The Simpsons visit the annual book festival, where Krusty is in attendance to sign copies of his new book (ghostwritten by John Updike), only for a young girl named Sophie to approach him and reveal herself to be the daughter he's never met. Completely unfamiliar with fatherhood, Krusty asks Homer for assistance with bonding with his daughter, but the relationship hits a snag when he bets Sophie's beloved violin in a high-stakes poker game with Fat Tony.
Full Story[]
Krusty with Sophie's mom
Homer and Bart fix things around the house using fireworks. They destroy Lisa's room on her birthday, so to help make it up to her, the family goes to a book fair, where Krusty is signing his new book. A little girl named Sophie is in line and she tells Krusty that she is his daughter. Krusty flashes back to his experiences during the Gulf War, where Krusty had meet Erin after trying to his tent during a sandstorm and accidentally stumbles into Erin's tent and the two make love. However, the next Erin suddenly realizes that she is late for her mission to assassinate Saddam Hussein. At the moment when Erin is about to shoot, Krusty runs up to her, which causes her to fail at shooting Saddam Hussein. Sophie's mother now hates Krusty, ever since he ruined her mission after that night with her. Sophie, who wants to get to know her father asks (i.e. begs) to spend time, while Krusty declines, explaining he is not an ideal father figure for her agrees, especially after seeing her cry. In his first attempt to be a good father, Krusty tries spending time with Sophie at the beach, but they don't bond very well. He sees Homer interacting with his kids and gets some parenting advice from him.
Fat Tony examines Sophie's violin
Krusty gambles away Sophie's violin, which is something that means a lot to her, in a poker game with Fat Tony. She gets offended with Krusty, so he, along with Homer's help, tries to gain possession the violin. There is a big mafia summit at Fat Tony's place and Krusty manages to escape with the violin and a bunch of cash (although it was implied that he didn't even know that there was money in the real violin case when he took it), although not without inadvertently starting a gun fight amongst the various mafia members when they dropped most of the other cases (which contained Tommy guns) and had the contents discharge ammo. He wins back Sophie's love, who discovers that the case was also lined with money. Then Frankie the Squealer, Legs and Louie chase Homer for his role in the caper (and presumably for his role in tearing down their summit) by shooting at him, but Homer outruns them nevertheless.
Behind the Laughter[]
Production[]
Originally, Homer was the one who was surprised to have a long-lost daughter, but this was changed to Krusty, to try and keep the episode canon, and not too far from reality.
Some sources suggested that Christopher Walken originally agreed to appear as himself. However, he demanded a lot more money than the producers were willing to pay. Instead, Jay Mohr did the voice of Walken.
In the end credits, Jay Mohr is actually credited with the voice of Christopher Walken, the credit says "Jay Mohr as Christopher Walken". While this is the first time a celebrity guest star has been credited as playing a character (real or fictional), this is actually the second time (not counting The Simpsons Movie) since the season two episode "Old Money" that the show's credits have both the actor and the character he or she plays.
Reception[]
The episode received negative reviews from critics. DVD Movie Guide gave the episode a negative review, saying "After two pretty good shows, Season 12 encounters mediocrity with “Poppy”. At no point does the program become poor, but it just lacks many real laughs. Outside of some amusing book fair cameos, this one fails to deliver much zing, and it tends to drag."
Citations[]
Krusty the Clown Show Characters, Locations and Key Episodes
