"Kamp Krusty" is the
fourth season premiere of the American animated television series ''
The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is a Satire (film and television), satirical depiction of American life ...
'', and the 60th episode overall. It originally aired on
Fox in the United States on September 24, 1992. In the episode, the children of Springfield attend Kamp Krusty, a summer camp named after
Krusty the Clown. The camp is extremely unpleasant, leading to the campers rebelling against the camp director. Meanwhile, with the kids away,
Homer
Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...
and
Marge
Marge is a feminine given name, a shortened form of Marjorie, Margot or Margaret. Notable Marges include:
People
* Marge (cartoonist) (1904–1993), pen name of Marjorie Henderson Buell, American cartoonist
* Marge Anderson (1932–2013), Ojibwe ...
enjoy more time together, and Homer becomes physically and emotionally healthier.
The episode was written by
David M. Stern and directed by
Mark Kirkland
Mark Kirkland (born ) is an American animation director. He has directed 84 episodes of ''The Simpsons'' since 1990, more than any other director.
Career
At the age of 13, Kirkland began making Super 8 mm film, super 8 films and working for his ...
. A direct sequel episode, "
Kamp Krustier", aired as part of the series'
twenty-eighth season, on March 5, 2017.
Plot
Bart
Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area in California. BART serves List of Bay Area Rapid Transit stations, 50 stations along six routes and of track, including eBART, a spur line running t ...
and
Lisa
Lisa or LISA may refer to:
People
People with the mononym
* Lisa (Japanese musician, born 1974), stylized "LISA"
* Lisa, stagename of Japanese singer Lisa Komine (born 1978)
* Lisa (South Korean singer) (born 1980)
* Lisa (Japanese musician, b ...
attend the summer camp Kamp Krusty, leaving
Homer
Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...
and
Marge
Marge is a feminine given name, a shortened form of Marjorie, Margot or Margaret. Notable Marges include:
People
* Marge (cartoonist) (1904–1993), pen name of Marjorie Henderson Buell, American cartoonist
* Marge Anderson (1932–2013), Ojibwe ...
to have some time alone for the summer. The camp's director, Mr. Black, has licensed the camp's name from
Krusty the Clown. However, the camp turns out to be a
dystopia
A dystopia (lit. "bad place") is an imagined world or society in which people lead wretched, dehumanized, fearful lives. It is an imagined place (possibly state) in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmen ...
; as Lisa explains in a letter to her parents, "Our nature hikes have become grim death marches. Our arts and crafts center is, in actuality, a
Dickensian workhouse.” The camp counselors are bullies
Dolph,
Jimbo and
Kearney, who feed the campers Krusty-Brand Imitation
Gruel while enjoying deluxe accommodations themselves; the bullies sip brandy with Mr. Black, who intones: "Gentlemen, to evil!" Worst of all, Krusty himself is unaware of the camp's conditions and is currently on a vacation in
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
.
To appease the restless campers, Mr. Black tells the children that Krusty himself is coming to visit. However, "Krusty" turns out to be a poorly disguised
Barney Gumble, and the ruse does not fool Bart. Bart then leads the campers in revolt, driving out Mr. Black and the bullies and changing the camp's name to Camp Bart. Meanwhile, Homer and Marge see a
breaking news
Breaking news, also called late-breaking news, a special report, special coverage, or a news flash, is a current issue that warrants the interruption of a scheduled broadcast in order to report its details. News broadcasters also use the term ...
report of the campers' revolt. After learning that Bart is the leader of the rebellion, Homer instantly loses the hair he grew and regains the weight he lost since the children went to camp.
After the real Krusty is informed of Kamp Krusty's conditions, he returns from London to visit the camp. He apologizes to the campers for their ordeal and his ignorance of their plight; Mr. Black had bribed Krusty with a "dump truck full of money" in order to gain full control of the camp. To make it up to the campers, Krusty takes them for "two weeks at the happiest place on Earth:
Tijuana
Tijuana is the most populous city of the Mexican state of Baja California, located on the northwestern Pacific Coast of Mexico. Tijuana is the municipal seat of the Tijuana Municipality, the hub of the Tijuana metropolitan area and the most popu ...
!". As
"South of the Border" (sung by
Gene Merlino) plays, a
montage is shown of Krusty and the campers vacationing in Tijuana, but Krusty misses the bus home at the end of the trip.
Production

The idea that the children should go to a camp run by
Krusty the Clown was first suggested by
David M. Stern. The animators were enthusiastic about making this episode because they had all gone to summer camps as children and thought it would be a fun episode to write for.
The writers also thought that "it would be fun if while the kids are gone
Homer
Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...
and
Marge
Marge is a feminine given name, a shortened form of Marjorie, Margot or Margaret. Notable Marges include:
People
* Marge (cartoonist) (1904–1993), pen name of Marjorie Henderson Buell, American cartoonist
* Marge Anderson (1932–2013), Ojibwe ...
find that as the kids are miserable their marriage is better than ever".
The layout for Bart and Lisa's cabin was influenced by the director,
Mark Kirkland
Mark Kirkland (born ) is an American animation director. He has directed 84 episodes of ''The Simpsons'' since 1990, more than any other director.
Career
At the age of 13, Kirkland began making Super 8 mm film, super 8 films and working for his ...
, who as a child went to a
Boy Scout camp that had exposed wires and other similar faults.
Kirkland was also sure that the character Mr. Black would reappear later in the series, but he never did.
