Difference between revisions of "Edna Krabappel"

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Ms. Edna Krabappel (a.k.a. Mrs. K) is a fictional character from the animated TV series The Simpsons, a 4th Grade teacher at Springfield Elementary School, voiced by Marcia Wallace. Krabappel is the only character Wallace voices on a regular basis. She is a stereotypical "downtrodden schoolteacher" who has had any idealism that she ever had beaten out of her by the sad realities of resource hungry schools and misbehaving children. Despite holding a Master's degree from Bryn Mawr College, she seems poorly educated, a caricature of American public school teachers, as evidenced by the episode when Lisa steals all the teacher's manuals and the teachers are unable to do any work.

Profile

Edna Krabappel holds a Master's from Bryn Mawr College, but is thoroughly jaded, a caricature of the American public school system, as evidenced on the occasion when Lisa steals all the teachers' editions of the textbooks (which contain the answers), and the panicked teachers are unable to teach. In "The Seemingly Never-Ending Story", it's revealed that she was once a very hopeful, optimistic and attractive woman (i.e. slimmer figure, characteristic bags under her eyes are missing) who genuinely wanted to help people in need. It would seem that after years of frustration thanks to the school, and Bart in particular, this wore away on a somewhat tragic note.

There is some inconsistency about Edna's origins. Though she is said to have come to Springfield to begin teaching in "The Seemingly Never-Ending Story" she can be seen running through the background in Springfield High School in "Springfield Up" when Clancy Wiggum is being videotaped as a hall monitor. Krabappel, like many other teachers at Springfield Elementary School smokes heavily, especially during school hours.

Love Life

The most recurring theme about Krabappel is her non-existent love life, and as a result, loneliness and wish for male company. She is divorced; her husband ran off with their marriage counselor. She has talked about her ex living somewhere else exotic, but in "Bart the Lover" a man at the local gas station, while diagnosing a fault with her car, tastes sugar in the gasoline and states "Your ex-husband strikes again!" As a result, she severely misses male company, and it is occasionally implied that she feels her biological clock ticking. In early episodes, she is shown as very sexually aggressive: in "Flaming Moe's", she tried to pick up both Joey Kramer (Aerosmith's drummer) and Homer Simpson, even after learning he was married. In "One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish" she has a hot encounter with a Japanese sushi chef on the backseat of her car. The episode "Bart the Lover" was the first episode to give Krabappel a central role, and also to expand her character and personality. In the episode, Bart took cruel advantage of her loneliness by making her believe that her dream man ("played" by Gordie Howe) has responded to her "lonely hearts" ad. However, Bart regretted doing this, confessed to his family and together, they successfully created a romantically diplomatic farewell letter from the false pen pal to allow Edna to feel loved.

Another theme is her relationship with the school principal, Seymour Skinner. In the episode Grade School Confidential, she develops a secret romance with Skinner, a relationship that almost made it to the altar. Since then, Krabappel sometimes hates Skinner and does not like the fact that he lives with his mother and his overall personality, but other times she seems to enjoy his company and like him. In The Simpsons Movie, she can be seen at the concert of Green Day on top of Seymour's shoulders wearing a T-Shirt saying "Not my boyfriend" over her strangely enlarged breasts with an arrow pointing down.

In Season 17 ("The Seemingly Never-Ending Story"), it's shown in a flashback that Krabappel was in a serious relationship with Moe Szyslak when she first moved to Springfield, before meeting Skinner or even becoming a teacher. She was about to run away with him (and possibly get married) but then changed her mind when she met Bart Simpson, a student she believed needed help (it was revealed, however, that Bart was just stalling while Nelson Muntz stole microscopes from the school). At the end of the episode, Moe and Edna are a couple once again, much to Skinner's jealousy when he caught them making out on school property. Indeed, Krabappel appears to be the object of many a man's desire, as evident by Sideshow Bob's outrage in one episode wherein his romantic date with her is ruined by a spying Bart: "You only get one chance with Edna Krabappel!"

Character

Creation

Her last name is pronounced /krɑˈbɑpəl/, a play on the fruit "crabapple" and it is also a reference to the teacher Miss Crabtree from the 1930's Little Rascals serials.^[1] Part of the original joke of her last name was that nobody every mispronounced her name and called her "Miss crabapple",^[2] although her name has been been pronounced that way on a few occasions.

International versions

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• In France, Edna Krabappel is called Krappabel: "Kra" sounds like "cra-cra" which is used by young children to describe something dirty and "ppabel" sounds exactly just like "pas belle" (not pretty). In the Québec French version, she retains her original name.
• In Italy, she is called Edna Caprapall: Capra in Italian means Goat, and Caprapall recalls the image of a goat.
• In Spain, her name is pronounced Edna Carapapel: in Spanish it means paperface. The Latin American version of the show, dubbed in Mexico, keeps "Krabappel" as the US name, though in earlier seasons, when many names and surnames were replaced with Spanish ones, her surname was "Clavados" ("nailings").

Teaches

Bart Simpson, Milhouse Van Houten, Nelson Muntz, and Martin Prince, among others.

Romance

Edna is separated from her husband, who ran off with their marriage counselor. As a result, she severely misses male company, and it is occasionally implied that she feels her biological clock ticking. In early episodes she is portrayed as very sexually aggressive: in the episode Flaming Moe, she tried to pick up both the drummer from Aerosmith and Homer Simpson, even after learning that he was married. She also had a strange relationship with Woodrow a fictional character made up by Bart, in response to Edna's personal ad he saw in the classifieds. In later episodes, though, she develops a secret, but seemingly stable, romantic relationship with Seymour Skinner, the school's principal, which almost makes it to the altar. This is one of the exceedingly few cases where Simpsons characters have apparently undergone personal evolution within the show's history. However, she's also been seen going out with Apu, Sideshow Bob, and Comic Book Guy.

Name Origin

Her last name is pronounced ," a play on the fruit "crabapple." Matt Groening admitted in a commentary on the DVD of the first season, it was meant to be a joke that no one called her "crabapple," and indeed no one did-until the real Seymour Skinner came along (see above) and then Milhouse did it once in the fifteenth season (2003-04) and Homer has some times as well.

Groening left it for viewers themselves to figure out her name references Mrs. Crabtree from The Little Rascals.

Links

The Simpsons.com