Insane Clown Poppy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Insane Clown Poppy" is the third episode of the twelfth season of The Simpsons. It aired on November 12, 2000 in the US.
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
Homer and Bart are playing with fireworks in the backyard, however Marge gives them a list of things they need to fix. First, they decide to unjam a stuck drawer with the fireworks. At first, Marge protests but Homer asks her if she wants it done right, or fast. Marge says, "Well, like all Americans fast but..." then Homer and Bart cut her off by lighting the fireworks planted in the stuck drawer. The drawer is knocked out and works properly again. Homer and Bart continue to use fireworks to 'fix' things around the house until they come to Lisa's room to fix her VCR. They plant a massive amount of fireworks and end up blowing up everything in her room.
To make it up to her, they go to the Springfield Festival of Books (which Lisa wants to go to, after Bart and Homer tell her that they can do whatever she wants and 'pretend it is her birthday', even though it actually is her birthday), where they will see Christopher Walken, Stephen King, Tom Wolfe, Dr. Nick, Tom Clancy, Maya Angelou, Amy Tan, John Updike, and even Reverend Lovejoy offering books. Krusty is seen signing new memoirs, when he ends up signing the memoir of a girl named Sophie, who then proclaims that Krusty is her father.
Sophie insists Krusty met her mom when she served as a soldier in the Gulf War. Krusty then remembers, as he was at the Gulf War entertaining the soldiers as a comedian, when he meets Sophie's mom-to-be and makes love to her. However, she abandons Krusty the next day after he tackles her on a sand dune, preventing her from killing Saddam Hussein with a rocket launcher, since Saddam is "half his act". On a trip to the beach, Krusty asks Homer to help him with fatherhood, and Homer becomes his mentor.
However, things start to go wrong when Fat Tony and his goons, including Frankie the Squealer and Johnny Tightlips, take Sophie's violin after Krusty bets it on a poker game. Sophie then loses her trust in Krusty, and Homer offers to help the now guilt-ridden Krusty steal the violin back from the mob. They are nearly killed when they break into the mansion, where a Mafia summit is being held, but they manage to get the violin back to Sophie. Homer ends up getting chased down by the Mafia, accused of stealing the violin by Frankie the Squealer, and the episode ends at that.
[edit] Trivia
- Johnny Tightlips and Frankie the Squealer both make their first appearances in this episode.
- Jay Mohr, who impersonated Christopher Walken on Saturday Night Live, voiced Walken in this episode in the short scene where Walken reads "Goodnight Moon" to children.
- Sophie in the episode, apparently finds Krusty by typing "pathetic clown" into a search engine (as her mother deemed him a pathetic clown). In dedication to this, sites have been made, usually spamming the phrase "pathetic clown", or by googlebombing, to cause a fake page about Krusty the Klown to come up.
- The US Military is portrayed positively for the first, and so far only time in the series in this episode, when Krusty tells a joke "Saddam Hussein? They should call him so damned insane," offending soldiers who accuse Krusty of merely "fanning the flames of hatred", then soldiers object to female dancers saying "I can't watch this, I've got a girlfriend at home!", and proclaiming that it is an "insult to our Muslim hosts." Soldiers cry when Krusty causes an M72 LAW to strike a care package from Duff, though.
- After the 9/11 attacks and the anthrax scares that followed, the reference to anthrax was removed from syndication for a few years.
[edit] Cultural references
- It's revealed that Fat Tony's real name is Marion. Perhaps coincidentally, this is the same as that of rap mogul Suge Knight and actor John Wayne.
- The title alludes to the rap group Insane Clown Posse.
[edit] Quotes
- Homer (putting fireworks on a watermelon): This watermelon will never know what hit it!
Bart: I love our Tuesdays together, Dad. (they blow up a watermelon with fireworks.)
Marge (from a window and covered in watermelon): Don't you two have a list of chores to do?
Bart: Hey, we just took care of that dangerous melon that was threatening our garden.
Homer: Yeah, we're heroes! (angrily) But where's our parade?
- With the firework crammed in the drawer, Homer is about to light the fuse when Marge interrupts him.
Marge: Homer, what are you doing?
Homer: Listen, do you want the job done right, or do you want it done fast?
Marge: Well, like all Americans, fast. (drawer is blown out of the niche by fireworks and Marge puts it back in and slides it easily in and out).
Marge:Well, you can't argue with results.
- Homer (after destroying Lisa's room): Oh, boy. It's gonna take a lot of fireworks to clean this place up.
Lisa: Dad, what did you do?
Homer: Honey, there comes a time in every father's life when he blows up his daughter's room.
Lisa: What do you mean? You never blew up Maggie's room.
(A BOOOOM!!! is heard in Maggie's room)
- Milhouse (dressed in Elizabethan fashion, holds a sheaf of coupons): Hear ye, hear ye! One dollar off on all poetry books! (he is suddenly swarmed by a mob of excited people who leave him trampled into the dirt and sobbing) Their hands were everywhere.
- Christopher Walken (reading to a bunch of kids): Goodnight... room... Goodnight... Moon.... Goodnight... cow... jumping... over the moon.
(the frightened kids slowly try to move away)
Christopher Walken: Please, children, scootch closer. Don't make me tell you again about the scootching. You in the red, chop-chop.
- Marge: So, Mr. King, what tale of horror and the macabre are you working on now?
Stephen King: Oh, I don't feel like writing horror right now.
Marge: Oh, that's too bad.
