Jay and Neil being kicked out of the house and spending the night in Simon's car. In the morning, while driving home, Simon receives a text from Tara, ordering him to never contact her again, thus ending the relationship. Tara is never seen or mentioned again.

Lucy: The gang meet Lucy and her friends at Marco's Nightclub in Malia. Lucy bears romantic feelings towards Simon, however, the latter seeing Carli in Malia results in him boring Lucy senseless and frigid with stories about Carli and how amazing she is. Despite this, Lucy keeps on hoping that Simon will notice her affection and reciprocate them. When everyone goes skinny-dipping at the sea, Simon and Lucy share a romantic moment until the former spots Carli walking along the beach herself and swims right past Lucy. Her feelings for Simon even run as deep as giving him her ticket to the boat party, thus handing him the way to win back Carli. Simon immediately takes advantage of the offer but later regrets it as he realises that Carli has no feelings for him. As Simon sees how much Lucy actually means to him he strips to his boxers, swan-dives off the boat, and tries to swim to shore, but fails, spending time in the hospital after nearly drowning. Simon and Lucy then spend the rest of their holidays together.

Unfortunately, Lucy's personality from a kind and polite girl turned into an abusive, obsessive and clingy girl in the second film. At Jay's Uncle's house, Simon attempts to break up with Lucy via Skype, however, Jay's Uncle interferes, which causes Simon to propose to Lucy so much to her enjoyment. Lucy likes to cut up Simon's hoodies, burn all of Simon's possessions such as his trainers and his PlayStation. At the end of the film, Lucy breaks up with Simon via Skype and ends their "engagement" after confirming she has begun a relationship with his "Uni friend" Pete. Simon responds by cheering and abruptly hanging up on her.

Family

Alan Cooper: Simon's dad is close with his son Simon. He has no problem bragging about his sexual exploits. Simon is close with his dad but Simon cannot stand his dad talking about his mother's sex life. At times, they usually will have a heart to heart conversation. Despite Simon lashing out, he maintains a close relationship with him. Simon's dad did buy Simon his car despite Simon not liking it

Pamela Cooper: Simon constantly gives his mother the cold shoulder for no real reason. Pamela, however, shows Simon nothing but affection, possibly as a way to make him feel worse for abusing her, but it doesn't seem to work.

Andrew Cooper: Simon flat-out hates his younger brother, who seems a lot more confident than him and is presumably more popular at school. Andrew takes pleasure in any moment when Simon makes a fool out of himself. Despite this, when Simon makes plans to leave his family and reside with Jay, due to his family moving to Swansea, he invites Andrew (who promptly declines), however, this was probably used to make his parents more distraught.

Patch: It is mentioned by Simon in the series 3 finale that he used to have a dog named "Patch" that his parents had anonymously put down.

Simon's Car

Simon is the oldest of the group and was the first to learn how to drive, having passed his practical test (in dubious circumstances) before Christmas. His father bought him a small, yellow Fiat Cinquecento Hawaii – Simon, his friends and others think that it is a shitty car with a horrible yellow colour. It lost its passenger side door due to a reversing incident at Thorpe Park, but in series 1 episode 5 the door has been replaced, albeit with a red one. Moreover, the most unfortunate feature of the car is that it has a tape deck.

Character History

Series 1

Simon becomes good friends with Will after initially avoiding him due to his "actual briefcase", "clumpy shoes" and "gay hair". His first task of the new term is showing Will to his classes – a task assigned by the head of sixth form, Mr Gilbert. Simon sprayed "I Love Carli D'Amato" on her driveway – for a long time she didn't reciprocate, partly due to having a boyfriend. Simon got his first car and took a road trip to Thorpe park

Series 2

In the first episode, Simon falls in the river while the boys are on a boat. His parents briefly split up in the episode "The Duke of Edinburgh Awards", but they had reconciled by the end of the episode. In the final episode of the second series: "Exam Time", Carli seemed interested in Simon after she split up with her boyfriend and they end up kissing while studying for A-Levels at Simon's house. Carli agreed to meet Simon at the local pub for a post-exam drink, but when she arrived it was revealed she had reconciled with Tom, her boyfriend.

