October 20th – “Treehouse of Horror XVII” (S18E04)

Opening:

Mr. Burns plays the Cryptkeeper, introducing the episode with the help of a similarly-styled Smithers. Then they kill Moe. I’m on board.

Married to the Blob:

A meteor full of green goo crashes in the family’s backyard. As expected, Homer eats the goo and soon finds himself filled with an unceasing hunger. He grows larger and larger while devouring everything from food to people, becoming a gargantuan monster and terror to all.

This segment is a total mixed bag. Some of the gags–like the one below, or the ending–are fantastic, but others are total disasters. Particular loathing needs to be lobbed toward the Dr. Phil cameo (remember the mid-2000s, when Dr. Phil was considered comedy gold for some reason) and the embarrassing “Baby Likes Fat” Sir Mix-a-lot parody. Is having some great gags but some unbearable ones better or worse than just being a middling, inoffensive segment?

Memorable Gag: “And to make matters worse, we’re also being attacked by a 50-foot Lenny!”

You Gotta Know When to Golem

Bart discovers a living clay Golem (voiced by Richard Lewis) through Krusty and begins using it do his mischievous bidding, but the Golem quickly grows bored and unsatisfied with his new life.

I don’t even know what the joke is here. Is it that the Golem is annoying? Well, he is, and not in a funny way. You Gotta Know When to Golem could best be compared to Frinkenstein in that it is stuck focused on a celeb-voiced character who gets old fast, but at least that segment featured a minor character who usually works. Who cares about this Richard Lewis Golem? Why is he the focus of a Treehouse story? I guess I’d rather take this concept than a non-horror-movie parody, but the execution sure is lousy.

Memorable Gag: Homer mistaking the Golem for Milhouse, followed by Milhouse doing Bart’s bidding just as a Golem would.

The Day the Earth Looked Stupid

In 1938 Springfield, the War of the Worlds radio drama whips everyone into a riotous frenzy. Then Kang & Kodos show up.

Halfway through this segment I said to myself, “This could easily be part of a classic Treehouse episode.” Then, because of poor writing or an ironic curse placed upon me, things collapsed as the characters spontaneously decided to strip off their clothes, wallow in the mud, and make animal noises to no comedic effect. The story never recovered, and the ending–a long, sad shot of bombs exploding in a barren city after dialogue blatantly paralleling the Iraq War–is haunting in an unwanted, uncomfortable way.

Memorable Gag: Orson Welles messing with the radio foley guy by demanding more and more elaborate sound effects.

Overall Thoughts:

Despite some better-than-expected jokes throughout, I can’t really recommend this episode. There’s too much genuinely annoying content (including an appearance by Fran Drescher), and it’s the only Simpsons episode to make me genuinely uncomfortable and unhappy. Treehouse of Horror XVII is one tree you shouldn’t climb or something whatever.

October 19th – “Treehouse of Horror XVI” (S17E04)

Yo, I’m back.

Opening:

Kang & Kodos complain about baseball pre-empting the Simpsons Halloween Special. Pretty much the same gag as last time, but it goes on for way too long.

B.I. Bartifical Intelligence:

The family replaces Bart, rendered comatose in an accident, with a robot boy. When Bart wakes up, he’s exiled from the house in order to keep the robot around and then seeks revenge.

This may be the most dated Treehouse parody yet, but most of this segment hold up pretty well even if you aren’t familiar with A.I. Artificial Intelligence. Having Bart as a human boy abandoned by his family is a funny twist on the movie’s plot that allows for solid jokes, but they really biffed the ending. It’s got two endings–neither is any good, and the second is a blatant rip-off of the “fog that turns people inside-out” bit. Shame!

Memorable Gag:

“You told me [Bart] was at culinary school!”
“You wanted to believe it!”

Survival of the Fattest

Mr. Burns invites Homer and many of Springfield’s other recognizable men to a weekend of hunting at his mansion, only to reveal ill intents: he’s decided to hunt man, the world’s most dangerous game.

An average segment brought down by a truly awful recurring gag–the Terry Bradshaw stuff, which is another clear example of pointless celeb cameos messing with an episode. The concept allows for a lot of uncommon interactions between characters, and I do enjoy seeing Burns reach complete psychopath-levels of evil.

Memorable Gag:

“I shoot one bird and I have to go to a psychiatrist.”
“Hmmm. He still thinks that homeless man was a bird!”

