Krusty Gets Busted

"Krusty Gets Busted"
The Simpsons episode
Episode no.	12
Prod. code	7G12
Orig. airdate	April 29, 1990[1]
Showrunner(s)	James L. Brooks Matt Groening Sam Simon
Written by	Jay Kogen Wallace Wolodarsky[2]
Directed by	Brad Bird[2]
Chalkboard gag	"They are laughing at me, not with me"[3]
Couch gag	Maggie pops out of the couch, and lands in Marge's arms.[2]
Guest star(s)	Kelsey Grammer as Sideshow Bob[1]
DVD commentary	Matt Groening Brad Bird Jay Kogen Wallace Wolodarsky
Season 1 December 17, 1989 – May 13, 1990 "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" "Bart the Genius" "Homer's Odyssey" "There's No Disgrace Like Home" "Bart the General" "Moaning Lisa" "The Call of the Simpsons" "The Telltale Head" "Life on the Fast Lane" "Homer's Night Out" "The Crepes of Wrath" "Krusty Gets Busted" "Some Enchanted Evening" List of all The Simpsons episodes
Seasons 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

"Krusty Gets Busted" is the twelfth episode of The Simpsons' first season, and originally aired on April 29, 1990.^[1] The episode was written by Jay Kogen and Wallace Wolodarsky, and directed by Brad Bird.^[2] In the episode, Krusty the Clown, a famous TV comedian, is convicted of the armed robbery of the Kwik-E-Mart. Bart and Lisa investigate, convinced that Krusty has been framed.

This episode marks the first full-fledged appearance of Kent Brockman,^[2] and Kelsey Grammer makes his first guest appearance on the show as the voice of Sideshow Bob.^[4] The episode was well received by critics, and it was the highest rated show on the Fox Network the week it aired.

Plot

Homer stops by the Kwik-E-Mart on the way home from work, displeased that he has to watch a boring slide show of Patty and Selma's Mexican vacation to the Yucatan. He witnesses a robbery committed by a masked clown, resembling Krusty. He positively identifies the clown as Krusty to the police (along with other witnesses), and Krusty is arrested, convicted and sentenced to jail. With Krusty now in jail, Krusty's sidekick Sideshow Bob becomes the new host of The Krusty the Clown Show, which he renames Sideshow Bob's Cavalcade of Whimsy. Bob promises the viewers that the show will still retain the popular Itchy & Scratchy Show series, but will also become a more educational program. Devastated and feeling that his hero could not have committed the crime, Bart enlists the help of a reluctant Lisa and they set out to prove Krusty's innocence.

Bart and Lisa return to the scene of the crime to search for clues. Lisa reasons that Krusty could not have used the microwave as depicted by the hidden camera footage from the store because he wears a pacemaker, and that Krusty would not have been reading at the magazine rack, because he is illiterate, admitted by Krusty in court. Lisa realizes Bart was right and accepts that Krusty was framed for a crime he did not commit. She then asks him if there was anyone who hated Krusty enough that wanted to take him down. Bart tells Lisa that he believes that Sideshow Bob may identify any enemies that wanted to take Krusty down and cancel his show. The next day Bart, Lisa, and Maggie meet Sideshow Bob at the studio to ask him for input, only for Bob to dismiss their investigations and give them tickets to his show.

At the live broadcast, Bart is invited up on stage with Bob, where he points out the facts regarding the microwave and magazine. Bob dismisses it, stating that Krusty rarely followed doctors' orders and the magazine he was reading always had nice pictures in it. When Bob says he has "a lot of big shoes to fill", Bart realizes the final link to the mystery and the robber's identity. Sideshow Bob had the most to gain in Krusty's downfall. He has feet large enough to fill Krusty's clown shoes, unlike Krusty, who has small feet "like all good-hearted people," and therefore he yelled at Homer when he stepped on his foot during the robbery. An outraged Bart contends to the audience that the real robber is Sideshow Bob, and demonstrates the fact by smashing the end of Bob's shoe with a croquet mallet. This causes him to scream and curse in pain exactly as he did in the video footage and the children turn against him for what he did to Krusty. The police, having watched the show, realized they wrongfully put Krusty in jail for a crime he did not commit and head down the studio to arrest Sideshow Bob.

Arrested and exposed, Bob confesses that the reason he framed Krusty was out of frustration for constantly being on the receiving end of the clown's humiliating gags. He felt his intelligence was wasted on the show and wanted Krusty gone so he could make an educational program where his intelligence is appreciated. As Bob is taken off to jail, he pays grudging kudos to Bart and Lisa (using the oft-used line from Scooby Doo, "I would've gotten away with it if it weren't for these meddling kids!"), then warns criminals not to underestimate children because they were smart to catch him and will do the same to them. The charges against Krusty are dropped and he regains the trust of the community. Grateful to be free, Krusty forgives Homer for identifying him, then thanks Bart for standing up for the truth and sticking to his convictions and the two get in a picture together (which Bart later hangs in his bedroom, refilled with Krusty decor).

