The Nightmare After Krustmas (S28, E10-606)

Well, I was going to watch but not if I'm going to
hear treason!  Thanks for the warning, that was close!

Plot Summary
It's Christmas, which means Krusty gets his annual week to spend with Sophie, his daughter from that one episode.  Its also a distressing time for Reverend Lovejoy, who hasn't had much luck getting any converts and the pews are looking empty as well.  As evidence, Springfield is hosting a Pagan festival, one exhibit of which runs amok and injures Krusty.  Worried that his brief stay in the hospital will use up his time with his Christian daughter, Krusty accepts Marge's offer to spend Christmas Eve with the Simpson family.

Krusty, ever the opportunist, makes the visit a televised - and heavily sponsored - Christmas special.  Sophie has enough eventually and kicks Krusty and the TV crew - but especially Krusty - out of the house.

Meanwhile, Marge sets up for Maggie an Elf on th- er, Gnome in the Home, a mockup of a relatively recent (and subsequently odd) Christmas tradition where the, uh, Gnome, spies on kids to report back to Santa on their goodness.  Maggie gets freaked out by the Gnome, resulting in an odd nightmare where she hears Wayne Gretzky speak his one single line in the episode.  Waking up, Maggie is further frustrated when Marge reveals not just that the Gnome will stick around all year but that she got a female variant for Christmas as well.  Maggie just decides to decapitate the both of them to regain her sanity.

Lovejoy is out of luck converting anyone until he comes across a dejected Krusty, and uses the chance to convert him to Christianity, made easier by Krusty's desire to appease his Christian daughter.  For awhile all is good - even though Krusty turns his show into a full blown feel-good Christian hour - but Lovejoy is pressured by his deacon to baptize him as soon as possible with Krusty's condition that he'll do it at the lake.

Since it's still winter, the baptism is held at a frozen lake.  Krusty attempts to dunk his head into a hole but the ice underneath him collapses and he's forced under.  Drowning, Krusty has a vision where his father tells him religion doesn't matter when it comes to spending time with his daughter.  Lovejoy pulls off a minor miracle in rescuing Krusty.  In the end, Krusty reverts back to Judaism, but Sophie loves him all the same, while Lovejoy's heroics gets people back in church somehow.

Quick Review
This episode is a mess.  Bringing back a one time character from sixteen seasons ago was an odd and perhaps even desperate move (despite there already being precedence for such a move from NINE seasons ago, for crying out loud), and mixing of storylines with Lovejoy and Krusty was far, far from seamless.  The bit with Maggie was okay for awhile, but it ended early and the whole "lol Maggie is more ruthless than you think! XD" bit got tiring immediately for me.  The guest voices - of which there were several - were mostly wasted aside from Sophie's.  Gretzky had just one line in Maggie's dream, Jackie Mason voiced Rabbi Krustofski but only in a vision where Krusty imagined him as a knockoff Olaf, and I don't even know or care who the third guy was.

It just seemed like the "team" here wanted to make a Christmas episode, and had the budget to make a decent one (some of the animation in the episode looked pretty decent given what it is nowadays), but didn't really know what to do it about so they just slapped together some half-assed ideas and payed a bunch of celebrities money to voice singular lines to call it a holiday special.

Final Score: 5.8

Clown in the Dumps (S26, E01-553)

Another new gimmick for Season 26: in-episode hashtags.
Surely, #thesimpsons enriches this "emotional" moment.

Plot Summary
Krusty is the target of a comedy roast, but he is completely unprepared to be the one that's roasted.  After the likes of Sarah Silverman and especially Jeff Ross tear into Krusty for being "unfunny", Krusty takes the words, for some reason, to heart.  After a quick attempt to prove he's funny fails, Bart finds him and advises him to seek counsel from his father, Rabbi Hyman Krustofski.  Krusty goes to his father to learn how funny he is.  The Rabbi starts by noting his favorite comedian, Rabbi Rudenstein,  then telling Krusty that he's always felt his son's comedy has been kinda "eh", immediately becoming motionless.  Krusty quickly realizes that his father died while calling him an "eh" comedian.

