“In order to keep our broadcasting license we devote Sunday night dead time to public service shows of limited appeal. In that spirit, we bring you Gabbin’ About God.” – KBBL Announcer
Tag: Like Father Like Clown
Quote of the Day
“Bart, we’ve been going about this all wrong. What’s the one thing rabbis prize above everything else?” – Lisa Simpson “Those stupid hats?” – Bart Simpson “No, Bart, knowledge. . . . We’re gonna hit him where it hurts, right in the Judaica.” – Lisa Simpson
Quote of the Day
“Let’s see, I want a nice sandwich, but the Joey Bishop, too fatty. The Jackie Mason, I don’t know, sauerkraut makes me gassy. The Bruce Willis? I don’t even like his work. What is this: Krusty the Klown?” – Rabbi Hyman Krustofsky “That’s ham, sausage, and bacon with a smidge of mayo.” – Waitress “What?” – Rabbi Hyman Krustofsky “On white bread.” – Waitress
Quote of the Day
“Do you know that my son Herschel was first in his Yeshiva class? As a matter of fact, he was voted the most likely to hear God.” – Rabbi Hyman Krustofsky “Oh, go on, Hyman, you’re exaggerating again, you’re so proud of your son.” – Other Rabbi “A rabbi would never exaggerate! A rabbi composes, he creates thoughts, he tells stories that may never have happened, but he does not exaggerate!” – Rabbi Hyman Krustofsky
Quote of the Day
“Could you direct me to President Francois Mitterand’s table?” – Krusty the Klown “You think you’re funny?” – Waitress “Fifty million Frenchmen can’t be wrong!” – Krusty the Klown Completely screwed this up yesterday. Sorry.
Quote of the Day
“Our first caller is from Shelbyville Heights.” – KBBL DJ “Yes, hi, with all the suffering and injustice in the world, do you ever wonder if God really exists?” – Caller “No.” – Reverend Lovejoy “Not for a second.” – Monsignor Kenneth Daly Not at all.” – Rabbi Hymen Krustovsky “Great. Good conversation there.” – KBBL DJ
Quote of the Day
“Don’t worry, Lis. I got a plan that can’t fail. . . . Yiddle, my man, you’re a genius.” – Bart Simpson “I love my work.” – Yiddle
Zombie Simpsons Renewed For Forty-Four More Episodes
♫”If this old clown was found dead in his bed tomorrow/ I’d be in heaven, still doing this show!”♫ – Krusty the Klown This here blog has been live on the internet for six years and change. In that time we’ve seen four renewal announcements, including last night’s. Here are the details: – two more full production runs of 22 episodes each – will take the show through Season 28 and give it the first seven episodes of a Season 29(!) – new guaranteed episode total of 625(!!) – the next time to look for a renewal announcement will be October-ish of 2016 – the next deadline for a renewal announcement will be May-ish of 2017 Having read through a whole bunch of news reports on this, /Film easily wins the prize for best lead: In TV years, The Simpsons is already the equivalent of the Grail Knight from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and the series isn’t giving up its post any time soon. They also took the time to say what everyone’s thinking: And, let’s face it, you probably only watch the new episodes when Fox breaks out a splashy couch gag by a high-profile artist (yep, welovethose) or when the show makes a big change by killing off a character or featuring a surprising gimmick or guest star. But after more than twenty years, the roster of guests with the power to surprise is pretty small. The Simpsons is in an unusual position in that the current episodes seem more like reminders for prior seasons and merchandise than the other way around. As for the next renewal announcement, rubbercat.net/simpsons has it covered.
Compare & Contrast: Krusty’s Struggles
“Hi, kids. Today’s show is gonna be the funniest, side-splittinest, cavalcade of . . . ah, the hell with it. Roll the cartoon.” – Krusty the Klown There are a lot of big, flashing similarities between “Like Father, Like Clown” and “Clown in the Dumps”, most prominently that both are about Krusty and his father, and, even moreso, about Krusty missing his father. But there are also a lot of small, individual scenes and jokes that are very similar. So let’s consider one of the former and then one of the latter. For our overarching theme, just look at how each episode handles Bart and Lisa. In Season 3, Bart and Lisa have a reason to meet Krusty (their saving him in “Krusty Gets Buster”), and then we follow them as they set out to help him. We see them asking Reverend Lovejoy how to find a rabbi, we see them meet Rabbi Krustofsky, get rejected, and then their attempts to win him over. (The Simpsons being The Simpsons, Sammy Davis Jr. succeeds where the Talmud fails.) Meanwhile, the episode checks in on Krusty as we see him wallowing in depression: watching a TV movie in a bus station, cracking up on his own show, and dialing his father over and over again. It’s genuinely sad, but it’s still funny because the movie is Hercules vs. the Martians and Krusty’s on-air break down is his touched response to a particularly brutal and gory Itchy & Scratchy. “And didn’t Scratchy Jr. look happy playing with his Dad until they got run over by the thresher.” By contrast, in the blasted wasteland of Season 26, Bart and Lisa are just sort of there for the ride. Lisa because she was shunted off to an unrelated (and very repetitive) B-plot; and Bart because we don’t see him do anything except show up and explain to us the stuff we didn’t see him do. In addition to this not making sense, it sucks out a lot of the fun. Instead of getting to see Bart and Lisa as active characters who get to do things like lie to Reverend Lovejoy about liking his radio show and dress up in curls and a hat to argue Jewish philosophy, we watch Bart talk to Krusty, talk to Krusty, and then talk to Krusty again. Great, good conversation there. And it’s not like what we do get to see is any better. Krusty bounces from one manic episode to the next, but they fall flat over and over again, which brings us to our individual scene of wretchedness, Krusty hosting his show and airing what I almost hesitate to call an “Itchy & Scratchy” cartoon. Things open with Sideshow Mel helpfully expositing everything that’s happening: “Boys and girls, you know that we’ve been dark for a couple of days because of a tragic loss in the Krustylu family. Now, put your hands together for the man who’s falling apart before our eyes, Krusty the Klown!” That is quintessential “tell don’t show”: not…
Quote of the Day
“Poor Krusty.” – Bart Simpson “A man who envies our family is a man who needs help.” – Lisa Simpson
Quote of the Day
“Oy, this guy’s tough.” – Bart Simpson “Bart, we’re gonna have to outsmart him.” – Lisa Simpson “I don’t know, he’s pretty sharp. He saw right through this disguise.” – Bart Simpson
Quote of the Day
“Are you kids ready to order, yet?” – Izzy’s Waitress “Sorry, no, just get us another bowl of complimentary pickles.” – Bart Simpson “Watch how fast I go.” – Izzy’s Waitress Happy Birthday Doris Grau! (She would’ve been 89 today.)
