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| “ | Gumball: How do you sleep at night, Miss Simian? Miss Simian: Like a baby! |
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| ~ Gumball to Miss Simian in "The Mystery" after she wiped Bobert's memory.
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Miss Lucy Simian is the secondary antagonist of Cartoon Network's The Amazing World of Gumball franchise.
She is Gumball and Darwin Watterson's sadistic teacher at Elmore Jr. High, who has been teaching eighth grade for 300 millennia, as well as their first archenemy before Rob. She utterly despises Gumball and Darwin and does whatever she can to foil their plans. Principal Brown is hopelessly in love with her, and she returns the feeling.
She was voiced by Lewis MacLeod in Season 1, who also portrayed Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, Coroni, Michael Gove and Nigel Farage in Spitting Image, The Entity and the Jester in the third instalment of the Mr. Hopp's Playground franchise, Protoboy, General Yakitori, Bjorn Bjornson, Bjornbot, Truckenstein, and Felonious Hexx, among other villains in Robotboy, IG-88 and Sebulba in Star Wars, Bluebeard in Sandra: The FairyTale Detective, and Zaid in Horizon: Zero Dawn. From Season 2 onwards, she was voiced by Hugo Harold-Harrison, who also voiced Tobias Wilson and Internet in the same show.
Appearance[]
Miss Simian is an old baboon. She has dark gray fur, a primate face, with gray hair. She wears a pink dress and her arms are long like her body.
Personality[]
Miss Simian is a very grumpy, abusive, obnoxious, and cantankerous individual who does not seem to care about her students in the slightest, especially Gumball and Darwin, whom she hates with a passion. She is vicious, sadistic, and bad-tempered, taking great pleasure in reprimanding and abusing her students. On some occasions, she becomes so enraged, frustrated, and argumentative that she reverts to a much more feral personality, and (like a real ape) will screech and go on destructive rampages. The episode "The Joy" reveals that she "loves the smell of despair on a Monday morning," as she monitors the entire school through cameras to detect any signs of happiness. Her nasty and aggressive attitude is somewhat understandable, given that she has been a teacher for many years (numbered in the thousands), a job she apparently despises.
However, there are many times when she acts less aggressively, instead being more neutral, cranky, sarcastic, and jaded due to her contempt for her job. In these instances, she avoids her responsibilities as a teacher, dropping her friendly facade the moment she goes on break or her shift ends, though she is often begrudgingly seen teaching the students anyway. She is also quite arrogant, using a coffee mug that says "I ❤︎ MYSELF," and in episodes like "The Joy" and "The Apology," she becomes wholly bent on convincing both herself and others that her actions are justified and that she is always right. She is also extremely, and often inappropriately, flirtatious with Principal Brown, as the two frequently express intimacy in eccentric ways in front of their students, often neglecting their responsibilities as a result.
Despite her general negativity, she has several moments of being affable or good-natured. In "The Apology," as the title suggests, she genuinely feels sorry for her actions and apologizes to Gumball and Darwin for trying to frame them. She also regrets spreading misery in "The Lie." There are instances when she acts anti-heroically as well, such as when she tries to stop the Joy virus in "The Joy" or when she helps Gumball study in "The Grades" to land them both back at the school. In "The Teacher," taking Gumball along for a ride, Simian goes out of her way to buy laptops for the school children with her own money (the budget was wasted on the police's high-tech gear), thus indicating a degree of care for her students and attempting to explain to Gumball the wonders of teaching the next generation.
