30x08 Krusty the Clown

[7.6/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] I started out being pretty skeptical of this one. Between a “get off my lawn” take on TV reviews, and a bunch of outlandish, cartoony car chase gags between Homer and Krusty followed up by a bunch of weak clown jokes, I thought we were headed for dullsville with this one. But the episode quickly righted the ship after the opening act, and never looked back.

The A-story, featuring Krusty rediscovering his love of performing at the circus after a lifetime of being a mere “T.V. clown” was superb once the show actually got into it. His circus song was merely cute, and some of the old bugaboo list gags weren’t great, but the story had a great arc of Krusty stinking, finding his passion and talent, and then having to give it up, and the jokes improved as the episode went along. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s a solid study tale, and the show built a lot of color and character around it.

And once they got out of the early doldrums, I couldn’t but help all the jabs at the Television Recapping Industrial Complex and the era of peak T.V. While the conflict was a little too undercooked, Homer becoming obsessed with lazy takes and critiquing everything was a solid laugh. And the T.V. exec revealing that “peak T.V.” is all a big conspiracy to gain subscriptions with shows that don’t exist but which no one watches anyway works great as satire.

Overall, this one got off to a rocky start, but got its legs underneath it quickly and just kept running. Good fun.