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"Kamp Krusty" is the first episode of The Simpsons' fourth season. Bart and Lisa go to a summer camp with high expectations, but are subjected to a harrowing experience instead. As described in the episodes commentary of The Simpsons - The Complete Fourth Season, The Kamp Krusty script was suggested by James L. Brooks to be lengthened for a Simpsons Movie. Due to problems with making the episode long enough for 80 minutes, this idea was dropped.

This is also the last episode of the show to be animated at Klasky Csupo, which animated the show since season 1. The show would move to Film Roman in the next episode, where it remains to this day.

Synopsis

Template:Spoiler It's the last day of school. After getting Ms. Krabappel to change the Fs on his report card to Cs, Bart, his fellow students, and the faculty tear down the school with chainsaws, flamethrowers and even a wrecking ball, to the tune of Alice Cooper's "School's Out." This turns out to only be a dream, but it really is the last day of school.

Bart and Lisa are excited about being able to spend the summer at Kamp Krusty ("The Krustiest Place On Earth"), a summer camp run by Krusty the Clown, but Homer has made Bart's visit conditional on his getting at least a C average on his report card. At school, Bart finds Ms. Krabappel has given him a D- in each subject. On the bus ride home, he uses a marker to fix each grade to an A+. Bart presents the card to his dad, but Homer sees through the ruse ("A+?! You don't think very much of me, do you, boy?"). Homer chides Bart for not faking plausible grades ("You know, a D turns into a B so easily. You just got greedy.") but admits that he didn't really want to have Bart around the house all summer, so he can go to Kamp Krusty after all.

The kids of Springfield all leave for Kamp Krusty. Once there, the camp's director, Mr. Black - who licenses the Krusty brand for his camp - announces that Krusty won't be around for a few weeks, and instead Springfield Elementary's bullies, Jimbo, Dolph, and Kearney, will enforce order. At Kamp Krusty, the cabins are decrepit and vermin-infested, the lake is too dangerous to swim in, and the kids are fed nothing but Krusty Brand Imitation Gruel ("Nine out of ten orphans can't tell the difference"). Meanwhile, with the older kids gone, Homer and Marge are having a wonderful summer together. Homer has even grown two extra strands of hair and lost a few pounds. Lisa sends a letter to Marge, describing how the kids are forced to make wallets for export in arts and crafts, and hikes have become brutal forced marches, but Marge and Homer think she's exaggerating. Bart retains the hope that Krusty will come and save the kids. Krusty himself, unaware of any of this, approves more shoddy merchandise bearing his name before heading off to Wimbledon.

Mr. Black announces to the campers that Krusty has finally come, but it's just local drunk Barney Gumble dressed as Krusty. This indignity leads Bart to finally snap; he leads the campers in rebellion, driving out Mr. Black and the bullies, and establishing Camp Bart. The newscaster Kent Brockman arrives at the camp to report on the revolt; when Homer watches the live broadcast and finds Bart is the leader, he instantly loses his newly-grown hair and gains back his weight. Krusty is called back from Wimbledon in England and comes to the camp to apologize to the kids, saying he was offered "a dumptruck full of money" in exchange for putting his name on the camp. To make it all up to the campers, he offers to take them to the happiest place on Earth: Tijuana. The kids and Krusty have fun together in Mexico.

Trivia

• Bart's locker combanation is 36,24,36
• When Lisa is giving mail back to the campers, we hear the first indication that Ralph's last name was Wiggum.

Cultural references

• Ben Hur - The scene where Kearney beats a drum to make the youthful campers work in the sweatshop is taken from the slave galley scene in the 1959 film.
• Collapse of the Soviet Union - The Krusty totem pole suffers the same fate as various statues of Communist leaders (e.g., Felix Dzerzhinsky, Vladimir Lenin) in the camp revolt scenes.
• Lord of the Flies - Various references during the camp revolt scenes (kids using primitive weapons and wearing war paint, the burning effigy, a fly-covered pig's head skewered on a stake behind Brockman). Lord of the Flies would be more explicitly parodied in the episode Das Bus.
• Disneyland - The slogans "The Krustiest place on Earth!" (Kamp Krusty) and "The happiest place on Earth!" (Tijuana, Mexico) are plays on the slogan for Disney theme park resorts, "The Happiest Place on Earth!" Additionally, Black mentions that he was previously head of Euro Krustyland before it exploded, a parody of the unpopularity of Euro Disneyland.
• The episode ends with the song "South of the Border".
• Seven Chances - Bart, Milhouse and Lisa run for cover from falling rocks just like Buster Keaton in this 1925 film.
• Apocalypse Now - "Camp Bart" resembles Col. Kurtz's camp to an extent

The Kamp Krusty Song

Hail to thee, Kamp Krusty
By the shores of Big Snake Lake
Though your swings are rusty
We know they'll never break!
Kearney: Louder! Faster!
From your gleaming mess hall
To your hallowed baseball field
To your spic-and-span infirmary
Where all our wounds are healed!
Hail to thee Kamp Krusty
Below Mt Avalanche