The Simpsons Killed Krusty’s Dad In Season Premiere

Now in its season 26, The Simpsons have done pretty much everything. So, with its crossover in the same night with Family Guy, the show premiered with a publicity-stunt death of Krusty’s father, Rabbi Krustofski voiced by Jackie Mason who won an Emmy in 1992 for the role.

Over the summer, viewers were teased with enough clues to figure out who the victim was before it aired. Krusty went to see his father after suffering through an insult-laden cable TV roast and only got a disappointing “Eh” from him before the aged rabbi passed away.

The death of Maude Flanders back in Season 11 has proven that the producers are unwilling to kill off a main character. They do like forcing a main second-tier character to cope with their own mortality, though, so Krusty’s dad was the perfect choice.

Krusty, in a way, represents the show itself in that he is an aging performer who has outlived almost all of his contemporaries, but still soldiers on providing laughter. The line “Okay, I’ve been on for 50 years. You’re bound to repeat yourself a little” has been echoing through the heads of Simpsons writers and producers for a while now. Fans are split over the show’s quality.

When Simpsons said a major character was being killed off in the season premiere I hoped they meant the show itself. So unfunny it’s painful

— Daz Gale (@dazgale) September 29, 2014

In 553 episodes, the Simpsons have literally been everywhere and done everything. And while the recent FXX marathon has proven that fans still love the show, there is probably more than a little autobiography in Rabbi Krustofski’s final judgment of “Eh” for his son.

So The Simpsons try for the past year to build that a Character gets killed off and it ends up being one thats appeared twice.

— David O’Hara (@Dohara93) September 29, 2014

Krusty’s closure with his father in the episode was satisfying because Krusty finds out that his father’s favorite, Rabbi Rudenstein, is telling jokes that Krusty told as a kid. So, he realizes, “My father respected me, but could never tell me.”

Entertainment Weekly talked with the show’s executive producer, Al Jean on why they chose to kill Rabbi Krustofski.

Jean said, “I was just trying to think of a story and I thought, “It would be a good father-son story if the rabbi passed away and the last thing he said to his son was, “I think you’re eh.” That the last word that Krusty heard from his dad was “eh,” and that he had to try to reconcile himself with that, and try to find an answer for this lifetime relationship. I thought we did it in a way that I hope is touching but is real and is just the little ways that people make peace with their past…. Then [last fall, journalists] were asking me on a phone conference what shows we had coming up and instead of just saying that, I thought it would be a little sneaky to say that the character had won an Emmy and the next thing I knew it was a huge, worldwide story. So from that point on, we tried to tease it as best as possible but as you can see, there’s really about three clues you can give. It’s pretty obvious. What’s funny is at the [Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour in July], we said, “Okay, we’ll make the title kind of easy and it should be really obvious,” so I said, “Clown in the Dumps.” And then there were people going, “(gasps) You’re killing Krusty???” And I was like, “What? In the dumps doesn’t mean you’re dead. It means you’re sad.” I thought it was so obvious. I would be nuts to kill Krusty. Everybody loves that character.”

On whether that character could come back, Jean said, “Sure. We told the actor that didn’t mean the end of his part in the show. He certainly could come back as a memory of Krusty.”

The Simpsons airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on Fox.

The Simpsons Killed Krusty’s Dad In Season Premiere