Also called Am I So Out of Touch? · No, It’s the Children Who Are Wrong · Principal Skinner Out of Touch
Skinner considers whether he is the problem, then immediately blames someone else. Write a reasonable doubt above and an unreasonable excuse below.
The first panel opens a chance for self-awareness. The second closes it by deciding that the recipe, road, plant, or everyone else must be wrong.
The joke belongs to the person making the excuse. It works especially well when the top question has an obvious answer and the bottom response refuses to accept it.
The scene is from The Boy Who Knew Too Much, a season-five episode of The Simpsons first broadcast on May 5, 1994. While pursuing Bart after he skips school, Principal Skinner pauses to wonder whether he is out of touch, then decides the children are at fault. [1] [2]
A two-panel version appeared in a Reddit discussion about disliking new music in October 2013. Later posts applied the same brief self-doubt and quick reversal to school IT and other complaints. [2]
Skinner’s pursuit of a truant Bart includes his moment of doubt. [1]
A Reddit post uses the two panels to describe feeling disconnected from current songs. [2]
Another Reddit post uses the reaction for work supporting schools. [2]
Place the question near the bottom of the upper panel and the excuse near the bottom of the lower panel. Leave Skinner’s thinking pose and change of expression visible.
Begin with something the speaker could reasonably have done wrong. Then reject that possibility by blaming an unlikely alternative. Starting the second line with “No” makes the reversal immediate.
Original captions to try with this template.
The cook finds a way to blame the instructions before checking what they skipped.
The absurd explanation protects the navigator’s confidence.
The plant receives the blame for reacting to its care.
References for this template. Example captions are original.
Identifies the episode, air date, and Skinner’s pursuit of Bart.
Traces the scene and documented reaction-image posts from 2013 onward.
