MRS. GUMBLE: Barney, did you finish your milk?
Yes, Ma. (burps)
MRS. GUMBLE: Have fun playing in the gutter!
BARNEY: Anchors aweigh!
(laughing)
It's floating.
It's still floating!
This is fun to me. I love you, paper boat!
(laughs)
Oh, no!
Aw...
-Hiya, Barn. -(gasps)
I'm Krusto, the funniest clown
in the whole wide world.
Uh, people who have to tell you they're funny usually aren't.
Can I get my boat back, sewer clown?
Why, sure.
Just reach in and take it.
Hmm. (straining)
That's right, build the tension.
(growls)
BARNEY: Aah!
Keep the boat! Keep the boat!
Ow! Ow! (screaming)
♪
Don't worry, Barn.
When a kid goes missing in this town, we find them.
Hmm... Mm...
Sorry, Waylon.
Hey there, Ruthie.
How are the little ones?
Oh, you know kids. Still missin.'
Ah, they disappear so fast, don't they?
(chuckles)
♪
(grunting)
(laughing)
Hey there, Simpson.
Super-Intense-Kid Chalmers!
Look what I traded my dog for.
-(yelps) -(cackles)
Huh?
Creepy clown, go get help!
-Hmm? -Hmm? -Hmm?
(grunting)
After him!
(grunting)
Step away from the whimpering coward.
(grunting)
Time to bring out the big guns.
(grunting)
Aah! (groans)
It's a fair fight.
Let's run away!
(all whimpering)
HOMER: Hmm?
Oh, oh, you're hurt, you poor thing.
No girl has ever called me a "thing" before.
I've seen you guys around.
You're the school outsiders, aren't you?
We sure are. The comic book nerd, the tomboy.
The scuzz.
And the one Black kid in all of Maine.
We call ourselves The Losers Club.
It's a name we are no longer fighting.
Ooh.
We have a first aid kit in our clubhouse. Come on.
Um, FYI, new guy.
I called dibs on Marge in the second grade.
Find your own secret knockout
who doesn't recognize her own self-worth. (grunts)
Sweet clubhouse, right?
They used it to store tartar sauce during the war.
You're all gonna think I'm crazy,
but when those bullies were gonna kill me,
I saw an evil clown.
I-I've seen the clown, too.
I was in the bathroom, uh, painting my nails...
Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!
(timer dings)
Hmm? (grunts)
Come on, I need water.
CLOWN: How's about...
a little seltzer?
Aah!
(whimpers)
Help!
He...
(panting)
-(burps) -Holy moly,
bleach your mustache.
You look like El DeBarge.
The clown knew my greatest fear:
drowning in seltzer.
-HOMER: Mm. -(clears throat)
I saw the clown, too.
But he came to me as a ventriloquist dummy.
-Hey, kid. -Hmm?
I went on a date with your mother last night.
(whimpers)
You might want to check her for splinters!
(cackles)
He was implying they made love.
I was in my bedroom, reading.
Wanna swap spit?
Aah!
-(cackles) -Aah!
I saw him too.
He came to me as the rotting corpse of my grandmother
in a hot tub full of maggots.
We get it, we get it, no need for a flashback.
I bet that evil clown is the one
who took all the missing kids in town.
We need to find out what we're up against.
Which means doing the thing we all fear most:
-homework. -Aah!
-Oh God, no. -But it's summer.
HOMER: Your arm is summer lightning.
Your bravery, the storm.
Hmm. (gasps)
Like a chimp at the zoo, I'm bananas for you.
MARGE: Homer!
Homer, I found him. In this.
The clown has been in Kingfield before.
He's always been here.
BROCKMAN: Channel 14 and Fume Champ
Super-Leaded Gasoline present
The Yuk-Yuk Hour with Krusto the Clown.
-(applause) -(kids cheering)
Hey, hey!
Thanks for the big hand.
(audience laughs)
In 1936 he had a radio hour.
In 1909, a vaudeville review.
And in 1882, he was an emcee for a freak show.
And the strangest thing is...
He was never, ever funny.
He comes back every 27 years.
And when he does...
I gorge myself on pre-teens.
ALL: Aah!
(laughs)
Aah! Oh. (grunting)
(kids whimper, scream)
What's the difference between a Twinkie and a fat kid?
I don't feel guilty when I eat a fat kid.
(children laughing)
Ah...
Homer, catch!
Gah! My wattle!
My beautiful wattle!
Now I'm really big and scary!
(gasps)
Temporary setba...
I don't want to die and be buried in a kid coffin.
It costs the same as a regular-sized.
I overheard my parents pricing 'em.
