(Walks into spooky house)
Howdy, This is PhantomStrider. Even
30 years later, There is still one
Simpsons episode every year that happens to catch my eye without fail.
And that is,
The Treehouse of Horror episodes! *looks around as he hears wooden footsteps*
Generally these Simpsons episodes can fall into one out of two
categories: They can be a colorful but
spooky splash of idea for The Simpsons creators to explore...
Whatever bogus, dark jokes they want
without limitations, or they can be a
clumsily-executed, ram-shacked failure
crammed full of pop-culture references and guest appearances
So lets check out a bit of both sides!
This is what i personally consider
The top 3 best and worst Simpsons Halloween
Episodes, Also just a note
there's a good chance I missed one of your favorites
since i have only about three slots for each side. And feel free to leave your own choices in the comments below. Anyway...
(looks around, floorboard creaks)
Anyway onto the countdown.
#3 Worst Treehouse of Horror episode is
[Homer: David Letterman]
[Grandpa: Hi David, I'm Grandpa] [Homer: DOH!]
Treehouse of horrors 17
The jokes in this spook-less episode are a dreary fuzz.
We start with Homer very insistently eating
Meteorite Goop, that turns him into a hungry blob
The blob is
of course referencing, well, The Blob
which just leads to the dinghy has-been joke
that Homer...eats a lot which I've swear we've seen a few times in the last
640 episodes!
and seriously
EWWWWW! That is not funny, That's just gross
EWWWWW!
And while, nothing against Dr Phil
His cameo on this episode seems very forced
[Dr Phil] You've got a weight problem and you know it!
There is a Jewish Gollum episode too, but its so forgettable
that it is barely worth mentioning.
The third and most infamous segment is a reference to the Orson Welles
radio play from 1938.
[Homer] Burn Everything!
Basically, A radio hoax causes mass panic
Leading to no one later believing the need for panic
when Kodos and Kang arrives and destroy there society
There were surprisingly serious and dark
tones to this segment that led to a surprising
amount of controversy in fact, the original ending scene
was outright deleted.
In the deleted scene
Kodos and Kang look over a decimated Springfield
and say, "This is sure what Iraq would look like"
Personally, i couldn't even crack a chuckle throughout this episode.
and i am still not 100% sure if the third segment was even
meant to be funny
And the third
best Treehouse of Horror episode is
Treehouse of Horrors V
Oh, this episode is just
wonderfully,
unapologetically , brutal and fun
It is definitely among the most savagely
dark episodes. From Marge's introduction
to the inside out end, every boundary
the creators can cross, they do there best not just to step over it
but to spurt blood on it. There's always this sense of
comically over the top brutality and surprise throughout
this episode, and how many memeable outbursts
Did Homer create in this episode
[Marge]: go crazy?
[Homer]: don't mind if i do
(Homer makes a scene)
In fact, The Shining parody is among the best
Halloween combinations that I have seen in The Simpsons.
How does Mr Burns turn Homer into a rampaging killer?
Why, by taking away the cable and beer of course!
As I watched Homer stalk down his family,
I was left with a certain amount of dread in my gut
Yet, I was chuckling at the same time. And to top it off,
I am a massive fan of time travel stories
and that's exactly what the second segment gives us.
Its worth pointing out as well that Homer's little
toaster prehistoric adventure is among the most
realistic representation of time travel we've ever gotten
in popular culture, not the ..err..
broken toaster time machine part, but the
fact that every tiny decision Homer makes in the past
could massively affect the future of the planet
[Grandpa] Because even the tiniest change can alter
the future in ways you can't imagine.
There is always something new being thrown at us in this episode
Eventually, his continual failures just lead to him
going, insane and destroying everything he sees
which seems to work out pretty well for him actually.
And we finish on an absolute monster of a segment. Where cannibalism on children becomes the norm
Its wild, terrifying and crazily over the top
Treehouse of Horrors V is
completely off the wall, dark and madly free
in everything it does
And the second, worst Treehouse of Horror episode is
Treehouse of Horror 11
And here is my controversial pick for the list
I am probably alone in this opinion as this actually is one of
Matt Groening's favorite segments , but personally
I have always HATED this dolphin segment
Looking at it as both a child and an adult, I've
never found anything fun about it. It's just always come off as
Cruel and unpleasant to me. It's basically just watching animals
Overthrow, abuse, bite
and drown people
[Lisa] Oh no, you poor thing.. here..
[Lisa] OW, son of a [Homer] hey, leave my daughter alone.
I mean i get that it has to be a Free
Willy parody, and I also found that movie as
annoying as the next person, but this segment just came off as
too unpleasant to me
and it bugs me how the entire segment is bases on
Lisa's act of kindness being the
downfall of mankind, but most of all
I just love Dolphins! Hell our
Militias uses them to find sea mines and people lost at sea. A dolphin will protect you from a shark attack
The're awesome! demonizing the dolphin
like this has just always bothered me. Overall I found it
a very cynically-spirited Halloween segment
but people are less sensitive than me may still get a good laugh out of this episode
Though I should point out, the first 60 seconds
of this episode is classic. [Homer]: Stupid Horoscope
just watching Homer make fun of his obvious horoscope curse
as like, everything bad possible
happens to him
[Homer] (laughs, speaks gibberish)
And the second best Treehouse of Horror episode is
Treehouse of Horror 2
There's something i really
enjoy about the monkey-paw wish scenario
in movies. It always intrigued me seeing when
everything a persons wishes for comes true
[Homer] We're going to the fanciest restaurant in town.
And even more interestingly, how these wishes can backfire on them
[woman] At first they were cute and funny, but now the are just annoying
Like everyone beginning to hate the Simpsons after the fame
over saturates the market, a bit like what actually happened
and the Frozen scenario.
