Ralph is the only child of Chief Wiggum and his wife Sarah. Chief Wiggum adores his son who returns this affection in turn, though Ralph can be quite a handful. Chief Wiggum's supportive and loving relationship with his son is often depicted as one of his more sympathetic characteristics to contrast his generally boorish behavior. Ralph also has an unrequited crush on Lisa Simpson originating in "I Love Lisa", although this has not been frequently seen in the series since. As Ralph is often blissfully oblivious to the world around him, he remains a generally cheerful boy. He is a misfit at school due to his unique behavior and poor academic performance, often being the butt of ridicule and occasional bullying. Generally, however, his peers are passive towards him and Ralph often tags along with Bart, Milhouse, and Martin in particular. Much of the faculty similarly are indifferent to Ralph: Mrs. Hoover, in particular, treats him with a sort of mild annoyance and Principal Skinner seems to see him as something of a nuisance due to his poor test results and hijinks. Ralph is occasionally used as a catalyst for satire about public education's failings because of this as he may be merely a victim of inflexible and incompetent teaching. He may not be as dim as his academic performance shows.