The Simpsons: Krusty the Clown

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Herschel Pinkus Yerucham Krustofski, more commonly known as Krusty the Clown is a fictional character in the cartoon The Simpsons. (His name was originally Herschel Schmoikel Krustofski, but it has changed since the episode "Today, I am a Klown.") He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta. Krusty is the long-time clown host of Bart and Lisa's favourite TV show. The TV show is a combination of kiddie variety-television hijinks with a sidekick, and cartoons (including the Tom and Jerry parody Itchy and Scratchy). His sidekick Sideshow Bob, has been replaced by Sideshow Mel. Another sidekick was Sideshow Raheem, an angry young man, but no evidence exists to show if Sideshow Bob was a replacement for Sideshow Raheem. One Krusty trademark is where everything in connection with his name that would normally begin with 'C' is replaced with 'K,' as evident by the original spelling of his name, Krusty the Klown.

The character of Krusty was partially inspired by real-life clown "Rusty Nails" whom Simpsons creator Matt Groening watched as a child while growing up in Portland, Oregon. Castellaneta based his voice characterization on Chicago television legend Bob Bell who portrayed WGN-TV's Bozo the Clown from 1960-1984. Some of Krusty's biographical details echo those of comedian Jackie Mason, who voices Krusty's father, including being the son of an orthodox rabbi, and being temporarily banned from television due to a controversial performance. Other biographical details parallel Johnny Carson and Dean Martin. Krusty also bears a striking resemblance to serial killer John Wayne Gacy, also known as the 'Killer clown'. Krusty, with his 'Krustyburger' chain, might also be a parody of Ronald McDonald, the notorious clown of the McDonalds burger chain.

The episode "Like Father, Like Clown" (based on the film The Jazz Singer), first released on October 24, 1991, expanded on his origin. According to it, he was born Herschel Schmoeckel Krustofsky and is of Jewish heritage. Krusty is a third generation American. In 1902, Krusty's grandfather Zed Krustofski left Imperial Russia for the United States and gained entry through Ellis Island. His son Hyman Krustofsky became an Orthodox rabbi and a leader of his community, whose wise counsel is continually sought. Rabbi Krustofsky, voiced by Jackie Mason, hoped that his son would follow in his footsteps (he brags that Herschel is on top of his Yeshiva class). However, Herschel wanted to become a clown because he wanted to make people laugh. Consequently, the Rabbi disowned him. Decades later, Krusty memorably reconciled with his father with the assistance of Bart and Lisa.

It was later revealed Krusty did not have a Bar Mitzvah ceremony, because Hyman feared he would violate the sanctity of the rites by "acting up." Krusty had two adult Bar Mitzvah ceremonies: a Hollywood gala, then a simple ceremony intended to reconnect with his father.

After leaving New York, Krusty started his 50-year show biz career as a street mime in Tupelo, Mississippi. He then appeared on a variety of Laugh-In style variety shows, but in the 1950s was banned from television for 10 years after saying "pants" on the air, which was not allowed at the time. In the 1960s he finally got his own television show, The Krusty the Klown Show, which featured Krusty discussing current events with serious guests (an episode of the show dated February 6, 1961 featured AFL-CIO president George Meany and a discussion of the "labor crisis in America"). The interview format got increasingly wacky, and by the 1980s the show had devolved into a children's entertainment show.

Krusty quickly became a multi-millionaire – mostly by mass marketing his name and image to a variety of suspect products and services. In the Simpsons' world, there are everything from Krusty alarm clocks, to Krusty dolls, to Krusty eye wash, and Krusty Klown Kollege (which Homer attended), many of which are owned by Bart. The more dangerous ones include: the Krusty home pregnancy test, which "may cause birth defects"; Krusty's brand of bubble gum, which contains spider eggs (which they knew about) and hantavirus (which they didn't know about); and Krusty's brand of cereal, which in one episode has a boast on the box first for a jagged metal Krusty-O in each box, and then flesh-eating bacteria in each box. There is only one lawsuit to date regarding these products, the time that Bart ate a jagged metal Krusty-O and had to have his appendix removed. However, it was suggested at the end of the episode that he would sue Krusty again after he ingested the flesh-eating bacteria that was put into the cereal. At one time, he had his own brand of Pork Products. This might have lead to his almost-fatal on-the-air heart attack and subsequent pacemaker. There is a list of Krusty related products at the end of this page. Krusty also operates his own television production company, Krustylu Productions (a pun on Lucille Ball and her husband Desi Arnaz's Desilu Productions).