I remember this whole episode distinctly because i just love the ideas in it
I mean the way way they pose massive ideas like world peace
lined up exactly how i'd picture it
and perhaps the idea of a true world peace
has some fundamental drawbacks
The amount of imagination that comes into this monkey paw segment
has always made me smile when i watch it. Always drawing attention to
the flaws of our dream coming true.
[Mayor Quimby]: we can resolve out difference peacefully...oww!
Treehouse of horror 2, perfectly illustrates
Oscar Wilde's quote of " Life's two tragedies are not
getting what you want and the other is getting it"
Even though it's not that horrific, this is easily one of my
favorite Treehouse of Horror episodes
[Kodos]:ARRRGH, he has a boad with a nail on it
[Kang] :Run Kodos
And before we get to number 1, lets go through some quick honorable mentions
While i liked the ideas they were going for
in the Paranomal Activity spoof,
it ended up a pretty tedious watch. The only part
I thought was awesome was seeing Moe as a demon, i definitely prefer
this ending to paranormal activity
to the real ending of paranormal activity .
Treehouse of horror XXI
I can't fully explain why, but I just
really like this segment with Daniel Radcliffe as a
vampire dating Lisa. As well as the way Homer becomes
friends with Dracula, its just got a really good feel to it
[Homer]: If a mosquito bites you
Does it become a vampire too? [Dracula] Yes
I don't know if it is considered a weak episode or not but I personally
have really good memories of this episode
Treehouse of horrors 8
[Comic Book Guy] Oh I have wasted my life
This is just the kind of ghouls and goblins segment I like
We get a nuclear apocalypse on Springfield
And of course, the Simpsons are the only ones
to not be zombies. I love the colors in this one
and just how it just sets up that feel of a nucelar fallout
atmosphere, and the concept of teleportation
has always fascinated me. And the third segment very
creatively tells us how Halloween started
Treehouse of Horror 26 some people cite this as one of the
worst episodes but personally, i cant hate
any episode with Kelsey Grammar as Sideshow Bob
Seeing Kesley still in this role that he was born to play
Just still brings a smile to me
Treehouse of Horror 1- The Raven
We don't normally get a taste of poetry in popular culture
but Simpsons change that with this episode
Listening to James Earl Jones narrate this eerie Raven poem
Is perhaps the most memorable poem i have ever heard
It was a phenomenal episode to start the Treehouse of Horror
legacy with.
Anyway *heres scary footsteps*
Anyway, on to the countdowns
And the number one worst tree house of horror
episode is..Treehouse of horror 22
Marge: I take your sugary sweet and i give you health items
OK to start with
SHAME ON YOU, for taking all of child's candy away!
While I'm all for fruits and healthy eating, thats just mean
I know its a nick pick but give the kids
one day a year to indulge themselves
The three segments this time are about as memorable and
Un-horrifying for that matter as one as Homer's paralysed
farts
[Lisa] Dad, Urgh!
And trust me you will be hearing a lot of those farts
in this episode, we start by Homer getting paralyzed
having to communicate with Lisa through farting.
*Homer farts* Lisa writes "I miss holding you in my arms more than my butt can say
And while they aren't offensively obnoxious as family guy farting
the jokes just fizzle out with zero impact
but Homer is again bitten by the spider that first paralyzed him
and is turned into a farting spider man
cute I guess? [Homer farts]
But last of all we are left with a boring Avatar
parody which is almost as predictable as the original
avatar. The only difference is that Bart is turned into a
Kang alien and meets a Kang girlfriend.
We then get a soulless romance with some of the most
uninspiring laugh-free jokes i've ever heard
in The Simpsons. and i am so sick of this
tired element of The Simpsons. The highly awkward romances of Bart
are not interesting
they weren't 15 years ago, the're not now.
The worst part of treehouse of horrors 22 is that
Its not even Insultingly bad. It just leaves
zero impact on your brain and just fizzles out of
your hippocampus seconds after it enters
i personally consider it the lousiest Simpsons
Halloween episode we've gotten
and I personally think that the number 1 best Treehouse of horror episode is
Treehouse of Horror 6 : Homer steps into the third dimension
Now this episode
It has stuck with me for being something so
different from anything we have seen in the Simpsons before
As we watch Homer explore the mysterious alternative dimension
of time and space, there is this legitimate
sense of dread and unknown
but excitement at the same time.
We're given time to soak up this alien atmosphere
Homer: Hmmm, Hot processed fishsticks
And dispite 3D being as common as a
3rd world developed cotton t-shirt nowdays
I still find this sense of mystery and other worldy
Majestic of this 3D dimension.
Homer:oops
It's like we are watching the first man step in Mars but,
It's Homer
Homer: ARRRRGGGGHHH
There is this real weight and uncertainty to what
Homer would find or what would happen to him, Eventually to him being
suck up by a black hole
(Homer screams, Bart screams)
And he is sent to the most terrifying universe of all
... did you hear something? for me
Homer Cubed brings about even more unknown and
suspenseful than Halloween, it brings about that sense of
the infinite unknown to the universe
and that in itself is even more powerful to me than
any fear in Halloween. Even watching segment
20 years later, I still get this sense of wonder
and a chill down my spine.
I personally consider
Treehouse of Horror 6, my favorite Halloween episode.
Something that I appreciate about The Simpsons is that
unlike Family guy, they're always trying to breathe new life
into the series, and personally while we've got
creative outlets like treehouse of horror, im OK
if the keep producing these episodes for another 10 years
and if you have a particular favorite or
least favorite Simpsons Halloween episode, feel free
to leave them in the comments below, and as always
Thanks for watching, and I'll see you next time
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