A grieving Krusty finds himself unable to cope with his father's death, nor with his last remarks.  Soon, Krusty decides to retire as he no longer finds himself funny.  Bart, desperate to save his hero (again), goes to Krusty's mansion and shows him multiple Krusty episodes at once to show the clown how funny he is.  Krusty, though, quickly notices how often he reuses his simple jokes and gags, and becomes even more depressed, going into a drinking binge as a result.  In the aftermath, a sleeping Krusty dreams about being in Jewish Heaven, with Rodney Dangerfield touting its strengths, but Krusty's father appears to remind him Jewish Heaven isn't actually a thing, and that if he wants to make a difference, Krusty should devote his life to helping people.

Meanwhile, the Rabbi's death has Lisa gravely concerned for his own father's health, and begins constantly watching and keeping an eye on Homer to ensure his safety.  Soon, Lisa wraps a sleeping Homer completely with bubble wrap, and ironically it does help as it saves Homer from a bus crashing into him - validating Lisa's fears.

Krusty helps with the construction of an animal shelter, but he feels no accomplishment for the feat.  Bart finds him again and takes him to a nearby temple, where Rabbi Rudenstein is giving service.  Rudenstein includes comedy in his routine, and Krusty realizes that Rudenstein's jokes are no better than his.  More notably, though, if his father found Rudenstein funny, then by extension he had to of found Krusty funny as well.  Relieved, Krusty has another dream where he and his father enjoy their time in the Jewish Heaven that shouldn't be.

Quick Review
Where to start?

First of all, the couch gag.  It went on for way too long.  Its become a thing in recent years where the producers of the show will allow other creators to make their own couch gag, but they gotta start enforcing some kind of time limit on these, or put them on social media by themselves, or something.  This one, created by Don Hertzfeldt, which features what the Simpsons would be like tens of thousands of years from now (under the correct premise that the show is still airing then), went on for almost two minutes, whereas the "joke" was understood in well under half the time.  It really seems like filler for the episode as it just dragged on and on, it seemed.  That said, its just as well the episode got filler at the beginning, because the episode wasn't that good.

Now, the death.  News of a character's death had been circulating for awhile, and hype was building up.  Clues as to who would be the one to perish popped up, and the news that the character would die in a Krusty-focused episode, rumors were rampant on who it would be.  The episode itself even references the buildup in the chalkboard gag.  I figured, in a previous writing that is no longer, that the character that dies would be unrelated to the plot and they would die in a stupid way.  Well, I was half-right, the character was related to the episode's plot, but he died in a stupid way, which I guess is par for the course for the show at this point.  Rabbi Krustofski, who originally was Krusty's estranged father before they made up, helped Krusty finally go through his bar mitzvah, and has appeared in a couple of cameos since, is not the "big, important" character producers made it out to be.  Oh, sure, he's an important piece of Krusty's character and he's voiced by Jackie Mason, but as a standalone character he's not much.  To compare, there was little to no buildup for Mona Simpson's death, and she's both voiced by a well-known celebrity and important to Homer's history.  So why now?  It troubles me that, in what seems to be a very gimmicky season, they would build that death up.

How about all of those guest voices?  Silverman, Ross, Mason, David Hyde Pierce, Kelsey Grammer for a Sideshow Bob cameo, lot going on there.  While not as many celebrity guests as in Season 25's premiere, they were overall better used than in that episode, with each providing a good line or two (well, except Pierce, I guess).

That all aside, the episode was okay.  There were a few good jokes throughout, and the sideplot with Homer and Lisa had its moments, but the episode's multiple missteps really hurt it and at the end of the day, another "Krusty quits, oh wait-" episode just doesn't work out.

Final Score: 6.6

The Ten-Per-Cent Solution (S23, E08-494)

I notice critics aren't even bothering to point out the retcons nowadays...

Plot Summary
Krusty the Klown's show is basically nothing more than constant Itchy & Scratchy cartoons, most of which are referencing old stuff (like as though its writers are aware of the criticisms but instead of taking it constructively, they lash out on a rant about how its not even their fault).  Marge gets Bart and Lisa to stop watching TV so the family can go out and do something... like go to the museum of TV.  There, they meet the former agent of a 50s sitcom actor, Annie Dubinsky (voiced by Joan Rivers).  Meanwhile, Krusty confronts the network executives over how he's been minimized on his own show.  The execs reply that Krusty's become too outdated to be relevant and fire him on the spot.  His agent shares their sentiments and excuses himself from being both Krusty's agent and friend.

