zio anza
1 HN recommender · recommended in 3 months, 2022–2026
0:35 · 1.5M views · Nov 21, 2013
A clip from The Simpsons episode 'Krusty Gets Kancelled' showing 'Worker and Parasite', an Eastern European take on Itchy and Scratchy. It is reportedly one of Matt Groening's favorite moments from the show.
HN brings it up as a funny parody of odd Eastern European cartoons and as a joke about automation or replaced entertainment.
3 comments from Hacker News
The Czechs have historically had a fairly significant animation industry, and the vast majority are very cute, e.g.: [0][1]. There also exist a few stop motion animation films intended for adults, and those can be more arthouse (e.g. Alice). [2] In America, Czech cartoons somewhat unfairly have the reputation for being weird, because a dozen Tom & Jerry episodes were made in Prague in the early 1960s in very weird circumstances, on a shoe-string budget by animators unaccustomed to the very idea of violent cartoons. [3] These were received with some confusion by the American audience in the midst of the Cuban Missile Crisis. From this you then have consequent parodies like The Simpsons' Worker and Parasite , which - though not exactly a fair reflection of Czech animation - is absolutely hilarious. [4] [0] Krtek a telefon / The Little Mole and the Telephone : [LINK] [1] Krtek chemikem / The Little Mole as the Chemist : [LINK] [2] [LINK] [3] The story of this is told here: [LINK] [4] this video
> I can't describe the disappointment of rushing home from school to find the Looney Tunes slot on BBC 2 be replaced by a "cultural exchange" cartoon from Eastern Europe. Interesting. The Simpsons had a bit about cartoons being replaced by weird Eastern European cartoons [1]. I didn't know that actually happened in real life. [1] this video
I shouldn't admit it, but when you described a czechoslovakian cartoon about automation, my first thought went straight to this: this video