Review: The Simpsons “Krusty the Clown”

First Sideshow Bob tries to kill Bart, now Krusty is trying to kill Homer?

Overview:

A fifth grader, played by Billy Eichner, comes in to take over Lisa’s newspaper, The Daily Fourth Grader.  Lisa’s demotion lands her the job of being a TV recapper.  Feeling like the job is too monotonous for her, she convinces Homer to take the job.  Homer’s honest reviews get under Krusty’s skin to the point that he attempts to murder him.  Bart helps his hero escape from the police by hiding him at the circus.

Trying to fit in with the circus clowns, Krusty has to go undercover and pretend that he hates TV clowns.  But, it turns out that Krusty is a terrible clown whether it is on TV or at the circus.  After a near death experience on the high wire act, Krusty finds his niche and it’s being unlucky.  Unfortunately, the circus closes just as he has finally embraced the lifestyle.  Krusty does the most unselfish thing by allowing the circus to turn him into the police for the reward on his head.

Our Take:

I should best approach this review with caution.  The start of this episode had disgruntled TV star, Krusty, try to murder Homer for a few negative reviews.  As a professional reviewer for this very show, I wonder if I should take this as a threat?  I can’t help but feel like The Simpsons are taking a few jabs back at my peers and I for some negative comments that have come out through the years.  It’s funny that the show had a reverse effect of being one of the funniest episodes in a while, at least as a reviewer for The Simpsons.

On the other hand, maybe the show was trying to butter us, reviewers, up.  I mean, they do make the job look luxurious.  Honestly, as great as it can be, it is nearly impossible to keep up with that many shows.  The money is tight too, often I have to supplement by writing about anything from window treatments to Latino Christmas music.  But, sure, it is pretty awesome to get paid to watch some shows and read some comics.  If only I was as great of a reviewer as Homer Simpson.  He kind of nailed his reviews of Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead.

Anyways, back to the show at hand.  While the Homer storyline managed to hit home, Krusty joining the circus was something else entirely.  Do you even think there are circuses that feature clowns that are as degenerate of human beings that we make them out to be anymore?  Or, has this just become a stereotype?  In fact, we live in a time where I don’t think clowns are nearly as relevant at all as they may have been at one time.  Has there ever been any TV clowns since The Simpsons first aired thirty years ago?  Where did all the clowns go?  Most of them these days are evil monsters obsessed with chaos and fear.  Where did all the good clowns go?  The relevance of this story just seemed non-existent.  And, besides offering Krusty another road to travel, didn’t offer much to his character either.  I don’t really understand what the point of this storyline was.

So, did they interject this hilarity about TV reviewers to cover up the fact that the other half of the show was a bit sloppy?  Maybe not on purpose, but it totally worked.  I couldn’t help but enjoy the episode, despite the irrelevant Krusty stuff, and one of the worst musical numbers yet.  If it wasn’t for Homer’s storyline, I would say this was The Simpsons least entertaining episode of season 30 thus far.  Whether it is due to my fear of The Simpsons writers threatening to murder me over a bad review, or that I actually enjoyed it that much, I am going to have to give the show a positive score.

Score
7/10