The Simpsons go to a Krusty Burger for lunch, where the kids see Krusty wasting away in a ball pit.  The two are able to snap Krusty out of it for a bit, and when he tells them he needs a new agent, they decide to show him to the agent they had met earlier.  However, when going to her office, Dubinsky reacts rather angrily to Krusty and refuses to even talk to him.  The Simpsons eventually get Annie to talk about her past with Krusty: in the late 60s she found a beatnik Krusty in a cafe telling it like it is.  Annie, looking for her first client at the time, decides to help Krusty make it big, and does so successfully by switching Krusty's act to a much more slapstick approach.  Every day Krusty would make people laugh while at night he and Annie would have sex.  One night, though, Krusty reveals he's gotten a new agent - only saying so because he's forced to tell the truth after sex - and Annie angrily throws him out.  In the present, Krusty promises he's changed and begs Annie for one last chance, and she relents and agrees to take him on again.

Annie is able to set up a live show for Krusty where he appeals to the nostalgic, and it works wonderfully.  Further, Krusty and Annie rekindle their own relationship.  The two are approached by premium network HBOWTIME to start up a similar program aimed at adults.  Krusty agrees but with one condition: Annie becomes the show's producer.  This ends up a poor choice, as Annie becomes very obsessed with making the show perfect and is out of control.  The network executives demand Krusty fire Annie after she goes off again during the taping of his first episode, but Krusty ends up siding with Annie as both of them end up on yet another network but for a show focused on sex after sixty.

Quick Review
Perhaps as a warm up to episode 500, the beginning of the episode starts up with perhaps a comeback to criticisms of dated references.  Of course, they could do what classic Simpsons rarely ever did by not referencing current culture, but I would have to suppose that would be too much to ask of them.

The episode itself wasn't that great.  Joan Rivers was fine in her guest spot, but overall there wasn't a lot of humor to accompany the plot.  The heavy use of network executives didn't help matters either.

Final Score: 6.8

Once Upon a Time in Springfield (S21, E10-451)

...and there's Mel, hiding in that tree looking at them like a creep.

Plot Summary
Once again, Krusty the Klown's TV show is lagging in ratings and once again network executives believe they know the reason: Krusty's show doesn't draw in the young girl audience, and to combat that they're going to introduce a co-star for Krusty intended to draw said audience in.  Krusty is, of course, upset over this change, but deals with it rather than getting fired altogether.  The new co-star is Princess Penelope, a young woman making her showbiz debut.  He act, which includes a horse with a horn strapped on to make it resemble a unicorn, is beloved by young girls and they flock to the newly formatted show leaving little room for Krusty's act, or the boys who like said act.

With Penelope in full bloom, Krusty becomes washed up (again).  However, he gathers himself and storms into Penelope's room to make a final stand.  Penelope, though, admits that she's in love with Krusty, becoming a huge fan of his when she was 12, and starts making out with him.  Krusty just goes with the flow, and simply lets his show become Penelope's princess hour with him happily joining her.  Bart and Milhouse can't deal with this, especially when they see Krusty propose to Penelope on air.  The boys vow to stop that wedding so they can actually watch something decent at 4:00 PM.

Meanwhile, Homer, Lenny and Carl are miffed that Mr. Burns has taken away their break time donuts to save money.  As they complain about it at the bar, a man representing Capital City's nuclear plant informs the three he's looking for more workers for his plant.  He gives the three a tour of the plant, and shows them all the perks they could have if they work for him.  The three are impressed, but are spied upon by Smithers who informs Mr. Burns that his three tug of war members are about to turn.  One night, as the three are about to move their things to Capital City, Mr. Burns meets them in the parking lot and promises to bring back their daily donut time, using a specially crafted donut made from ingredients that don't really exist elsewhere.  Once Burns turns down a health plan so they can have a second such donut every day, the three are sold and stay at Burns' plant.

