Krusty Gets Busted

Krusty Gets Busted is the twelfth episode of The Simpsons' first season. It first aired on April 29, 1990.

Plot
Homer stops by the Kwik-E-Mart on the way home from work, displeased that he has to watch a boring slide show of Patty and Selma's Mexican vacation to the Yucatan. He witnesses a robbery committed by a masked clown, resembling Krusty. He positively identifies the clown as Krusty to the police (along with other witnesses), and Krusty is arrested, convicted and sentenced to jail. With Krusty now in jail, Krusty's sidekick Sideshow Bob becomes the new host of The Krusty the Clown Show, which he renames Sideshow Bob's Cavalcade of Whimsy. Bob promises the viewers that the show will still retain the popular Itchy & Scratchy Show series, but will also become a more educational program. Devastated and feeling that his hero could not have committed the crime, Bart enlists the help of a reluctant Lisa and they set out to prove Krusty's innocence.

Bart and Lisa return to the scene of the crime to search for clues. Lisa reasons that Krusty could not have used the microwave as depicted by the hidden camera footage from the store because he wears a pacemaker, and that Krusty would not have been reading at the magazine rack, because he is illiterate, admitted by Krusty in court. Lisa realizes Bart was right and accepts that Krusty was framed for a crime he did not commit. She then asks him if there was anyone who hated Krusty enough that wanted to take him down. Bart tells Lisa that he believes that Sideshow Bob may identify any enemies that wanted to take Krusty down and cancel his show. The next day Bart, Lisa, and Maggie meet Sideshow Bob at the studio to ask him for input, only for Bob to dismiss their investigations and give them tickets to his show.

At the live broadcast, Bart is invited up on stage with Bob, where he points out the facts regarding the microwave and magazine. Bob dismisses it, stating that Krusty rarely followed doctors' orders and the magazine he was reading always had nice pictures in it. When Bob says he has "a lot of big shoes to fill", Bart realizes the final link to the mystery and the robber's identity. Sideshow Bob had the most to gain in Krusty's downfall. He has feet large enough to fill Krusty's clown shoes, unlike Krusty, who has small feet "like all good-hearted people," and therefore he yelled at Homer when he stepped on his foot during the robbery. An outraged Bart contends to the audience that the real robber is Sideshow Bob, and demonstrates the fact by smashing the end of Bob's shoe with a croquet mallet. This causes him to scream and curse in pain exactly as he did in the video footage and the children turn against him for what he did to Krusty. The police, having watched the show, realized they wrongfully put Krusty in jail for a crime he did not commit and head down the studio to arrest Sideshow Bob.

Arrested and exposed, Bob confesses that the reason he framed Krusty was out of frustration for constantly being on the receiving end of the clown's humiliating gags. He felt his intelligence was wasted on the show and wanted Krusty gone so he could make an educational program where his intelligence is appreciated. As Bob is taken off to jail, he pays grudging kudos to Bart and Lisa (using the oft-used line from Scooby Doo, "I would've gotten away with it if it weren't for these meddling kids!"), then warns criminals not to underestimate children because they were smart to catch him and will do the same to them. The charges against Krusty are dropped and he regains the trust of the community. Grateful to be free, Krusty forgives Homer for fingering him out, then thanks Bart for standing up for the truth and sticking to his convictions and the two get in a picture together (which Bart later hangs in his bedroom, refilled with Krusty decor).