Series 3

In Series 3 Simon takes part in the school fashion show, but embarrasses himself and Carli when he walks along the catwalk in Speedos with his left bollock hanging out. In the episode 'The Gig and the Girlfriend' Simon gets a girlfriend, Tara, with whom he went to a concert and got stoned. In 'Will's Dilemma' he is seen receiving a hand job from Tara at Neil's party (this was after Neil had given consent, loudly saying "Don't spunk on the sheets!" in an elderly relative's presence). Simon is perhaps the most neurotic of the group, especially when in discussions with his family, where he frequently overreacts to gentle goading and even kindly advice. In the last episode, the boys play a phone game where they have to send embarrassing messages to anyone on their phonebook. Simon later receives a text back from Carly that leaves him with a smile, which suggests she feels the same way as Simon, and shows there is more in store for him and Carly. His car is left in a lake in the last episode with the "honk if you want a blow job" sticker on the back. Simon never gets his car back.

The Inbetweeners Movie

In the film Carli breaks up with Simon, because they are both going to different universities and won't be able to see each other anymore. Simon sinks into a depression, but decides to go on a lads holiday with his friends to Crete. Things go from bad to worse when Neil reveals that he purposefully picked the boys hotel because it is close to the hotel Carli and her friends are staying at. Simon meets Carli later that night outside a club, unfortunately, he also meets James, the aggressive, obnoxious holiday rep and also Carli's new boyfriend, this wrecks any chances Simon has to get back together with her, and to add insult to injury James 'accidentally' runs over Simon with a quad bike. Later, in a club four girls walk in and start talking to the boys, one of the girls, Lucy is obviously attracted to Simon even though he is totally oblivious and only talks about his love for Carli. Simon and the boys hear about a boat party that Carli is attending, so they head over to Carli's hotel but instead, they find the four girls again. Jay then gets the boys banned from the boat trip for nearly drowning a local boy, and an enraged Simon 'brawls' with Jay in the street untill he storms off, Will following. A depressed Simon heads to the bar where they first met the four girls and meets Jay there, Jay shocks Simon by apologizing for his behaviour, and the four boys make up. They then meet the girls again and Simon and Lucy decide to go skinny dipping, apparently forming some kind of connection, that is until Carli walks by and Simon abandons Lucy in the sea to talk to Carli, even though Carli doesn't want to talk, and Lucy leaves feeling rejected.

Simon, along with Will, Jay and Neil realise the holiday is a complete waste, until they get proper drunk and head back to the hotel. Once there Simon seems to upset Jay by telling him that when they get home he is going to university. The next morning Lucy's friends tell Simon to apologise to Lucy, he does so and she offers him a ticket to the boat party, which he eagerly accepts leaving her alone on the beach. On the boat Carli passionately kisses Simon, much to Simon's Joy. That is until he realises that she's only flirting to make James jealous, suddenly Simon realises that Carli is just not the right girl for him, but Lucy is. Simon decides to show his love to her by jumping of the ship and swimming back to shore, but he soon get's caught in the current and must be airlifted out of the sea. On the beach he says to Lucy, 'Lucy.... I... I think..... I think..... I think I've shit myself' just before he gets driven to the hospital, he spends the rest of the holiday enjoying himself with Lucy and goes back home ready for whatever the future will bring.