The wedding ceremony comes, with Krusty's father doing the honors.  Bart and Milhouse show up and present to Penelope a couple of Krusty's ex-wives who now hate the Klown for how he treated them.  This doesn't bother Penelope at all, but it does get to Krusty, who realizes he couldn't let himself treat Penelope the same way in the future, and calls off the marriage.  Some time later, Penelope - who has since quit the show - is doing street shows in Paris where Krusty finds her and admits he still wants to be with her, and the two become a couple again as the episode thanks fans for 20 great years and, in a bold faced lie, states the best is yet to come.

Quick Review
This episode started off really strong but faded gradually until the last couple of minutes where there was barely any comedy left.  Luckily for it, the comedy that starts the episode off was really good.  The subplot featuring Homer and his pals was pretty decent but too short to really hit a mark.  The main plot, which starts as basically another "Krusty gets replaced by a new thing" still works pretty well and the latter half is still pretty decent, poor ending aside.

Final Score: 7.8

Today I Am a Clown (S15, E06-319)

When Mr. T made that line about not managing his
finances better, how serious do you think he was?

Plot Summary
The family learns that Santa's Little Helper conceived puppies with Dr. Hibbert's poodle.  The family finds this odd as, after the last time the dog had puppies, Homer was supposed to get the dog neutered.  However, Homer took pity on the dog and had it promise never to get 'busy' again, which obviously didn't work.  So, Bart and Lisa go around town to give away the new batch of puppies.  They give one puppy to Krusty the Klown, who takes it for a walk a short time later.  He gets taken to the Jewish walk of fame, but learns to his disgust that he isn't featured on there.  When he goes to get his name on there, he learns he isn't eligible because he never had his bar mitzvah.

Bart and Lisa find the ashamed clown, and get him to ask his father, the venerable Rabbi Krustofsky, why Krusty never had a bar mitzvah.  The Rabbi simply reveals that by the time Krusty could have one, he had fully gone into his career as a clown and that holding a bar mitzvah for him would've shamed the family.  Krusty decides to have one, anyway, and furthermore begins to openly display his beliefs on the show.  This includes not doing the show on Saturdays like before, so Krusty decides on having Homer replace him on that day, under the premise that Homer will screw up so bad there's no way he could replace Krusty (there's no way that plan will backfire!).  As Krusty takes his extra free time to study up for his bar mitzvah, Homer's fill-in show on Saturday is basically just him, Moe, Lenny and Carl ranting about things.  The kids aren't fans of it, but most adults are and the show becomes a hit.  Homer becomes a bit power-hungry, though, replacing Lenny with Barney when the former hinted at a pay raise, and Barney with Disco Stu when the former complained about the lighting.  It becomes so popular, the network executives decide to simply cancel Krusty's regular show.

Krusty goes to FOX and they agree to air his bar mitzvah live.  Meanwhile, Homer makes the grave mistake of listening to Lisa and uses the show to talk about important issues.  Predictably, people stop watching, the ratings tank and Homer's show is quickly cancelled.  At the same time, Krusty's bar mitzvah gets underway, and he gets Mr. T to help with the show.  However, Krusty sees his father in the stands looking awfully disappointed in Krusty, and Krusty decides to have a normal bar mitzvah after the show.

Quick Review
This was an alright episode, nothing special.  The middle act was probably the best of the three, but the others were okay as well.  I didn't enjoy Mr. T's appearance as much as I thought I would, it was just him either doing the ceremony or making a joke based around his famous "I pity the fool" phrase.  Still, its better than the other episode focused on Krusty's religion, which isn't saying all that much.

Final Score: 7.5

Insane Clown Poppy (S12, E03-251)

Krusty, playing a tune for his (not-to-be-seen-until-16-seasons-later) daughter.

Plot Summary
At a book fair, Krusty learns that he has a daughter, Sophie.  She helps him remember an instance during the Gulf War where he had to hide in a random tent during a dust storm.  There, he met a woman soldier - Sophie's mother - and the two got intimate for no apparent reason.  However, he interferes with her mission to assassinate Suddam Hussein (mostly because it'll ruin his act), thereby instilling an intense hatred of clowns into her, though Sophie is more interesting in bonding with her father.

Krusty reluctantly decides to spends time with Sophie, and finds fatherhood to be more demanding than he anticipated.  He seeks aid from another father, and asks the first one he comes across at the beach: Homer.  Although I don't think Homer gives Krusty any actual advice, Krusty does a better job at spending time with Sophie, and she decides to entrust her violin with him for some reason.

