Principal Barren

Principal Barren runs the middle school at the center of Big Mouth's chaos, presiding over hallways full of hormonal disaster with the weary authority of someone who has seen every possible humiliation puberty can produce. She wants order, decorum, and functioning students, and gets none of it.

Maya Rudolph plays her with the exasperated deadpan of an adult who has given up being surprised, which makes her a perfect blunt instrument against the show's escalating absurdity. The character works as a stable, sane anchor precisely so the show can enjoy knocking her sanity around.