I’ve Grown a Costume on Your Face:

The citizens of Springfield gather for a costume party, but a witch–enraged at being disqualified from the costume contest–casts a magic spell to turn everyone into their costumes.

Anyone following this blog knows I love seeing Halloween happen in Springfield, so this segment is a personal favorite. The different costumes are interestingly matched to their characters (I love Grandpa as a gorilla and Lisa gaining super-intelligence as Albert Einstein), and the conclusion–where the characters turn and thank the viewer for joining them on Halloween–comes off as cute rather than cheap. I do wish this segment was a bit longer, though–it really flies by.

Memorable Gag: 

Nelson’s low-rent Lone Ranger costume being mistaken again and again as a racoon, even by a magic spell.

Overall Thoughts:

Survival of the Fattest shakes out to be pretty forgettable, and none of the segments are perfect, but Treehouse of Horror XVI offers more good than bad. If you’re looking for later-season Treehouses you may have missed out on, this one is worth a look.

October 15th – “Treehouse of Horror XV” (S16E01)

Opening:

Me, watching these episodes.

Kang & Kodos star in a sitcom, “Keepin’ it Kodos”. As it turns out, calling attention to bad jokes doesn’t make them any better. We’re not off to a good start.

The Ned Zone:

A blow to the head gives Ned Flanders a Stephen King superpower: when touching someone, he sees a vision of their deaths. Touching Homer leads to a vision of, what else, Homer destroying Springfield with a nuclear explosion. Can Flanders stop his oafish neighbor before it’s too late?

Here’s a real Halloween surprise: this segment isn’t half bad! There aren’t a lot of gut-busting jokes here, but they’re at least chuckle-worthy throughout. Flanders makes a much better protagonist than, say, Frink or Snake–pitting his good-naturedness against Homer’s ignorance makes for a great story. I never really see this segment discussed–and I’d forgotten all about it, too–so I’d call this one pretty underrated.

Memorable Gag: “Oh, another setback.” – Hans Moleman, about to be eaten by alligators.

Four Beheadings and a Funeral:

Bart and Lisa are Sherlock Holmes and Watson, alright?

Here’s a milestone: the segment that, upon watching it as it aired, made me say “Oh, Treehouse of Horror isn’t that great anymore.” This is another of those segments that feels totally out of place in a Halloween episode, which is unfortunately going to become more and more common as we hurtle toward the present. But the biggest problem with Four Beheadings, other than the lack of comedy, is that all of the Simpson characters have been given unbearable British accents. This awful voicework choice makes a dull segment unwatchable. I would watch any segment so far over Four Beheadings. I hate Four Beheadings.

Memorable Gag: Nope.

In the Belly of the Boss:

When Mr. Burns accidentally swallows a shruken-down Maggie (wait, what?), the rest of the family must go on a fantastic voyage inside of Homer’s boss to save her.

If The Ned Zone is better-than-expected and Four Headings is bottom-of-the-barrel, In the Belly of the Boss stands firmly in the middle. Not awful, not amazing, but a fun adventure. The only thing I find truly offensive is the weird sexualization of Marge….

…oh, and the fact that the ending is just a much-worse version of Homer’s Nightmare!

Memorable Gag: 

“Captain!”
“Science Officer!”
“Security!””Marge!”

Overall Thoughts:

Skip the middle segment and this is a serviceable Halloween treat. It’s one of those candy bars you eat long after the Reese’s or Hershey’s, but before the candy corn.

October 14th – “Treehouse of Horror XIV” (S15E01)

Opening:

The Simpsons murder each other for some reason. Then Kang and Kodos show up to complain about the Halloween special being aired in November, which is much funnier.

Reaper Madness:

The plot.

Didn’t think I’d say this again, but clearly Reaper Madness slipped my mind: your time would be much better spent watching the Family Guy episode. This segment offers nothing it doesn’t, the jokes are much worse, and they are way too similar in their first act for that to be a coincidence.

Memorable Gag:  “This is for Snowball I and JFK!” – Homer, attacking Death.

Frinkenstein:

Prof. Frink brings his father, John, back from the dead, but “Frinkenstein” goes on a rampage through town as he assimilates more and more organs into his monstrous body.

Jerry Lewis as John Frink is perfect casting, but these are not two characters who can carry a story. Maybe with different characters at the forefront, a segment about a back-from-the-dead Springfield resident murdering his way through town could’ve been more captivating, but as it stands, this is another swing-and-miss.