-(sobbing) -Calm down.
(grunts) Well, that's my fetish now.
Look, don't you see?
We hurt him.
And if we can hurt him, we can kill him.
Ooh.
Oh...
♪
Hmm?
(scoffs) "Bananas for you"?
-HOMER: Mm? -Oh!
(laughing)
That romantic son of a bitch.
When she reads this, she'll be his forever.
(all shudder)
(all gasp)
HOMER: Free candy?
(gasps) Let's eat it before the clown shows up!
-(laughs) Aah! -Aah!
Hey, hey, kids!
What time is it?
CHILDREN: Time to laugh for Krusto.
Attack!
(exclaims)
Our whimsical weapons-- they're useless.
Don't you kids get it?
I'm completely invinci...
Whoa! (exclaiming)
Aah!
(groans, grunts)
Oh!
(laughing)
Wait, I never heard that before.
Real laughter. That I actually earned.
Hey, hey, kids, if you like that,
watch this.
(exclaiming)
Hot!
(laughing)
Eh? Eh?
He's killing himself for laughs.
Hey, clown.
Why don't you eat these?
Oh! Cherry bombs in the mouth.
That's a great gag.
Oh...
So this is what it feels like not to bomb.
Whoa!
(exclaiming)
No, you tricked me!
You're nothing but a bunch of losers.
And that's all you'll ever be!
-(gasps) -(sighs)
We're not dead.
Somebody pinch me.
Somebody slap me.
A-Any one of youse. Doesn't-doesn't matter.
Guys, let's make a pact:
if the clown comes back in 27 years,
no matter where we all end up,
we'll come back home and finish the job.
Now let's find out if this water is deep enough
-for jumpin'! -(whooping)
Uh...
-Mwah. -Huh?
I got your poem.
I want my first love to be the boy who wrote those words.
B-By that, you mean me, of course.
Kiss me for the rest of the summer.
Wait, this isn't right.
I'm the one I wanted Marge to fall in love with.
Eh, cheer up, Homer.
We got our whole lives ahead of us.
Maybe you guys do.
I think mine just ended.
Oh, Marge. Mwah, kissing.
-This. -I'm so happy.
Oh yes. (giggling)
-(grunts) -Hey,
that bakery wasn't here this morning.
Well, there's no kids around.
Might as well bully adults.
Hey Pie Man! Gimme a...
(grunts)
Dude, are you okay?
(all screaming)
♪
(Lenny laughs)
Oh, Moleman,
I can't imagine my life without you seated next to me
every night here at D'ohs Tavern.
You're my best friend.
I'm cold.
(sighs)
Hmm?
One teen was killed by a pie to the face.
Another's intestines were twisted into balloon animals.
And the last, choked by a chain of hankies so long,
police are still pulling it out.
No, the clown can't be back.
Unless it's... (gasps)
27 years later.
I got to tell the other Losers that it's time to come home,
so we can end this.
I wonder if their lives turned out as lousy as mine.
♪
♪ Here I am ♪
♪ Rock you like a hurricane ♪
♪ Here I am. ♪
(cheering, applause)
Thank you, Las Vegas.
Yeah, rock and roll.
Message for you from your old hometown.
Something about a childhood pact.
Ah...
A pact is a pact. I'm on my way.
Uh, I got to go, guys.
Oh, here's the instructions for destroying the asteroid.
You got this!
ANNOUNCER: Ten, nine...
Homer, it's so nice to hear your voice
after all these years.
Wow, CEO of your own company.
You know, I pictured you growing up to be a softball superstar.
Aw, you were always so sweet.
How have you been?
So good. I practically live on Reddit.
But did you ever get the feeling
that we missed our chance?
I do. I sure wish
we'd done it 27 years ago.
(gasps) Me too! Oh, it's all I think about.
Oh, you mean kill Krusto.
Yeah, that would've been good, too.
Oh, I want to help, but I'm not sure I can.
I have responsibilities now.
-Hi, Mom. -What up, Big Blue?
Bert, my little jazz tubist.
And Lizzie, my special little gal.
Mom, I got an A-plus on my Elizabeth Cady Stanton diorama.
I threw a stink bomb in the teacher's lounge
and bike-locked the door.
Well, I'm so proud of one of those things.
Who's Homer Simpson?
That's a dumb-ass name.
Really? Our father's name is...
Comic Book Guy.
Homer Simpson is someone we knew back in Kingfield.
A town we will never set foot in again.
Mm...
Homer needs us. We're the only ones
who can kill the clown.
We're adults now.
A kid murderer is a kid problem.
What happened to the boy who admired my bravery so much
he put it in a poem?
