At the Kwik-E-Mart, Homer Simpson introduces himself and takes them to the Springfield Police Department, where they are turned away by Chief Wiggum.

The men celebrate at Moe's Tavern, but their relationships sour when Peter introduces Homer to Pawtucket Patriot ale.

Stewie points out that he took revenge on all of Bart's enemies: Nelson, Jimbo Jones, Principal Skinner, Sideshow Bob, and, for the sake of making a scatological pun, Apu.

Returning home, the Griffins find the heat from Peter's comic has died down and the Pawtucket Brewery is safe when Lois doubts that the inhabitants of Springfield will visit Quahog to enforce the ruling.

Executive producer Richard Appel received Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane's approval and input after brainstorming ideas.

Appel then asked for permission from Simpsons executive producers Matt Groening, James L. Brooks and Al Jean to use their characters.

[1] Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, and Hank Azaria guest star as their Simpsons characters, but Harry Shearer, the final main cast member of The Simpsons, was unavailable due to scheduling conflicts.

"[3] Family Guy writers pitched several storylines for the crossover, including one in which the Griffins stay with Lenny and Carl and never meet the Simpsons, and another one in which their whole series is revealed to be a figment of Ralph Wiggum's imagination.

This was slightly more than the second season premiere of Resurrection on ABC but less than The Good Wife on CBS, both shows in the same timeslot.

"Clown in the Dumps", the earlier premiere of the twenty-sixth season of The Simpsons, was watched by 8.53 million and received a 3.9 rating/11% share in the 18–49 demographics.

[10] Jason Hughes of TheWrap was also generally in praise of the episode, but felt that certain scenes—including both Peter and Homer's fight and an erotic car wash sequence—were "squeamish" and out of place for The Simpsons.

She listed nine reasons for this statement, including her dissatisfaction with the car wash and fight scenes, and the use of sexist jokes which had lost their shock value.

[16] After the episode aired in the United Kingdom in July 2015, Ellen E. Jones, of The Independent, criticized the episode's rape jokes and violence, and theorized that with the poor box-office performance of his latest film Ted 2, audiences were growing tired of MacFarlane's humor.

[17] Ed Power of The Daily Telegraph, however, wrote that Family Guy's usual objectionable content was restrained in the episode, as if it had been "infected" by recent seasons of The Simpsons.