Difference between revisions of "Seymour Skinner"

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Principal W. Seymour Skinner (born 8th July 1957 in Capital City, under the name Armin Tamzarian^[1][2]) is a fictional character on the animated sitcom The Simpsons, voiced by Harry Shearer. He is of Armenian descent. He is the principal of Springfield Elementary School, and a stereotypical educational bureaucrat. He struggles to control the crumbling school and is constantly engaged in a battle against its inadequate resources, apathetic and bitter teachers, and often rowdy and unenthusiastic students, Bart Simpson being a standout example. A strict disciplinarian, Skinner has an uptight, militaristic attitude that stems from his years in the army, and service in the Vietnam War.

Introduction

Seymour Skinner is the principal of Springfield Elementary School. He almost always is seen wearing a blue suit with a purple shirt and pink tie. He is a Vietnam War veteran, having obtained the rank of sargeant, and frequently refers/has flashbacks to his experiences in the military as well as being held captive in a Vietcong POW camp. He considers Bart to be his archnemesis.

In The Principal and the Pauper, it is revealed that Skinner is actually Armin Tanzarian, a no-good street thug from Capital City who met and befriended the real Seymour Skinner in the military. Believing the real Skinner to have been killed in combat in Vietnam, Tanzarian assumes the role of "Seymour Skinner" when he goes to Springfield to inform Seymour's mother Agnes Skinner of Seymour's death. In the course of the episode it is revealed that Agnes knew all along that Armin was not her son, but for whatever reason played along and encouraged the charade. By the end of the episode, everyone decides they like Armin Tanzarian more than the real Seymour Skinner, so they tie the real Skinner up to a departing railroad car and declare they will never speak of "Armin Tanzarian" again. This episode is a parody of the famous Martin Guerre impostor case.

Skinner is at once an authority figure and a meek and powerless paper-pusher. While he attempts to exercise authority over the children and teachers at Springfield Elementary, one shout of his name by his boss Superintendent Chalmers (Skin-NER!) is enough to make him practically wet his pants. He is similarly cowed into submission by his domineering mother Anges Skinner, whom he lives with. Anges frequently embarrasses Skinner in public, undercutting his attempts to wield authority. Seymour mostly represses his frustration, but sometimes expresses it, as in Bart's Inner Child where he beats up and tears limb from limb a stuffed effigy of his mother (in front of her). He also desparately seeks the approval of Superintendent Chalmers, who tries to "reassure" him by telling him that he is "the best [principal] we could find with the funds at our disposal." (My Big Fat Geek Wedding)

Charaterizations by Other Characters

• Superintendent Chalmers: "The rod up that man's ass has a rod up its ass!"
• Bart Simpson (at different times): "Skinfish" "Skinman" "Skinny"
• Groundskeeper Willie (at different times): "Croquet-Playin' Mint-Muncher!" "Bath-taking, underpants-wearing, lily-hugger!"
• Moe Syzlak: "perfect posture and store-bought hair"

Vehicles

He drives an orange sedan. It appears to be the same model as Homer's car.

Love Life

Skinner's major love interest is Edna Krabappel, Bart's fourth-grade teacher. However, he and Edna broke up soon after Edna left him at the altar when she discovered Skinner had cold feet. She soon had a rebound fling with Comic Book Guy. (My Big Fat Geek Wedding)

Allergies

Peanuts

Role in The Simpsons

Skinner lives in fear of the wrath of his boss, Superintendent Chalmers, a martinet who makes no effort to hide his disapproval of him or give him a fair chance to prove himself.

At one point Skinner was fired and replaced by Ned Flanders, despite Flanders' thorough lack of administrative skill and experience. During this period Bart actually befriends the unemployed Skinner, telling him about Flanders' lax approach (using the honor system and no formal punishments) and the chaos that ensues. Skinner eventually decides to rejoin the military as a drill sergeant, feeling that he would never be happy doing anything unrelated to administration, and Bart finds that he misses Skinner on two levels: as a friend, but even more as an enemy. While Bart initially enjoys pulling pranks during Flanders' period as principal, he ultimately finds it unfulfilling because the laid-back Flanders lacks Skinner's uptight personality for Bart to play off and ultimately, Bart conspires to return Skinner to his post.

In the season 2 episode "Principal Charming," Skinner dates Patty Bouvier, who refuses to marry him at the end of the episode, ending the relationship.

In later seasons, Skinner and Edna Krabappel start dating, and they later get engaged. They subsequently break up, although it has been hinted that he still wants her and that they may reunite in the future. He remained a virgin until he started dating Edna Krabappel. He still lives at home with his mother, and frequently has flashbacks to the Vietnam War. On one occasion, while announcing Bart's vulgar Valentine candies, he lapsed into a flashback in which his best friend was killed while writing a Valentine and then cried his friend's name over the school's still-active PA system.

