The Simpsons: 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Seymour Skinner (2024)

The principal of Springfield Elementary doesn’t know what to do with himself. On the one hand, he is the head of a school, and therefore the biggest figure of authority in the lives of hundreds of children. On occasion, he makes his presence and power known. Most of the time, however, he is still being told what to do by his mother, groveling to Edna and asking his most unruly students for personal advice.

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Despite his consistent presence throughout the show, there is probably still a lot you either don’t know, or may have forgotten, about Seymour Skinner. Here are ten facts.

His Existence Stopped His Mother From Winning An Olympic Medal

Since the first time we ever learned about the relationship between Skinner and his mother, Agnes, we wanted to know exactly why her resentment was so strong, and why he was so dependent. The former was explained eventually: when Agnes became pregnant with Seymour, she was an athlete who was on course to win a medal at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. His birth meant she failed her goal.

He Had Planned To Kill Mr. Burns

The episode ‘Who Shot Mr. Burns’ is probably the most famous in all of Simpsons history, simply because it was the first time the show had set up a huge cliff-hanger and kept its audience guessing for months.

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After the reveal that it was Maggie, everyone basically forgot about all of the various people who admitted to harbor murderous feelings towards Mr. Burns. One of those was Seymour Skinner, who planned to attack burns but was thwarted as he accidentally brought his mother’s make-up with him.

It Is Implied That He Suffers From PTSD

While he doesn’t actually say it outright, there are a lot of things that point towards Seymour Skinner acting as a representative for those suffering with PTSD. It could explain his erratic and complex personality while revealing why he is so prone to terrifying flashbacks to his time in Vietnam.

Ned Flanders Replaced Him

Over the course of the show, Bart and Seymour developed a very strange relationship in which one was dependent on the other: Bart needed Seymour to react to his pranks to make them worthwhile, and Seymour needed to be pranked so he could exercise his power.

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When Ned Flanders briefly replaced Seymour as head of the school, Bart realized that his life lacked meaning without Seymour in charge.

He Sings One Of The Show’ Best Songs

‘The President Wore Pearls’ is one of the finest episodes of The Simpsons, and possible has its greatest ever set of songs. Skinner might well have been a member of the Bee Sharps, but we very rarely get to see him use his pipes. ‘I’m So Happy With My Evil Plan’ gives him center stage, delivering a track that is in equal parts funny and genuinely catchy.

He Was Temporarily Involved With Patty Bouvier

The primary love interest for Skinner throughout The Simpsons was Edna Krabappel. The two had an on-again-off-again relationship that never quite made sense, but it was almost always wholesome. However, Seymour became very briefly infatuated with Patty Bouvier (we have no idea what was going through his head) and she proceeded to treat him rather poorly during their brief fling.

He Occasionally Goes Against His Mother’s Orders

While Agnes’ almost total control over Skinner’s life is one of the main sources of comedy that surrounds the character, he very occasionally uses his free will to ignore her orders.

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One of his most wholesome demonstrations of this came when he wanted to marry Edna but his mother wouldn’t let him, leading him to stand up to her and do it anyway.

He Has A Variety Of Futures

While Skinner isn’t often the focus of any of the Simpsons non-canon future episodes, he has still been involved and mentioned in many. Some of his future lives include: him being invited to Lisa’s wedding; him being promoted to head of Springfield High School; him being in charge of the block of flats that replaced the school; him having dinner with his mother’s skeleton; him dying at age 119.

He Isn’t The Real Seymour Skinner

The episode which is often considered to be the turning point between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Simpsons came in the ninth season episode ‘The Principal And The Pauper’, where Skinner reveals himself to be an imposter who took on the identity of man he thought had died in the Vietnam war.

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This meant that a character we had known the entire way through the show was simply fabricated, and had been lying to his ‘mother’ this whole time.

But Is It Canon?

You were probably already aware of that particular storyline, though. The real interest comes from the reaction to it. Matt Groening (creator of the show) has himself revealed that he doesn’t consider the episode to be canon, meaning that, according to him, Skinner is very much the real deal. Legions have fans have decided to ignore this particular storyline and continue to consider Skinner in the same way.

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