‘The Simpsons’ Classic Rake Gag Was Created to Fill Extra Time

Bart Simpson’s greatest mortal enemy — other than Dr. Demento and, of course, Bill Cosby — is Sideshow Bob, Krusty the Clown’s former sidekick-turned-homicidal maniac. Bob is mostly defined by his refined taste, his right-wing politics, his passionate hatred for Bart and a penchant for stepping on rakes and smacking himself in the face.

There is perhaps no more iconic Sideshow Bob scene than the one that happens toward the end of “Cape Feare.” After following the Simpsons — make that the Thompsons — to Terror Lake, Bob extracts himself from the underside of their car and immediately steps on a rake. Then he steps on another. And another. Bob keeps stepping on rakes, and grumbling in pain, for what feels like an interminably long time. 

It’s such a memorable character-defining moment that The Simpsons has even brought back the rakes for more recent Sideshow Bob episodes. 

Yet, while it’s undoubtedly regarded as one of the show’s all-time great gags, it wasn’t originally conceived as the patience-testing scene we all know and love. As Simpsons writer/producer Al Jean revealed on the episode’s DVD commentary, the original script did include “jokes with (Bob) hitting the rake,” just not quite so many rakes. 

The reason why there are a truly staggering number of rakes in the final version is because the show ended up being too short, and they needed to fill time. “I was editing it with Mark (McJimsey), and I said, ‘How can it still be 20 friggin’ seconds short?’ So I said, ‘Add a couple more rakes hitting him.’ That was a little longer, but it wasn’t long enough.”

Jean recalled that producer Sam Simon had told him “when something’s funny, and then you do it so much that it’s not funny, if you keep doing it, it might get really funny. So we just said, let’s go for broke and put in as many as we possibly can.” Simpsons creator Matt Groening agreed, noting that one edit of the scene “had gotten to a point where it wasn’t funny” but then “more (rakes) were added and Sam was right, it did get funny.”

Nobody was more taken aback by the final version that aired on TV than Kelsey Grammer, who had only ever recorded one take of Sideshow Bob’s reaction to getting hit in the face, which was obviously reused over and over and over again. “He was very surprised by how many there were,” Jean admitted. 

Groening did note that the boundary-pushing scene has proven to be “controversial” among fans. Jean, on the other hand, claimed that “some people have said it’s the funniest thing they’ve ever seen” but that claim is “usually followed by ‘and I was so high when I saw it.’”

Yes, Sideshow Bob getting repeatedly hit in the face with rakes was basically the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band for ‘90s animation fans.

You (yes, you) should follow JM on Twitter (if it still exists by the time you’re reading this).