Later, Krusty is at the bar gambling with Moe, Homer, Snake and Fat Tony.  Thinking he's got a hand won with four aces, Krusty needs extra money when Fat Tony raises the pot.  Looking desperately for something of value, he decides to throw in Sophie's violin under the premise that he won't actually lose it when he wins.  However, Fat Tony has a straight flush, and wins the hand and the violin, devastating Krusty.

Krusty tries to make amends with Sophie, but Sophie wants her violin back, losing respect for Krusty.  Krusty goes to Homer for help again, and Homer decides the two should just break into Fat Tony's house to get the violin back.  As it turns out, Tony is hosting some kind of mafia summit, leaving him busy with hosting duties.  The two sneak in and find several violin cases, but most of stuffed with guns.  With no time to search, the two try to sneak off with all of them, but accidentally sneak into the room where the summit is being held. causing a series of events which ultimately lead to Krusty recovering the violin.  He returns it to Sophie who regains some love for her father.

Quick Review
Despite some oddities with the premise (and dating it with the Gulf War reference), I still found this episode fairly enjoyable, as the jokes were funny for the most part.

Final Score: 8.0

The Last Temptation of Krust (S09, E15-193)

You know, babies have gone #2 in that thing.

Plot Summary
The Simpson family is invited to a charity comedy show, but Bart notices that Krusty the Klown isn't being featured.  He goes to the show early to talk to Jay Leno, and two are able to convince Krusty to go as it'll work towards his community service.  However, Krusty's material turns out to be pretty dated, making jokes about TV dinners and the Chinese, and even resorting to the flying dickey trick, and nobody finds the material funny.  After confirming as much in a review, Krusty decides to go on a massive bender, winding up passed out in the Flanders' yard.

Bart finds Krusty, and helps him get it together.  Krusty winds up in Bart's room, and upon seeing all of the crap with his face on it, he realizes that he's spend so much time selling out that he's never bothered to keep his material fresh.  Jay Leno is brought over to help, and he advises Krusty that people nowadays (or least in the late 90s) like situational comedy, jokes about stuff that occurs in everyday life.  Krusty tries to adopt a new routine based around that, but his attempts to get the Simpson family laughing fail miserably.  As such, Krusty decides to retire in a press conference.  During his, he goes on a tirade about how crappy modern comedy is.  It makes the reporters laugh, and Krusty realizes he makes a good insult comic, and returns to show business.

The 'new' Krusty does shows at Moe's and spends his time not just insulting things, but also making it a point to make fun of advertising shills.  Two such shills watch these shows, and despite what Krusty's been saying tries to have him promote their new SUV, the Canyonero, giving him a Canyonero for free.  Krusty seemingly turns down the offer, having become a changed clown.  However, in his next show, Krusty reveals that he eventually gave the truck a run and eventually agreed to endorse it.  This angers the crowd, and they throw bottles at Krusty before parting.  As Bart wonders why Krusty gave in again, Krusty learns that in his heart, he's more of a sell out than he ever was a comedian.  Krusty gives Bart a ride home in the Canyonero, which has an extended advertisement to conclude the episode despite how unsafe it actually is.

Quick Review
This was another fine episode though there was nothing really spectacular about it except the Canyonero ad at the end.  Jay Leno's appearance was well done, I felt, but the other comedians seemed thrown in and the episode would've been no different without them.  Otherwise, there were still plenty of jokes to carry the episode to the score it got.

Final Score: 8.6

Bart the Fink (S07, E15-143)

"Oh, I'm sorry, I can't divulge information about that customer's
secret, illegal account."  *hangs up*  "Oh crap, I shouldn't of said
he was a customer.  Oh crap, I shouldn't of said it was a secret.
Oh crap!  I certainly shouldn't of said it was illegal!  Ah, its too hot today."

