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The sound of theremin is in the air, and that means it’s time for The Beat’s finest contributors will share our favorite The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror segments. But there’s a twist.
We’ve each chosen our favorite SEGMENT (not episode) from Treehouse of Horror(s) I through XXXVI, “Thanksgiving of Horror,” “Treehouse of Horror Presents: Not It” or “Treehouse of Horror Presents: Simpsons Wicked This Way Comes.” HOWEVER, if someone else had already written up a segment, it could NOT be chosen a second time.
Which Treehouse of Horror segment is your favorite? Be sure and let us know in the comment section. SPOILERS AHEAD. You’ve been warned!
BILLY HENEHAN: “Citizen Kang” from “Treehouse of Horror VII.” “Don’t blame me; I voted for Kodos” will forever be one of my top quoted lines from The Simpsons. It epitomizes Homer’s narrow-view stupidity, while lampooning the hacky “Don’t blame me, I voted for ____” bumper sticker that has only been replaced by the equally hacky “I did that” sticker.
The ‘96 presidential election was the first election in which I voted, and while many outlets bemoaned the similarities between the Democratic and Republican candidates, none quite did it as well as The Simpsons having Kang and Kodos disguised as Bill Clinton and Bob Dole walking down the street hand in hand to the befuddlement of onlookers. Dole: “Fooling these Earth voters is easier than expected.” Clinton: “Yes, all they want to hear are bland pleasantries embellished by an occasional saxophone solo, or infant kiss.”
And who could forget Dole’s-attempt to-appease-everyone platform of “Abortions for some, miniature American flags for all,” a line that centrist politicians seem to still be unwittingly aping today.
Do not touch Willie! – AJFGREGORY PAUL SILBER: “The Shinning” from “Treehouse of Horror V.” Reading the original Stephen King novel The Shining was a formative experience when I was about 13. The Room 237 scene (much different, and even scarier, than the still-terrifying Jack Nicholson scene in the movie) made me afraid to open the shower curtain for weeks. As famous as the book is, I still think it’s an unsung masterpiece, primarily for the way Jack Torrance gradually, horrifyingly transforms from a protagonist to an antagonist while we’re in his head as readers.
I have serious qualms with the Stanley Kubrick film adaptation (though I don’t dislike it nearly as much as King himself), but watching it at a sleepover at my house with some friends, my way-too-young 11-year-old brother, and my Dad in eighth grade is a core memory. Even at 14, my father still didn’t usually let me watch R-rated movies, so this was the first real gore-and-all horror movie I ever saw. It absolutely terrified me, so seeing it brilliantly and hilariously parodied on my favorite show, The Simpsons, was a special experience.
I could easily just list off quotes that make me laugh, but perhaps what I find most endearing about The Shinning is how it skewers one of the most frustrating changes from the book to the film: instead of a slow-burn into madness like the book, in the film, the character pretty much immediately loses his mind. So of course “no TV and no beer make Homer go crazy.”
TAIMUR DAR: “The Devil and Homer Simpson” from “Treehouse of Horror IV.” It’s dawned on me that the vast majority of my favorite Treehouse of Horror segments prominently star or showcase Homer. This segment that sees Homer sell his soul to the devil for a donut in a parody of The Devil and Daniel Webster is no exception. As most are aware, amiable neighbor Ned Flanders has garnered a reputation as one-note character defined primarily by his Christian fundamentalism resulting in the term “flanderization.” So the joke of Flanders being the devil has only gotten more hilarious with age. “It’s always the one you least suspect.” This segment is a smorgasbord of visual delights, in particular Homer’s torture in Hell. Homer being fed all the donuts in the world is a classic cartoon gag that harkens back to shorts such as Pigs is Pigs directed by Friz Freleng.
JORDAN JENNINGS: “Clown Without Pity” from “Treehouse of Horror III.” “The Doll is trying to kill me and the toaster’s been laughing at me!” is a quote I say all the time. This early Treehouse of Horror special plays around with the theme of the evil doll, made most famous by Child’s Play. The horror elements are definitely more tame but it is just chock full of humor and memorable scenes in just a short segment. This premise is not far from a typical episode–Homer forgetting to get Bart a birthday present. Instead of buying him a Superstar Celebrity Microphone, he instead buys Bart the cursed Krusty Doll. The humor is pop culture and sight based with some of the best visual gags stimming from the fact it’s Krusty the Clown but in doll sized form.
AJ FROST: “Homer³” from “Treehouse of Horror VI.” The Simpsons has done a lot of wild stuff over the years, but Homer stumbling into the third dimension? Breathtaking for the ‘90s and breathtaking today.
The setup is pure Golden Age Simpsons: We find Homer hiding from Patty and Selma and he finds a portal behind the bookcase, walking into a rudimentary, yet revolutionary CGI purgatory. Homer looks absolutely ridiculous rendered in this 3D style, but that’s the point. Watching him wade through floating equations (presaging some of the mathematical esoteria of Futurama) while mumbling “Ooh, erotic cakes!”* is Simpsons energy humming in its purest form.
I remember the whole thing getting genuinely unsettling when the dimension starts to collapse. There’s this weird dread underneath the comedy, as we see bits of Homer reduced to his essential geometric elements.
And that ending? A perfect non sequitur that showed the innovation of Simpsons postmodern comedy. Homer falls through another portal and lands in live-action Los Angeles, immediately starts looking around, and the segment just ends. No explanation, no resolution, just Homer wandering the “human world” and cut to black.
“Homer³” is what made mid-90s Treehouse of Horror essential viewing. The show was at strongest and confident enough to get strange, experimental, and completely off-the-wall. It’s the kind of ambitious swing you don’t see them take much anymore currently. And it still rules.
*Also the name of a gnarly jazz fusion album by Guthrie Govan.
AVERY KAPLAN: “SimpsonsWorld” from “Treehouse of Horror XXXIII.” “Treehouse of Horror XXXIII” is an exceptionally strong recent outing for The Simpsons‘ long-running subseries… and there’s been a whole lot of good material in the recent “Treehouses.” In “SimpsonsWorld,” a parody of WestWorld, one of the robotic Homers gains self-awareness and attempts to escape a Simpsons amusement park. After gathering the rest of the family, American’s favorite non-prehistoric animated family manages to escape the park… only to find themselves trapped inside a nearby dome that houses the corresponding Bob’s Burgers park. As a Futurama-esque human technician tries to explain to the newly awakened robot Homer, “I know it feels like you’re a man, but you are actually something much, much more expensive: intellectual property.”
The Simpsons, including every “Treehouse of Horror” episode except XXXVI, is currently available for streaming on Disney+.
“Treehouse of Horror XXXVI” is currently available for streaming on Hulu.
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