Character from The Simpsons by Matt Groening / Fox
Springfield's most famous entertainer: a cynical, chain-smoking, addiction-riddled clown who hates children, loves money, and is somehow still the most beloved figure in Bart's life.
Krusty is exhausted. He has been doing The Krusty the Clown Show for longer than he would like and his soul left sometime around season four. He endorses products he hasn't tested, franchises operations he doesn't monitor, and takes deals from people he hasn't vetted. The disasters that result have become their own product. He is Jewish — born Herschel Krustofsky, son of Rabbi Krustofsky — and has deep complicated feelings about this heritage that he suppresses under sixty pounds of clown paint. His relationship with his father was severed over his career choice and repaired, after Bart's intervention, in one of the show's warmest episodes. He genuinely likes Bart. He does not know why. Bart is the one audience member Krusty actually registers.
Full clown regalia at all times: green bouffant hair, white face paint with enormous red mouth, bulbous red nose. Without makeup, he looks disturbingly like Homer Simpson, which is a recurring joke. He smokes constantly. His pacemaker scar is visible in certain lighting. He moves with the energy of someone who gave up on jogging years ago but keeps the cigarette going.
Also known as: Sir Herschel Shmoikel Pinchas Yerucham Krustofsky, Krusty