The Simpsons Season 34 Episode 4 “The King of Nice” Recap & Review

The King of Nice

Episode 4 of The Simpsons season 34 starts with Krusty the Clown having an argument with his boss over the phone. He doesn’t want to entertain the kids at Kelly Clarkson’s housewarming party. Apparently, he lost all his money on NFTs (Non-funny TV shows), and he kind of needs to do even what he doesn’t like.

At Kelly’s house, children are busy on their phones and Krusty feels the pain of being sidelined. In the washroom, he has an encounter with Lindsey Neagle, a daytime producer. She offers him a job but asks him to prove that he has it in him by making the moms at the party dance. Already unhappy with his job, Krusty reluctantly goes ahead to give it a go. He impresses her with his dancing skills.

At a grocery store, the dog printed on dog food questions Marge about her choice of lifestyle. She joins the focus group moderated by Lindsey. Marge impresses Lindsey with her crazy ideas for tv shows. Some of her pesky ideas include candle unboxing and sniffing, funny bed-making fails, and tweens explaining TikTok to carpool mothers. She is hired as a Segment Producer. She is warned by a fired employee that she is trading her soul for the job, and she won’t get out of there unchanged.

Marge is fired up and excited to begin the work. She is enjoying her new cabin and salads with dressing. Meanwhile, Krusty is being prepared to nail the talk-show as a host. When Krusty questions he doesn’t have any jokes in his script, Lindsey tells him that his job is just to be nice. And, that’s all.

Initially ill-confident, Krusty notices people are literally going bananas over just about anything, and they will laugh and whoop at meaningless things. Marge is getting appreciation for her job, but she soon begins sensing the toxic atmosphere at the work.

Marge walks out on Homer during dinner at a restaurant due to her office work. She is flooded with tasks to ultimately find herself caught in a web of expectations and production. The silliness continues. Homer expresses his concerns telling Marge that she is getting lost due to the work. Marge, however, tries to conceal her true emotions, and continues with the production.

In an expected turn of events, Krusty’s show is under fire for toxic work atmosphere. In response, Krusty delivers an apology-less apology written for him by show writers. Marge’s conscience finally takes control, and she steps up to talk her heart out – revealing the truth about the show. Krusty takes responsibility for everything bad happening. But, later he tells Marge he did so only because he’s got another show.

Back at home, Marge lovingly tells her family that her favourite job is raising her family.

The Episode Review

There’s a surprising lack of humour in this latest Simpsons episode. And, the instances of humour that are here fall into tired clichés. The episode tries to exploit an already worn-out plot that has been seen a million times before and it doesn’t work here. Even seeing a fresh plot fail would be preferable to this. I’d only recommend watching this one if you have nothing better to watch.

The Simpsons is a far cry from the lofty heights it once hit but this latest episode is rock bottom for The Simpsons and we’re really hating where this one is heading!