Bart the Fink
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"Bart the Fink" is the fifteenth episode of The Simpsons' seventh season.
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[edit] Synopsis
When Great Aunt Hortense dies, each member of the family receives $100 to do with as they like. Though the kids have other ideas, Marge has them open bank accounts. Bart is excited by his new checking account and begins writing checks for his friends and even a $1 check for bully Jimbo Jones so he wouldn't beat him up.
Bart goes to ask Krusty the Clown for his autograph, but the clown is having a new burger named after him and has to leave. Just before he does, Bart slips a check for 25 cents into Krusty's pocket, figuring that he'll receive a copy of it--endorsed by Krusty--with his monthly bank statement.
Instead, however, the check is endorsed with a stamp--"Cayman Islands Off-Shore Holding Corporation". Angry, Bart takes it back to the bank so that they can make Krusty sign it. Suspicious, a bank teller investigates, and within minutes Krusty is arrested for tax fraud.
He discovers that though he will not be going to prison ("Krusty," an IRS agent assures him, "This is America. We don't send our celebrities to jail!"), his salary will be garnished by as much as 95% for 40 years. Ruined, unable to maintain his "swanky lifestyle", and living on the streets, Krusty mans his private airplane one night and appears to fly directly into a mountain.
Everyone assumes that Krusty is dead, but Bart believes otherwise when he begins to see a very Krusty-like man all over town. He and Lisa discover that he has gone into hiding as Rory B. Bellows, a grizzled old longshore worker. They finally convince him to return to his former life but wonder aloud what he will do about his tax problem. "Don't sweat it," says Krusty. "The life of Rory B. Bellows is insured for a surprisingly large amount." Behind them, Rory's houseboat explodes.
The title of the episode is a play on the film Barton Fink. The film was also mentioned in the earlier episode "Brother from the Same Planet".
One of the episode's gags (which does not appear on syndicated reruns) was described by Matt Groening in a DVD Commentary as "one of the most frightening things" he has ever seen. The gag is Bart flipping 25 cents into Handsome Pete's can, with Captain McCallister replying "Not a quarter, he'll be dancing for hours!"
[edit] Trivia
- This episode was originally extremely long. According to the DVD commentary, this is because Krusty the Clown and guest star Bob Newhart both talk in a very slow manner. Several of the deleted segments can be seen on the DVD.
- According to the DVD commentary, in the beginning of this episode, there was supposed to be a donkey basketball game at the school. This idea was later used in "Bart Mangled Banner", 8 years later.
- The episode opens with a somewhat complicated joke: the law firm is called "Dewey, Cheathem, Howe, & Weissmann" - the gag being that the obvious joke name is Dewey, Cheatem & Howe, but somewhere along the line they've acquired a fourth partner, ruining the pun.
- Luke Perry is among the special guests at Krusty's funeral, because in the Simpsons universe, he is Krusty's half-brother, as seen in "Krusty Gets Kancelled".
- During Krusty's funeral, the wreath seen in the background displays the phone number '369-3084', which was Simpsons writer and producer Bill Oakley's office phone number at the time.
- During the episode The Last Temptation of Krust, Jay Leno believed that Krusty had in fact died, but he said "in a grease fire."
[edit] Cultural references
- Krusty's airplane, "I'm-on-a-rolla-Gay", is a spoof of the Enola Gay B-29 airplane that dropped the A-bomb on Hiroshima.
- This episode title spoofs the movie Barton Fink.
- The Sea Captain ends a phone coversation by saying, "Call me back, Ishamel," a reference to the opening line of Moby Dick
[edit] External links
- "Bart the Fink" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