His much-abused sidekick, Sideshow Bob, framed him for armed robbery – which resulted in Krusty's brief incarceration. In the interim, Bob ran the show, but was fired when he was identified as the real culprit.

Krusty is a hard-living entertainment veteran who has been down and out several times (always being rescued by the Simpson children) and remains addicted to gambling, cigarettes and alcohol (and, in one episode, Percodan). He seems to suffer from bipolar disorder, and, in a Soupy Sales parody, asked children to send him spare lithium from their parent's medicine cabinets after the nuclear power plant cut off its prescription drug plan. In "The Heart-Broke Kid" he says that his tolerance levels are so high from years of excess he has to smoke ground-up moon rocks to get high.

His show was canceled once after the debut of Gabbo the ventriloquist dummy, who was so popular Krusty was driven out of business. Bart managed to get the Gabbo show cancelled when he sneaked into the studio and switched on the camera during what was supposed to be a commercial break, revealing ventriloquist Arthur Crandall saying "All the children in Springfield are S.O.B.s" through Gabbo, a reference to a famous television urban legend about Uncle Don. A comeback special for Krusty was ultimately held (Parody of the Elvis comeback special), in which Krusty's many Hollywood friends bailed him out.

In 1996, after an IRS bust for tax avoidance, which resulted in his bankruptcy, Krusty faked his death and lived briefly as sailor Rory B. Bellows. Krusty insured Bellows's life in his own name and then staged an accident to "kill" Bellows, collecting the money to rebuild his life.

He seems to retire from and then get back into showbiz repeatedly throughout his career. His last retirement (a parody of Carson's retirement) was almost a permanent one because of recently-paroled Sideshow Bob's latest scheme – wiring plastique explosives to a hypnotized Bart and sending him up on stage (a parody of "The Manchurian Candidate"). However, a last minute change of heart at Krusty's touching mention of him in a speech (as well as a last-minute rescue by Krusty's chain smoking chimp, Mr. Teeny) waylaid Bob's plan.

Krusty – minus his trademark clown-hair, pale "facepaint" and red nose – bears an uncanny physical resemblance to Homer Simpson. However, there also differences such as his cow-skull birthmark, his superfluous third nipple, and his small feet. In addition, in the episode "Bart the Fink", he was seen sans clown makeup, but in a bizarre twist, while swimming, yellow face paint washed off, revealing his trademark clown makeup, indicating that the look is indeed permanent. This would seem to confirm a remark he once made to Homer Simpson, in which he noted the afteraffects of his heart attack and pacemaker implant by pointing to his face and saying, "This ain't make-up!"

Recent history

It has been noted that Krusty was supposedly illiterate in "Krusty Gets Busted" (first released on April 29, 1990), where Sideshow Bob framed him for armed robbery. He has since been seen reading with varying ability (many fans have noted that in the episode "Lisa's First Word", he is shown reading a wire service article in 1983). Through his unnamed mother, Krusty is supposedly an older half-brother to actor Luke Perry. His only other known relatives are his father, his grandfather, and his illegitimate daughter Sophie, (voiced by actress Drew Barrymore). Introduced in the episode "Insane Clown Poppy" (first released on November 12, 2000), Sophie is the result of an affair between Krusty and a female soldier during the Gulf War. Sophie seeks out Krusty, although her mother has developed a bitter hatred of clowns and displays it with her choice of artwork (which depict violence being done to clowns). Sophie had a brief crush on Bart Simpson but because of Bart's insecurity, the relationship didn't go very far.

