Episode 8: The Ten-Per-Cent Solution

We're hitting the home stretch here people, we're coming up on the time when the episodes start to get really bad and I don't see a change in that trend anytime soon. Remember how this time last year started us off with "Fit Tony" followed by the least interesting lesbian make-out scene ever followed by "Comic Book Gay" followed by... you get the point.  Yeah the showrunner can be whoever you want it to be, but as long as the writing staff remains relatively intact, these episode will suck. so without further ado, let's take a look at today's episode. Oh before I begin, the opening sequence has returned... I don't get it myself, we get three weeks of no sequence and voila! It's back, at least be consistent, staff.

The episode begins with an Itchy and Scratchy cartoon (Is it meant to be padding? Is purple a color?) oh and by the way, they think that having an impressionable Maggie give the "Heil Hitler" salute is funny... ugh. After we cut to Krusty, we cut back to... *Sigh* another Itchy and Scratchy cartoon (Yeah if they think that they can pull off the success of Marge vs. Itchy and Scratchy, they're gravely mistaken). After an unfunny ending (Probably a Social Network reference, I haven't seen the movie, so sue me) Krusty complains that his show is about him and not some cartoon.

Heil Hitler! The master race shall prevail over these puny-

He then goes on to ask why the cartoon "parodies" movies that came out over a year ago and tries to defend them by saying that the parodies were written when the movies came out but it took a long time to animate so by the time they came out they were dated... excuse me a moment *Screams into bag* Okay this is such bullshit and I want to talk about this for a moment

• Are the writers really trying to say "Oh don't pick on us, it's not our fault that we suck at writing and our writing seems dated because of the animators"? Two words: FUCK! YOU! Your parodies suck not only because they're dated when they air but your "satirizing" fails on so many levels and you don't know how to make fun of something without kissing its ass. Other shows could do these parodies perfectly well today and you were able to have your parodies not seem dated a couple of years ago. Maybe I'm looking too deep into this, but the inclusion of this just pissed me off. I don't want to hear it, you get no sympathy from me and you bet your ass I'm not going to give this episode any benefits of the doubt. Okay rant over, let's continue

After another Itchy and Scratchy cartoon (Yeah because this is really stating your case that you are trying to put effort in. By doing ANOTHER "parody" of a movie that's a year old (Black Swan)) Marge decides to come in and interrupt all that padding (Aw, but I wanted to see this unfocused padding reach the 3 minute mark). Marge then turns off the TV and suggests that they all go to the Museum of TV. After Bart and Lisa are hesitant, Marge informs them that the Museum will close in a week which causes Homer to bolt into the room and question where people will find old clips of TV shows, which then leads to a shot of "Not-Hulu" where we see that clip was apparently playing (Simpsons, you cannot do 4th wall jokes, you suck at them).

Where's the star rating? I want to give this a 1 out of 5

At the Museum, we see random exhibits, either real shows or shows this show has made up (Really hit and miss here, with the worst being Homer's pants splitting) I do want to comment on The Honeymooners bit, The Day the Violence Died poked fun at this WAY better (They respected their audience, and assumed that their audience would get the joke. Here, it's basically the "Nedna" scene from the season premiere in terms of subtlety). After some more padding from the Not-Honeymooners show (I rest my case about respecting their audience) we finally get a hint of a plot when a talent agent named Annie Dubinsky approaches the family because... because she was in the background (There is a small reason, but in all honesty, my answer makes about as much sense). Later, we see Krusty talk to some network executives as it turns out that the executives are putting in more I&S cartoons because they feel that Krusty's references are too obscure or just need to be searched for the kids to get (So Krusty's going to be a stand in for this show? Oh God, this won't end well). The executives then tell Krusty that they want to make some changes  to the show (Never heard that one before) and they change the show by firing him (See first link for complete originality).

All in favor of doing this to the current staff?

