The Most Controversial and Despised Episode of the Simpsons - "The Principal and the Pauper"

Do you have any idea what the most controversial episode of The Simpsons has been thus far? The one with guest voice done by renewed homosexual director John Waters where Homer Simpson goes Cheney over the possibility that Bart might turn out gay? Or how about the one where gay marriage is not only legalized but encouraged in Springfield? Surely the Simpsons episode where the whole family is imprisoned simply because Bart unwittingly bared his behind at the flag must rank high among the controversial episodes, right? Guess again. The single most controversial episode in the history of The Simpsons is the one where it is revealed that Springfield Elementary's principal, Seymour Skinner, is not who he claims to be, but is, in fact, an imposter who has engaged in a very unique form of identity theft. The man that the townspeople had thought was Principal Skinner was actually, it turns out, a former street punk named Armin Tamzarian. Tamzarian slipped easily into the persona of the real Skinner when it was believed that that man had died during the Vietnam War.

The reason that this particular Simpsons episode is by far the most controversial is that in addition to the townspeople of Springfield being scammed, so were fans. Many fans who have ridiculously replaced their love of The Simpsons with the outright and second-rate plagiarism of Family Guy point to this particular episode as the beginning of the long downward slide of The Simpsons. In fact, while The Simpsons is hardly the perfect show it once was, it remains the most consistently well-written show on television and always has been. Sure, if the competition of 2007 was nearly up to the state of the competition in 1993 The Simpsons might have a run for its money, but when you compare the show to...well...anything else on television, for that reason if none other it is by far the best show on TV. The reason that so many fans find this episode to be irritating is that they completely missed the point.