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"Clown V. Board of Education"

Episode Information Episode number: 749 Season number: S34 E21 Production code: OABF15 Original airdate: May 14, 2023 Title screen: The Fat in the Hat flies across the screen on a unicycle with wings attached. Guest star(s): Joe Mantegna as Fat Tony Showrunner: [[Al Jean]] Written by: Jeff Westbrook Directed by: Lance Kramer

"Clown V. Board of Education" is the twenty-first episode of season 34 of The Simpsons and the seven-hundred and forty-ninth episode overall. It originally aired on May 14, 2023. The episode was written by Jeff Westbrook and directed by Lance Kramer. It guest stars Joe Mantegna as Fat Tony.

Summary

"Krusty opens a school for clowning, and it becomes the most successful thing he's ever done."

Plot

During The Krusty the Clown Show, Krusty is surprised to get no laughs for his jokes. When he looks into the audience, he finds that it's all old people. He asks the network executives what is going on and they tell him that no kids want to watch his show anymore so they got old people who were lost in the mall to fill in as audience members. At Mussel & Flanks, Krusty talks with several other clowns about how television clowns are no longer popular. Little Debbie Dimples gives Krusty an idea to open a school to train children to become clowns. When he hears how much money he could get from tuition fees, Krusty becomes excited. Before he leaves, Dimples goes to tell Krusty the most important part of comedy, but can't remember.

Krusty goes to the Town Hall to meet with Mayor Quimby and Superintendent Chalmers about opening a clown school. Chalmers is initially against the idea but ends up going along with it. An advert goes out about The Herschel Krustofsky School for the Clowning Arts and Bart decides that he wants to join it. Homer takes Bart to see Krusty about enrolling in the school. Krusty is skeptical about Bart's bad grades, but agrees to take Bart in when Homer tells him that all the other loser kids will follow him to the school. After Bart is accepted, Rainier Wolfcastle brings his son, Dieter to enroll in the school too.

Bart is excited for his first day at school, although Lisa questions whether it's a real school. When Bart gets to school, he finds himself striving at the lessons and being able to answer all the questions. Bart continues to do well and goes to a Science Bowl, where the Krustofsky School faces off against Springfield Elementary. The Krustofsky School narrowly wins, which leads to the parents all praising Krusty for his work. As Krusty talks to a picture of his father about how proud of himself he is, Fat Tony appears and threatens Krusty into going into business with him so the Mafia can take over the school.

Krusty tries to get the Mafia to back down, but eventually caves in and accepts their takeover. The school immediately gets worse, with school dropoffs taking forever due to the traffic monitors not doing their jobs, to losing supplies due to the Mafia selling them to other teachers for extortionate prices. Krusty gets annoyed about the state of the school and goes to the Police for help. He is given a wire to wear, which was hidden inside his squirting flower, and goes to talk to the Mafia to get evidence against them. When Krusty is made to squirt the flower, he gets electrocuted and Fat Tony realizes that he is wearing a wire. The Mafia gets ready to kill Krusty but Bart and other students come into the room, recording what is happening and protecting Krusty. Fat Tony backs down and decides to burn the school down instead.

As Krusty laments over being a failure, Bart and Homer go to him and tell Krusty that he made a difference in Bart's life. Bart then asks Krusty if he wants to get nachos, which Krusty mishears as "naches", the Yiddish word for "fatherly pride". Krusty takes this as a sign from his father and becomes happy. Dimples then runs up to Krusty and tells him the most important thing in comedy is timing.

One week earlier, Fat Tony gives the morning announcements for the school, telling the kids to not go into the meat locker and that all further morning announcements will be done from his uncle's doctor's office.

Production

Sideshow Mel was going to teach a class on sidekicks, but the scene was cut.^[1]

Behind the Laughter

In other languages

Language Name Translation Italiano "Clown contro scuola pubblica" Clown V. public school

Gallery

References

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