Simpsons Top 100 Countdown

#51 Bart the Fink
Season 7, Episode 15 (Guide from the Simpsons Archive)

After each member of the Simpson family inherits $100, Marge insists that Bart and Lisa put theirs in the bank. Bart gets a checking account, and he issues a check for a small amount to Krusty so that he can get Krusty’s signature on the cancelled check. Finding a stamp for a Cayman Islands offshore holding company, he goes to the bank to complain, which leads to Krusty getting busted for tax fraud. After seeing his possessions auctioned away and obscene budget cutbacks to his show, Krusty flies his plane through the town as a farewell before flying it into a mountain. After his funeral, Bart keeps noticing a man with a strange resemblance to Krusty. After putting the pieces together, he takes Lisa with him to the docks, where they find and confront Krusty, eventually talking him into coming back. Unlike some other episodes, the show explains how everything can return back to normal by Krusty faking the death of his alter-ego, whose life was insured “for a surprisingly large amount.” Memorable moments include the haunted house, the bank and their promotions, IRS Burger, the redone show, Skinner, the funeral, Chief Wiggum on the job at the scene of the crash, Handsome Pete (one of the few instances where I think I prefer the syndication cut, where it makes it look like they stiffed him, which I found funnier than the original), the auctioning of Krusty’s stuff, Homer telling Bart about death, Homer listing off dead people, Lisa not consoling Bart, and the man from the Cayman Islands offshore holding company.