|
Krusty is kind of an unusual character because he could change fairly easily depending on what the writers wanted to lampoon that week. He could be a self-aggrandising jerk if they wanted to do a bit on modern celebrity culture, a mindless/jaded children's entertainer who's still unfathomably popular, a failed adult comedian, a ubiquitous corporate mascot, etc. I don't think it really mattered that he was a clown and that TV clowns were an outdated reference because all of these characterisations were still familiar to viewers of almost all ages in the '90s. For decades now, children's TV in the UK has had at least a couple of weekly "variety shows" that usually include a few cartoons, sitcoms, musical performances, loads of slapstick, interviews, etc. Krusty's show is a bit odd because it's never made consistently clear who it's actually for (not many children's entertainers have worked with both Robert Frost and Hugh Hefner), but as a kid, I felt like it was roughly analogous to shows like Tiswas or Live and Kicking, even if those shows didn't feature literal clowns. Funnily enough, in the case of Tiswas, many of its regular performers were constantly eyeing up a transition into adult entertainment, much like Krusty has attempted multiple times over the years. I'm not sure if these sorts of shows have been as consistent in the US; I know Nickelodeon had blocks like Slime Time in the '90s, but I don't know if these are still going? Hedgehog Pie fucked around with this message at 18:00 on Aug 7, 2023 |
#
?
Aug 7, 2023 17:57
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 23, 2024 19:23 |
|
|
Party Boat posted:I got a whole load of secondhand knowledge of golden age Hollywood stars from watching old Merrie Melodies. Knowing exactly what Peter Lorre was like without knowing he was a real person This cartoon is pretty much a who’s who of golden age Hollywood. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOFG_qmoH8I
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2023 18:05
|
|
|
I always thought of Krusty as an Ed Sullivan type, who'd been around so long he was an institution unto himself, and had an extremely popular show that was watched by (adolescent) kids and adults alike. But also just kids too cause why not. But yeah I agree with that, Krusty was just used to skewer media in general. He was a has-been borscht belt vaudevillian one week and a jaded 90s comic the next.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2023 18:07
|
|
|
Now lets talk about Itchy and Scratchy
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2023 18:09
|
|
|
I remember a Bugs Bunny cartoon I used to see a lot as a kid that was Bugs reminiscing about how he and Elmer Fudd met and became a famous comedy stage duo. There was a scene where Fudd finds a down-and-out Bugs on a park bench with a bunch of bums who were all caricatures of people like Al Jolson and Bing Crosby. I often was at my grandparents’ house on Saturday mornings and they were more than happy to point out the references that otherwise went over my head.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2023 18:09
|
|
|
redshirt posted:Now lets talk about Itchy and Scratchy They fight and bite?
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2023 18:14
|
|
|
That's right, I did the Iggy
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2023 18:16
|
|
|
Cosmik Debris posted:I always thought of Krusty as an Ed Sullivan type, who'd been around so long he was an institution unto himself, and had an extremely popular show that was watched by (adolescent) kids and adults alike. But also just kids too cause why not. Yeah I think in an episode commentary the writers jokingly ask “what is Krusty’s show?” and laugh about how it doesn’t make sense for it to be a local kids show but also he’s an international celebrity who gets knighted.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2023 18:23
|
|
|
Did them changing the Krusty show to an Ellen type thing stick?
