Basic Trope: A nasty, strict principal/dean.
- Straight: Mr. Stern is the principal of Troperville High School, and is a Fun-Hating Villain with a vendetta against Joey and his friends.
- Exaggerated:
- Mr. Stern is an outright Evil Principal.
- Mr. Stern constantly punishes students for no reason.
- Downplayed:
- Sadist Teacher or Stern Teacher, for when a teacher is portrayed as nasty/strict instead of the principal themselves.
- Mr. Stern is actually the vice principal, but the trope still plays out.
- Mr. Stern tends to be grouchy, and doesn't really like Joey, but he has his Pet the Dog moments.
- Mr. Stern only ever really punishes students who actually did something bad, but the punishments still tend to be fairly excessive.
- Justified: ???
- Inverted: Putting the "Pal" in Principal
- Subverted: ???
- Double Subverted: ???
- Parodied: ???
- Zig-Zagged: ???
- Averted: The principal of the school is a generally fair, well-meaning person.
- Enforced: "We need to give Joey a Sitcom Arch-Nemesis. Since he's a bit of a troublemaker, why don't we make the nemesis the principal of the school he goes to?"
- Lampshaded: ???
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: ???
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: Mr. Stern is The Ghost, but characters regularly mention getting into trouble with him.
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