User Reviews

I feel like someone who isn't one of the staff members working on the show at the time needs to come forth and defend this episode.

If you don't know (though I'd assume if you looked up the specific episode of this show by title on IMDb then I don't need to explain this to you), a lot of controversy surrounds the subject matter of this particular episode--the people who reviewed it before me are prime examples of the general feeling about the show, with some going so far as to refer to it as the "worst episode ever." I don't necessarily think this is the best Simpsons episode ever, but it might be the smartest. I agree with Ken Keeler's description of the idea behind the episode whole-heartedly: it is, effectively, a careful satire of Simpsons fans (where the townspeople and their reaction to the Skinner/Tamzarian are the audience/the audience's reactions). I think its only fault is the extreme subtlety taken in its satire of the audience--we're not clearly in on the joke enough to realize that this is meant to be a joke, which is perhaps the reason it's gotten such harsh reactions.

In response to the reviewers before me, I would say: the idea of completely ignoring the events of the episode were built into this episode at the end. The last line is a demand that nothing change at all. The lack of respect shown toward Martin Sheen's veteran character Sgt. Skinner was not, I feel, meant to mock veterans. The joke had more to do with the town's reaction to this replacement Skinner: there is nothing wrong him, he's a nice man, he is a DECORATED VETERAN, yet they are completely unhappy with him, just as we the audience are completely unhappy with the idea that our Skinner has been replaced.

It's certainly not the funniest of all Simpsons episodes, but it pushes the show's post-modern sensibilities to an extreme in an interesting way, making the episode itself a sort of joke (albeit not a laugh-out-loud funny joke, but still a good joke). The idea that an intellectual experiment would ruin an already intellectual and (at least occasionally) experimental show or the career of a phenomenally talented writer such as Ken Keeler is absurd.

The Principal and the Pauper is a good Simpsons episode but it is one of the most shocking episodes of the series. The episode starts off with Super Intendent Chalmers telling all the teachers that it is Principal Skinners twentieth year of being a principal at Springfield Elementary,so the teachers decide to throw a surprise party for him. Then that night Agnes Skinner gives out to Skinner that they never go anywhere,she then drives up to school school and then the surprise party starts,but someone sees a sign saying Seymour Skinners 20th year of principal,the person then walks in and says that hes Seymour Skinner and then Principal Skinner confesses that hes an impostor and his real name is Armen Tanzerian.

I actually really like this episode. It's well written and has a good guest star Martin Sheen as the "Real Skinner". It shows that Agnes really does love her son no matter who he is, despite treating him like a child and constantly controlling him. Of course that is why she loves him, because Skinner lets her treat him like that. "The real Skinner" wouldn't put up with that. That's when she fully realizes she hates him. I thought that part was funny.

This episode does get a lot of hate. Which is really silly because there are way worst episodes than this, but this was from before the Simpsons ran out of ideas and started doing episodes with really stupid plot lines. So it doesn't away with it.

Even though I like this one. It's not my favourite, and I don't consider it canon. Everything that happens before or after doesn't fit.

I'll give it 7 stars.

Here's an episode that's so notorious I'm surprised there weren't a lot of one star reviews here already. Voice actor Harry Shearer complained about it, creator Matt Groening calls it one of his least favourite episodes on the season 9 DVD intro, and many fans single this out as the episode where The Simpsons jumped the shark (in my opinion, it didn't here- season 9 has some classics). The writer of this episode is Ken Keeler, who with past Simpsons episodes and later Futurama episodes has shown he is actually a good writer- he made a misstep here, though, and he refuses to admit it. His reputation has been forever tarnished.

In this episode, Principal Seymour Skinner is enjoying a celebration of his twentieth anniversary as principal when a stranger comes in claiming to be the real Seymour Skinner. The principal we know admits this stranger is telling the truth, that his real name is Armin Tamzarian, and that he took Skinner's identity while Skinner was a prisoner of war. Armin resigns as principal and Skinner replaces him, but both the townspeople and Skinner's mother Agnes decide they prefer Armin, and they bring him back.

What's wrong with this story? Fans complained about the continuity issues this episode raises, but traditionally the makers of the show care little about continuity and it's not that important to me either. The real problem is that it's absurd. It's also unnecessary. We didn't need an episode about Skinner's true identity. It didn't develop Skinner as a character. He was already well-developed: familiar to us as the nerdy, uptight authority figure with a domineering mother and a past in Vietnam. Ken Keeler replies on the DVD commentary that people like me are just afraid of change, but again, this change is absurd. It's also mostly unfunny. The Principal and the Pauper is low on actual laughs. Some jokes, like Armin/Skinner saying "Up yours, children" and advertising strippers were used with a lazy idea that it would be funny to have Armin/Skinner doing something so out of character. This episode is also bewilderingly disrespectful of veterans- respect towards veterans is mocked as nonsensical. On the plus side, Martin Sheen is good as the real Skinner; I know and love him as the president on The West Wing. The problem isn't him.

