Episode 2F12
Written by John Swartzwelder
Directed by Mark Kirkland
Also starring: Pamela Hayden
Special guest voices: Dick Cavett (as himself), Johnny Unitas (as himself), Joe Mantegna (as Don Tony)

Premise: Krusty's luck has run out - the Mafia are after him. Homer's luck has run out, too - he's enrolled at clown school and pretending to be Krusty.

Features: Krusty, Carl and Lenny, Ralph, Chief Wiggum, Apu, Ned Flanders, Milhouse.

Couch: The sofa runs in - and sits on the Simpsons.

Trivia:

• Krusty's products include Krusty Monopoly, the Krusty Krowd Kontrol Barrier, and the Lady Krusty range of feminine toiletries.

Homage: The episode's title refers to a character called Homie the Clown featured in US comedy series In Living Color. Homer's compulsion to make a clown sculpture reflects Richard Dreyfus' similar problem in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Steven Spielberg, 1979), and at one point he hears a song from The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972). Krusty lights a cigarette with a copy of Action Comics #1, the rarest and most valuable comic of all time.

Notes: 'Clowns are funny.' Notable for its scenes of Homer on trying to emulate Krusty's mini-trike loop the loops.