Relationships[]
Allies[]
Enemies[]
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Students[]
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Quotes[]
| “ | You get an F minus—in parenting! Next! Oh, the Wattersons... Are you aware that your husband isn't wearing any pants? | „ |
| ~ Miss Simian to Nicole about her husband Richard not wearing any pants in "The Responsible"; also her first words. |
| “ | I know we haven't spoken in a long time, but I need your advice. Is it really wrong to create false evidence to frame some criminals who you know for sure are definitely, absolutely, without a single shadow of a doubt, guilty?! …Well, I don't care what you say, Dad, I'm doing it anyway! | „ |
| ~ Miss Simian talking to her father's skeleton in "The Apology." |
| “ | You wanna see horrible? [Points to her head] Two million years ago: bashed on the head with a rock by two Homo erectus parents because I taught their kid how to make fire. [Points at her leg] Four thousand years ago: got chased out of the tribe for trying to integrate the wheel into the curriculum. [Reveals her rear] On the day of Columbus' arrival I fell over on a wet floor. The timing was just coincidence, but it still really hurt. [Shows her forearm] Salem, 1692, witch hunt! | „ |
| ~ Miss Simian showing Gumball and Anais what's truly "horrible" in "The Pest." |
Trivia[]
- Simian is the oldest known character in the show who is not a celestial body.
- The word "simian" comes from the Latin word simia, which translates to "ape," appropriately so since Simian is a baboon.
- In "The Apology," it is revealed that her first name is Lucy.
- This is a reference to Lucy, the earliest known hominid to walk upright.
- In the same episode, it also is revealed that she has taught for over 300,000 years, while in "The Pest," it is revealed she has been alive for over two million years.
- It is revealed in "The Fraud" that she lied about her age to become a teacher.
- Her license plate reads 66666, which is a reference to the number of The Beast.
- In a 2025 interview, Teresa Gallagher revealed that she auditioned for the role of Miss Simian before Macleod ultimately got the role.[1]
- In "The Teacher," it is revealed that Miss Simian lives in a cave in the desert. This makes her one of the few characters to live outside of Elmore.
- It is also revealed that she invented fire in the 10th grade.
- A recurring gag is that the top of Miss Simian's head looks like Mount Fuji, referenced in both "The Countdown" and "The Teacher."
- On the "Favorite Teacher Award" at the end of "The Ape," it displays Miss Simian's name as "Mrs. Simian," which could indicate a prior marriage.
- The set in which Miss Simian is speaking to her deceased father in "The Apology" is an image of the London Natural History Museum.
- Miss Simian does not visibly age, as she has kept the same appearance since Nicole's childhood. This is due to the fact that she is over two million years old and that she taught during the Stone Age.
- There is a poster in Miss Simian's office that reads "Say no to racism" on the wall below the speaker.
- As the sixth release in the Penguin Publishing series of Gumball books for younger children, there exists "Miss Simian's Ironclad Rules for School." The visuals consist entirely of screenshots of episodes from the show's first two seasons edited to have the relevant characters speaking via speech bubbles.
- The book starts with Miss Simian telling the class that Principal Brown wants her to go over the school rules because they've been misbehaving a lot. Gumball makes snarky comments about this and about Miss Simian, earning himself a white card (which means he's in trouble). The rest of the book follows a pattern where Miss Simian explains different sections of school rules while Gumball and Darwin comment on them and make jokes, with various activities mixed in between sections.
- General Rules: Rules about unexcused and excused absences, fighting, and electronic devices.
- Classroom Rules: Rules about being on time, being respectful, how to properly ask questions, making up missed work, eating food, cheating on tests, and passing notes.
- Playground Rules: Rules about playground behavior, including going outside, basic playground conduct, safe distancing, kickball, tetherball, the swings, and coming back inside.
- Cafeteria Rules: Rules about cafeteria behavior, including patience, cutting in line, respect, seating, manners, food fights, and throwing away trash.
- Bus Rules: Rules about school bus behavior, including getting on, keeping arms safely inside, general conduct, playing music, seating, and walking through the bus aisles.
- Dress Code: Rules about the school's dress code.
- According to Miss Simian in the book, her full title is Miss Captain Malawi Admiral Chairwoman Her Grace Tsar Queen-Bee Simian. It's unlikely that this is canon to the main series, however.
- The book starts with Miss Simian telling the class that Principal Brown wants her to go over the school rules because they've been misbehaving a lot. Gumball makes snarky comments about this and about Miss Simian, earning himself a white card (which means he's in trouble). The rest of the book follows a pattern where Miss Simian explains different sections of school rules while Gumball and Darwin comment on them and make jokes, with various activities mixed in between sections.
