Africa Is a Country

Krusty the Clown's Activism

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

Krusty the Clown's Activism

By
Sean Jacobs

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3OoeAeZM5Q&w=500&h=307&rel=0]

The opening episode of the new series of “The Simpsons” features a convoluted plotline where the character Krusty the Clown ends up in the Hague tried for war crimes. This is a clip from the episode.  As the South African blogger Chris Roper summarizes it (in an equally convoluted blog post):

“[At The Hague] … Bart and Homer need to find some saving grace in Krusty’s past, and this turns out to be Krusty’s refusal to play Sun City in 1990. [Remember in the 1980s, to protest Apartheid, a number of US artists refused to play Sun City, the gambling resort built in the Bophuthatswana bantustan where whites could “mix” with blacks and pretend they’re in Las Vegas.] Three days after his refusal, Nelson Mandela is freed from prison. This congruence of events leads to Krusty being pardoned, and released. …Krusty’s refusal to play Sun City [it turns out, is] not a political statement, but a protest about the kind of potato chips in his dressing room.  Krusty makes his heroic statement (“I ain’t going to play Sun City”), and then turns to his band and says, “Vuvuzela me out of here”. The band swops their instruments for vuvuzelas, and the discordant sound of the World Cup serenades Krusty from the stage.”

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