Talk:The Worker & Parasite Show

This info was on the page "Krusty gets Cancelled". It's far too much to just delete, so here it is.

==Worker and Parasite== This section is linked from Socialist realism
 * 'Worker and Parasite (written "Сфир Ет. Ѕеqонж" on screen, but in Russian literally "Рабочий И Паразит") was a fictional cartoon in The Simpsons episode "Krusty Gets Kancelled." When the popular cartoon Itchy and Scratchy, featuring a very violent cat and mouse, leaves the Krusty the Clown Show for Krusty's new competitor, Gabbo, "Eastern Europe's favorite cat and mouse team, Worker and Parasite," was a cheap replacement. According to the title screen, it was made in 1959, while the Khrushchev regime was in power in the USSR.  Simpsons'' creator Matt Groening maintains that their appearance on the show is one of the best parts of the series.
 * n reality, the short bears very little resemblance to the socialist realism style which History of Russian animation#Socialist Realism|was prevalent]] in Russian animation at the time. The idea bears more similarity to the rather unusual set of Tom and Jerry cartoons (on which Itchy and Scratchy is based) produced in Prague by animator Gene Deitch in the early 1960s.  An even more likely possibility is the work of Estonian animation director Priit Pärn and his followers, which has been an important influence in Estonian animation since the 1980s.
 * he cartoon opened with some faux-Cyrillic credits, which are non-sensical in real Cyrillic. The cartoon itself was quite unintelligible, featuring a crudely drawn cat and mouse chattering incoherently and bouncing around to the tune of dissonant background music. Worker and Parasite are first seen in a factory (where a wrench and sickle are visible as well); they then move in front of a line of identical, miserable-looking peasants who are lining up for supplies of some sort, and then within a nest of squiggly lines, possibly meant to represent conflict between the two characters. The cartoon concludes with the screen reading "ENDUT! HOCH HECH!" Afterwards, Krusty's on-air response (before a vacant studio) was shocked silence, a limp cigarette hanging from his mouth, then promptly, "What the hell was that?!", just before the last member of the audience leaves.
 * 'Worker and Parasite'' has not appeared on the show since, but they have made a few appearances in Simpsons comic books, this time speaking somewhat intelligible English.

JaffaCakeLover 22:43, September 2, 2009 (UTC)