Krusty's profligate spending has resulted in encounters with the local Mafia, not to mention schemes such as running a clown college to turn out proxy Krustys to appear at birthday parties, and running a concentration camp-like summer camp called "Kamp Krusty". He willingly sells out to commercial interests to sell all manner of second-rate goods – he even has a generic spoken endorsement: "I heartily endorse this e-vent or product!". His lack of care towards the quality of his merchandising is evidenced by the little attention he pays to the names of events he stars in: his Christmas show, "Krusty Kinda Kristmas"; his TV special, "Krusty Komedy Klassics"; and a tennis tournament he sponsored, the "Krusty Kharity Klassic" all use the unfortunate acrostic "KKK" (as in Ku Klux Klan). Unfortunately, the only instance of this he notices is the TV special, and that was only because the initials are shown behind him. In a hindsighted booking decision, Krusty was live at the Apollo Theater at the time. He also owns a toy factory in China that manufactures Krusty-brand toys, where a huge painting of him stares down at the workers, and a recorded message from him -- "Laziness is counter-revolutionary!" -- is played repeatedly to encourage the employees to work harder.

In 2003, Krusty was elected to the United States House of Representatives as a Republican (though he once joked of voting for Bill Clinton in 1992 whilst campaigning for the GOP). A year later, he served on a House committee to investigate Ziffcorp – run by one Artie Ziff until he lost 98% of the company to Homer for corporate malfeasance. Apparently back in showbiz (despite having retired several times), he balances a political career with his local cable shenanigans.

If you remove his hair, you'll notice that he look almost exactly like Homer Simpson.

Quotes

[During a marathon TV performance] "Now kids, let's go and see Sideshow Mel for some more of his legal, over the counter wake-up drugs!"

...

BART: The Krusty I know didn't get where he is today by giving up!

KRUSTY: No, I got where I am today by naming names in the '50s.

...

[During an 'adult' stand-up performance] "Let's talk about herpes! Herpes, boberpies, banana-fanna-fo-ferbes, herpes!"

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"Uh...I could pull a better cartoon out of my a-- ah he he he he. Hey! Wow! Wasn't that great kids!"

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"The fercockta doors are stuck! Don't just stare, Art, help me!" (Krusty's ill-fated appearance on Laugh-In forty years ago)

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"The Academy hates me. Don't know why. Bunch of old know-nothing dinosaurs wouldn't know talent if it bit them in the..." (does his trademark laugh).

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KRUSTY: "Ohh, sex chat!" (Dials the number, and is connected with four other guys who dialed the number at about the same time.)

APU: "Hello?"

KRUSTY: "Hello?"

APU: "Are you a beautiful woman?"

KRUSTY: "Do I sound like a beautiful woman?"

APU: "This is not as hot a party as I had anticipated."

...

MRS. FLANDERS: "We're not talking about love, we're talking about S-E-X in front of the C-H-I-L-D-R-E-N!"

KRUSTY: "Sex Cauldron? I thought they closed that place down!"

...

[Being talked into appearing at a charity event]: "Community service? Uhg. All right, I'll do it. Man, swipe one pair of Hagar slacks and you're paying for it the rest of your life!"

...

[At an awards show]

KRUSTY [reading from cue cards]: It is fitting that I am presenting this award with Brooke Shields. She's the woman from The Blue Lagoon, and I'm the Blue Haired Goon! What the...? That's terrible!

BROOKE SHIELDS: And the nominees are...

KRUSTY: First of all my hair isn't blue. It's green. I got nothing to work with here. [walks off stage]

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[At the Krusty Kharity Klassic tennis tournament]: "I hope I don't get arrested for racket-earrings! (silence) Well, what do you expect? I'm not doing 'A' material for charity!"

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[At a secret meeting between Springfield's most influential inhabitans, seeing a pornographic magazine called "American Breast Enthusiast" on the table]: "Hey hey hey! This is my kind of meeting!"

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[As Montgomery Burns is being publicly accused for destroying most of Springfield with his oil digging]: "Hey hey hey! I've been in Reno for six weeks! What did I miss?" [sees everyone sullen and angry at Burns, who has not the least remorse] "Oh."

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[At an emergency broadcasting studio, after Sideshow Bob has threatened to destroy all television]: "Itchy and Scratchy couldn't be here today, so we have, erm... the Stingy and Battery show! With... former President Ike Eisenhower! 'Let's-get-busy!'"

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