“The Simpsons” has had hundreds of celebrity guest stars over the decades, and comedian/podcaster Marc Maron joined their ranks in season 30. “The Clown Stays in the Picture” is a Krusty the Clown-centric episode that uses “WTF With Marc Maron” as its framing device. Krusty’s telling Maron the story of a troubled movie production from his younger days, although it’s clear from the start that all the trouble was coming from Krusty himself.
The episode admittedly feels like an extended commercial for Maron’s podcast, although it’s not necessarily a bad commercial. It’s fun to watch the (mostly normal) Maron attempt to get a decent interview out of the rude, washed-up Krusty. It also feels fitting that Lisa would be the one excitedly listening to the interview on the bus ride to school, and that Bart would steal one of her earbuds and gross her out by getting his earwax all over it.
“I think that Krusty, in comparison to the other 900 or so guests I’ve interviewed, was a little more challenging,” Maron joked in a behind-the-scenes interview. And sure enough, Krusty throughout the episode is rude, combative, and suspiciously unwilling to talk about an “unexploding milkshake” scandal with his Krusty Burger restaurant chain. Maron had his work cut out for him here, trying to get a coherent interview out of this guy.
Talking more about his experience voice acting for the show, Maron explained:
“Since I do so much podcasting, it was sort of natural. They have nicer equipment, and I think this studio’s a little better than my garage. […] I’m honored to be part of the history. […] I have done 900 some odd podcasts, I think the first hundred are actually in the Library of Congress, but who cares? There’s something about the history of ‘The Simpsons’ and its continuation, it feels special.”
Ok, but is the episode actually good?
The best part of “The Clown Stays in the Picture” is how much the first half is a treat for “Dune” fans. The episode quickly establishes that Krusty is a huge fan of “The Sands of Space,” an ambitious epic sci-fi novel that’s been deemed “the most famously un-filmable book in history.” In other words, Krusty wanted to make a film adaptation of “Dune,” Frank Herbert’s 800-page epic that was infamously made into an ’80s David Lynch movie with questionable results. Not only was it impossible to condense all the book’s pivotal plot points and its complicated worldbuilding into a single film, but also the special effects of the time couldn’t even come close to doing the book justice. Lynch wasn’t pleased with the final product, either, and has since disowned the whole film.
Unfortunately, this basic setup is where most of the episode’s “Dune” jokes end. The rest of the episode is all about Krusty being a terrible movie director, treating everyone around him like dirt before having an unconvincing redemptive heel turn in the final act. It’s a storyline that could’ve been great if it’d been written with the sharpness of the show’s golden era, but like a lot of late-season “Simpsons” episodes, many of the jokes here just don’t quite land. It doesn’t help that Dan Castellaneta’s Krusty voice feels tired, strained, in a way that undermines a lot of the humor. (It also undermines the idea that this is supposed to be Krusty from 20 years ago.)
This isn’t even the best “Simpsons” episode to watch for good “Dune” jokes. Season 5 includes a gag where Lisa eats food with too much spice and starts to see through time, while season 24’s “The Saga of Carl” gives us a parody of all the different “Dune” sequel novels, with titles like “Dune Where’s My Car?” and “Accountants of Dune.” Thankfully, in the time since “The Clown Stays in the Picture” aired, director Denis Villeneuve has proven that it is, in fact, possible to make a successful “Dune” movie adaptation. “The Clown Stays in the Picture” might’ve been the show’s first attempt at a “Dune”-themed episode, but there’s a good chance it won’t be the last.