B-By that, you mean me, of course.
Well, I am a husband now, and a father.
And I'm-I'm...
-I'm... -The same little coward...
You always were! (roars)
Aah!
Marge, I had a dream about him.
He was just as scary as I remember,
but updated for a Gen Z audience.
Honey? Honey?
(grumbles)
To the Losers.
The Losers.
So, how the hell are we gonna stop that unkillable clown?
We ain't exactly children no more.
Yeah, but we're still friends.
We're still full of childlike wonder.
We're still virgins.
-Eesh. -Mm...
Yeah, we're still, uh... (clears throat)
Well, whenever I need to find my courage,
I think of a poem Comic Book Guy wrote for me when we were kids.
Poem?
It's why I fell in love with him.
Marge, there's something
I have to tell you right now,
because if I wait even one more second--
I'm talking one single second, just one--
something might happen that will make me not...
-(door opens) -BERT and LIZZIE: Mom!
Oh... be able to tell you.
Kids, no, what are you doing here?
They're here to collect their mother.
Kids, be good and wait in the car.
Mommy and Daddy have some grown-up yelling to discuss.
Mom and Dad's hometown sure sucks.
Misspelled pet cemetery, Salem's parking lot,
mysterious antique store that charges by the soul.
What the hell are you watching?
Oh...
Wake up! We barely escaped last time.
Why risk our lives now when we have so much to lose?
Present Homers excluded.
(phones dinging, ringing)
Hope you Losers weren't thinking of leaving just yet.
Not without seeing my new star attraction.
Help, Mom!
Dad, get your fat ass down here!
No!
(cackles)
Our kids!
Our phones.
Now it's personal.
Just like it always was.
(grunts)
(sniffs) I smell thousand-year-old flop sweat.
We must be close.
-LIZZIE: Finally! -BERT: Mom, Dad!
-Up here! -(gasps)
Kids! Oh...
Aah!
Well, well. If it isn't the Losers.
Say hello to my studio audience.
(children laughing)
There's no laughter like forced laughter.
We're not afraid of you anymore, clown.
You have no power over us.
He's an astronaut, she's a seltzer big wig,
and I'm a world-famous,
um, virgin.
Oh, damn it.
The point is we've conquered our childhood fears.
Ah, but adults have something much tastier than fears.
Anxieties.
Millions of tiny,
delicious anxieties.
(yelps)
Oh!
(screeching)
You know what I'm thankful for?
The filibuster. Let's talk about it.
ALL: Aah!
-(screeching) -(all whimpering)
But you-- you've got something
worth worrying about.
Why don't I tell Marge
you put your name on the poem
that won her heart, eh?
(yelps)
No, no, please.
It-it wasn't you?
I tried to tell you, just not very hard.
My life is a lie.
Oh...
He must get his sinister powers
from his captive audience.
Just like Jimmy Fallon.
You have to destroy the sign!
Only you can do it, Marge.
Your arm is summer lightning.
Your bravery, the storm.
You're the chimp in the zoo.
And I'm still bananas for you.
Now, throw, throw!
Hmm?
Ah...
(grunting)
(whimpering)
(grunts)
No!
Why were we laughing?
This show sucks.
Let's go up to heaven
and bask in the glory of God's stupid love.
♪
My audience! No!
It took me years to grow them.
(groans) Eh?
Aah! Oh... Oh!
I can't start over! Oh!
What would that even look like?
(whimpers)
Dancing for followers on TikTok?
(groans)
I haven't written a joke since 1647.
Aah! And that material has not...
(exclaiming, grunting): aged...
well. Oh...
I blame cancel culture.
You were finally brave.
Does this make up for lying to you all these years?
Oh, honey.
Of course not.
No, I get it. (groans)
HOMER: Mm...
Growing up isn't easy.
The traumas we lived as kids can haunt us forever,
lurking in the corners of our mind.
We can't undo the harm,
but with a little help, we can survive it.
And live the life we were always meant to.
The humans have vanquished our thousand-year-old clown,
but surely they will be no match for our next nightmare--
a Saint Bernard with rabies.
Mm...
An angry car?
Put that in the "maybe" pile.
How about a prom that goes seriously wrong?
Haunted hotel?
What about some Tommyknockers?
Those sound scary.
Yes, yes!
(cackling)
-Tommyknockers. -Tommyknockers.
(cackling continues)
-Tommyknockers. -Tommyknockers.
Captioning sponsored by 20th CENTURY FOX TELEVISION
and FOX BROADCASTING COMPANY
and TOYOTA.
Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH access.wgbh.org
(shrieks)