10 Exact Moments The Simpsons Stopped Trying

The Principal and the Pauper, the second episode of season nine, is widely recognised throughout the Simpsons fandom as one of the worst episodes, and worst stories the show has ever put forward. It insulted fans that had loyally watched the show for years, and signified the beginning of the end of the Golden Years.

As it turned out, Springfield regular Seymour Skinner was never actually called Seymour Skinner, instead stealing the name from his mentor in the army, and for some reason following another man's dream of becoming an elementary school teacher. Once Armin Tamzarian was outed as an impostor, he was replaced by the real Skinner as Springfield Elementary's principal, because of reasons, only for the town to turn on the new Skinner, welcoming back Tamzarian and going forward pretending like nothing ever happened.

It was a ridiculous premise for an episode, and even more ridiculous to go through all that just to have everything back to how it was just 20 minutes later. Fans watched this episode and rightly felt that their time had been wasted. So much for relateable stories about a simple American family.