Skinner's past is revealed! His real name is Armin Tamzarian (Armenian by descent). He has stolen the real Sergeant Seymour Skinner's identity and has become the principal to try and forget his useless past as a punk boy during Vietnam. However, the real Sergeant Seymour Skinner hadn't died in Vietnam and returns to Springfield to reclaim his life and name. Armin is left on the street where he had started long ago and is depressed as a result of this. Agnes, the mother which grew to love him (and Edna Krabappel), along with numerous others go to convince Armin to return to Springfield. And so, Sergeant Seymour Skinner is banished from Springfield and the Skinner we love (Armin Tamzarian) remains our friendly principal forever. Awesome episode for me.

This is the episode that marks the beginning of the show's gradual decline into what's known as Zombie Simpsons. Ken Keeler wrote this and the only reason nobody's hunted him down for creating this monstrosity is his otherwise good record before this and his success on Futurama subsequently.

I cannot comprehend of why anybody thought this was a good idea. I can only imagine the pitch in the writer's room...

"You know how Skinner's such a popular character, right? Let's retcon nine-and-a-bit years of character development and replace him!" Yeah, Great idea! Nobody will hate you for that!"

Of all Simpsons episodes - more than 550 and with no end in sight - THIS is the one that never happened.

2/10 because it does have a few decent jokes in there and I'm feeling kind.

Yes yes, the PREMISE and final "solution" is absolutely ridiculous. But it's still a funny episode. Ralph and Lisa's presentation is great, Harry Shearer does great voice work as Skinner. Martin Sheen does a great job as the stuffy "real" Seymour Skinner. Plenty of good one-liners by Agnes Skinner, including a great sequence of her "tricking" Skinner into attending his 20th anniversary surprise party at the school. Good scene later when Skinner tries to punish Bart for forging Homer's signature and Bart pointing out his hypocrisy after stealing Armen Tamzarian's identity. Don't think too hard and you'll enjoy it.

This is one of if not the most controversial Simpsons episodes of all time!

This episode has has its bad and good sides. The episode has some of the best animation of the classic era (especially the war scenes) yet has one of the biggest wtfs of all time.

Let me tell you straight up, making Skinner an imposter is a huge mistake. through the seasons, we have got to love and care for Seymour Skinner and this episode is like "no. The Seymour you know and love is not the real Seymour." Some people may count this as non-cannon which until they have a reason for it to be non cannon, it's safe to say that there is no way to right the wrongs done in the Simpsons cannon (although Simpsons have messed up cannon a few times)

On a positive note, the shock does ware off overtime and it is not what many people make it out to be. It does include it's highlights as well like the story and who we follow Armin Tamzarian (the true identity of Skinner) around where he used to live.

The ending was OK but I truly believe it doesn't deserve the hate it gets and that's why I give it a 6 star

Will the real Seymour Skinner please stand up? This episode caused the internet to explode, and you can say The Principal and the Pauper broke the internet ten years before Twitter was invented. Aside the harsh criticism (some justified perhaps I guess), for me I loved the melding of Martin Sheen's Apocalypse Now to explore Principal Skinner's real-life identify when he forged during the Vietnam War.

I can't but help wonder if this inspired the writers of Mad Men when it came to Don Draper assuming the identity of Richard "Dick" Whitman. Who knows, but it's worth exploring really. Imagine that, the Simpsons inspiring Mad Men.

The ending to The Principal and the Pauper was rather abrupt, as is the case with some Simpsons episodes.

This episode is the first truly awful simpson episode in terms of the plot.

At an activity honoring principal skinner, another man claiming to be Principal Skinner appears. Soon it is discovered that the Principal Skinner that Springfield had known really is a man named Armen Tamzarian. So the old skinner leaves town and the new one takes over.

My main complaints with this episode is how bad the plot is. Skinner is an important supporting character in the series. And now they have totally ruined his character. So he really is not his mothers son and stole another mans name AND job! Why they did this I do not know. To make matters worse in future episodes they ignore what happened in this episode completely and often it is stuff that can not be ignored. An example of this is in an episode where skinner tells Mrs. Krabbapple that he was inside of his mother for ten months, but this of course could not have happened since he is not really his mothers son.

So they destroyed an important character in this episode. Awful plot and idea and whoever came up with it deserves to be fired.

