This The Simpsons review contains spoilers.
The Simpsons: Season 30 Episode 8
One of the first rules of comedy, and it goes back to Vaudeville, is if you’re not getting a laugh, drop your pants. There is no one better to put the seltzer in the water of a tired joke than the title character of The Simpsons season 30 episode 8, “Krusty the Clown.” The series is groaning in old age since it became the longest running comedy in TV history, and Krusty was old when it started. Not that it matters in a town which houses a family with a baby who’s still an infant more than a generation after conception. The series has been more clever than funny lately and in need of serious silliness.
A vengeful clown finds his roots. In Krusty’s case that’s a loud fringe of green. No, he was never a circus clown, never went to clown college. He is no Emmett Kelley. He doesn’t have the heart of John Wayne Gacy. Krusty is a low-rent Bozo on a small network. Living in and off the past, he gets taken down by encroaching modernization. The episode opens with its focus on Lisa, editor of The Daily Fourth Grader , which operated at a loss of 34 dollars the prior semester. An intrepid reporter worthy of her His Girl Friday bona fides, she gets tossed aside for a fifth grader who demands headlines that grab you by the book bag.
Further reading: The Simpsons Season 30 Episode 2 Review: Heartbreak Hotel
Krusty’s measured response to bad criticism makes him a fugitive from justice on an attempted homicide charge. With no way to hides his famous face, except maybe to take off the pancake makeup, something he did when he faked his own death in “Bart the Fink” from Season 7. He enhances it, slumming as a circus clown with a new name and a red wig. Soggy the Clown tones his cathode ray persona down. Circus clowns hate TV clowns, riding four in a car like royalty and eating stew from a bowl.
Further reading: Marge Simpson’s Julie Kavner Is a National Treasure
Further reading: Are The Simpsons Conservative, Liberal or an Equal Opportunity Offender?
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“Krusty the Clown” was written by Ryan Koh, and directed by Matthew Faughnan.
The Simpsons‘ “Krusty the Clown” aired Sunday, November 25 at 8:00 p.m. on Fox.
Culture Editor Tony Sokol cut his teeth on the wire services and also wrote and produced New York City’s Vampyr Theatre and the rock opera AssassiNation: We Killed JFK. Read more of his work here or find him on Twitter @tsokol.
