The Worker & Parasite Show
The Worker & Parasite Show
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TV Show Information
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The Worker & Parasite Show (in Russian Рабочий И Паразит) was a cartoon. When the popular cartoon Itchy and Scratchy, featuring a very violent cat and mouse, leaves The Krusty the Clown Show for Krusty's new competitor, Gabbo, "Eastern Europe's favorite cat and mouse team, Worker and Parasite," was a cheap replacement. According to the title screen, it was made in 1959.
The cartoon opened with some Cyrillic-looking credits, which account for nothing in real Cyrillic. The cartoon itself was quite unintelligible, featuring a crudely drawn cat and mouse chattering incoherently and bouncing around to the tune of random, depressing background music. Worker and Parasite are first seen in a factory (where a wrench and sickle are visible as well); they then move in front of a line of identical, miserable-looking peasants who are lining up for supplies of some sort, and then within a nest of squiggly lines, possibly meant to represent a pit of snakes. The cartoon concludes with an out of tune tone and with the screen reading "ENDUT! HOCH HECH!" Afterwards, Krusty's on-air response (before a vacant studio) was shocked silence, a limp cigarette hanging from his mouth, then promptly saying, "What the hell was that?!"
Behind the Laughter
Simpsons creator Matt Groening maintains that their appearance on the show is one of the best parts of the series.
The title of the cartoon Worker and Parasite is a reference to social parasitism, which was a crime in the Soviet Union.
There has been some speculation as to what "Endut! Hoch Hech!" means. The Season 4 DVD audio commentary for the episode however claims that writer John Swartzwelder had no intended meaning for the phrase in question.
Worker and Parasite has not appeared on the show since, but they have made a few appearances in Simpsons comic books, this time speaking somewhat intelligible English.
