Top 10 Treehouse of Horror Segments
More stories from Seth Montpelier
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- The Shinning: This might be the greatest Simpsons moment altogether. Crafted with true admiration for Kubrick’s classic, “The Shinning” provides rapid-fire jokes too fast to leave a dull moment. Also, Groundskeeper Willie’s exasperated one-liners steal the show.
- Homer³: When Homer gets trapped in an alternative universe, whilst trying to hide from in-laws Patty and Selma, he turns three-dimensional. What should be a silly gimmick turns into a curious, reserved installment into the Simpson’s annual foray into the absurd.
- The Devil and Homer Simpson: Homer sells his soul for a donut and the Devil turns out to be Flanders. If that isn’t reason enough to love this segment, the civil rights trial for Homer’s soul with Lionel Hutz definitely makes it worthwhile.
- Nightmare On Evergreen Terrace: Willie gets center stage again, terrorizing Springfield kids in their dreams after being humiliated by their parents at a PTA meeting. Again, the parody is so lovingly built, parody almost seems too harsh a word.
- Bart Simpson’s Dracula: Mr. Burns, logically, plays a vampire. Wreaking havoc on the Simpsons family, everything escalates into a Charlie Brown Christmas spoof, of all things. The evil antics of Mr. Burns are always a delight.
- Citizen Kang: An alien abduction turns into a satire of the U.S. political system. Kang and Kodos morph themselves into the candidates of the presidential election. Even after they are found out, they win because they prefer aliens to a third-party candidate. It has some of the show’s best quotes.
- A Clockwork Yellow: Moe is the Alex DeLarge of this spoof. The show may have lost some quality in the new millennium, but the animation has become exquisite. This segment features both the old quality in jokes and new quality in animation, in a celebration of Kubrick’s work.
- Telepaths of Glory: Just this past Sunday, The Simpsons were able to pull off some of its best work. This time, the spoof is of the indie film Chronicle, where three kids receive telepathic powers. Milhouse goes mad with the power and the show perfectly masters the found-footage style of the movie.
- There’s No Business Like Moe Business: When the family takes on Sweeney Todd, Moe tries to finally win Marge’s love by putting the blood of a recently deceased Homer in her beer. It is all shown on one set, as if it were a play, even with the possible mistakes in live theater in place.
- Dial D For Diddly: Flanders becomes Dexter when Homer pretends to be God. Ned then offs all of Homer’s enemies. The black comedy of this one comes as a shock, but is also refreshing in how daring it is.
