Seymour Skinner

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The Simpsons character

Seymour Skinner
Age	42
Gender	male
Hair color	greying
Job	Principal of Springfield Elementary
Relatives	Quasi-adoptive mother: Agnes Quasi-adoptive father: Sheldon Skinner (deceased)
First appearance	Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire
Voice actor	Harry Shearer

Principal Seymour Skinner (born in Capital City, 1953, as Armin Tamzarian) is a fictional character on the animated sitcom The Simpsons, voiced by Harry Shearer. His birth surname is Armenian, but his personal ethnicity has not been given. He is possibly of Eastern European Descent.

Skinner 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). He often tries to exploit Lisa Simpson's genius to make the school look good.

A strict disciplinarian, Skinner has an uptight, militaristic attitude that stems from his years in the army, and service in the Vietnam War. Seymour Skinner's father, Sheldon Skinner, fought on Abe Simpson's World War II squad.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

[edit] Profile

Skinner lives in fear of the wrath of his boss and arch-nemesis, 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 is 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. Bart decides to get Skinner rehired by showing Chalmers how badly the school had fallen apart, telling him, "You fired Skinner for way less than this". Chalmers initially scoffs at the idea, but changes his mind after hearing Flanders say, "Thank the Lord for this beautiful day" over the school intercom, a comment he interprets as a prayer.

In this episode, it appears that Skinner is a reciepent of the Purple Heart along with what appears to be the Bronze Star Medal. As a result of being a PoW during the Vietnam War, Skinner would aslo most likely have been awarded the PoW Medal.

In the first few seasons, Skinner resembles Norman Bates, the main character from Alfred Hitchcock's film Psycho. Although this has been stopped, there are still hints of this, such as the house he lives in and his overbearing mother, Agnes. He is named either for behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner, whose work is often studied by professional educators, or for Eugene Skinner, the founder of Eugene, Oregon.

[edit] Episodes starring Skinner

In later seasons Skinner and Edna Krabappel start dating, and 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 claimed to have been a virgin until he started dating Edna Krabappel (although he might have been lying just to get his job back). He still lives at home with his mother, and frequently has flashbacks to the Vietnam War.

His age has been referred to twice. Bart Simpson stated his age as 40, whereas Kent Brockman says he is 44. In the episode Skinner's Sense of Snow his year of birth was changed from 1953 to 1960, and in the same episode he is told that he will die in 2010, though he lives longer in several episodes about the future. In Pranksta Rap, he states that he is 'forty-something'. In the episode The Heartbroke Kid, Skinner's astrological sign is revealed to be Libra.

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 apparently very intelligent at least when it comes to book smarts. He is one of the members of Springfield's branch of Mensa. 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. Before becoming principal, Skinner worked as a fourth-grade science teacher, presumably at Springfield Elementary.

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 Armen Tamzarian. Armen 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. 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). This bears some resemblance to the tale of Martin Guerre. The Simpsons writers have occasionally mocked the subsequent inconsistencies in subsequent episodes, most notably when Lisa buys 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." (See Reset button technique).

In The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase, Skinner accompanies Clancy and Ralph Wiggum (without Sarah Wiggum, it must be noted) to Clancy's new job as a Private Investigator in New Orleans. While the episode is a parody, Skinner claims to have been born in New Orleans and something of a small-time street hustler.

In the episode Girls Just Want To Have Sums, Skinner was demoted after he made a disparaging remark about females' ability in mathematics. This is in imitation of a true-life firestorm created by Lawrence Summers, former president of Harvard University. Skinner is made Assistant Groundskeeper, humiliating for the erstwhile principal who in previous episodes makes it clear that he considers Groundskeeper Willie to be the school's lowest status employee.

In the episode Please Homer, Don't Hammer 'Em..., it is revealed that Skinner is severely allergic to peanuts. Bart finds out and uses a peanut on a stick to make Skinner perform degrading acts such as eating rubbish in his bed. Skinner (with the help of Comic Book Guy) finds out Bart's "Kryptonite" - shrimp. He and Bart duel (similar to the fight between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader at the end of the Revenge of the Sith) and both wind up hospitalized after they land in a large pot of peanut shrimp.