Watch: Krusty the Klown shouts out Boston Phoenix on The Simpsons

Oh, Krusty: we heart you too, big guy.

In last week's episode of The Simpsons (full episode now watchable here), Krusty gets a show on a premium-cable network. The execs tell him: "Here you don't have to worry about budgets, and the critics are in our pocket." Krusty, horrified: "Even the Boston Phoenix?" Exec #1: "If we don't we'll burn it down." Exec #2: "And that'll be the end of that Phoenix!"

The episode aired, coincidentally, the same week that we started blowing up the Phoenix newsroom and moving to a new spot. Don't worry, though: we may be helpless fanboys of THE WIRE, but that doesn't mean those HBOWTIME thugs got us under their thumb.

Here's the money shot: