10 Times The Simpsons Jumped The Shark
8. Armin Tamzarian
For some Simpsons fans, “The Principal And The Pauper” is one of the all time worst episodes. Those people are crazy. It’s not quite peak Simpsons, but the season nine episode boasts a lot of great laughs from Principal Skinner, a decent guest turn from Martin Sheen, and an incisive commentary on TV writing.
It’s the last part that ruffles feathers. The episode reveals that the Principal Skinner we know is an imposter, who took the life of an army buddy in Vietnam (a plot later used by Mad Men). At the end of the episode, with no one taking to the real Skinner, the whole thing is swept aside, and the status quo resumed.
The lameness of the ending is exactly the point of the episode - nothing really changes in TV. Some didn’t like it, but what they dislike is the joke.
While that’s fine for one episode, though, it opened the door to other lazy bits of writing and continuity errors that can be dismissed as a meta joke. Later they’d rehash plots, then have Comic Book Guy point out the recycling - it makes a gag out of their laziness, but it’s laziness all the same.