“The Simpsons” has had a whole bunch of movie star visitor stars over the a long time, and comic/podcaster Marc Maron joined their ranks in season 30. “The Clown Stays within the Image” is a Krusty the Clown-centric episode that makes use of “WTF With Marc Maron” as its framing machine. Krusty’s telling Maron the story of a troubled film manufacturing from his youthful days, though it is clear from the beginning that each one the difficulty was coming from Krusty himself.
The episode admittedly appears like an prolonged business for Maron’s podcast, though it isn’t essentially a nasty business. It is enjoyable to look at the (principally regular) Maron try and get an honest interview out of the impolite, washed-up Krusty. It additionally feels becoming that Lisa could be the one excitedly listening to the interview on the bus experience to high school, and that Bart would steal certainly one of her earbuds and gross her out by getting his earwax throughout it.
“I believe that Krusty, compared to the opposite 900 or so friends I’ve interviewed, was somewhat more difficult,” Maron joked in a behind-the-scenes interview. And certain sufficient, Krusty all through the episode is impolite, combative, and suspiciously unwilling to speak about an “unexploding milkshake” scandal together with his Krusty Burger restaurant chain. Maron had his work reduce out for him right here, making an attempt to get a coherent interview out of this man.
Speaking extra about his expertise voice performing for the present, Maron defined:
“Since I achieve this a lot podcasting, it was form of pure. They’ve nicer gear, and I believe this studio’s somewhat higher than my storage. […] I am honored to be a part of the historical past. […] I’ve performed 900 some odd podcasts, I believe the primary hundred are literally within the Library of Congress, however who cares? There’s one thing concerning the historical past of ‘The Simpsons’ and its continuation, it feels particular.”
Okay, however is the episode truly good?
The perfect a part of “The Clown Stays within the Image” is how a lot the primary half is a deal with for “Dune” followers. The episode shortly establishes that Krusty is a big fan of “The Sands of Area,” an formidable epic sci-fi novel that is been deemed “essentially the most famously un-filmable ebook in historical past.” In different phrases, Krusty needed to make a movie adaptation of “Dune,” Frank Herbert’s 800-page epic that was infamously made into an ’80s David Lynch film with questionable outcomes. Not solely was it unimaginable to condense all of the ebook’s pivotal plot factors and its difficult worldbuilding right into a single movie, but in addition the particular results of the time could not even come near doing the ebook justice. Lynch wasn’t happy with the ultimate product, both, and has since disowned the entire movie.
Sadly, this primary setup is the place many of the episode’s “Dune” jokes finish. The remainder of the episode is all about Krusty being a horrible film director, treating everybody round him like filth earlier than having an unconvincing redemptive heel flip within the closing act. It is a storyline that might’ve been nice if it’d been written with the sharpness of the present’s golden period, however like numerous late-season “Simpsons” episodes, most of the jokes right here simply do not fairly land. It does not assist that Dan Castellaneta’s Krusty voice feels drained, strained, in a approach that undermines numerous the humor. (It additionally undermines the concept that is purported to be Krusty from 20 years in the past.)
This is not even the very best “Simpsons” episode to look at for good “Dune” jokes. Season 5 features a gag the place Lisa eats meals with an excessive amount of spice and begins to see via time, whereas season 24’s “The Saga of Carl” offers us a parody of all of the totally different “Dune” sequel novels, with titles like “Dune The place’s My Automobile?” and “Accountants of Dune.” Fortunately, within the time since “The Clown Stays within the Image” aired, director Denis Villeneuve has confirmed that it’s, in truth, attainable to make a profitable “Dune” film adaptation. “The Clown Stays within the Image” may’ve been the present’s first try at a “Dune”-themed episode, however there is a good likelihood it will not be the final.