Herschel Shmoikel Pinchas Yerucham Krustofsky, better known as Krusty the Clown (sometimes spelled as Krusty the Klown), is a cartoon character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta. He is the long-time clown host of Bart and Lisa's favorite TV show, a combination of kiddie variety television hijinks and cartoons including The Itchy & Scratchy Show. Krusty is often portrayed as a cynical, burnt-out, addiction-riddled smoker who is made miserable by show business but continues on anyway.

The third season episode "Like Father, Like Clown" is the first to establish that Krusty is Jewish. Krusty's religion had not been part of the original concept, and the idea came from Jay Kogen. The episode is a parody of The Jazz Singer, which is about a son with a strict religious upbringing who defies his father to become an entertainer. In order to make "Like Father, Like Clown" a full parody of The Jazz Singer, the decision was made to make Krusty Jewish and have his father be a Rabbi. Krusty's real last name, Krustofsky, was pitched by Al Jean. Krusty's father, Rabbi Hyman Krustofsky was played by Jackie Mason, who won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for the episode. It was established in "Krusty Gets Busted" that Krusty is illiterate. This was shown in subsequent episodes like "Itchy & Scratchy & Marge" but the trait was dropped after the first few seasons because it was hard for the writers to write for an illiterate character. Krusty's design has undergone several subtle changes since the early years. For the episode "Homie the Clown", Krusty's design was permanently enhanced and he was given a different shaped mouth muzzle and permanent bags under his eyes in order to distinguish him from Homer. In the episode "Lisa's Wedding", which is set fifteen years in the future, Krusty's design was significantly altered to make him look considerably older and was based on Groucho Marx. Krusty is a favorite character of several of the original writers, many of whom related themselves to him and wanted to write the Krusty-focused episodes. Krusty was used as a chance for show business jokes and thus many of Krusty's experiences and anecdotes are based on real experiences and stories heard by the writers. He was a particular favorite of Brad Bird, who directed the first two Krusty episodes and always tried to animate a scene in every Krusty episode. In 1992, Matt Groening and James L. Brooks began planning a live-action spin-off from The Simpsons that revolved around Krusty and would star Dan Castellaneta as Krusty. They pitched the series in 1994. Groening and Michael Weithorn wrote a pilot script where Krusty moved to Los Angeles and got his own talk show. A recurring joke throughout the script was that Krusty lived in a house on wooden stilts which were continuously being gnawed by beavers. Eventually, the contract negotiations fell apart and Groening decided to stop work on the project. CANNOTANSWERAnswer this question using a quote from the following article:

before the project failed what was he working on

Groening and Michael Weithorn wrote a pilot script where Krusty moved to Los Angeles and got his own talk show.