Edna Krabappel

"Ha!"

- Edna's catchphrase

"Do what I mean, not what I say."

- Edna Krabappel

"No matter what you've done, I always thought there was a spark of decency in you, Bart Simpson, but I was wrong. I never thought I'd say this to a child, but you are bad on the inside."

- Edna Krabappel

Edna Krabappel-Flanders (see "Love life" below regarding her last name) is a 4th Grade teacher at Springfield Elementary School. Edna Krabappel lives at 82 Evergreen Terrace, and later 744 Evergreen Terrace, that is where Ned Flanders lives, as she married him because Maude Flanders got died by knocked over by a t-shirt at the Springfield Speedway. Outside school Edna is portrayed as a typical mid-life single adult, heavy smoker and occasional solitary drinker trying to find the right man. She had numerous affairs with many Springfieldians, her reoccurring choice always being Principal Skinner, usually out of pity rather than affection. Since the 23rd season, Edna is married to Ned Flanders.

Biography
Edna Krabappel was an A-grade student back in school, as she mentions it, and therefore holds a Master's in Education from Bryn Mawr College. Her life dream at once was to teach to young students, however, after years of teaching jaded her positive image, and after her husband left for another woman, their marriage counselor (which got him killed), Edna started drinking her days away, got fired from teaching in a prestige private school and eventually made her way into Springfield Elementary. Ever since, she has been portrayed as a caricature of the American public school system, as evidenced on the occasion when Lisa steals all the teachers' editions of the textbooks (which contain the answers). Moreover, dealing with Bart Simpson and his shenanigans does nothing but aggravate Edna's apathy.

Besides the official biography, Edna does seem to initially come from Springfield, as she can be seen running through the background in Springfield High School in when Clancy Wiggum is being videotaped as a hall monitor. Suggesting that she probably left Springfield young but returned when unable to keep up with her dream life. Moreover, she graduated from Springfield University.

Krabappel, like many other teachers at Springfield Elementary School smokes heavily, especially during school hours. It was also once implied that Edna Krabappel drinks heavily, as when Marge arrived at the school to use a restroom and stumbled upon the horrible conditions of the school, she noticed Edna Krabappel's class where Bart felt he had to sleep in class and uttered "stupid teacher," to which Edna was also sleeping in a similar fashion to Bart and uttering "stupid hangover" and once got fired when she became drunk (although the latter instance wasn't Krabappel's fault, as her drink was spiked by her students in order to help her become laid back.).

In general, Edna doesn't care at all about teaching proper education to the children anymore. Edna is usually annoyed by her straight-A student Martin Prince. Her attitude towards her class ranges from something of fondness to dislike. She has been known to remark that her students will end up in blue collar jobs, such as gas station attendants. Edna has fought hard for improved materials, leading a strike against Principal Skinner. During class time, Edna is either giving matter in a monotone manner, ignoring children's interest, or, after assigning personal work to children, usually reads newspaper singles ads or low-class drama novels.

Edna is usually shown to be involved with many activities around Springfield. Edna was a member of the Investorettes. Edna is also a member of Marge's book club (although nobody in the club seems to read the book they are supposed to). Edna seems to be friends with fellow teacher Elizabeth Hoover, they are often seen smoking together, and often make comments and criticisms about the state of Springfield Elementary together. When Edna thought she met her dream man through a personal ad, Miss Hoover seemed to be her confidante, Edna showed her the letters and discussed what she would do on future dates.

Love life
The most recurring theme about Krabappel is her non-existent love life, and as a result, loneliness and wish for male company. She was formerly divorced; her first husband ran off with their marriage counselor. She has talked about her ex living somewhere else exotic, but at one time, a man at the local gas station, while diagnosing a fault with her car, tastes sugar in the gasoline and states "Your ex-husband strikes again!" As a result, she severely misses male company, and it is occasionally implied that she feels her biological clock ticking. She is shown as very sexually aggressive: she tried to pick up both Joey Kramer (Aerosmith's drummer) and Homer Simpson and like him. She has had an on-off relationship with Principal Seymour Skinner She also had sex in the backseat of her car with a Sushi chef. She can be seen at a Green Day concert on top of Seymour's shoulders wearing a T-Shirt saying "Not my boyfriend" with an arrow pointing down at Skinner. She has also had a relationship with Comic Book Guy and a pen pal who she believes is the man of her dreams (who is actually Bart).

It's shown in a flashback that Krabappel was in a serious relationship with Moe Szyslak when she first moved to Springfield, before meeting Skinner or even becoming a teacher. She was about to run away with him (and possibly get married) but then changed her mind when she met Bart Simpson, a student she believed needed help (it was revealed, however, that Bart was just causing a diversion while Nelson Muntz stole microscopes from the school). At the end of the episode, Moe and Edna are a couple once again, much to Skinner's jealousy when he caught her making out with Moe on school property. Indeed, Krabappel appears to be the object of many a man's desire, as evident by Sideshow Bob's outrage when his romantic date with her is ruined by a spying Bart: "You only get one chance with Edna Krabappel!" One time, during an "edu-tainment" show at Springfield Elementary School School, she did a balloon dance wearing nothing but balloons while she pops them to the tune of "Fever," Mortifying the audience (especially Bart, who even went as far as to say "kill me" from witnessing it). She often has dinner at The Pimento Grove with her on again - off again dates. She is also seen kissing Jacques on camera footage in Burns' Surveillance Room.

In "Ned 'N Edna's Blend", she married Ned Flanders. Since then, she has been referred to simply as "Edna", so it is currently unknown if she kept her maiden name, took Ned's surname, or chose a hyphenated name like Krabappel-Flanders.

Trivia

 * She has a red marking pen named "Old Red".
 * Her last name is a spin on the word "crab-apple," as she was originally supposed to be a constantly crabby teacher.
 * She seemed to be a fan of the European comic book/film character "Barbarella," as she was seen wearing her costume during the Bi-Mon-Sci-Fi-Con.

Non Canon Appearances

 * Edna had appeared in Treehouse of Horror Series.
 * In "Treehouse of Horror V", "Nightmare Cafeteria", she was among the teachers who ate some of the children after a certain someone explain how he made the discovery.
 * In "Treehouse of Horror XVI" "I've Grown a Costume to Your Face" she appears to be a snake.
 * In "Holidays of Future Passed", Ned explained that she died in a matter caused by Homer.

Creation
Her last name is pronounced "crah-bopple" and is a play on the fruit "crabapple" and it is also a reference to the teacher Miss Crabtree from the 1930s Little Rascals serials. Part of the original joke of her last name was that nobody ever mispronounced her name and called her "Miss Crabapple", Milhouse was the first to make this joke which had the other students in class amazed and feeling stupid for not noticing it before.

International versions

 * In France, Edna Krabappel is called Krappabel: "Kra" sounds like "cra-cra" which is used by young children to describe something dirty and "ppabel" sounds exactly just like "pas belle" (not pretty). Homer Simpson even calls her "Cracrapoubelle", which has "cra-cra", which infants in France say for "dirty", and "poubelle" which is French for garbage can. In the Québec French version, she retains her original name.
 * In Italy, she is called Edna Caprapall: Capra in Italian means Goat, and Caprapall recalls the image of a goat.
 * In Spain, her name is pronounced Edna Carapapel: in Spanish it means paperface. The Latin American version of the show, dubbed in Mexico, keeps "Krabappel" as the US name, though in earlier seasons, when many names and surnames were replaced with Spanish ones, her surname was "Clavados" ("nailings").