Review: The Simpsons “The Clown Stays in the Picture”

Marc Maron is taking on everyone’s favourite clown.

 

Overview:

Krusty appears on Marc Maron’s podcast for an interview, and the clown’s history as a young actor comes out.  As an up and comer, Krusty demanded that his next movie would be “The Sands of Space.”  To appease him, the network makes the movie with the lowest budget they can manage, and Krusty ends up starring and directing.

As a young couple, Marge and Homer sign up to work on Krusty’s film.  A good thing for the clown as he ends up needing Marge to help motivate him through the daunting project.  Unfortunately, Krusty is not okay with Marge’s relationship and tries to have Homer killed.  He ends up being kidnapped by a drug cartel, and it is up to Krusty’s crew to save him.  But, Krusty is asked to make the biggest sacrifice for Marge and the man she loves.

Our Take:

Some of the best episodes that we can remember from The Simpsons involve a good flashback.  Who can forget when Marge met Homer in high school?  Or, when the couple struggled when Bart was just a baby?  Filling out the Simpsons family backstory is one of the best parts about the show.  Honestly, we know these characters like they are a part of our own families because we have lived all of these important milestones with them.  So, going back in time with Krusty sounds like an automatic win to me.

 

In this flashback, we are transferred to the 80’s where there are plenty of jokes to be had.  Unfortunately, there wasn’t much ripping on the radical era at all.  Instead, we are thrown into the movie industry when low budget sci-fi films reigned supreme.  But, again, that’s not really the aim of the flashback either as jokes about c-class 80’s movies didn’t take the stage either.  In fact, I cannot think of one reason at all why this story needed to be a flashback at all?  There was nothing stopping them from having Krusty make a movie in the year 2019.  There is nothing stopping them from sending Marge and Homer to spend a summer working on the film.  So why bother?  It seems a lot more complicated for nothing.

 

Enter special guest appearance from comedian and podcast legend, Marc Maron.  Playing himself, who else from Springfield could he interview than the controversial Krusty the Klown?  To be honest, I know he is a fictional character, but that is a podcast that I would listen to.  Basically, I wish we got more of the dynamic between these two big characters.  The only Springfield celebrity that I can think of that would make for a more entertaining show would be Sideshow Bob.

 

The best part of this episode was seeing my favourite character, Comic Book Guy, in his eighties outfit.  It is hilarious to see him playing hackie sack on the set of the movie.  It would be fitting to see Comic Book Guy mention his time as a hand on a film set later on in the season.  Honestly, this has to be one of the highlights of his life, he got to work on a science fiction movie.  It’s kind of a big deal for him.  They should give us a flashback episode of this guy, I can’t get enough of Comic Book Guy.  Give him more screen time.

 

While I was excited for everything that this episode had to offer: a flashback, a great guest star, and some more of Marge and Homer’s relationship pre-children; there was nothing overly special about the show.  Not that it wasn’t strong when it comes to plot or well thought out ideas, there just wasn’t much depth to it all.  How many times have we seen someone try to get between Marge and Homer?  It’s kind of played out.  And, Homer doesn’t need the help.  If they are going to go this direction for the storyline, you better throw in a lot of great humour, and unfortunately, they just didn’t deliver.