Edna Krabappel

The Simpsons character
Edna Krabappel
Gender	Female
Job	Fourth grade teacher at Springfield Elementary School
Relatives	Partner: Ned Flanders
Voice actor	Marcia Wallace
First appearance
The Simpsons	"Bart the Genius"

Edna Krabappel ( /krəˈbɑːpəl/) is a fictional character from the animated TV series The Simpsons, voiced by Marcia Wallace. She is a 4th grade teacher at Springfield Elementary School. Krabappel is the only character Wallace voices on a regular basis.

Profile

Edna Krabappel holds a Master's from Bryn Mawr College, but is thoroughly jaded, a caricature of the American public school system. In "The Seemingly Never-Ending Story", it's revealed that she was once a very optimistic woman who genuinely wanted to help people in need. It would seem that after years of frustration thanks to the school, and Bart Simpson in particular, this wore away.

There is some inconsistency about Edna's origins. She is said to have come to Springfield to begin teaching in "The Seemingly Never-Ending Story". However, because of retconning, in "Springfield Up" she can be seen as a student running through the background at Springfield High School while eventual cop Chief Wiggum is being filmed, as part of the documentary featured in that episode, carrying out his duties as a hall monitor.

Krabappel smokes heavily, especially during school hours. In the episode "Bart Gets a 'Z'", she is fired from teaching after getting drunk (Bart spiked her coffee) and decides to open a muffin store. She is later rehired when the substitute teacher got drunk.

Love life

A recurring theme is Ms. Krabappel's desire for a romantic partner. She is divorced; in "Separate Vocations", she implies indirectly that her husband ran off with their marriage counselor. In early episodes, she is shown as very sexually aggressive and promiscuous: in "Flaming Moe's", she is shown with her arms around two sailors in the parody of the famous Cheers theme, and tries to pick up both Joey Kramer (Aerosmith's drummer) and Homer Simpson, even after learning he is married and Bart's father. In "Bart's Friend Falls in Love", while the children are watching the Sex Ed movie, she says to the children in disgust, "She's faking it". Also, when asked by Nelson Muntz about why she doesn't live with "Mr. Krabappel" in the same episode, she tells him that he "chased something small and fluffy down the rabbit hole". 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. Krabappel appears to be desired by many men (and in one case even women, when Patty Bouvier once had a sexual fantasy with Edna), as seen in Sideshow Bob's outrage (in "Brother from Another Series") wherein his romantic date with her is ruined by a spying Bart: "You only get one chance with Edna Krabappel!"

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 leads to marriage. Since then, Krabappel's attitudes to Skinner have vacillated between passion and disdain in various episodes. In The Simpsons Movie, she can be seen at the Green Day concert on top of Seymour's shoulders wearing a T-Shirt saying "Not my boyfriend" with an arrow pointing down at Skinner.

In Season 17 ("The Seemingly Never-Ending Story"), a flashback showed 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 elope with him, but then changed her mind when she met Bart Simpson, a student she believed needed help. Consequently, Moe breaks up with her. At the end of the episode, Moe and Edna are a couple once again, much to Skinner's jealousy when he catches them making out on school property. In "Regarding Margie", she and Principal Skinner are seen making love on a golf course. Then he climbs off and she says, "Birthday is over, Seymour," and lights up a cigarette.

Edna is in a relationship with Ned Flanders. During the twenty second episode of the twenty second season, "The Ned-Liest Catch", Ned and Edna began dating. The fate of the couple was left to a fan vote, to be revealed during the twenty third season opener. When 'The Falcon and the D'Ohman debuted, it revealed that the fans voted in favour of the relationship. At the close of the episode, a disclaimer appeared on screen which stated - "What our fans have joined together, let no writer rip asunder".

Character

Marcia Wallace, the voice of Edna Krabappel.

Krabappel's name was chosen by early Simpsons writers Wallace Wolodarsky and Jay Kogen as a play on the fruit "crabapple" and as a reference to the teacher Miss Crabtree from the 1930s The Little Rascals TV series.^[1] Also, there was an initial joke of no one mispronouncing the character's last name as "Crabapple" until Milhouse uses it in a later episode, stunning the other children. In one episode Homer is horrified to learn that no one has corrected him for calling her "Krandal."^[1] Like many characters, Mrs. Krabappel has a memorable catchphrase, used often in the series: her derisive laugh ("HA!").

Cultural impact and reception

Marcia Wallace won an Emmy Award in 1992 for voicing Krabappel in the third season-episode "Bart the Lover".^[2] IGN called "Special Edna" the best episode of the fourteenth season of the show.^[3] Tilda Swinton modeled her hairdo in the film Burn After Reading on Krabappel's.^[4]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Groening, Matt; Wolodarsky, Wallace (2001). Commentary for the episode "Homer's Odyssey", in The Simpsons: The Complete First Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
2. ^ "Briefing–'Simpsons' score big in Prime-Time Emmys". Los Angeles Daily News: p. L20. 1992-08-03. 
3. ^ Goldman, Eric; Dan Iverson, Brian Zoromski (2006-09-08). "The Simpsons: 17 Seasons, 17 Episodes". IGN. http://tv.ign.com/articles/731/731095p3.html. Retrieved 2008-11-06. 
4. ^ Verner, Amy (2008-09-08). "Bad hair days welcomed on set of Coen brothers film". The Globe and Mail. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080908.BURN08/TPStory/Entertainment. Retrieved 2008-09-14. 

External links

	The Simpsons portal
	Fictional characters portal

• Edna Krabappel's profile at TheSimpsons.com