QUICK SYNOPSIS

After a disastrous performance, Krusty changes his image and becomes an edgy stand-up comedian.

POINTLESS GUEST STAR(S)

You name it. Jay Leno, Janeane Garofalo, Bobcat Goldthwait, Steven Wright. None had any real reason for being in the episode and don’t really serve the plot other than “being there”. Also, these are the best comedians they could get? 1998 was an abysmal time for stand-up comedy, I guess.

WHY THIS EPISODE SUCKS

I’m a huge fan of stand-up comedy, and “The Last Temptation of Krust” falls flat for me in a big way. The most glaring offender is that the stand-up comedy featured in this episode isn’t actually funny! Krusty puts on this George Carlin / Bill Hicks schtick and forgets to actually tell jokes or say funny things! It’s like the writers forgot that they were making a comical animated program!

The other problem is that guest stars are there just for the sake in of itself. Jay Leno doesn’t get deservedly ribbed at all. He’s there, of all things, to help Bart bathe Krusty in his own house. It smacks of the tropey “what are you doing in Springfield??” and then the celebrity goes with the flow of whatever crazy bananas plot they find themselves foisted into. Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin, anyone? Mel Gibson? This episode should have instead been like “Hey, Jay Leno, remember 12 years from now when you ‘retired’ from the Tonight Show and then stole the show back from Conan, the rightful heir? That’s some real fuckass nonsense, sir.” Then Kearney can shoot him in the scrotum with a semi-automatic gun.

All kidding aside, there are some good somewhat redeeming bits. My favorite is Homer laughing after relating to Janeane Garofalo’s “kissing a guy with a tongue stud” joke, but there’s also Rod and Todd poking hungover Krusty on their lawn with sticks, Krusty thinking a poster of himself is a mirror, and the whole Canyonero ending, of course (possibly the most iconic Season 9 segment there is).

I suppose the ultimate point of the episode is that Krusty is such a sellout that he can’t even maintain a radical antiestablishment persona for ten minutes without selling out again. A good premise, I just wonder if Season 4 would have handled it better. Oh wait, Season 4 did have an episode where Bart, Lisa, and a bunch of celebrities helped Krusty rescue his career. It was called “Krusty Gets Kancelled” and it was exactly 100 times better because it had Gabbo in it.

End of story.

IMDb TRIVIA FUNHOUSE!

Krusty’s demeanor when he returns to comedy was inspired by George Carlin and Bill Hicks, with black suit, cigarette smoking and anti-consumerism stance.
Don’t forget the ponytail! They forgot the ponytail. KRUSTY HAD A PONYTAIL.

Mike Scully said that the writers had difficulty getting Krusty’s offensive bad jokes through the network censors. The stereotypical jokes were allowed because the writers convinced the network censors that viewers would understand it was simply emphasizing Krusty’s dated comedic material.
“Guys, we need to get 20 seconds of the extremely racist Chinese stereotype joke through! The viewers will understand it will simply emphasize Krusty’s dated comedic material!”

FINAL GRADE
C-