Day of the Jackanapes
"Day of the Jackanapes"
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Episode Information
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Plot
When the popular game show Me Wantee! steals ratings from The Krusty the Clown Show, Krusty, annoyed with the network executives, announces his fifth—and final—retirement. During an interview with Kent Brockman, he says he's tired of doing his show, and admits to taping Judge Judy over all his old shows featuring Sideshow Bob. Sideshow Bob vows revenge by plotting to kill Krusty. He is released from prison and gets a job at Springfield Elementary as an assistant janitor. However, Skinner decides to make him the morning announcer. Over the announcements, he asks Bart to meet him in the abandoned tool shed. Sideshow Bob hypnotizes Bart, and programs him to smash a statue of Krusty at a local Krusty Burger location. The next night is Krusty's farewell special, and as Krusty describes the history of his career, Bob straps Bart with explosives in order to kill Krusty. Bart attempts to hug Krusty, thereby setting off the explosives, but before he can Krusty talks about how he regrets mistreating Sideshow Bob. Bob decides not to go through with the plan, but does not have time to stop it from being carried out. Luckily, Mr. Teeny, Krusty's trained chimp, sees the life-threatening explosives, which he throws into the network executives' office, killing them, though, they reconstitute themselves ala T-1000. Bart comes out of his hypnotic state for good, and he and his family serve dinner with Krusty, Bob and Sideshow Mel in a restaurant. Although Krusty and Bob reconcile, Bob is sentenced to death by guillotine, but that never ends up happening after he tells Chief Wiggins that he should have a trial for what he did.
Cultural References
The title parodies the title of the book The Day of the Jackal. The plot parodies the movie The Manchurian Candidate. The game show Me Wantee! is a parody of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. The statue of Krusty outside of the Krusty Burger that Bob has Bart destroy references the famous Big Boy statues outside of Bob's Big Boy Restaurants (also used by Dr. Evil in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery). Krusty getting harassed during a restaurant sketch and suddenly breaking character is reminiscent of the infamous moment on the 1980s sketch comedy show Fridays where Andy Kaufman harasses then-cast member Michael Richards over refusing to stay in character during a sketch about restaurant patrons ducking into the bathroom to smoke marijuana during a dinner date (this moment was also seen in the 1999 biopic Man on the Moon, with former In Living Color cast member Jim Carrey as Andy Kaufman and former Saturday Night Live cast member Norm MacDonald as Michael Richards). Krusty's line "Our Chimpendale's dancer's gonna give you the full monkey!" references the 1997 film The Full Monty. A picture of Krusty and Bob that was unveiled while Krusty was lamenting his cruel treatment of Bob closely resembles the cover of Simon and Garfunkel's Bookends. Krusty sings a song similar to Barry Manilow's "Mandy", marking the second time the song was parodied on the show (Homer had previously sung his own version in "The Last Temptation of Homer"). The scene where the two executives of Krusty's show resolidified into a silvery mass after being in the midst of an explosion references a similar ability the villain from Terminator 2 possesses. This episode aired on the same day that Dale Earnhardt, a Nascar driver, died. Chief Wiggum references George W. Bush when witnessing Bart using a Bat to vandalize a Krusty statue on Sideshow Bob's orders. He say's "Wiggum: Oh, it ... it's so great seeing a kid use a wooden bat. These days, it's all aluminum this, and George W. that." It should be noted that this is the first time the Simpsons used a Bush Joke since his inaugeration into office.
