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Revision as of 15:38, 22 September 2006
Worker and Parasite (Рабочий И Паразит) 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 under the Khrushchev regime in the USSR. 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 Cyrillic-looking credits. 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 Hammer and Sickle is visible as well); they then move front of a breadline of identical, miserable-looking peasants, and then within a nest of squiggly lines. 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?!"
Coincidentally, the idea bears some similarity to the rather unusual set of Tom and Jerry cartoons (on which Itchy and Scratchy is based) produced in Prague by animator Gene Deitch, and some find the characters resemble Ren and Stimpy.
Judging by the sounds of the voices, the characters were probably portrayed by Simpsons voice actors Dan Castellaneta and Harry Shearer, both of whom also portrayed Itchy and Scratchy on the series.
Worker and Parasite have not appeared on the show since, but they have made a few appearances in Simpsons comic books, this time, speaking somewhat intelligible English.
Other references
The title of the show '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. Although the opening credits show some cyrillic-looking text, the end was written in Latin script. "Endut" obviously resembles the English "end" or "end it". "Hoch Hech" could also be visually interpreted as onomatopoeia for laughter, considering under the Khruschev regime, this would be considered a humorous short (i.e. "The End! Ha ha!"). However, using Russian pronunciation, the words on screen would be transliterated into English as "Yendit! Nosn Nesn!". The words resemble some from the German language, with "Endut" sounding similar to "Ende gut", meaning all's well that ends well; "Endut Hoch" also sounds vaguely like the German "Hände hoch," which means "Hands up!." The Season 4 DVD audio commentary for the episode however claims that writer John Swartzwelder had no intended meaning for the phrase "Endut! Hoch Hech!". The opening card is reads СФИР ЕТ ЅЕРОНЖ, only with a backwards P, though neither a reversed 'P' nor an 'S'-shaped letter exist in Cyrillic. It does not seem to mean anything, but it would be pronounced something like "Sfir Yet Seronzh." In Russian, Worker and Parasite would be something like Рабочий И Паразит