Eastern Europe’s Favorite Cat and Mouse Team

by Video of the Day on February 7, 2008 | Trackback URI | Email This Post | 82 Views

Worker and Parasite (written “???? ??. ??q???” on screen, but in Russian literally “??????? ? ???????”) was a fictional cartoon in The Simpsons episode “Krusty Gets Kancelled.” When the popular cartoon Itchy and Scratchy, featuring a very violent cat and mouse, leaves the Krusty the Clown Show for Krusty’s new competitor, Gabbo, “Eastern Europe’s favorite cat and mouse team, Worker and Parasite,” was a cheap replacement. According to the title screen, it was made in 1959. Simpsons creator Matt Groening maintains that their appearance on the show is one of the best parts of the series.

The cartoon opened with some faux-Cyrillic credits, which are non-sensical in real Cyrillic. The cartoon itself was quite unintelligible, featuring a crudely drawn cat and mouse chattering incoherently and bouncing around to the tune of dissonant background music. Worker and Parasite are first seen in a factory (where a wrench and sickle are visible as well); they then move in front of a line of identical, miserable-looking peasants who are lining up for supplies of some sort, and then within a nest of squiggly lines, possibly meant to represent conflict between the two characters. The cartoon concludes with the screen reading “ENDUT! HOCH HECH!” Afterwards, Krusty’s on-air response (before a vacant studio) was shocked silence, a limp cigarette hanging from his mouth, then promptly, “What the hell was that?!”, just before the last member of the audience leaves. Worker and Parasite have also appeared in Simpsons Comics.