Day of the Jackanapes

"Day of the Jackanapes"
The Simpsons episode
File:Cabf10.jpg
Episode no.	Season 12
Directed by	Michael Marcantel
Written by	Al Jean
Original air dates	February 18, 2001
Episode features
Chalkboard gag	"The hamster did not have a 'full life'"
Couch gag	Sigmund Freud sits on a chair next to the couch, and Homer, leaps onto the couch and sobs, "Oh, Doctor, I'm crazy!" while the other family members sadly stare at each other.

"Day of the Jackanapes" is the thirteenth episode of the twelfth season of The Simpsons. It aired on February 18, 2001.

Plot

When the popular game show Me Wantee! steals ratings from The Krusty the Klown 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 Wiggum 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 gameshow Me Wantee! is a parody of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.
• The statue of Krusty outside of the Krustyburger 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 beats up then-castmember 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 momemt was also seen in the 1999 biopic Man on the Moon, with former In Living Color castmember Jim Carrey as Andy Kaufman and former Saturday Night Live castmember 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.

Trivia

• Sideshow Bob identifies the "Wiseguy" character who often appears as a store clerk or various jobs, as "Raphael".
• During Krusty's final show, Rainer Wolfcastle is depicted as out-of-work and begs to be given an acting role, even if involves doing a nude scene or portraying a nerd. Both of these roles are referenced respectively in the later episodes "The Great Louse Detective" and "The Bart Wants What It Wants".
• Chief Wiggum's comment "These days it's all aluminum this, George W. that" upon watching Bart destroy Krusty's statue with a wooden baseball bat was the show's first joke directed at President Bush since he'd taken office.[1]
• All the men plotting for revenge use weapons that Sideshow Bob used in the past episodes.

External links

• "Day of the Jackanapes episode capsule". The Simpsons Archive.
• "Day of the Jackanapes" at IMDb