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) was a 4th Grade teacher at Springfield Elementary School. Edna Krabappel lived at 82 Evergreen Terrace, and later 744 Evergreen Terrace, after marrying Ned Flanders, the widower of Maude Flanders. Outside school Edna was 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. From Season 23-25, Edna is married to Ned Flanders.

Al Jean announced Edna would be retired in due to the death of Marcia Wallace (her voice actress) on October 25, 2013. The process began in "Four Regrettings and a Funeral" when "We'll really miss you Mrs. K." was shown on the chalkboard during the title sequence, which premiered nine days after Marcia's death. In the Season 25 episode "The Man Who Grew Too Much", Ned and Nelson both said that they miss her. Her death was indicated by Ned wearing a black armband.

Edna made regular appearances ever since the first season.

Biography
Edna was an A-grade student back in school and holds a Master's in Education from Bryn Mawr College. Her life dream 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, Edna started drinking her days away, got fired from teaching in a prestigious 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.

Edna apparently does come from Springfield, as she can be seen running through the background in Springfield High School 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 has also been implied that Edna Krabappel drinks heavily, as when Marge arrived at the school to use a restroom and noticed both Edna sleeping in class and uttering "stupid hangover".

In general, Edna doesn't care at all about teaching the children properly anymore. Edna is usually annoyed by her straight-A student Martin Prince. Her attitude towards her class ranges from a bit of fondness to open 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 presenting material in a monotone manner, oblivous to the children's disinterest.

Edna is usually shown to be involved with many activities around Springfield. Edna was a member of the Investorettes. She 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 to each other. When Edna thought she had 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 a partner. 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 a man's love, 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). She has had an on-again off-again relationship with Principal Seymour Skinner and has 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 (whom she almost married) 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. (This story may or may not be canonical, as it was part of a tale told second-hand or possibly made up.) 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.

At the end of "The Man Who Grew Too Much", Ned is shown remembering a happy memory of dancing with Edna. He then looks at the picture of her next to the one of Maude, saying sadly that he misses her laugh. Outside, Nelson laughs, then admits he misses her too. The black armband Ned is wearing shows Edna had died sometime previously as they generally mark the remembrance of a deceased person. Edna's death had been hinted at earlier in Season 25 in "Four Regrettings and a Funeral" when a sad Bart wrote "We'll really miss you Mrs. K." only one time on the chalkboard during the title sequence. The episode premered on November 3, 2013, nine days after Marcia Wallace's death.

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 explained how he made the discovery. Towards the end of the segment, all but a few members of the 4th grade class remained, and she was shown to have gained a significant amount of weight.
 * 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, yet the "pas" would be non existent without "ne"). 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").

Voice actor
Marcia Wallace had provided the voice for Edna but passed away on October 25, 2013. Al Jean has stated that the character of Edna will be retired. In The Man Who Grew Too Much, a brief scene at the end of the episode showed Ned mourning her death; how she died is unknown.