Jeff Ross, Sarah Silverman, and David Hyde Pierce guest starred as themselves, with Jackie Mason and Kelsey Grammer reprising their respective roles as Rabbi Krustofski and Sideshow Bob, while Maurice LaMarche voiced several minor characters.

The choice of Hyman as the character who died was deemed by some critics as anti-climactic due to his minor role in the show, although other reviewers praised the episode's conclusion of the relationship between Krusty and his father.

Krusty therefore deduces that his father did find him funny, and sees him again in Jewish Heaven, where Jesus turns Dangerfield's water into a Bloody Mary.

Eventually, Marge and Bart talk some sense into Lisa; they say that while it is nice of her to be concerned for her father, she should not force Homer to take it easy on himself and just let him live his life.

[4] In July 2014, when Jean announced the title of the episode at the Television Critics Association summer tour, several news outlets suspected that Krusty the Clown would be killed off.

"[1] Jean confirmed that the possibility was open for Jackie Mason to reprise his role as Rabbi Krustofski in dreams or flashbacks, and that Krusty would become a more generous character in the knowledge that his father admired his work.

[7] The first instance was in the 28th season episode "The Nightmare After Krustmas", aired in December 2016, Rabbi Krustofsky appears when Krusty has a near-death experience while being baptized in icy water for his conversion to Christianity.

David Hyde Pierce, who had previously appeared as Bob's brother Cecil, had a cameo as himself acting in the role of Felix in The Odd Couple.

[9] The episode's couch gag was the work of Academy Award-nominated surrealist animator Don Hertzfeldt, who was recommended to the show by Mike B. Anderson.

It depicts Homer using a time-traveling remote control to regress to his original 1987 character model, then accidentally going into a distant future incarnation of the show called The Sampsans where he and his family have evolved into grotesque, mindless, catchphrase-spouting mutants.

[13]Time wrote "If 'Clown in the Dumps' is not a classic on the level of season three's 'Like Father, Like Clown', it was still a fitting, sweet conclusion to the story of Hyman and Herschel".

[14] TV Fanatic gave the episode 4 out of 5 stars, writing "Simpsons Season 26 starts off with a bang, with plenty of laughs and even a few sentimental moments".

However, even if the character death was perfunctory, and Rabbi Krustofski has made only a handful of appearances in over 550 episodes, it was still a funny, solid half hour of television.

"[18] IGN rated the episode 5.8, concluding "Between an anticlimactic death and a redundant conflict, The Simpsons didn't start Season 26 off on the right foot".