Treehouse of Horror VIII
| "Treehouse of Horror VIII" | |
|---|---|
| The Simpsons episode | |
| File:Flybart.PNG | |
| Episode no. | Season 9 |
| Directed by | Mad Dog Kirkland |
| Written by | (Ghostwriters) Mike Scully David S. Cohen Ned Goldreyer |
| Original air dates | October 26th, 1997 |
| Episode features | |
| Couch gag | The family gets electrocuted in Electric chairs. |
| Commentary | Matt Groening Mike Scully David X. Cohen Mark Kirkland George Meyer Matt Selman |
"Treehouse of Horror VIII" is the fourth episode of The Simpsons' ninth season, as well as the eighth Halloween episode. The episode aired on October 26th, 1997.
Opening sequence
A FOX censor, sitting at his desk paging through the script and deleting things, proudly announces that thanks to his editing tonight's Simpsons episode is rated TV-G, with "no raunchy NBC-style sex, or senseless CBS-style violence." But as he says this, a hand with a sword appears out of the on-screen rating icon and stabs him in the back repeatedly, causing him to swear, and the displayed rating increases to TV-PG, TV-14, TV-MA, all the way to "TV-21" and "TV-666". As he collapses dead onto the desk, blood pours down the front to reveal the title, "The Simpsons Halloween Special VIII".
Plot
The HΩmega Man
Mayor Quimby generates a great deal of controversy over a "frog's legs" joke he makes about France, and the French president warns him that if he doesn't apologize, the French will nuke Springfield. While Homer is inspecting a bomb shelter he's considering buying from Herman, the French follow through with their threat. They launch a neutron bomb (with the Intel Inside logo on it) directly to Springfield. After the blast, Homer emerges from the shelter to find that he seems to be the only person to have survived. He misses the rest of the family, but he quickly gets over his loss and realises that he can now do whatever he pleases, from watching a Chris Farley/David Spade movie to dancing naked in church. While dancing, he is confronted by a band of Springfield citizens who have become mutants. They claim that they want to create a perfect world in which the mistakes of the past will be eliminated. This of course, includes killing Homer. Homer flees home in a stolen hearse. He arrives home and finds that his family survived the blast because their house was protected by many layers of lead paint. Seeing Homer reunited with his family makes the mutants see the error of their ways. They hope they can build a Utopian society with the Simpsons, but Marge and the children open fire with shotguns that they were hiding behind their backs. Homer and his family decide to take advantage of the nuclear holocaust and go and steal some Ferraris.
Fly Vs. Fly
Homer buys a teleporter from Professor Frink at his yard sale after ignoring the warning of a mix-up between two people at the same teleporter at the same time. Bart asks Homer if he can use it, but Homer refuses. After making a pet that is a cross between Santa's Little Helper and Snowball II, Bart hopes he can cross his body with that of a fly's in hopes of becoming a superhero. Because of his idiocy, the fly has Bart's head and the fly's head is on Bart's body. Bart chases after the flyboy, and they get into a huge fight, until the freak-Bart goes through a transporter with a little help from Lisa, returning Bart to normal. Homer then grabs an axe as if to destroy the machine; however, he ignores the teleporter and he tries to attack Bart. Bart runs around the house, fleeing from the axe-wielding Homer. The name is a spin-off from the famous comic Spy vs. Spy from MAD.
Easy-Bake Coven
The year is 1649 and the town of Sprynge-Fielde is witness to many witch burnings. Agnes Skinner is one among those accused of witchcraft and she gets incinerated, much to Seymour's delight. Later in the church, the townspeople try to figure out whom to condemn next. People start accusing others and soon they erupt into chaos, until Marge intervenes. She tries to talk sense into the townspeople, but Moe accuses her of being a witch. Quimby assures her that she is entitled to due process. This process means she will be thrown off a cliff with a broomstick; if she is a witch she will be able to fly to safety, in which case the authorities expect her to report back for punishment. If she is not a witch, then she will fall to an honorable Christian death, being declared innocent posthumously.
Lisa tries to speak on her mother's behalf, but to no avail and Marge gets shoved off the cliff by Wiggum's henchmen. As Lovejoy speaks to the mob about having done the Lord's work, they hear a cackle and all look up, stunned to see that a green-skinned Marge is flying on the broomstick, as she really is a witch.
Marge then cackles that she was the one who withered their livestock, soured their milk and made their shirts itchy. She turns Wiggum into a gopher and Eddie and Lou into a snowman and fairy. She then unleashes a swarm of bats which burst forth from her now black hair and they swarm after the crowd, sending them fleeing and screaming.
She returns to her elder, identical-twin sisters Patty and Selma (also witches, unsurprisingly) in their mountain lair close to Sprynge-Fielde. They ask if she has finally left "Derwood" (a play on Bewitched where Endora, the witchly mother-in-law, always intentionally mispronounced the name of her son-in-law Darren as "Derwood").
The sisters watch (through their cauldron) Ned and Maude Flanders talking about how the witches may eat their children, thus giving them the idea in the first place. Thinking it to be a better idea than just stealing their shoes, the three set off for Sprynge-Fielde on their broomsticks.
They knock on the Flanders' door and demand the kids. Flanders tries to ward them off with a cross, but Patty simply replies "oh, please!". They put the kids in sacks and are about to leave, when Maude offers the witches gingerbread men instead. The witches like these better than the kids and let Rodd & Todd go. They go to each house, getting goodies in exchange for not eating the kids. They later spare Ralph Wiggum, who is pleased for not being eaten, and thanks them causing his father (still a gopher) to remark "You hags are all right!" As they fly off, the Sea Captain says that's how the tradition of Halloween started, with Maude Flanders' quick thinking leading to the Hallowe'en we know today.
The next year, the whole town is celebrating Halloween. Homer (dressed as Jeannie from I Dream of Jeannie) eggs the door of a house from where no candy was received. Lisa points out that it's their house. When everybody starts laughing at him, he accuses Lisa of being a witch, prompting the townspeople to start chasing her down the street.
Cultural references
- The title of "Fly Vs. Fly" is a spoof of the MAD magazine comic "Spy vs. Spy." However, the entire plot is a spoof of the movie The Fly and The Return of the Fly. Bart imagining that he would become a superhero half-man/half-fly hybrid is also reference to what resulted in the 1986 remake of The Fly.
- "The HΩmega Man" is a spoof of the movies The Omega Man and The Last Man on Earth (both based on Richard Matheson's "I Am Legend"), with some elements from Dr. Strangelove (How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb). The use of an Ω in the title spoofs the song Ωmegaman from The Police's 1981 album Ghost In The Machine.
- In "The HΩmega Man" Homer runs over Johnny and Edgar Winter while fleeing the mutants pursuing him. Mistaking the rock musicians for the mutants, Homer cries, "Die, you chalk-faced goons!" The Winter brothers are both albino.
- "Easy Bake Coven" is loosely based on the Salem witch trials, while the title is a reference to the children's toy called an Easy-Bake Oven.
External links
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