[edit] Plot

Homer attempting to go through the loop, so he is not killed by the mob

Krusty’s poor gambling skills and wasteful habits (such as lighting a cigarette by burning a $100 bill, a pearl necklace, and a copy of Action Comics #1) land him in deep financial trouble, and to make up for it he launches a training college for clowns. Homer enters the program, after being tempted by the billboard he saw on the highway and hallucinating the people he knew as clowns. After graduating, he impersonates Krusty at private and public events that the real Krusty deems unworthy of his personal appearance. At first, the stress of it all makes Homer considering quitting, but he discovers that, mistaken for Krusty due to his uncanny resemblance, he receives all sorts of benefits from authority figures and businesses. The impersonation goes too far when Homer is kidnapped by Fat Tony’s gang, to whom the real Krusty is indebted. However, the real Krusty arrives and Krusty and Homer’s lives are spared after they entertain the gang with an elaborate clown trick. Krusty pays off his debt to the gang—a total of $48, of which he gets change for his $50.

[edit] Cultural references

The episode title is reference to the character Homey the Clown from the sketch comedy show In Living Color.^[2] Krusty lights a cigarette with an issue of Action Comics #1, the first full appearance of Superman, and one of the rarest comic books of all-time.^[2] The notes that play on the wine glasses during Homer and Krusty's bicycle trick form those of the theme from the film The Godfather.^[2] Homer forms his mashed potatoes into a circus tent just as Richard Dreyfuss' character does in the 1977 film Close Encounters of the Third Kind.^[1]^[2]

There are numerous references to Tim Burton's 1989 Batman: when Krusty takes the bandages off after his surgical operation, spoofing the movie scene when Jack Napier discovers his new face after being disfigured; when Homer finishes putting on his Krusty suit, he then squirts Barts with water from his chest flower, much like how the Joker had acid in his chest flower; when Krusty shakes the hands of the graduates, he has the same shock device on his hand that the Joker had. The “Krustyburglar” is a parody of the McDonald's Hamburglar. Ned Flanders wore a Bible and an "extra large piece of the true cross" - a parody of a scene in the 1993 film The Three Musketeers where Aramis wore a crucifix that saved his life in a similar manner.

[edit] Trivia

During the Ace awards the award is awarded by the son of the guy who played Huggy Bear. He is in fact Justin Fargas, a running back for the Oakland Raiders