Production

Director Brad Bird wanted to open the episode with a close up of Krusty's face.^[5] The staff liked the idea and he then suggested that all three acts of the episode, defined by the placement of the commercial breaks, should begin with a close up shot.^[5] Act one begins with Krusty's face introducing the audience at his show, act two begins with Krusty's face being locked up behind bars, and act three begins with Sideshow Bob's face on a big poster.^[5] Krusty's character is based on a television clown from Portland, Oregon, called Rusty Nails, whom The Simpsons creator Matt Groening watched while growing up in Portland.^[6] The original teleplay, written by Jay Kogen and Wallace Wolodarsky, was 78 pages long and many scenes had to be cut.^[7] One scene that had to be cut down was the scene where Patty and Selma show the slideshow of their vacation; it originally contained images of them being detained for bringing heroin into America.^[7]

Sideshow Bob's first major appearance on The Simpsons was in this episode, but he first appeared in the background of a scene in the season one episode "The Telltale Head".^[8] In that appearance, his design was more simple and his hair was round in shape. Bob's design was updated for "Krusty Gets Busted", and the animators tried to redo his scenes in "The Telltale Head" with the re-design, but did not have enough time.^[8] The script for "Krusty Gets Busted" called for James Earl Jones to voice Bob, but the producers instead went with Kelsey Grammer, a cast member on Cheers at the time.^[4] Kent Brockman and Scott Christian make their first appearances on The Simpsons in this episode.^[9]

Cultural references

Chief Wiggum's order during the suspect line-up to "send in the clowns" is an allusion to the Stephen Sondheim song "Send in the Clowns" from the 1973 musical A Little Night Music. The Sondheim musical took its name from Mozart's Serenade No. 13 for strings in G major, Eine kleine Nachtmusik, which is the theme tune to Sideshow Bob's show.^[2] The close up shot of Krusty's face behind bars in the beginning of act two is a reference of the closing credit motif of the British television series The Prisoner from the 1960s.^[2] The background music in that scene resembles the theme of the television series Mission: Impossible at one point.^[2] The line "The Day the Laughter Died", shown during the newscast, is a reference to the 1959 tragedy The Day the Music Died. The song "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" by Cole Porter is featured in the episode.^[2] Following Sideshow Bob's arrest, he mutters: "I would've gotten away with it too, if it weren't for these meddling kids.", which is a reference to the famous line from Hanna-Barbera's animated television show Scooby-Doo.^[6]

Reception

In its original American broadcast, "Krusty Gets Busted" finished thirteenth place in the ratings for the week of May 23–29, 1990, with a Nielsen rating of 16.4. It was the highest rated show on the Fox network that week.^[10] The episode received generally positive reviews from critics. Series creator Matt Groening listed it as his ninth favorite episode of The Simpsons and added "I have a peculiar love of TV clownery".^[11] Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, the authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, praised the episode: "The invention of the Simpsons' arch enemy as a lugubrious yet psychotic Englishman in dreadlocks succeeds wonderfully in this super-fast, super-funny episode that works by constantly reversing the audience's expectations."^[2] In a DVD review of the first season, David B. Grelck gave the episode a rating of 3/5.^[12] Colin Jacobson at DVD Movie Guide said in a review that "throughout the episode we found great material; it really seemed clear that the show was starting to turn into the piece we now know and love. It’s hard for me to relate any deficiencies" and added that "almost every Bob episode offers a lot of fun, and this episode started that trend in fine style."^[13]

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Krusty Gets Busted

• "Krusty Gets Busted" at The Simpsons.com
• "Krusty Gets Busted" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
• "Krusty Gets Busted" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Krusty Gets Busted" at TV.com

v t e The Simpsons Sideshow Bob episodes "Krusty Gets Busted" "Black Widower" "Cape Feare" "Sideshow Bob Roberts" "Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming" "Brother from Another Series" "Day of the Jackanapes" "The Great Louse Detective" "The Italian Bob" "Funeral for a Fiend" "Wedding for Disaster" "The Bob Next Door"

v t e The Simpsons episodes Seasons 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Season 1 "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" "Bart the Genius" "Homer's Odyssey" "There's No Disgrace Like Home" "Bart the General" "Moaning Lisa" "The Call of the Simpsons" "The Telltale Head" "Life on the Fast Lane" "Homer's Night Out" "The Crepes of Wrath" "Krusty Gets Busted" "Some Enchanted Evening"