Fears of a Clown

"Fears of a Clown" is the 14th episode of season 29. It aired on April 1, 2018.

Plot
Martin discovers Skinner giving to Myra the keys to the trophy case, announcing his retirement. After promising to keep the secret, Martin reveals it, by ear, to others, and the news comes to the teachers' lounge.

At the cerimony for the retirement, Skinner calls out Bart to give a farewell speech, however, when Bart tries to prank him with the slingshot, he deflects the rock (that ricotches on Agnes's head), and pranks Bart, telling him that the retirement was a prank to him, with Willie pouring honey and Coach Krupt spreading bird seeds on him.

After having Marge help him clean up the mess, for his revenge, Bart glues Krusty's mask on the teachers' faces, scaring kids and peoples around town. Clowns are now hated, including Krusty, and kids and advertisers left the Krusty the Clown Show when it aired.

At the Juvenile Court, Judge Dowd wanted to leave Bart free, but Marge made him sentence Bart to 28 days at the Tomorrow's New Horizons Rehab Center and General Rotten Time Ranch. Marge, Homer and Lisa then convinces to switch to drama.

At the Springfield Public Theater, Llewellyn Sinclair presents to Krusty the script for The Salesman's Bad Day, while Marge is at the Rehab Center, watching Bart's rehabilitation. The doctor makes him learn empathy by having Marge sitting on the chair full of thumb thacks Bart put on it, Bart stopping her before she sit.

Sinclair tries to make Krusty a drama actor, but the ghost of the clown past still lurks in him. Bart makes amend to the people he had pranked, but ends up pranking the people in front of him with water balloons. In the play, thanks to his past self's ghost, Krusty regains laughs from the crowd, and returns to be a clown, while still doing the play during free time.

Production
The front cover of the script incorrectly refers to the episode title as "Tears of a Clown", rather than "Fears of a Clown", which is the actual episode title.

It is a re-imagining of Stephen King's but with Krusty.

A first description of the plot was: "Everybody is now horrified of clowns after Bart does a prank using clown masks, which also makes Krusty lose his job. He tries to come back as a dramatic actor for the play "The Salesman's Bad Day", with Llewellyn Sinclair as his director."

Part of the scene when Bart is sentenced (shown in the script for the episode) was removed: Judge Dowd's kid, Wyatt, bangs the gavel instead of Dowd who then says "Good bang, Wyatt! You've got your mother's anger".