When thinking about the most influential episodes of The Simpsons, it’s easy to look back at the two-parter “Who Shot Mr. Burns?” On the surface, it’s a perfect mix of murder mystery and comedy that the show excelled at. If you listen to the audio commentary, you would actually be able to hear the writers point out the various clues that they put into Part 1 that make the eventual conclusion plausible.
If you go further, it may also be the moment where The Simpsons had the most transparency in pop culture. It wasn’t just a phenomenon during the TV season. Because of its cliff-hanger that swung between two seasons, the whole summer existed as this moment for conspiracy theorists to figure out the answer, win prizes, and watch a mediocre special that Fox compiled about who the suspects were. Despite being a parody of the famous “Who shot J.R. Ewing?” on Dallas from the decade prior, it managed to be its own original beast. Most of all, it showed how caught up the world was in this one little animated show.
But its influence may have been a bit haphazard. To compile all of the marketing together is to see a brilliant piece of interactive media. However, it was a gimmick that had to be replicated in the 20+ seasons since those episodes. This meant that crazy guest stars and plot twists needed to be advertised as this triumphant piece of entertainment. To assess the show in a post-The Simpsons Movie (2007) world is to notice the show barely hanging on not asking what a good story is, but what a good marketing ploy is.
That’s the problem with most of the 2010s. Even if they weren’t overtly chasing “Who Shot Mr. Burns?” they were still trying to find that gimmick, that buzzword that would draw in an audience. Want an episode on gay marriage? Sure. Homer and Marge break up for real this time (but not really and it’s Lena Dunham’s back tattoo)? That would be something. There have been so many interpretations of the series in that time and it feels like they exist in the same way that The Tonight Show now does. Nobody gives a crap about watching the whole thing, just the bits where they do cool things. Why else would they do couch gags based around Ke$ha and “Harlem Shake”? They were chasing a conversation that they used to create, and unfortunately even their best examples of this – such as the LEGO-centric “Brick Like Me” – are overshadowed by what they’re doing more than what they’re saying.
Odds are that Sales Rack will get around to all of the gimmick episodes of The Simpsons because I genuinely love the show through sickness and in health. However, it felt interesting to start at one that was sold as a grand slam of an idea almost a year in advance and had the series’ greatest build-up since the 1990s.
It’s time to talk about the Season 26 premiere “Clown in the Dumps.”
On October 1, 2013, showrunner Al Jean gave a presentation on what the show was going to be working on. The year 2014 was arguably the peak for the series since the 2007 film. All eyes were on the show for the variety of events that they were going to pull. This included the record-breaking marathon Every Simpsons Ever on FXX. There was also a special concert called The Simpsons Take the Bowl held at the Hollywood Bowl that found central figures in the show’s history singing songs live. They would be doing crossovers with Futurama and Family Guy as well as the LEGO episode (and subsequent LEGO figure merchandise). So much was going to happen…
Then Jean said something that would hold our excitement until September 2014. He said that a “major” character was going to die. His only clue was:
“I’ll give you a clue that the actor playing the character won an Emmy for playing that character, but I won’t say who it is.”
Considering the girth of talent that the show had produced in the 25 years at that point, it was an exciting prospect. Not just anybody left the show, and one wondered how reverently they would pay tribute to a beloved cartoon character. It kept fans guess, ads running with the question of “Who will die?” in the month leading up to things. It was all perfectly timed, especially as Every Simpsons Ever allowed for prime real estate in advertising for the upcoming season.
The title would make its way to public consciousness sometime before the season started and served as the final clue before the season started. “Clown in the Dumps.” Was it all a mislead? There had to be some twist to this whole operation, leaving many to wonder if it was going to be Krusty the Klown, or a subsidiary like Sideshow Bob or Sideshow Mel. Maybe it wasn’t even someone in the clown entertainment world.
Even then, we already had “Bart the Fink” where Krusty faked his death for the insurance money, sailing to sea as Rory B. Bellows. What permanence was there going to be on a show that once killed off Maude Flanders (entirely over contractual/financial disputes) and proceeded to use her what felt like every other season? This wasn’t a strong track record for killing your darlings, and yet Jean insisted that this was serious, noting that “When we kill [a character], they stay dead.”
The night finally came and it was going to be the biggest celebration for The Simpsons in close to a decade. Along with “Clown in the Dumps,” Family Guy was airing an hour-long crossover immediately after called “Simpsons Guy.” The two series had long been in dispute with many believing that the teams behind each hated each other. So, with 90 minutes of programming, how was the show going to pay tribute to their fallen character? Was it a moment with a deeper emotional resonance like when Bleeding Gums Murphy died in “Round Springfield”?
Who knows. All that could be determined was that because of how much effort went into making the summer-long mystery of “Who Shot Mr. Burns?” a success, one had to imagine that “Clown in the Dumps” was special. Sure, it had a lot of guest voice actors including Kelsey Grammer (Sideshow Bob), but the issue was that the mystery was right under our noses. There was no real game to play when you actually saw that episode.