Stephen King: I'm working on a biography of Ben Franklin. He's a fascinating man. He discovered electricity, (clouds gather and King gets a sinister voice) and used it to torture small animals and Green Mountain Men. And that key he tied to the end of a kite? (thunder sound) IT OPENED THE GATES OF HELL!!
Marge: Well, let me know when you get back to horror.
Stephen King: (in normal voice) Will do. (writes a note reading, "Call Marge, RE: Horror")
- Bart: Finally, books for today's busy idiot. "Network Programming for Dummies", "Christianity for Dummies", ... "Moby Dick"? "Call me Ishmael, dummy." (he sees the Dummies author) How did you write all these books?
Dummies author: Duh, I don't know. Me got to go to bank now. - Moe: Maya Angelou is black?
- Lisa: Miss Tan, I loved "The Joy Luck Club". It really showed me how the mother-daughter bond can triumph over adversity.
Amy Tan: No, that's not what I meant at all. You couldn't have gotten it more wrong.
Lisa: But--
Amy Tan: Please just sit down. I'm embarrassed for both of us. - Krusty: Next.
Bart: It's me! Bart! Your biggest fan?
Krusty: Yeah. That's great. (signs his name)
Bart: (reading) "K the C"?
Krusty: Hey! This pen's gotta last me all day! Now get out! (hurries Bart out) - Krusty: Yeah? Name?
Sophie: My name is Sophie.
Krusty: Hey! Good luck with that.
Sophie: I'm your daughter.
Krusty: Whaa?!
Sophie (hugging him): I finally found my daddy!
Krusty: Ohh. I think I just seltzered myself!
- Krusty: Listen, honey, a lot of kids think of me as their daddy, but I'm just a simple TV legend. Here, have a key chain.
Sophie: No, I'm sure you're my father. You met my mom during the Gulf War.
Krusty: Was your mother an Israeli flight attendant?
Sophie: No.
Krusty: Cokie Roberts?
Sophie: No, she was a soldier. Chestnut brown hair, kind of shy, thirty-two confirmed kills.
Krusty: Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh, boy! Now it's comin' back to me.
- Krusty: There was your mother, lookin' like a beautiful mirage. Maybe it was the anthrax in the air, maybe it was the fact the Arab women weren't bitin'. Whatever it was, it was magic.
- Homer: Dear Lord, bless this humble meal... and, did you hear about Krusty? Whoo, man! I mean, I knew he was a player, but geez, a kid...
Marge: Homer, that's not a prayer. That's gossip.
Homer: Fine, I'll just discuss heavenly matters. So how's Maude Flanders doin' up there? She playing the field? Ooh, yeah? Really? All those guys? (noticing the family staring at him) Amen.
- Krusty: Listen, kid, I'm not the kind of dad who, you know, does things or says stuff or looks at you. But the love is there.
- Sophie: You know, for a clown, you're not really a lot of fun.
- Krusty: You know, Homer, I've spent my whole life entertaining kids, and I just realize I don't know the first thing about 'em.
Homer: Well, I won't lie. Fatherhood isn't easy like motherhood. But I wouldn't trade it for anything...except for some mag wheels. Oh, man. That would be sweet.
- Krusty: Hey I know that song. My dad used to play that when I was a boy. (tearing up) It's beautiful.
Sophie: Do you play?
Krusty: No, I guess musical talent skips a generation. Like diabetes. You might wanna watch out for that, too.
- Krusty: My little girl's sharp as a tack. I tried the "got your nose" bit on her, didn't fool her or a second!
Homer: My uncle still has my nose.
- Krusty: Now look, Sophie, I know you think your daddy's perfect...
Sophie: No, I don't.
Krusty:...but I did a bad thing. I lost your violin in a poker game.
Sophie: You what?!
Krusty: But, don't worry! I got you an even better one!
Sophie: This is a ukulele.
Krusty: Yeah, the thinking man's violin!
- Krusty:You gotta help me! My daughter found out I'm a jerk!
Marge: Oh, Krusty, Im sure she just needs time to get used to you.
Homer: Marge, may I play devil's advocate for a moment?
Marge: sure, go ahead.
(Cut to the Kwi-E-Mart, where Homer is losing a pinball game called "Devils Advocate".)
Homer: Stupid game! Now, what were we talking about.
Krusty: My daughter's violin!
- Homer: Why don't we just break into Fat Tony's compound and get it back?
Krusty: Really? You'd help me take on the mob?
Homer: For a casual acquaintance like you? Absolutely.
- Fat Tony: Welcome to my home. To answer you first question: yes, we do have pasta. If you need money laundered, just set it outside our door. You can pick it up in the morning.
- Louie: (while Homer and Krusty are hanging above them) I heard there's a lunar eclipse tonight. Maybe we should look up.
Legs: No, for me, it's solar or nothing.
- Fat Tony: Now some unpleasant news. I have learned that someone in this room is a squealer.
Legs: We've narrowed it down to either Johnny Tightlips or Frankie the Squealer.
Frankie: Okay, it's me! I can't help it! I just like squealing! It makes me feel big!
- Legs: (tuning up Frankie the Squealer, with Louie's help) Had enough, squealer?
Frankie the Squealer (spits out blood): Did you know Fat Tony's real name is Marion?
Legs: You just don't get it, do ya? (goes back to work on Frankie)
- Louie: Johnny Tightlips, where'd they hit ya?
Johnny: I ain't sayin' nothin'.
Louie: But what'll I tell the doctor?
Johnny: Tell him to suck a lemon.
[edit] External links
- "Insane Clown Poppy" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
- "Insane Clown Poppy" at the Internet Movie Database