Quote of the Day
“Now, can you give us the rabbi’s address?” – Bart Simpson “Oh, sure thing, let me just check my non-Christian rolodex.” – Reverend Lovejoy
Bonus Bonus Quote of the Day
“Academy Award Playhouse now returns you to Hercules Versus the Martians.” – TV Announcer “Welcome to our spaceship, mighty Hercules!” – Martian Happy birthday to old Simpsons hand and current Hollywood kingpin Brad Bird.
Quote of the Day
“Didn’t Itchy Junior look happy playing with his father? And didn’t Scratchy Junior look happy playing with his dad until they got run over by a thresher?” – Krusty the Klown Happy 20th anniversary to “Like Father Like Clown”! Original airdate 24 October 1991.
Quote of the Day
“And I haven’t seen my father since.” – Krusty the Klown “That is so sad.” – Lisa Simpson “Krusty, do you think about your father a lot?” – Bart Simpson “All the time . . . except when I’m at the track. Then it’s all business.” – Krusty the Klown
Quote of the Day
“Boy, you don’t have to follow in my footsteps.” – Homer Simpson “Don’t worry, I don’t even like using the bathroom after you.” – Bart Simpson “Why you little!” – Homer Simpson
Quote of the Day
“You’ve reached the party line. In a moment you’ll be connected to a hot party with some of the world’s most beautiful women. Now, let’s join the party.” – Party Line Recording “Hello?” – Krusty the Klown “Hello?” – Lonely Man #1 “Hello?” – Lonely Man #2 “Are there any women here?” – Apu Nahasapeemapetilon “Hello?” – Krusty the Klown “Are you a beautiful woman?” – Apu Nahasapeemapetilon “Do I sound like a beautiful woman?” – Krusty the Klown “This is not as hot a party as I had anticipated.” – Apu Nahasapeemapetilon
“Brawl in the Family” Makes Baby Jesus Cry
Image shamelessly stolen from IMDB. “Why don’t we let our guest do it?” – Lisa Simpson There isn’t much to say about this commentary, mostly because guest commentator Delroy Lindo (who did a voice for this episode) basically hijacks it to play Twenty Questions. On the whole this is not a terribly bad thing, it’s mildly entertaining to listen to. But it also means that there isn’t much here for the Simpsons fan, as the commentary turns into every Al Jean interview you’ve ever read. Lindo asks about the history of the show; he asks about why there are so many people listed as producers; he asks about how they animate the guest stars. Not wanting to be rude to their guest, they let him run roughshod over them. They hardly discuss the episode at all, which might be for the best as it is very dumb. Including Lindo, there are seven guys on this one. 0:35 – Someone, sounds like Jean, asks Lindo if he saw the episode when it came out or later because with guest stars they never know. Lindo replies, “I saw it a lot later.” I’ll take that as (mild) evidence that doing a voice on Zombie Simpsons is nothing special at all. It’s become just one more thing for actors and celebrities to check off on a list of things you can do when you’re famous. 0:45 – Lindo was asking what all the producers and co-producers at the beginning are for, but they have a microphone problem. Lindo is apparently “in a separate room”, meanwhile things keep going. Jean answers the question anyway, saying “There are seven million producers because none of us want to leave the job. It’s [inaudible] cushy.” 1:30 – Still missing Lindo, Jean recounts a bunch of jokes that were changed by the censors to things that were arguably more vulgar. 2:45 – Lindo’s back, but he didn’t hear the answer, so we’re rehashing things. It raises an obvious question though, this thing doesn’t have a pause button? 3:20 – To Lindo’s credit, he doesn’t let them skate without answering the question. Unfortunately, we’re now four minutes in and have discussed precisely one topic on account of technical difficulties. 4:15 – Still discussing all the producer credits. 5:15 – The producer thing finally petered out thirty seconds ago, and now it’s just silence. Also, the episode is degenerating as Maggie calls the police. 5:35 – Wow, taking things all the way back to the beginning, Lindo replies to the original question about when he watched it by saying that it was when it was being rerun after his nieces and nephews told him he was on it. 6:15 – Jean replies to Lindo’s story by talking about how other guest stars, or even just people they mention, will get calls from their kids when something airs. This is basically Jean’s stock answer to guest voice questions whenever he has to give an interview. 7:45 – Lindo asks a long…
Quote of the Day
“Reverend Lovejoy, we need you to help us find a rabbi.” – Bart Simpson “Well, uh, before you make any rash decisions let me just remind you that the church is changing to meet the needs of today’s young christians.” – Reverend Lovejoy