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“Like Father, Like Clown” is the sixth episode of The Simpsons’ third season. The episode aired on October 24, 1991. Bart and Lisa try to reunite Krusty the Clown with his long-estranged father, a rabbi who disapproved of his son’s choice of career in comedy. This episode’s title is a play on the phrase “Like father, like son”.

Plot
Krusty the Clown has agreed to have dinner with Bart and his family, but keeps putting it off, much to Bart’s disappointment. An upset Bart writes a letter to Krusty renouncing his fanhood, and Krusty’s secretary is so moved that she tells Krusty she will quit her job if he doesn’t keep his promise to Bart. With that in mind, Krusty finally comes to dinner at the Simpson house. When asked to say grace, he recites the Hebrew blessing over bread, HaMotzi. Realizing that Krusty is Jewish, Lisa reminded of his heritage, making Krusty cry. He tells the family of his upbringing on the Lower East Side of Springfield.

His father, Hyman Krustofski, was a rabbi dispensing Talmudic wisdom and car-buying tips to the neighborhood and strongly opposed to young Krusty’s wish of becoming a clown and making people laugh, wanting the boy to go to yeshiva instead. As a result, Krusty performed slapstick comedy behind his father’s back. He was performing at a rabbi’s convention when one joking rabbi squirted seltzer on him, washing off his clown makeup. When Rabbi Krustofski found out, he disowned his son, and it has been 25 years since they’ve seen or spoken to each other.

In the weeks following this admission, Krusty’s TV show begins to suffer, as he thinks more and more about his father. Bart and Lisa resolve to help reunite father and son, but the rabbi still refuses to accept Krusty’s career choice. An attempt by the kids to reunite the Krustofskis at a deli fails when the rabbi leaves early after seeing a very non-kosher sandwich bearing his son’s name on the menu. Bart calls into a religious talk-radio show that Rabbi Krustofski appears on, asking if a father should forgive his son for defying his wishes if the son is making millions of children happy, and the rabbi angrily answers in the negative.

Lisa does research to find Judaic teachings that urge forgiveness, but Rabbi Krustofski has responses for each of them. Finally, Bart is able to convince the rabbi to reconcile with a quote by Sammy Davis, Jr., which finally convinces Rabbi Krustofsky of his stubborness. A deeply depressed Krusty is glumly doing a live taping of his show, but when Rabbi Krustofski appears, they joyously hug and make up before the audience of children.

Cultural references
The episode is an homage to the film The Jazz Singer. Krusty’s father references this when he tells his son “If you were a musician or a jazz singer, this I could forgive.” His quote “I have no son” is also reminisint. The Itchy and Scratchy episode entitled “Field of Screams” is a reference to “Field of Dreams”.

The scenes in which Krusty calls his father without saying anything is reminiscent of Robert De Niro in Raging Bull. Rabbi Krustofsky dislikes the movies of Bruce Willis, when he is looking over a menu of sandwiches named after famous celebrities, he passes on the one named after Bruce Willis, claiming “I don’t even like his work!”

Krusty’s secretary, Miss Pennycandy, is a reference to the James Bond secretary Miss Moneypenny. The “award-winning Jewish novelist” mentioned in the original script was Isaac Bashevis Singer, who died on July 24, 1991. It was changed to Saul Bellow before being broadcast.