Plot Summary
After spending a night at their recently-deceased Aunt's haunted house, the Simpson family each receives $100 as part of the Aunt's will.  Marge 'encourages' Bart and Lisa to invest that money into a savings account at a bank, though Bart instead puts it into a checking account instead.  A short time later, Bart just misses out on getting Krusty's autograph, but is able to slip a check for 25 cents in his pocket, reasoning that if Krusty wants that money, he'll have to sign it, and Bart will get the check back in his monthly balance.  However, when the check comes back, he finds that it was endorsed with a stamp from an offshore holding corporation.  He goes back to the bank to demand a signature, but the banker there notices something odd about the stamp.  A five-minute investigation (hah) reveals that Krusty is a giant tax evader, and with Bart's help Krusty has finally been arrested for tax evasion (or as Kent Brockman puts it, tax avoision).

Given just how much evasion Krusty made, the IRS decides to garnish 95% of his salary, leaving his show in disarray.  To further pay for his taxes, his estate and belongings are auctioned off for mere cents.  Bart tries to comfort Krusty, but Krusty can't deal with his new life as a regular guy.  That night, Krusty gets into his last remaining possession - a personal plane - and flies through the skies, garnering a lot of attention before crashing into a rock formation.  The plane wrecked and no body to be found, Chief Wiggum declares Krusty dead, much to Bart's horror.

After the funeral, Bart starts seeing a man that resembles Krusty at various points, but nobody believes him as they believe its just his grief messing around with him.  However, each sighting has something in common so he takes Lisa along to the place where all the threads meet: the wharf.  There, he finds a check featuring a signature very similar to that of Krusty's, and finds the owner of that signature, Rory B. Bellows.  Upon finding him, it doesn't take much for the kids to break him down to admit he really is Krusty.  Krusty reveals that just before the plane crash, he jumped out to start his new life out at sea, but Bart and Lisa are able to convince him that his celebrity life, where he got to hang out with phonies and be more respected than scientists and educators, is still worth living for.  He decides to go back to his old life, using the 'death' of Rory B. Bellows to handle his tax problem.

Quick Review
Bart the Fink is another solid episode, albeit not among the best episodes of the season.  After Krusty's 'death', the episode goes into a sort of lull for awhile though Bob Newhart's appearance is appreciated for its humor.  Otherwise, there were still quite a few good jokes and bits and is still a classic episode.

Final Score: 8.6

Homie the Clown (S06, E15-118)

Homer is shocked to learn he can't just escape unharmed with his diploma.

Plot Summary
Homer and Krusty the Klown have similar builds and appearances and are voiced by the same person.  You would think that at some point there'd be a storyline where Homer becomes or disguises himself as Krusty or something at some point.  Well, here it is!

Krusty spends a ton of money, either on rare expensive stuff to burn as a cigarette lighter, or on various gambles on sports or the opera that never pan out for him, so much so that he's in debt to the mafia.  In an attempt to get more money, Krusty is advised to franchise, but there's only one thing left he has yet to franchise: a clown college, oddly enough.

Some time later, its the first of the month, which means new billboard day for Homer.  Eager to see all of the new billboards for food and such, Homer is turned off by a billboard for Krusty's clown college as it can't be eaten.  Still, Homer can't shake the thought from his mind, and soon enough he begin hallucinating about clowns, finally deciding to attend the college.  Homer does fine there, but he is unable to grasp Krusty's "ride the tiny bike through a loop and then eat the bike" technique.  Still, he is able to graduate the college, his best and perhaps only clown-related skill is squirting water from a flower.

Homer, now dressed up as Krusty, begins to attend various functions and low-tier awards shows around Springfield in Krusty's name but with it comes no glory or satisfaction and Homer begins to wear down.  However, one night, Homer gets pulled over while still wearing the clown outfit, when Chief Wiggum mistakes Homer for Krusty and, because the two are apparently pals, Wiggum lets "Krusty" off the hook.  Realizing what this means, Homer quickly takes full advantage by using Krusty's name to get all sorts of perks everywhere.

Meanwhile, Krusty's debts are getting worse, having bet all of his franchising money on the Harlem Globetrotters losing to the Generals for once, insisting "they were due".  Unable to pay up, Krusty flees before the mafia can kill him.  Now on a search for Krusty, the mafia instead finds Homer, still loudly insisting he's Krusty, and try to kill him, though nobody in the mafia can aim well apparently.  With that fact, they just end up kidnapping Homer.  The mob don appears and decides to spare "Krusty" only if he performs the bike trick.  Homer tries to do so, but fails once again.  Just in time, though, the real Krusty appears, ready to face the mafia, but when he tries to trick the mafia into not being able to tell him and Homer apart, the don threatens to kill both of them unless they do the bike trick, together.  Despite some difficulties and other neat tricks along the way, the two are able to pull it off, and both lives are spared.  Krusty, though, still has to pay what he owes to the mafia for all of his gambling losses: $48.

