The Simpsons S1 E12 "Krusty Gets Busted" / YMMV

Crosses the Line Twice:
- Krusty having a heart attack live, on-air? Horrifying. The children in the audience laughing at this? Hysterical. No wonder Kent Brockman describes it as one of television's most-beloved bloopers.
- Krusty's call-and-response with his audience of young elementary school children, which is implied to open every episode of his show:
  Krusty: Hey, kids! Who do you love?
  Kids: Krusty!
  Krusty: How much do you love me?
  Kids: With all our hearts!
  Krusty: What would you do if I went off the air?
  Kids: We'd kill ourselves!
Growing the Beard: A really important moment for the series, as it marked the first episode to focus on someone outside the Simpson family, our first good look at the wider world of Springfield, and in general where the series really started to step up its game. By balancing genuinely compelling storytelling with goofy humor, The Simpsons suddenly went from "that cartoon about the dysfunctional family" to something Denser and Wackier.
Harsher in Hindsight:
- With later episodes like "Bart the Fink" revealing that Krusty has been doing everything from robbing millions of dollars through tax evasion and embezzling from his telethons to sexually harassing women to not supporting any of the children he's fathered to injuring and potentially killing people with his crappy merchandise, proving his innocence in this episode feels a lot less poignant. Lisa's comment that "all those hours [she and Bart] spent staring at Krusty...were staring at a crook" was much truer than she originally thought. Even this episode reveals that Krusty bets illegally on sporting events, and Sideshow Bob mentions he otherwise wastes a fortune on his "vulgar appetites."
- Krusty's heart attack mid-performance and nearly dying is eerily similar to that of The Wiggles member Greg Page 30 years after the episode's first airing.^note
- When Krusty asks his audience what they'd do if he went off the air, they reply that they would kill themselves. Three seasons later, Krusty would go off the air for real. It's a good thing that he only got cancelled due to low ratings caused by him being upstaged by a better entertainer, whom his former audience flocked to instead, otherwise who knows how many audience members would have actually gone through with it?
Hilarious in Hindsight: After trying to shoot Sideshow Bob out of a cannon, Krusty quips "Don't blame me, I didn't do it!". In "Bart Gets Famous", Bart becomes Krusty's personal assistant and rises to fame by ad-libbing the line "I didn't do it" after a skit goes awry.
Informed Wrongness: Everyone regards Homer as a Dirty Coward for hiding in the chip shelf when "Krusty" robbed the Kwik-E-Mart, even though he's a civilian and the clown was armed with a gun. Though most just laugh at him for his high-pitched scream and jumping into the chips.
It Was His Sled:
- One of the earliest examples. Krusty is innocent and Sideshow Bob framed him.
- Sideshow Bob, who previously only communicated via slide whistle, actually speaks with the cultured tones of Kelsey Grammer.
Values Dissonance: Homer's actions during the Kwik-E-Mart robbery are ridiculed by the public and paint him as a coward. Aside from him being unarmed and otherwise in no condition to subdue the robber, greater awareness of the "Fight Or Flight" Response (which has also been expanded to include Freeze or Fawn) in times of crisis, people look at him more sympathetically.
The Woobie: Krusty, who nearly lost his freedom and career due to Sideshow Bob's Frame-Up. Plus, Dan Castellaneta's empathetic portrayal of him (particularly in him earnestly telling Bart that he didn't do the robbery) adds onto this. It doubles a bit into Jerkass Woobie territory however, since there is a clear reason Bob was willing to frame him, one that gets more obvious as the series goes on.

YMMV / The Simpsons S1 E12 "Krusty Gets Busted"

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