The Inbetweeners 2

Simon is still in a relationship with Lucy, though is not enjoying it as she has turned obsessive and abusive. Like Will, Jay and Neil, he has gone his separate way. He is studying sociology at Sheffield University. While visiting Will with Neil at his university in Bristol, Neil receives a text from Jay claiming he has had a successful DJ career in a night club and now lives in a luxurious mansion in Australia. Despite finding his claims hard to believe, they all agree to go visit Jay in Australia for their Easter holidays. Before leaving, Lucy blackmails Simon not to cheat on her, by cutting one of his up his hoodies. When they arrive in Australia they discover that Jay does work in a night club, but is only the toilet attendant. While at the night club, Will is invited by his old school friend to join them at Byron Bay, which Simon along with Jay and Neil agrees to. They also discover that Jay has been living inside a tent outside his uncle's house. Simon asks Jay if he could use his computer to break up with Lucy via skype, while skyping her, Jay's uncle interferes, resulting in Simon proposing to her; to which she accepts. Simon also finds an image of Jane (Jay's ex girlfriend) on his computer wearing a Splash Planet uniform. The next morning, he travels with Will, Jay and Neil to join the youth campers at Byron Bay. Lucy also begins to send him videos of her cutting up his hoodies and burning his trainers. When they arrive at the youth hostel, Katie invites the Will, Simon, Jay and Neil to come to Splash Planet the next day. When they arrive at Splash Planet, Simon agrees to help Jay search the park for Jane now knowing why he is in Australia. Simon's participation in the search ends after he is attacked by a little boy's father due to Jay making him seem like a paedophile by pushing him onto the little boy and claiming to a member of staff that he was one when Simon insisted that he "loves children". After being attacked and receiving a black eye, he finds Will and tells him Jane is in the park and that was the reason why Jay was so insistent on coming to Splash Planet. Simon also views Neil accidentally defecating onto Will's face; resulting in Will throwing up and having the park closed down. When they leave, they find Jay in the car park extremely depressed.

After Jay further admits to Will and Neil about only taking a gap year in Australia to find Jane, Simon reveals that due to him and Lucy becoming engaged, she asked Jane to become one of her bridesmaids and would therefore know where Jane is. He again Skypes Lucy and finds out that Jane is working on a stud farm in the remote settlements of Birdsville, Lucy also reveals that she has asked his "Uni friend" Pete to become his best-man at their wedding. Simon along with Neil agree to leave Byron Bay and help Jay find Jane, Will, however, is convinced that he has a chance with Katie and decides to stay with Katie and the other campers, much to the other's disappointment. Will's decision also causes himself and Simon to have an extremely hostile argument before leaving. While travelling, Lucy sends Simon a video of her microwaving his PlayStation. After being thrown out of one farm while searching for Jane, Will finds them and apologises for everything he said to them back at Byron Bay. They all reconcile and continue their search for Jane. Mid-way down the desert, Jay's car runs out of fuel and they become stranded without any water. Due to extreme thirst, Simon resorts to drinking Neil's urine, though this only backfires and results in Neil urinating on his face. Believing they will all soon die, Simon has a heart to heart conversation with Will, Jay and Neil. They all hold hands and close their eyes believing they are soon to be dead. Moments later, they are found by Jane and her co-workers, who also reveal that they had only been stranded for two hours. After being rescued, Simon skypes Lucy and tells her that he loves her and will willingly marry her (despite the abuse she had given him). Lucy then reveals that she has been having an affair with his "Uni friend" Pete and breaks up with him, thus ending their engagement. Simon responds by cheering and abruptly hanging up on her. Extremely happy and up-lifted after his relationship with Lucy ending, he agrees to spend the rest of his Easter holidays with Will, Jay and Neil in Vietnam. In the credits scene, he is shown to be having a good time in Vietnam. While they were doing the shooting, Simon covered his target with a picture of Pete. When returning to Britain, he is greeted kindly by his family, but begins to abuse his mother when she welcomes him and begins to swear at his father when he takes amusement over his new tattoo that he acquired in Vietnam. Simon presumably continues to study sociology at university when the Easter holidays end.

Trivia

• He is best friends with Will.
• In Bunk Off his mother states that he is 17.
• He has a younger brother.
• Has the same hair as the Statue of Liberty (stated by Jay).
• He has had a crush on Carli D'Amato since they were eight years old.
• Tara was his first ever girlfriend.
• He is the oldest in his friend group.
• His actor Joe Thomas is also the oldest actor of the main cast.
• He likes to wear trainers, although in the episode A Night Out in London he has to give them to a tramp in exchange to get into a nightclub. He was going to get his shoes back from the tramp, but they were covered in faeces and decides to let him keep them instead.
• Hannah Tointon, the actress who played Tara is also Joe Thomas' real-life fiancée.
• Lucy's personality change may be due to the fact that Simon kept on choosing Carli over her in the first film.
• His mobile number is 07789504428.
• In the movie, when he is trying to sell his clothes to buy a ticket for the party boat in Malia, James the night club rep phones his "friend" (who he claimed had been robbed of everything) and says that "He's got some girls T-Shirts, Hoodies that your mum would buy you and the type of jeans that Jeremy Clarkson would wear".