Quick Review
Homie the Clown was a fun episode, full of laughs and hilarious situations.  Homer beating up the Krusty-burglar, Krusty's wasteful spending, Dick Cavett, there's a lot of good this episode offers and it makes for another stellar entry into this season.

Final Score: 9.5

Krusty Gets Kancelled (S04, E22-081)

"Old gray mare, she ain't what she used to be,
ain't what she used to be, ain't what she used to be..."

Plot Summary
Season 4 goes out with a bang with an episode full of guest appearances and good ol' fashioned hilarity.  As Bart and Homer are watching TV, an odd commercial that simply flashes "GABBO" airs.  Soon, the entire town catches on to the viral marketing sensation despite having zero knowledge on it.  Eventually, though, Gabbo is revealed: its a ventriloquist variety hour that airs at the same time as Krusty the Klown.

Lisa is worried that Gabbo, as much attention as its gotten, will take ratings away from Krusty, and once Gabbo utters his catchphrase ("I'm a bad wittle boy"), Bart gets worried too.  Sure enough, Gabbo becomes a big hit while Krusty's show finds itself unable to outdraw Mexican TV.  Krusty attempts to get viewers back in, including a poor attempt at ventriloquism himself, giving out $40 checks (which wouldn't be honored) and, after the Itchy & Scratchy cartoons leave to be aired on Gabbo's show instead, an Eastern European cat & mouse team named Worker & Parasite.  Despite the gold that cartoon is made of, its too little too late: nobody cares about Krusty anymore and his show is cancelled.

As Krusty struggles to find work again, Bart is angered by these turn of events and attempts to get Gabbo off the air.  He is able to catch Gabbo calling the kids in Springfield "little S.O.Bs" off air, and quickly is able to turn a camera on to catch Gabbo in the act.  However, it does little to slow Gabbo's momentum.  Soon, Bart and Lisa find Krusty on the street, willing to drop his pants for food.  Taking him back to his apartment, the kids see pictures of Krusty with a variety of stars such as Bette Midler, Johnny Carson and Luke Perry who is apparently Krusty's half-brother.  Lisa comes up with a plan to do a comeback special with Krusty and these guest stars to get Krusty back into business.  Krusty agrees with the plan, and has the kids go recruit the stars while he gets in shape.

Together, Bart and Lisa are able to recruit Midler, Hugh Hefner and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.  Carson and Perry also agree (though neither is shown).  Elizabeth Taylor's agent refuses the offer before the kids could talk to her.  Mostly successful in their efforts, the two return to Krusty only to see that he's become really out of shape, apparently having mistaken regular milkshakes for the diet kind.  They invite him over to the Simpsons place where he quickly gets back in shape.  Krusty tries to get Sideshow Mel to come back, but having remembered the tortures he endured while with the Klown, Mel refuses, having found some dignity working at a taco place.

Soon, the special occurs.  Krusty opens up singing "Send in the clowns", and Mel suddenly appears to the delight of everyone.  Luke Perry is shot out of a cannon, but Krusty aims it poorly, sending Luke out a few windows, through some sandpaper and acid, and ultimately into a pillow factory that was about to get imploded.  Several other great acts by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Carson and Midler follow (which after some point Elizabeth Taylor, watching on TV, realizes she needs a new agent).  The comeback ends up being a great success, and Krusty's back on the air.

Quick Review
This episode is a strong finisher to an excellent season.  The Worker & Parasite cartoon was a classic moment, and many other portions of the episode were great as well.  I will admit, though, that with the eight guest characters (when counting the Chili Peppers separately, and counting a Barry White cameo at the beginning), it seemed somewhat difficult to keep them in hilarious situations like was the case with Homer at the Bat.  So, often times scenes featuring them (most notably the Chili Peppers) weren't as great as the rest of the episode but it doesn't detract that much from it.  It's still a superb episode.

