- Worker and Parasite redirects here. For the comic, see Presenting Eastern Europe's Favorite Cartoon Cat and Mouse Team: Worker and Parasite!
| The Worker & Parasite Show
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| TV Show Information
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The Worker & Parasite Show (in Russian Рабочий И Паразит) was a cartoon. 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.
History
The cartoon opened with some Cyrillic-looking credits, which account for nothing 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 random, depressing 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 a pit of snakes. The cartoon concludes with an out of tune tone and 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 saying, "What the hell was that?!"
Behind the Laughter
- Simpsons creator Matt Groening maintains that their appearance on the show is one of the best parts of the series.
- The title of the cartoon Worker and Parasite is a reference to social parasitism, which was a crime in the Soviet Union.
- There has been some speculation as to what "Endut! Hoch Hech!" means. The Season 4 DVD audio commentary for the episode however claims that writer John Swartzwelder had no intended meaning for the phrase in question.
- Worker and Parasite has not appeared on the show since, but they have made a few appearances in Simpsons comic books, this time speaking somewhat intelligible English.
- In one comic, the duos dialogue is said to be "translated from the Slovakian."
Appearances