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2023 18:24
|
|
|
hatty posted:Did them changing the Krusty show to an Ellen type thing stick? No Krusty has whatever type of show the plot/joke needs him to have and is as popular as the plot/joke needs him to be.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2023 18:27
|
|
|
I still lol about his loving plane, the im-on-a-rolla-gay It's just so dumb but for some reason deeply hilarious to me The combination of the name itself and the fact that it's named for the plane that bombed Japan lol
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2023 18:30
|
|
|
SlothfulCobra posted:There were a number of local TV presenters for showing theatrical cartoon shorts. Even with shorts that were being made for TV, the shorts would often get cut up for fitting into a different programming block. It can be hard finding information on all of them because they were the definition of disposable media. I'd be interested to know where the goofy, pally clown archetype comes from, because any circus clown I've seen has been closer to a mime. Ronald McDonald and parodies/homages to Bozo probably kept it going.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2023 18:32
|
|
|
Disco Pope posted:I'd be interested to know where the goofy, pally clown archetype comes from, because any circus clown I've seen has been closer to a mime. Ronald McDonald and parodies/homages to Bozo probably kept it going. The Bozo show was the Krusty show. Live studio audience, got a clown onstage.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2023 18:34
|
|
|
redshirt posted:The Bozo show was the Krusty show. Live studio audience, got a clown onstage. Yeah, I get that, but the *idea* of that kind of character has been in the water for about 50 years now, a lot longer than any of those shows would have aired.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2023 18:36
|
|
|
I honestly thought Krusty was based on Johnny Carson or Pee-wee Herman. Also echoing as kid I didn't get most of references but I think that was common back in the day. Most "kids media" (simpsons wasn't really for kids I know) had all these old references designed for the adults to have a laugh. Admittedly even my parents did not get some of the political humour at the time because we are not from the US. Also I read in some book once that the Happy Little Elves bit in Some Enchanted Evening originally had a scene where the bear rips off an elf's head and drinks its blood. That could not go to air obviously. I believe that story is fake however as no other source mentions such a thing.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2023 18:38
|
|
|
Disco Pope posted:Yeah, I get that, but the *idea* of that kind of character has been in the water for about 50 years now, a lot longer than any of those shows would have aired. That clown is a circus clown, which was developed from earlier clown characters. It was popularized with the travelling circuses of the mid-to-late 19th century.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2023 18:41
|
|
|
Krusty is a Zanni from commedia dell'arte
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2023 18:43
|
|
|
Data Graham posted:Krusty is a Zanni from commedia dell'arte Gotdammit bobby
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2023 18:46
|
|
|
Data Graham posted:Krusty is a Zanni from commedia dell'arte Krusty: Certainly Madame, I would like a beating! Wait, did I say like? I meant, not like! e: I can actually imagine this being funny as Krusty bit.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2023 18:49
|
|
|
The Moon Monster posted:Krusty: Certainly Madame, I would like a beating! Wait, did I say like? I meant, not like! "I am waiting for a bus."
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2023 19:17
|
|
|
The Simpsons are going to Italy!
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2023 19:32
|
|
|
Wow, Scaramouche! What brings you to Springfield?
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2023 19:47
|
|
|
You Are A Elf posted:Cartoons were always referencing older media that gets lost to time as the cartoons age. Like I remember a few Tom and Jerry cartoons would end with Tom getting hosed up and facing the camera to say in a weird booming reverberated voice, “DON’T. YOU. BELIEVE IT.” before the fade to black. I had absolutely no idea what it was referencing as a kid. Most stuff before the 60s were shorts shown in theaters, often before movies, I'm not really sure of the full business model back in the day. But a lot of theatrical shorts really pander a lot to contemporary movie fans, often just being a series of caricatures of celebrities. I think these generally got selected against when it came to television syndication because there's not very much to them if you don't know what they're referencing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOFG_qmoH8I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMWUtw6BR28 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDqlUmRnBbo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nqWpMreXwc
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2023 20:11
|
|
|
Clearly the unique genius of those priceless shorts deserve another century of copyright protection
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2023 20:19
|
|
|
SlothfulCobra posted:I'm not really sure of the full business model back in the day. According to my grandfather, they didn't have cinematic trailers back then so they showed shorts to fill time between movies. Theaters were some of the first buildings to have commercial air conditioning back then (commercial AC having only really been invented around the turn of the century) so people would pay a quarter (roughly my grandfather's hourly wage in 1940) and could sit in the Air conditioned theater and watch short films, news reels, and movies for, iirc, as long as they wanted. Wasn't honestly a whole lot else to do back in those days like there is now, and people didnt have as much time off. My grandfather and grandmother went to the movies once a week. I know some people do that now but I never did.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2023 21:42
|
|
|
the movie studios owned the theaters, so the theaters only played movies, cartoons, and newsreels from the studio that owned them onion belt five bees for a quarter
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2023 22:07
|
|
|
It's also where we get the expression "this is where I/we came in". You'd pay your quarter or whatever the price was and go sit in the theatre, but the show would already be on. So you'd watch from where you entered and most people would leave when the theatre circled back to the first thing they saw. When movies or shows wanted to reference theatre going culture of the day, they'd have characters announce "this is where we came in" before standing up and leaving as it was a commonly understood phrase and practice. Absolutely baffling to me as a kid.
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2023 00:47
|
|
|
Still a thing at any national park visitor center with a theatre playing a video on a loop.