Final Score: 9.2

Kamp Krusty (S04, E01-060)

"Yeah Bart, I am so Krunchy the Klown." *burps*

Plot Summary
It's the beginning of a new season!  For Bart, Lisa, and the other kids at Springfield Elementary, Summer is that new season, and on the last day of school the two are awaiting their final grades.  Homer has promised to send each one to Kamp Krusty if they had a "C" average.  Lisa has no problems in this, although her B+ in conduct leaves her a bit despondent.  Bart, however, gets straight D minuses, and worries he won't be able to go as a result.  He tries to forge the grades to make them look like A pluses but Lisa tells Bart he should've gone for a more plausible grade.  Homer later agrees when he sees the forgery, but lets Bart go to Kamp Krusty anyway because he didn't want the boy hanging around during the summer anyway.

Promised good times, exciting adventures and Krusty the Klown himself, the children are more than eager to start camp.  However, they learn Krusty is not there but will be there at some point.  Instead, the camp is run by a Mr. Black and three camp counselors: Jimbo, Kearney and Dolph.  The place is a shoddy, run down death trap with broken canoes, falling rocks, bears, and imitation gruel.  As the kids begin to wear down from the experience, Bart hangs in there by telling himself that Krusty will be coming.  As it is, Krusty is in England for the summer.

One day, Mr. Black tries to humor the kids by bringing in Krusty, however Bart angrily determines that it's not really him (rather, its Barney clumsily dressed up to kinda look like Krusty).  Finally reaching a breaking point, Bart leads a revolt against Black and the counselors, forcing them away.  Soon, the new camp, now called "Camp Bart", makes local headlines, and Krusty gets wind of what's occurred.  Meeting up with the kids, Krusty breaks down in tears over how run down everything is, only agreeing to the camp because of the money it brought in, and decides to make it up to the kids by taking them to Tijuana, where good times were had by all.

Quick Review
Kamp Krusty starts off Season 4 on a strong note, full of jokes and humor and little if anything brought the episode down.  The episode also solidifies Krusty as a commercial sellout, willing to put his name on anything regardless of its actual quality.  This fact gets brought up in later episodes in humorous detail, and this episode makes note of it very nicely as well.

Final Score: 9.1

Like Father, Like Clown (S03, E06-041)

At this point I don't think the rabbi knows what's going on exactly.

Plot Summary
In this episode, Krusty (eventually) has dinner with Bart after the latter proved Krusty's innocence in Krusty Gets Busted.  Its a fine affair at first, but at the dinner table, Krusty is asked to say grace.  He says it in Hebrew, and its quickly learned he's Jewish.  However, saying grace in Hebrew brought back some memories to Krusty, and he can't help but shed tears.

As it turns out, one Herschel Krustofsky was born to a rabbi, whose father was a rabbi, and so on and so forth.  Herschel, however, found enjoyment in making people laugh, but his father Hyman Krustofsky would have nothing of it.  Herschel would attempt to continue a clown routine in secret, but was found out during a show which his father was attending.  Right then and there, Hyman denounced Herschel, claiming he had no son.

The memories begin to eat away at Krusty, affecting his on-air work.  Bart and Lisa agree to have Krusty reunite with his father.  While it wasn't difficult to track the rabbi - he is one of Springfield's leading Jewish leaders apparently - it is much more difficult to convince him to reconcile with Krusty, citing phrases from various religious texts to justify his decision.  Lisa tries to fight fire with fire by having Bart recite similar phrases to counterpoint the rabbi's decision, but Hyman refuses to listen.

Finally, in a last ditch effort, the two give the rabbi a powerful quote passionately depicting the Jewish people's struggles in the past and their victories in the present.  Impressed with the tidbit, the rabbi is stunned to learn that the quote is from Sammy Davis Jr., a Jewish entertainer.  Realizing that entertainers can also provide wisdom, Hyman regrets the time he's lost with his son, but quickly Bart and Lisa have him reunite with Krusty on the latter's program, and the two share a happy reunion together.

Quick Review
Its a touching episode, one that is a strong developer of Krusty's character.  I liked the idea behind the episode and the way it played itself out, but the jokes just weren't there.  Its a good episode, but its not really a funny episode, you know what I mean?

Final Score: 7.2