Bart the Fink

"Bart the Fink"
The Simpsons episode
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Episode no.	Season 7
Directed by	Jim Reardon
Written by	John Swartzwelder Bob Kushell
Original air dates	February 11, 1996
Episode features
Couch gag	A life-size fax of the family comes out of the cushions, is ripped off, and floats to the ground.

"Bart the Fink" is the fifteenth episode of The Simpsons' seventh season. The title is a play on the film Barton Fink. The film was also mentioned in the earlier episode "Brother from the Same Planet". The original version of the episode was extremely long because, according to the DVD commentary, Krusty the Clown and guest star Bob Newhart both talk in a very slow manner. In the beginning of this episode, there was supposed to be a donkey basketball game at the school, but it was cut from final production. This idea was used eight years later used in "Bart Mangled Banner". Several of the deleted segments can be seen on the DVD.

One of the episode's gags was described by Matt Groening in a DVD Commentary as "one of the most frightening things" he has ever seen. The gag is Bart flipping 25 cents into Handsome Pete's can, with Captain McCallister replying "Not a quarter, he'll be dancing for hours!" (It should be noted that this scene is edited out in syndicated reruns).

Plot

After the death of Great Aunt Hortense, the family attend a will reading. Each member of the family discovers they will receive $100 to do with as they like, but only after spending the night in a haunted house. The rest goes to Ann Landers. Though the kids have other ideas, Bart wishing to buy 100 tacos from the TacoMat and Lisa contributing to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Marge has them open bank accounts at the Bank of Springfield. Bart is excited by his new checking account and begins writing checks for his friends - including a $1 check for bully Jimbo Jones so he wouldn't beat him up.

Bart attempts to get Krusty the Clown's autograph, but the clown is having a new Sandwich named after him and has to leave. Just before he does, Bart slips a check for 25 cents into Krusty's pocket, figuring that he'll receive a copy of it, endorsed by Krusty, with his monthly bank statement.

Instead, the check is endorsed with a stamp - "Cayman Islands Off-Shore Holding Corporation". Angry, Bart takes it back to the bank so that they can force Krusty to sign it. Suspicious, a bank teller investigates, and within minutes Krusty is arrested for tax fraud.

He discovers that though he will not be going to prison ("Krusty," an IRS agent assures him, "This is America. We don't send our celebrities to jail!"), his salary will be garnished by 75% for 40 years. Krusty then tells them he dosen't plan to live that long, so they make it 95%.

The IRS also auction off Krusty's house contents, including his bed, and convert the Krusty Burger chain of restaurants to "IRS Burger". Ruined, unable to maintain his "swanky lifestyle", and living on the streets, Krusty mans his private airplane one night and appears to fly directly into a mountain.

Everyone assumes that Krusty is dead, but Bart believes otherwise when he begins to see a very Krusty look-alike all over town, on the street, the doctor's surgery, an electronics store, and underwater opening a lobster pot. Bart and Lisa soon discover that Krusty has gone into hiding under the guise of Rory B. Bellows, a grizzled old longshore worker. They finally convince him to return to his former life, but wonder aloud what he will do about his tax problem. "Don't sweat it," says Krusty. "The life of Rory B. Bellows is insured for a surprisingly large amount." Behind them, Rory's houseboat explodes.

Trivia

• The Simpsons are said to be Aunt Hortense's only living relatives. This is not possible, as both Homer and Marge have at least one living parent.

Cultural references

• The episode begins showing the law firm is called "Dewey, Cheathem, Howe, & Weissmann" - the joke being that the obvious joke name is Dewey, Cheatem & Howe, but somewhere along the line they've acquired a fourth partner, ruining the pun.
• Krusty's airplane, "I'm-on-a-rolla-Gay", is a spoof of the Enola Gay B-29 airplane that dropped the A-bomb on Hiroshima.
• The Sea Captain ends a phone coversation by saying, "Call me back, Ishmael," a reference to the opening line of Moby Dick.
• During Krusty's funeral, Luke Perry is among the special guests because he is Krusty's half-brother, as seen in "Krusty Gets Kancelled".
• Also attending the funeral is Simpsons writer John Swartzwelder, who appears with a Kermit the Frog puppet on his hand.
• The wreath seen in the background displays the phone number '369-3084', which was Simpsons writer and producer Bill Oakley's office phone number at the time.
• Krusty's illegal Cayman-Islands 'accountant' is modeled after Sydney Greenstreet, particularly from Casablanca, considering his line "oh, it's too hot today".

External links

• "Bart the Fink episode capsule". The Simpsons Archive.