Ladies and gentlemen say goodbye to Rabbi Hyman Krustofsky, father of Krusty the Klown.
I suppose you’re doing a spit take right now. You’re rubbing your eyes as you see the moment play out before your eyes. THE RABBI was the beloved character who was dying? In a sense, he was a great character and makes “Like Father Like Clown” a top tier episode, but when you’re talking about a show with hundreds of characters, calling one beloved feels like a term you save for the high-end characters, the ones who come on and whose importance is abundant. We’re thinking about Troy McClure or even Maude Flanders. They’re side characters who enhance stories in significant ways, not like The Rabbi who pretty much had one great episode and a lot of pretty good ones after.
The episode itself was going for maximum conversation points. Like in seasons past, the couch gag wasn’t so much a joke, but a chance to highlight artists interpreting The Simpsons. This time belonged to the Oscar-nominated filmmaker behind Rejected (2000), artist Don Hertzfeldt, who turned the couch gag into a surrealist vision of the future. If you weren’t on board for the lunacy, it was frustrating and likely to send you out of the room until the actual episode started. For everyone else, it was a wonderful curveball.
The other central point was that Lisa was concerned about Homer’s health. At every turn, The Simpsons leaned into morbid concepts of Homer overeating or failing to breathe properly. On the surface, it’s a decent idea for a misdirect but feels ultimately hollow if you judge as the potential “alternate answer” to this death story. The Rabbi is already dead and it seems doubtful that Al Jean wants to make orphans of the three Simpsons children.
To the writers’ credit, “Clown in the Dumps” has a decent angle if you take away the momentous build-up. With it, you’re left with this underwhelming sense that they will never kill off anyone of value, only kyboshing them when they become controversial (see: Apu). But considering that Krusty’s personal struggle throughout the series has been his Jewish identity, it makes sense to question his faith as his father and mentor pass away in a moment where he seeks advice. Could it have been handled better? Sure, but as a moment for Krusty coming to terms with a tumultuous part of his life, the episode was halfway decent. You’d have to ignore the pointless cameos that added nothing to the story, but otherwise, it was decent character building.
Though if we’re talking about long-term relevance that this episode had on the series it’s this: not very. Mobile app Springfield Tapped Out maybe will remind you of this episode thanks to a special Krusty the Klown outfit that he wore during the opening roast in this episode. Otherwise, you’ll be lucky to even remember that this was part of an incredible 2014 that had so much goodwill for the series. The only thing that can be said is that tonally “Clown in the Dumps” has aged more gracefully than “Simpsons Guy.”
In terms of the show writ large, it’s a different story. The Simpsons has always handled death in an odd light. With exception to Bleeding Gums Murphy, most of the deaths have an underlying comedy to them. Even then, Krusty’s fake death had more heart than “Clown in the Dumps” did. While it’s not as terrible as that time they brought back Grandma Flanders (“Hello Joe!”) for a glorified cameo after over 20 years only to kill her off unceremoniously a minute later (really), it’s just as bad to get worked up over a supporting character this low on the list of beloved, even if he’s voiced by the great Jackie Mason.
So, were The Simpsons good to their word? Hahahaha. What do you think? Very few things feel sacred on this show. With exception to a few key voice actors dying, they haven’t kept any character gone for long. It feels like Maude Flanders comes back every few years as a ghost. Despite Jean saying that they weren’t going to cheat this time, they haven’t really kept true in just the six years since.
Let’s put it this way. A few years ago, the series came under fire for the controversial depiction of Apu. They quietly wrote him off the show instead of meeting requests to make him more culturally appropriate with Indian writers. The man who brought this up, Hari Kondabolu, didn’t even hate the character but suggested that it was time to shift how he was seen on the show. The Simpsons have spent more time bitching about how they won’t do it than actually desiring to make a good impression.
I say this to prove a point. Apu, who hasn’t appeared on the show in almost a year (and even longer as a significant supporting character) has been on the show 13 times since Season 26 started. The Rabbi, the man who is supposed to be dead and gone, has been on a total of 10, including “Clown in the Dumps,” in that time.
That’s the beauty of “Who Shot Mr. Burns?” It wasn’t meant to kill off a character, but only give a compelling twist on the familiar. However, The Simpsons kept trying to up the stakes with memorable gag episodes that range from great to terrible, though they never match in the gravitas. The big difference with “Clown in the Dumps” is that it could never be as revolutionary because the show was too precious about its image at that point. It wasn’t going to kill off Homer and, from the looks of it, not even Krusty’s dad. It was going to ride the status quo and disappoint in a moment when the world was focused back on them. Among their many gag episodes, this feels like one of the most disappointing because where they could’ve reminded us why we cared, they instead turned our attention back to Every Simpsons Ever and the hundreds of reruns that are vastly superior to it.
Comments
Post a Comment