Agnes Skinner
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Agnes Skinner (<1920- ) (voiced by Tress MacNeille), is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons, and Principal Seymour Skinner's mother, with whom he still lives. Her voice and her laugh are remniscent of Phyllis Diller. She represents the overbearing harridan of a mother that emasculates sons in a Freudian manner.
When Agnes makes an appearance, she is usually controlling some aspect of Skinner's life, often yelling "Seymour!" in order to get his attention.
Her hobbies include making silhouettes, collecting pictures of cakes (though she does not like the taste - she considers it "too sweet"), and causing trouble. She often makes harsh comments towards other characters, especially Marge Simpson and Edna Krabappel, such as "These people can smell weakness. Weakness named Marge!", "Gimbel's is gone, Marge. Long gone. You're Gimbel's!" and "Go spend time with your floozy... She know's I'm kidding! (whispering) I'm not kidding!" She is a member of the Springfield Investorettes Club and has dated Superintendent Chalmers and Comic Book Guy. She is a member of the National Rifle Association.
Footage exists of a young Agnes as a flapper and engaging in a wingwalking display. At that time, she was an attractive young woman with a bob haircut. Many years later however, she sports a wig (revealed in All's Fair in Oven War) and wore Jennifer Lopez's infamous green Grammy Awards dress at Homer's roast. Sideshow Mel claimed this dress was kept in place due to the collective will of everyone in the room.
Agnes originally appeared in the season one The Crepes of Wrath as a kindly old woman who embarrassingly called her son "Spanky". According to the DVD audio commentary it is thought that her current mean streak can be attributed to an incident involving Bart that took place in that episode.
In the episode "The Principal and the Pauper," it was revealed that Skinner is actually Armin Tamzarian, a troubled orphan that Agnes mistook for her son when he showed up at her door to tell her that Seymour, with whom he served in the Army in Vietnam, was dead (he believed himself the cause). However, when the real Seymour (voiced by Martin Sheen), returns to Springfield, she not only rejects him, but violently opposes his usurping Armin's place in her life. With a cutting "You don't need me!," she and the other Springfielders (whom he has also rubbed the wrong way) run him out of town on a rail, and orders Armin to move back into her house.
For a brief while she was also portrayed unseen much like Norman Bates' mother from Psycho. She used to make her son wear a sailor suit.
References
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