Outside school, Skinner often seems weak-willed and easily suppressed—perhaps because he wants to avoid confrontation—but on one occasion he uses his Vietnam training to beat up (with disturbing efficiency) a lawyer and his two enormous bodyguards who were accusing him of copyright infringement because the school's fair unintentionally ripped off a tagline similar to the Disneyland theme park. He also reveals here that he was apparently a green beret. There are other moments where Skinner uses his military training, which shows that while he may tend to be a pushover, he is quite deadly when angered or cornered, although many never see him this way. He also stands up to Montgomery Burns when Burns tries to get him to cede control of the school's newly discovered oil deposit, but Skinner refused to buckle, only to have Burns steal the oil from under him.

Skinner is sometimes depicted as intelligent as an element of a geek stereotype. He is one of the members of Springfield's branch of Mensa. He was also the only person to ever successfully beat the Blue-Haired Lawyer. He is also a member of Springfield's Cultural Advisory Board. However, when Lisa steals the teacher's editions, he is just as helpless as the teachers, which means that he heavily relied on the books. He is also clueless when it comes to bullies. In "New Kid on the Block", Bart remembers a time when Jimbo was giving him a swirly while Skinner was waiting outside the stall and questioned Jimbo if there was a problem (thinking that Jimbo was just going to the bathroom), since Jimbo had been flushing for twenty minutes. When Jimbo replies "No, Principal Skinner (stupid laugh)", Skinner says, "Alright, I'll continue to wait" and cluelessly begins whistling while the toilet continues to flush.

Seymour Skinner's personal history, like that of many Simpsons characters, is somewhat convoluted. It was long known that he was a Vietnam War veteran: having been a prisoner of war (prisoner #24601, the number given by Victor Hugo to the principal character Jean Valjean in Les Miserables and Sideshow Bob as a prisoner), he often goes into flashbacks of how the guards mistreated him. He lives alone with his domineering elderly mother (his father—who bears a resemblance to fake Seymour Skinner, rather than his actual son—having died in a parade float accident in 1979, along with Arnie Gumble, Iggy Wiggum, Etch Westgrin and Griff McDonald, all of the Flying Hellfish).

However, in the episode "The Principal and the Pauper", it was revealed that Skinner is actually Armin Tamzarian. Armin was a troubled orphan until he joined the Army and was befriended by Sgt. Skinner, whom he came to idolize. Believing himself responsible for the real Skinner being killed, he returned to Springfield to tell Skinner's mother, but she (deliberately) mistook him for Seymour, and he followed the true Skinner's dream of becoming a school principal. At the end of the episode, Judge Snyder granted Tamzarian Skinner's "name, and his past, present, future, and mother," and decreed that no one will mention his true identity again under penalty of torture (this, after the Springfielders ran the real Seymour, voiced by Martin Sheen—who had been alive after all—out of town by way of railroad). The Simpsons writers have occasionally mocked the inconsistencies in subsequent episodes, it was referenced in "Behind the Laughter" as a 'far-out plot line' to distract from the family's behind-the-cameras turmoil. When Lisa acquires Snowball V and declares, "To save money on a new dish, I'll call you Snowball II." Skinner says, "Isn't that a cheat?" to which Lisa replies, "I guess it is, Principal Tamzarian." Skinner then replies, "I'll just be moving along", nods at Lisa and the new Snowball,"Lisa, Snowball II" and walks off. In the DVD commentary for "The Principal and the Pauper", the producers described that they intended for the episode's ending to reset the continuity to before Skinner was revealed to be Tamzarian. As such, they said, fans could dismiss the discontinuities created by the notion that Skinner is actually an impostor and consider the episode on its own terms, divorced from the rest of the series. The nerdy Seymour Skinner has a hobby that is only seen rarely on the TV show: amateur radio. His ham radio callsign was given as WA3QIK once, while communicating on the radio with Homer who was at sea.

Character

Creation

Principal Skinner first appeared in "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", which was also the first Simpsons episode to air.^[3] He is named after behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner and it was given to him by Jon Vitti.^[4] Skinner was originally supposed to wear a toupee, but it was dropped because the writers didn't like "that type of joke".^[5]

Development

In the first few seasons, Skinner resembles Norman Bates, the main character from Alfred Hitchcock's film Psycho.^{[citation needed]} In later episodes, Skinner's behavior was based on teachers that Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein had in high school.^[6]

Superintendent Chalmers was introduced in the episode "Whacking Day" as a boss for Skinner and Harry Shearer and Hank Azaria, the voice of Chalmers, fell right into the characters and quite often ad-lib between them.^[7]

Links

The Simpsons Archive, Seymour Skinner File