Memorable Gag:

“Nice posture.” – John Frink
“Thank you! Mother always said a curvy spine is the Devil’s roller-coaster!” – Skinner

Stop the World, I Want to Goof Off:

Bart and Milhouse order a time-stopping watch from the back of a comic book, and hey, it turns out to work. They use their temporal power to cause mischief across town, but end up getting in over their heads when the watch breaks and leaves time frozen around them.

I’d call this the best of Treehouse XIV’s offerings. The simple setup works here, and Milhouse is a really funny character to see wield such awesome power over the world. The story doesn’t drag and the ending is pretty original, even if it does taper off at the last few seconds into a bunch of random sight gags.

Memorable Gag:

“Do you know what this means?” – Bart
“We could get really far ahead on our homework! Wait until the other kids see we’re already on the Red Unit of Adventures in Reading!” – Milhouse

Overall Thoughts:

Frinkenstein  is pretty unbearable, but Stop the World is solid (for a double-digits Treehouse episode) and Reaper Madness is passable, despite how hard I was on it above. This episode isn’t required viewing, but I’d definitely revisit it before XIII.

October 13th – “Treehouse of Horror XIII” (S14E01)

Opening:

The Simpsons invite Flanders to a seance in hopes of summoning his dearly departed wife, Maude. The ghost of Maude shows up and invites us to “choke” on her tales of spine-shattering terror. This just kind of made me sad. Poor Ned.

Send in the Clones:

Homer buys another everyday object cursed with evil powers. This time it’s a hammock capable of creating clones. Homer begins cloning himself in order to accomplish mundane tasks, the clones beginning cloning themselves, and soon there’s a Homer epidemic.

The main thing that comes to mind when watching Send in the Clones is how much the segment drags. It’s about seven minutes long but feels like fifteen, as the plot never really seems to choose a direction. The clone gags are funny, but I really think this story should have ended around the halfway point when Homer tires of his clones and begins attempting to dispose of them. Everything past that point had me hoping for the next segment to start.

Memorable Gag: 

The Fright to Creep and Scare Harms:

To honor the late William Bonney’s gravestone wish, Lisa leads a campaign resulting in a gun-free Springfield. Bonney then rises from the grave, reveals himself as Billy the Kid, and takes over the defenseless town with his gun-toting zombie pals. Frink sends Homer back into the past in hopes of preventing this ridiculous nonsense.

Remember the brilliant zombie and time travel stories from Treehouses past? This isn’t them. To an even great degree than Send in the Clones, this segment has no idea what it wants to be. The time travel stuff tacked on to the end feels like a different story entirely, but at least the show seems semi-self-aware about that. Watch Dial “Z” for Zombie/Time and Punishment instead.

Memorable Gag:

“I hope he doesn’t do anything to ruin the space-time continuum.”

“Oh dear.”

The Island of Dr. Hibbert:

The Simpsons travel to Dr. Hibbert’s island expecting a nice vacation. Instead they discover that the jolly doctor has turned their friends and neighbors into half-animal hybrids–and the Simpsons are next.

Have you ever wanted to see Homer have loud sex with a half-cat Marge? How about watching him milk a cow-Flanders? No? Then you have very little need for this segment. The jokes are groan-worthy throughout and the only interesting elements to be found are the animalized designs of classic Simpsons characters.

Memorable Gag: I guess I laughed at the Simpsons knowingly vacationing at a place called “the Island of Lost Souls.”

Overall Thoughts:

I can only see one reason to watch this episode: if you’ve stuck yourself with the task of blogging about every Treehouse of Horror. And if that’s the case, your life has a lot more problems than a bad Simpsons episode.

October 12th – “Treehouse of Horror XII” (S13E01)

Opening:

While putting up decorations at the Burns mansion, Smithers falls and electrocutes himself. This leads, in convoluted fashion, to corpses being set on fire and the Simpson family being chopped to pieces. Mr. Burns chuckles at the horror in front of him.

Hex and the City:

The bad luck curses suffered by the Simpsons are pretty funny (especially Bart’s pitiful death), but the leprechaun–who just runs around screaming and saying Irish cliches–is aggressively unfunny and annoying. The fortune teller isn’t very funny either, and there are some really, really bad gags throughout (Yoda being the officiator at the fortune teller/leprechaun wedding…why?). There’s good stuff in this segment, but there’s also some straight trash.

Memorable Gag: “Hahaha, the perfect crime. Marge, I have to be in court on Tuesday.”

House of Whacks:

The Simpsons move into a futuristic house controlled by an advanced AI with the voice of Pierce Brosnan. The AI falls in love with Marge, and will do anything–including killing off Homer–to be with her.

I’m not one of those fans who thinks that all post-Season-10 episodes are irredeemable trash. I grew up with this era of the show, and love many of its episodes. But I do agree that a huge problem in “modern” Simpsons is the reliance on celebrity voice talent. This is a prime example. The joke in this segment: the house is voiced by Pierce Brosnan. That’s pretty much it. Moving on.

Memorable Gag:

“Die, you monster!”
“Dad, that’s the water softener!”

Wiz Kids:

We’re treated in this segment to a Simpson-ized version of the Harry Potter world. Bart, Lisa and the other kids attend magic school, but the evil lord Montymort and his snake henchman Smithers plan to steal prodigy Lisa’s magical powers for his own.

Treehouse XII aired in 2001, just a few months after the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s stone hit theaters. The Potter craze had swept the nation, so of course The Simpsons would take it on. Unfortunately, this segment really fails as a parody. It feels like it was written by a staff who had never seen or read a Harry Potter book, but knew only that it featured a magic school and a villain named Voldemort. This is particularly evident when one joke is pretty much “look, Harry Potter is in their class! We’re doing Harry Potter this year!”). There are a few good jokes, but a lot of the gags fall totally flat. I have huge love for Treehouse of Horror and Harry Potter–if anyone could’ve been satisfied with this, it should have been me.

Memorable Gag: Smithers the Snake swallows Montymort whole so they can be together “even in death.”

Ending Tag:

Some nonsense with the leprechaun and Pierce Brosnan. Ugh.

Overall Thoughts:

To be honest, I wouldn’t recommend this episode at all. That might change later depending on just how bad the next dozen or so Treehouses go, but so far this is definitely bottom-of-the-barrel material. I’d recommend it only for completion or those with nostalgia for the era.

October 11th – “Treehouse of Horror XI” (S12E04)

Opening:

This year’s opening casts the Simpsons as the Munsters…and they’re all slaughtered by an angry mob. The Munsters means nothing to me, so I can’t get a lot from this. Sorry, fans!

G-G-Ghost D-D-Dad:

After Homer chokes to death on a piece of broccoli, his spirit is denied access to Heaven unless he can complete one good deed within 24 hours. As usual, his attempts at being helpful only lead to injury and humiliation.

Pick any random Simpsons discussion online and you’ll probably find someone complaining about what a “jerkass” Homer becomes during the double-digit seasons. There is truth to be found in that argument, but I find Jerkass Homer actually works pretty well in the silly Treehouse world. This is one of those instances–Homer is a totally unsympathetic protagonist in this story, causing all of his problems himself with his awful attitude and stupid choices, so the audience can enjoy laughing at his misery without feeling bad about it. It’s interesting that they went with a more traditional devil in the depiction of Hell here, rather than bring back Devil Flanders. Missed opportunity?

Memorable Gag:

“You may get a compliment from an attractive coworker! Oh–Lenny?”

Scary Tales Can Come True:

In a fairy tale setting, Bart & Lisa play Hansel & Gretel while also bumbling their way through the stories of Goldilocks and Rapunzel.

This segment really falls flat. The jokes are nothing special, and the tone is all off–it would have fit much better as part of “Simpsons Fairy Tales” episode, rather than in the middle of a Treehouse of Horror. 90% of the story is Hansel & Gretel, with the elements from other fairy tales feeling like out-of-place asides. Scary Tales comes across as another example of having one setpiece idea–“Bart and Lisa are Hansel & Gretel”–and padding out the rest of the runtime with whatever ideas are laying around.

Memorable Gag: I guess these bears look funny:

Night of the Dolphin:

Lisa frees Snorky the dolphin from Marine World in the style of Free Willy. Of course, no good deed goes unpunished for the Simpsons–Snorky leads a rebellion as the dolphins take to land, waging violent war against the human race.

The pure absurdity of cute dolphins mobilizing, walking on land, and killing the citizens of Springfield goes a long way here. And while the Treehouse episodes have been growing progressively less spooky, Night of the Dolphin could be one of the most violent segments yet–a number of familiar characters suffer bloody, awful deaths. The unique concept has always helped this segment stand out in my mind. It’s fun to see Homer get comeuppance for his bad behavior, but there’s also a lot of humor to be found in Lisa’s righteous actions having disastrous consequences.

Memorable Gag: “Bottlenose bruises, blowhole burns, flipper prints…this looks like the work of rowdy teens. Lou, cancel the prom!”

Ending Tag:

Kang and Kodos complain about being left out of the Halloween show.

Overall Thoughts:

Despite the weak middle segment, Treehouse of Horror XI remains worth a watch. With three “just alright” episodes in a row, I’d say we’re firmly into the “Satisfactory” Treehouse era. I worry about what eras may remain ahead of us.

October 10th – “Treehouse of Horror X” (S11E04)

Opening:

This episode begins with Kang and Kodos hosting an awards show. We then pan out to see past Treehouse renditions of the Simpsons watching the show from their couch. Homer-in-the-box always puts a smile on my face.

I Know What You Diddily-Iddily Did:

Marge accidentally runs over Ned Flanders during a foggy drive home. The family covers up their role in Ned’s death, but they begin to receive haunting warnings: someone knows what they’ve done. That someone turns out to be Ned himself, because obviously he is a werewolf.

There’s a really absurd tone to this segment, and it works well–the episode begins with the family having just rescued their Sugar Crisp cereal from vampires (“Can’t get enough of that sugar crisp…”), and ends with the reveal of Ned having been a werewolf the entire time. I’ve come down on past segments for having cop-out endings, but when the entire story is absurd from start to finish, things feel a lot more coherent.

Memorable Gag:

“Okay Marge, you hide in the abandoned amusement park. Lisa, the pet cemetery. Bart, spooky roller disco. And I’ll go skinny dipping in that lake where the sexy teens were killed one hundred years ago tonight.”

Desperately Xeeking Xena:

Bart and Lisa gain superpowers after an accident at the school Halloween party. Their first battle: saving Lucy Lawless from The Collector, aka Comic Book Guy.

This segment contains one of those lines so on-point that it had transcended The Simpsons and become a staple of pop culture discussion (see below). That being said…eh. I love seeing Bart and Lisa as superheroes, and Comic Book Guy makes a much better villain than Snake from the previous episode, but the Lucy Lawless stuff really feels out of place once her initial appearance at the convention ends. She steals the focus from our main characters, and I’m sorry, but I don’t care about Lucy Lawless or Xena in any setting–even less so when she’s bogarting Treehouse screentime.

Memorable Gag: 

“In Episode BF12, you were battling barbarians while riding a winged Appaloosa, yet in the very next scene, my dear, you’re clearly atop a winged Arabian! Please do explain it!”

“Uh, yeah, well, whenever you notice something like that…a wizard did it.”

Life’s a Glitch, Then You Die:

Homer screws up the plant’s Y2K compliance measures, causing computers to rebel and destroy society. The family attempts to survive in their new wasteland until they discover rocket ships shepherding the planet’s best and brightest to Mars. Of course, not all of the Simpsons qualify as best and/or brightest.

Citizen Kang remains a classic despite being dated–does Life’s a Glitch manage the same feat? Not so much. The segment isn’t awful, but jokes about Y2K, Dick Clark, Tom Arnold, Rose O’donnell, etc. certainly show their age. Y2K episodes were everywhere in this era, and this segment doesn’t bring too much new to the table. This one of the very, very rare instances in which I prefer Family Guy’s take on the same concept (“Da Boom“).

Memorable Gag: I love the carton of milk–which contains microchips for some reason–striking back against Homer by leaking all over the floor.

“The milk’s broken!”

Overall Thoughts:

Better than IX and still offering a lot of great jokes, Treehouse of Horror X just feels a bit stagnant. I’d call the first segment fantastic enough to stand alongside earlier classics, but the other two are mostly take-it-or-leave-it. Still, the middle segment did give the world “a wizard did it”–how many other Treehouses can say they coined such a phrase?

October 9th – “Treehouse of Horror IX” (S10E04)

Opening:

In lieu of a more traditional Halloween intro scene, we get a dark version of the usual Simpsons opening: Bart breaks his neck skateboarding home, and Homer is crushed against a wall by Marge’s car. To be honest, this is one of my favorite openings so far–much better than the Fox censor thing in VIII, for sure.

