The Simpsons: 10 Fates Worse Than Death

The Principal and the Pauper is considered a low point for The Simpsons. It marked the undermining of Principal Skinner's character growth, as Armin Tamzarian's lie colours everything that the man has done up to that point.

Seymour Skinner, the original one, apparently served his country in Vietnam before he was captured and held as a prisoner of war, and returns to Springfield to discover that his identity was assumed by one of the soldiers in his platoon.

There had been plenty of jokes about Skinner's time in the jungle, though now it seems as though it was someone else's memories. When the 'original' returns, Springfield doesn't react well. The citizens run him out of town on a freight train.

The man cries that he is a war hero and the town simply salutes him, sending him on his way. His own mother says that he just wasn't what she was looking for in a son, and to date, there have been very few references to this Skinner ever having visited the town at all.

The episode's reputation ensured that if the character ever is mentioned, it is quickly hushed up or used as a joke to undermine the classic Principal.