After Krusty loses his agent, we see the family at Krusty Burger as they notice Krusty in the ball pit wallowing in his misery (Yeah I get the feeling the new writers act like this when they realize that their lifelong dream of writing for this show turns out to be a nightmare). Bart and Lisa try to cheer Krusty up and encourage a comeback (Again, totally original) after Krusty tells them he needs a new agent, Lisa tells him that they met one that he should talk to (Not really a Deus Ex Machina since it was established, but still lazy in the way it was introduced). After an unfunny bit with the ball pit as a lake (Rule of three of course) we see Krusty and the family go to the agent as it's revealed that she hates him for some reason. She tells the family that he was her first client (Oh and in the process, they retcon Like Father Like Clown, why must they insist that their garbage is worthy of removing the classics from continuity?). After Annie changes Krusty's bit from stand-up to clown comedy (Why? Just why?) we find out that they got intimate and Krusty decides to tell her after sex that he's dropping her for a new agent. After Krusty tries to explain to Annie that he's doing this to get back at his father (Yeah that's why he was seeking his father's approval in Like Father Like Clown... Ugh, the stupidity is hurting me) Annie says that she'll never be Krusty's agent again.

Little known fact: Krusty never intended on being a clown...

Krusty then begs Annie for forgiveness and Annie decides to be his agent as long as he behaves himself (Well I can see where this is going). Annie then books Krusty for a show where his audience is adults and Krusty is a bit hesitant, however Annie reassures him that they'll love him (I don't know, he wasn't that well received in Last Temptation of Krusty, how will this be any better?). At the theater, we see Krusty perform in front of a bunch of adults as his set is reminiscent of Pee-Wee Herman's set (Okay I'll give props, it was a bit amusing. However, if they wanted to have a "Nostalgic show" there were so many characters that WERE actually on his show that aren't anymore they could have used. I think that may have worked better). After his show wows over the audience, Krusty thanks Annie for reviving him and they end up making out for a bit (Can an ending be considered disappointing if the foreshadowing for it is about as subtle as a baseball bat to the face?) After Krusty sees that he's getting the best praises of his career, he's informed by Annie that a network called HBOTIME (Come on, there had to be a better name somewhere). At the meeting, Krusty informs the executives that his one demand is that Annie is his producer. After a mini-montage of other shows on HBOTIME (Okay I did chuckle at the tagline for the network) we see that Krusty is now a big shot on the set (This is Krusty the Clown, right? Did we get someone else by mistake?)
We then see Annie being a bit bossy on the set as she insists that she's doing it all for his best.

Listen up, if you don't churn out better scripts, I'm deporting you to Africa

After another scene of Annie trying to "Protect Krusty", the executives tell Krusty that Annie is a problem for them as she's insane. Krusty tries to defend her, but after he sees her run down an intern for sharpening her pencil wrong, he thinks she might be nuts (Random homicide is funny, what's that? No it isn't? Didn't think so). Later we see Krusty's show being taped as Annie yet again gets defensive when she finds out that a guest on the show is funnier than Krusty. As the executives tell Krusty to fire her while they're still on set (Do the writers know this, or are they pretending that the studio audience doesn't exist in the same way of "We can't see you so you're not there" type of mindset?). After we get a scene of Moe watching this dispute live, Krusty decides to give Annie his answer in the form of sex followed by revealing that he got a new show (Okay props for not going down the obvious route, but points off for having Krusty as a hot commodity as an entertainer. His main characteristic is that he's not an entertaining clown). The episode ends with Krusty and Annie having sex for their new show... yeah I've got nothing, but it's over so I'm happy.

Final Verdict: This episode was bad, but not terrible, the plot was unoriginal and rather uninspired, the writing was weak and boring at times, and the jokes varied as there were a few good ones, but all together it was rather meh. Plus between the open-ended ending and the retconning of Like Father Like Clown I cannot find myself enjoying this one.

Final Grade: 2.6/10 Rather boring and played-out, but what do you expect at this point?