Review: The Simpsons “Fears of a Clown”

Quit clownin’ around!

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Skinner pranks Bart so naturally, Bart gets his principal back in style. Problem is, the prank is so harsh that the clown masks he used as part of the gag have caused Springfield to fear clowns which of course puts a certain clown TV host out of a job. After Bart gets sent to Juvie for his crimes, the rest of the Simpson family decides to help Krusty get back on his feet by convincing Krusty to try dramatic acting.

Eventually, Krusty gets his mojo back as a comedy player and Bart can’t exactly give up his ways as a prankster.

Our Take

As much as you’d like to hope, this week’s episode of The Simpsons was a bit of a mess structurally. Only Bart’s portion of the episode featured some giggles and despite the star power that came with Krusty’s bit which included the likes of Andy Daly, Jon Lovitz, and the return of Jackie Mason, both of the plots ended up incoherent and really without any resolution.

Those expecting past Simpson interventions in Krusty’s life that proved to be successful, this isn’t one of them. The family gets in early on Krusty’s switch to that of a dramatic actor early but are seldom seen again the rest of the way. It looks like Lisa was going to be that link at one point, but nothing came of it. And Bart really never resolves much with Marge, typically there’s a bit of a “moral to the story” when it comes to Marge and her little guy, but Bart’s guilt about dousing his mother with water balloons really doesn’t come with it any resolution and Marge appeared fine with just chalking this bout up to “motherhood”.

There are a couple of funny scenes at the start of the episode, especially when we go hard on the clowns and when Bart and Skinner go at it, but both were wasted opportunities for truly great and original television.