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2023 00:50
|
|
|
Data Graham posted:Still a thing at any national park visitor center with a theatre playing a video on a loop. PIllage what I pillage! Flay what I flay!
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2023 00:55
|
|
|
Atlas Hugged posted:It's also where we get the expression "this is where I/we came in". I know ten years ago in the Philippines the local cinema near where I was working did this. They'd have two movies on that would just keep playing back to back all day. I remember the first time I went with my co-workers, and I was like oh when the starting time, they just went oh you just go on when ever. It is quite a bit of fun trying to figuring out what's happening in the film you walked in on, then watching another movie, than finnally seeing the first part of the first movie and having things all come together. First time I went didn't even know the title of the first movie or anything a about. Would recommend. (and yeah a lot of people went basically just to sit somewhere with the air-con for a while)
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2023 01:36
|
|
|
Violet_Sky posted:I honestly thought Krusty was based on Johnny Carson or Pee-wee Herman. Yeah, as a kid I hadn't seen Citizen Kane, Casablanca, or other famous movies of that era, but through watching cartoons I somehow managed to understand that they're from those movies. They also always spoiled the end of them, so I knew things like Rosebud or Darth Vader being Luke's father despite never seeing the actual movie. I remember the first time I saw Empire with my family they were like wow wasn't that ending so surprising and I was like oh I already knew that would happen.
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2023 03:13
|
|
|
Yeah watching Citizen Kane for the first time was a lot of, Ohhhh right that make sense now. Man a lot of kids cartoons loved to parody Citizen Kane. The Godfather as well.
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2023 05:01
|
|
|
dr_rat posted:Yeah watching Citizen Kane for the first time was a lot of, Ohhhh right that make sense now. ".....Rosebud"
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2023 05:03
|
|
|
You Are A Elf posted:This cartoon is pretty much a who’s who of golden age Hollywood. Now this is some real "who the gently caress is this and what is the joke" poo poo. I mean, now I'm older I know Jimmy Stewart, Gary Cooper, etc, but seeing this as a kid I had no clue about anything.
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2023 05:08
|
|
|
There's gotta be a name for that feeling you get when you finally find the source of something you only know through cartoon parodies
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2023 05:19
|
|
|
The Moon Monster posted:Krusty: Certainly Madame, I would like a beating! Wait, did I say like? I meant, not like! The Wealthy Dowager getting payback! Cosmik Debris posted:I always thought of Krusty as an Ed Sullivan type, who'd been around so long he was an institution unto himself, and had an extremely popular show that was watched by (adolescent) kids and adults alike. But also just kids too cause why not. It's an excellent writing decision because it means they can use Krusty for so many kinds of plots and jokes. Often it's the joke in itself, like when they show 'Classic Krusty' and it's near-unrecognisable as apparently it used to be a sober evening talk show hosted by a clown, and then a variety act... heh, kinda the reverse of 'Fox turned into a hardcore sex channel so gradually I didn't even notice'. It also works with his personality as he's consistently shown to be ridiculously mercenary and willing to do literally anything that he thinks will make him money, hence signing off on absurd amounts of merchandise and having done almost every kind of act at least once. (Kinda funny there's also a Krustyland as well as an Itchy and Scratchyland) The general idea is that Krusty is legitimately talented, but very rarely puts in more than the bare minimum of effort.
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2023 05:20
|
|
|
Happy Landfill posted:There's gotta be a name for that feeling you get when you finally find the source of something you only know through cartoon parodies Postalgia
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2023 05:38
|
|
|
Ghost Leviathan posted:The Wealthy Dowager getting payback! Yeah, this bit is great and really nailed how boring daytime TV was during summer vacation. So much free time to watch TV but it was nothing but boring talk shows, infomercials, and preschool TV like Nick Jr. I watched that poo poo too.
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2023 06:27
|
|
|
And ancient movies around noon for some reason. Sometimes they'd be pretty good. I dunno if it's on purpose but Krusty being ridiculously prolific and also having a storied trainwreck of a life also would explain why Bart's such a big fan of him, not just out of imprinted nostalgia. Gotta be genuinely fascinating, and Bart being one who quite respects an interesting mess of a life probably still looks up to Krusty no matter how much he fucks up on so many levels.
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2023 07:53
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 23, 2024 19:23 |
|
|
It's more of a Shelbyville idea really...
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2023 07:54
|
|