In the episode, Krusty the Clown reveals to the Simpsons that he is Jewish and that his father, Rabbi Hyman Krustofsky, kicked him out for pursuing a career in comedy.

The episode was carefully researched and two rabbis, Lavi Meier and Harold M. Schulweis, were credited as "special technical consultants".

Krusty had agreed to have dinner with the Simpsons to repay Bart for helping exonerate him for charges of armed robbery.

Krusty reveals his real name is Herschel Krustofsky (Hebrew: הרשל קרוסטופסקי) and describes his upbringing on the Lower East Side of Springfield.

[5] The quotations from the Talmud were also researched,[4] and two rabbis, Lavi Meier and Harold M. Schulweis, were credited as "special technical consultants".

[9] In the script, Bart and Lisa try to trick Rabbi Krustofsky into meeting with Krusty by arranging a lunch date between him and Saul Bellow, the "Nobel Prize-winning Jewish novelist".

[12] The episode is a homage to the film The Jazz Singer (1927), about a son with a strict religious upbringing who defies his father to become an entertainer.

Lisa tells Homer there are many Jewish entertainers, including Lauren Bacall, Dinah Shore, William Shatner and Mel Brooks.

The scene of a young Krusty practicing comedy in the bathroom is a reference to Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint.

[3] Lisa and Bart try to trick Hyman into meeting Krusty, telling him that "the Nobel-Prize winning Jewish novelist Saul Bellow" wants to have lunch with him at Izzy's Deli.

They tell Krusty that he's to be presented with the Legion of Honor and walks in humming "La Marseillaise", asking to be directed to François Mitterrand's table.

[21] The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, called the episode, "a magnificent show, with Jackie Mason wonderfully over the top as Krusty's long-lost pa, and Lois Pennycandy giving Krusty a good talking to about Bart.

This one gave him a heart, as Bart and Lisa try to reunite him with his estranged rabbi father (voice of Jackie Mason), who has never forgiven his son for going into show biz.

"[16] DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson wrote that the episode "lacks a surfeit of guffaws, but it manages to be sweet and heartfelt without becoming sappy.

Club, Nathan Rabin writes "Like most Borsht-Belt shtick-slingers, Krusty is prickly and hard on the outside but soft, tender and sweet on the inside.

'”[23] In his 2018 memoir Springfield Confidential, Simpsons season 3 showrunner Mike Reiss named the episode as one of four that broke new ground, alongside "Moaning Lisa", "Homer at the Bat" and the original "Treehouse of Horror".

Reiss noted how the episode established several new precedents for the show: it centered on a secondary character, it focused on a non-Christian religion and expert consultants were involved in the writing of the religious debate between the Rabbi and Bart.