Al Jean
Alfred Ernest Jean III (born January 9, 1961) is an American screenwriter and producer. Jean is well known for his work on ''The Simpsons''. He was raised near Detroit, Michigan, and graduated from Harvard University in 1981. Jean began his wri ...
commented, "I guess that the
hydrofoil
A hydrofoil is a lifting surface, or foil, that operates in water. They are similar in appearance and purpose to aerofoils used by aeroplanes. Boats that use hydrofoil technology are also simply termed hydrofoils. As a hydrofoil craft gains sp ...
really got Mr. Black out of the show forever".
After he saw the completed episode,
James L. Brooks called the writers and suggested that the "Kamp Krusty" script be used as a plotline for a film. However, the episode ran very short, and to make it barely fit the minimum time, the ''Kamp Krusty'' song had to be lengthened by a number of verses. The episode was also chosen to be the
season premiere
A season premiere is the first episode of a new season of a returning television show. In the United States, many season premieres are aired in the fall time or, for mid-season replacements, either in the spring or late winter.
In countries su ...
of the
fourth season of ''
The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is a Satire (film and television), satirical depiction of American life ...
'', further complicating matters. As Jean told Brooks, "First of all, if we make it into the movie then we don't have a premiere, and second, if we can't make 18 minutes out of this episode how are we supposed to make 80?"
Along with the following episode, "
A Streetcar Named Marge", "Kamp Krusty" was a holdover from the previous season's production run. It was the final episode to be produced in this run and so the last animated at
Klasky Csupo, before the show's producers
Gracie Films moved its domestic production to
Film Roman
Film Roman, LLC, is an American animation studio currently based in Woodland Hills, California and formerly in Burbank. It was previously owned by Starz Inc., which is now a division of Lionsgate, and currently by Waterman Entertainment, the p ...
.
Cultural references
Bart’s dream sequence at the beginning of the episode ends with the students destroying Springfield Elementary School to
Alice Cooper
Vincent Damon Furnier (born February 4, 1948), known by his stage name Alice Cooper, is an American rock singer and songwriter whose career spans sixty years. With a raspy voice and a stage show that features numerous props and stage illusion ...
’s “
School’s Out,” mirroring the ending of the 1979 film
''Rock ‘n’ Roll High School''.
Some elements of the plot are borrowed from the
Allan Sherman song "
Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh", a song about a kid who went to camp and hated it. The song was later used in "
Marge Be Not Proud", and
inspired the title of a later episode. The idea for the song sung by the children was from a 1960s TV show called ''
Camp Runamuck'', which has a theme song that is similar to the ''Kamp Krusty'' song.
The scene where Lisa gives a bottle of
whiskey
Whisky or whiskey is a type of liquor made from Fermentation in food processing, fermented grain mashing, mash. Various grains (which may be Malting, malted) are used for different varieties, including barley, Maize, corn, rye, and wheat. Whisky ...
to a man on horseback (payment for delivering a letter) is a reference to
Meryl Streep's scene from the film ''
The French Lieutenant's Woman
''The French Lieutenant's Woman'' is a 1969 Postmodern literature, postmodern historical fiction novel by John Fowles. The plot explores the fraught relationship of gentleman and amateur naturalist Charles Smithson and Sarah Woodruff, the for ...
''. Some aspects of the episode are references to the novel ''
Lord of the Flies
''Lord of the Flies'' is the 1954 debut novel of British author William Golding. The plot concerns a group of prepubescent British boys who are stranded on an uninhabited island and their disastrous attempts to govern themselves that led to ...
'' (a pig's head on a spear, kids using primitive weapons and wearing war paint, and a burning effigy).
The scene where Kearney beats a drum to make the campers work in the sweatshop is taken from the slave galley scene in the 1959 film ''
Ben-Hur''.
The episode ends with the song "
South of the Border". According to the DVD commentary, the song is not sung by
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Honorific nicknames in popular music, Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the Time 100: The Most I ...
but by another artist impersonating him.
When Krusty is confronted by the reporters, he is asked "if him and
Princess Di are just friends." A more cryptic reference was made when he is confronted by another reporter and retorts "Where were you when I sang at
Farm Aid?" The reference was inspired by
Jackie Mason making the remark "Where were you when I marched in the civil rights movement?" Mason had a recurring role in series as Krusty's father.
While the plot of the episode is similar to that of the 1991
video game
A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
spin-off from the television series called ''
Bart Simpson's Escape from Camp Deadly'', the two are unrelated as the video game was released well before the first airing of the "Kamp Krusty" episode.
Reception
In its original broadcast, "Kamp Krusty" finished 24th in ratings for the week of September 21–27, 1992, with a
Nielsen rating
Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the #Nielsen TV ...
of 13.5, equivalent to approximately 12.6 million viewing households. It was the highest-rated show on the Fox network that week.
Nathan Rabin of ''
The A.V. Club'' gave the episode an A, ultimately saying the episode began ''the Simpsons fourth season in an amazing way.
Gary Russell and
Gareth Roberts,
the authors of the book ''I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide'', had mixed views about the episode. They said that it is "A bit baffling to non-Americans unfamiliar with the summer camp system. But top grade stuff nonetheless. Anyone who's worked as a counsellor in such a place can testify to this episode's authenticity."
The episode's reference to ''Ben-Hur'' was named the 31st greatest film reference in the history of the show by ''
Total Film
''Total Film'' was a British film magazine published 13 times a year (published monthly with a summer issue added, between the July and August issues, every year since issue 91, 2004) by Future Publishing. The magazine was launched in 1997 and of ...
''
's Nathan Ditum.
See also
* "
Kamp Krustier"
References
External links
*
*
{{The Simpsons episodes, 4
The Simpsons season 4 episodes
1992 American television episodes
Television episodes set in summer camps
Tijuana in fiction
Television episodes set in Mexico
Television episodes directed by Mark Kirkland