One of the first, but not the last awful Simpsons episode unfortunately. However, the Simpsons did make it through 7 seasons before ever having an episode I truly thought was terrible. Unfortunately, dreadful episodes would happen again more often every year after season 8. By season 14, there were episodes where characters including Homer started babbling nonsensically for no good reason, or characters would act in almost a deliberately annoying way without adding any real wit or humor to their acting whatsoever. Think of some of the characters in Mike Meyer's "Cat in the hat" (such as the cleanliness boss or the cat himself) and you get the idea. This is what became out of a show that once had such real amusing wit, insights, and parodies in it for 7 fantastic years.

The biggest things that made "The principal and the pauper" horrible was 1), the disruption of a character that had been so well developed. A cardboard, stuffed shirt principal who disliked unrulyness and unorderliness, and sometimes Bart Simpson, well the Bart/Skinner relationship was not all bad, but more love/hate. The love/hate thing was really brought out in Skinner's temporary being fired from Springfield elementary in "Sweet Skinner's badaaasss song". Skinner's nervous relationship from his sneering, begrudging Superintendent Chalmers and his "it's always somehow Skinner's fault" attitude towards him, and his always yelling "SKINNER!!" Then there's Skinner's Vietnam history, Skinner's controlling and permanently live- in smother, I mean mother, and numerous previous Simpsons episodes developing Skinner's history with his school, family, etc. All of it which was now completely disrupted.

Now maybe, MAYBE, we could've excused all of this if they made the whole imposter story very compelling and interesting. But they not only failed to do that, but the writers did it all in a pretty awful way too. I did not care for the "real" Skinner character in this episode at all, even if the kind of character he played here was in another episode without any connection to any of this messed up story. The flashback with Skinner, or "Armanium" who Skinner "really" was now (don't expect me not to use quote/ unquotes when mentioning any of this), was not even played out in a nice way. The flashback with "Skinner" telling "Armanium" how he so desperately longs for "scrapin knees and spelling bees" and saying "if that's corny, then corn me up!" That was kind of creepy. And then just simply everything from Skinner's (or Armanium's (whatever!?)) mother's reaction, the Simpson's reaction, and all of Springfield's reactions were just all played out so poorly without any interesting or good moments with any of it. And then seeing Skinner say "up yours Springfield" was not just so totally out of character for him, but the stiff, unconvincing cardboard way he said it too just made the scene even more uncomfortable. Also the stiff, unconvincing way he said how he used to be a "no good street punk". Or seeing him put on a leather jacket and jump onto that motorcycle. Just the whole way the writers put all of it together was so completely wrong and awkward in every way.

Then the ending (I'd write "spoiler" here, but after the huge horrible Simpsons show spoiler of this episode, I seriously doubt that anyone reading this will really care now), the ending just placed the final touch of horribleness with the whole town of Springfield with Homer in the lead tying the " real" Skinner to a train and sending him permanently out of town. The "real" Skinner saying how he saved lives in Vietnam and Homer sarcastically saying "and God loves you for it. Bye, don't come back" and the whole town cheering as he is carried away. Terrible. Terrible.

Then the Springfield prosecuting judge has the entire town sign an affidavit swearing to never mention any of this again? Uh, it's too late for that now for all of us loyal Simpsons fans. A better move would've been to just have never aired this enormous mistake of an episode.

If the Simpson's team was at that point going to have any chance of redeeming themselves now after this atrocity, they should've at least made this whole episode someone's dream. But they didn't, and it's too late to do anything about it now.

Even though Season 9 was part of the Golden Age (1-10), this episode marked the decline and downfall of The Simpsons. The previous episode was a highly acclaimed episode, and that episode was considered as the best episode of Season 9. Anyway, "The Principal and the Pauper", "Miracle on Evergreen Terrace", and "Lisa the Simpson" are the worst episodes of Season 9. Oh, a reminder: "The Principal and the Pauper" is non-canon, or a fake.

There have been plenty of stinkers after this one (especially in seasons 10 and 11), and while this episode had some funny gags, the sheer chutzpah of uprooting everything about Skinner's life was a fatal flaw in my book. It might have worked as a Treehouse of Horror, since those episodes exist outside the normal continuity, or if they had deliberately showcased it as a "what if" or a bad dream.

Not the worst episode but the worst ploy and worst thing for the series as a whole. Most episodes of shows I rate 1 are actually worth 0 but they don't let you rate a 0, the other I rate 0 are because I believe the rating is too high and needs to be lowered.

In this case however it is actually worth 1 star because i had one good line "up yours children". Fitting to the circumstances despite the plot being the worst and the rest of the episode being the suckiest suck that ever sucked.