Like Father, Like Clown
"Like Father, Like Clown" is the sixth episode of the third season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on Fox in the United States on October 24, 1991. In the episode, Krusty the Clown reveals to the Simpsons that he is Jewish and that his father, Rabbi Hyman Krustofsky, kicked him out for pursuing a career in comedy. Bart and Lisa try to reunite a heartbroken Krusty with his estranged father.
Not to be confused with Homie the Clown."Like Father, Like Clown"
The episode was written by the duo of Jay Kogen and Wallace Wolodarsky, and directed by Jeffrey Lynch and Brad Bird; as it was Lynch's first credit as a director, Bird was assigned to help him.
Krusty's religion had not been part of the original concept of the character, so Kogen and Wolodarsky decided to parody the 1927 film The Jazz Singer and establish that Krusty is Jewish. The episode was carefully researched and two rabbis, Lavi Meier and Harold M. Schulweis, were credited as "special technical consultants". Comedian Jackie Mason, who had once been an ordained rabbi, provided the voice of Hyman Krustofsky. Hyman later became an infrequently recurring character voiced by Dan Castellaneta. Mason returned to voice the character in several later episodes.
In its original broadcast, "Like Father, Like Clown" finished 34th in ratings with a Nielsen rating of 12.7. Jackie Mason won a Primetime Emmy Award in 1992 for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for his performance as Hyman Krustofsky.
Plot[edit]
Krusty had agreed to have dinner with the Simpsons to repay Bart for helping exonerate him for charges of armed robbery.[a] When he keeps canceling, an upset Bart writes him a letter saying he has lost faith in Krusty. Krusty's secretary, Lois Pennycandy, is so moved by the letter that she threatens to quit if Krusty does not keep his promise to Bart, so Krusty reluctantly attends. When asked to say grace, Krusty recites a Hebrew blessing. Realizing that Krusty is Jewish, Lisa speaks of his heritage, making him break down in tears. He tells the family that saying the blessing reminds him of his troubled past.
Krusty reveals his real name is Herschel Krustofsky (Hebrew: הרשל קרוסטופסקי) and describes his upbringing on the Lower East Side of Springfield. His father, Hyman Krustofsky, is a rabbi who hated his son's wish to become a comedian and wanted him to follow in his footsteps. At school, Krusty made the other students laugh and became a slapstick comedian behind his father's back. One night, Krusty performed at a rabbis' convention unknowingly attended by Hyman. A rabbi squirted seltzer on him, washing off his clown makeup. Recognizing Krusty, an outraged Hyman immediately disowned his son. They have not seen or spoken to each other in 25 years.
While filming an episode of The Krusty the Klown Show, Krusty is reduced to tears on-camera after showing a father-and-son themed episode of The Itchy & Scratchy Show. Lisa says “A man who envies our family is a man who needs help” and she and Bart decide to reunite father and son. Hyman tells them: "I have no son!" and Bart says "Great, we came all this way and it's the wrong guy." He adds: "I didn't mean that literally!" He refuses to reconcile with Krusty because he believes that his son had abandoned his faith and family. To outsmart Hyman, Lisa finds Judaic teachings that urge forgiveness, but he refutes her arguments. In a last-ditch effort, Bart convinces Hyman to abandon his stubborn ways by quoting Sammy Davis Jr. — a Jewish entertainer like Krusty — and making a passionate plea about the struggles that the Jewish people have overcome. Bart's speech finally convinces Hyman that entertainers have a place in Jewish culture.
Krusty is feeling glum when he starts the live of his show, and then calls for Itchy & Scratchy to roll. Bart and Lisa arrive backstage with Hyman, and he and Krusty joyously reconcile before the audience. Hyman accepts a cream pie from Bart and throws it in his son's face.
Cultural references[edit]
The episode is a homage to the film The Jazz Singer (1927), about a son with a strict religious upbringing who defies his father to become an entertainer.[2] Krusty is partially based on Jewish comedian Jerry Lewis,[13] who starred in the 1959 version of the film. The Jazz Singer is referenced when Rabbi Krustofsky says, "Oh, if you were a musician or a jazz singer, this I could forgive!"[14] In the Simpsons house, Krusty plays The Concert for Bangladesh. In Krusty's studio, there are pictures of him with Alfred Hitchcock and The Beatles. Lisa tells Homer there are many Jewish entertainers, including Lauren Bacall, Dinah Shore, William Shatner and Mel Brooks.[15][1] In Krusty's flashback, he and his father walk down the street in a parody of a scene from The Godfather Part II. The scene of a young Krusty practicing comedy in the bathroom is a reference to Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint.[3] Lisa and Bart try to trick Hyman into meeting Krusty, telling him that "the Nobel-Prize winning Jewish novelist Saul Bellow" wants to have lunch with him at Izzy's Deli. They tell Krusty that he's to be presented with the Legion of Honor and walks in humming "La Marseillaise", asking to be directed to François Mitterrand's table. At the end of the episode, Krusty and his father sing "O Mein Papa", a 1952 song originally by Eddie Fisher.[2] Bart quotes a passage from Sammy Davis Jr.'s 1965 autobiography Yes, I Can.[16]