Hell Toupee:

Constant criminal Snake finally finds himself in the electric chair. Homer receives his hair in a transplant, allowing Snake’s spirit to posses him (for some reason) and seek revenge on the three witnesses who led to his death: Apu, Moe, and Bart.

This segment is a lot of fun from beginning to end, relying on a lot of Simpsons staples: Wiggum’s incompetent police work, Moe’s weirdness, and someone trying to murder Bart. However, it does show why there aren’t so many Snake-focused stories–his personality isn’t really interesting enough to be the focus of an entire segment. The conclusion, with Homer’s Snake-toupee leaving his head and acting on its own accord, is so ridiculous I can’t help but love it.

Memorable Gag:

“It’s like he’s killing from beyond the grave!”
“I told you capital punishment isn’t a deterrent.”

The Terror of Tiny Toon:

When Marge confiscates the remote control batteries to stop Bart and Lisa from watching an Itchy & Scratchy Halloween special, they power the remote with plutonium and end up sucked into the dangerous world of television.

The Terror of Tiny Toon really leans into its concept, allowing for a lot of meta-humor (such as Marge not wanting her kids to watch a violent Halloween cartoon special) and references to past episodes (“Wiggity-wiggity, Poochie’s in the house!”). Bart and Lisa being menaced by their cartoon heroes provides a lot of awesome visual gags–I love when piranhas feast on Bart, leaving him as a skeleton from the neck down.

Memorable Gag: When Homer changes the channel, the kids end up in a live-action cooking segment with Regis Philbin.

Starship Poopers:

Kang and Kodos return to reveal a secret: Kang is Maggie’s real father. Arguments over paternity lead the Simpsons and the aliens to an appearance on the Jerry Springer Show.

Well, this is it. There have been “meh” segments here and there in the first 8 Treehouse episodes, and some that didn’t really grab me personally (though I could appreciate their strengths). This is the first segment that I genuinely think is not good at all. In fact, I’d call it pretty awful.

Things start off well enough with the concept of Maggie turning into some kind of alien, but from there the segment keeps shooting itself in the foot until it has nothing left to stand on. The flashback sequence to Marge hooking up with Kang drags and doesn’t provide many jokes to speak of, and then the entire story grinds to a halt with the Jerry Springer bit. It seems like someone said “we want to have the Simpsons on Jerry Springer” and they just wrote some alien fluff to service that end. When I’m watching Treehouse episodes for non-blogging purposes, this segment always makes me say “Oh, this one?”.

Memorable Gag: “Look, Marge! Maggie lost her baby legs!”

Overall Thoughts:

The first two segments are a lot of fun, but Starship Poopers signals to me that we’re definitely out of the Treehouse golden age. We’ll see how things go from here. I’m a little scared, but I guess that’s fitting.

October 8th – “Treehouse of Horror VIII” (S09E04)

Opening:

A Fox Network censor is murdered by his own TV rating. Fittingly enough, this opening came under fire from the real-life censors at Fox for being too graphically violent.

The HΩmega Man:

Homer stumbles his way into being the seemingly-only survivor of a nuclear attack from the French, then comes under attack from the radioactive mutants of Springfield. The other Simpsons turn out to have survived as well, thanks to the lead paint of their house, and together the mutants are vanquished.

The idea of Homer being the last person on Earth seems like it would open up a number of hilarious possibilities, but this segment doesn’t do much with the idea. The whole “Homer fights mutants” thing seems like a misstep, as it reduces the interesting setting to a chase scene. While the lead paint gag is clever, going from “Homer is the last man alive” to “also there are mutants” to “oh and the entire family survived” in the span of six or seven minutes really screws up the story’s pacing.

Memorable Gag: “We did the only humane thing.” Before realizing the world has ended, Homer picks a fight with (the charred corpse of) Kirk Van Houten. His gleeful reaction to demolishing Kirk’s skull into dust with one punch, still not realizing anything is amiss, is a brilliant Homer moment and a showcase of why he works so well in these Treehouse stories.

Fly vs Fly:

In an interesting take on the Cronenberg classic, an incident with a matter transporter sees Bart switching bodies with a fly. The Fly-as-Bart will do anything to remain a part of the family; Bart-as-a-Fly must work together with Lisa to regain his human form.

I really like the spin put on the source material here: the Fly-as-Bart adds a lot of humor, from the visual gag itself to the nonplussed reactions of Homer and Marge. It’s nice to see Bart and Lisa working together, and as you might be able to tell from past reviews, I appreciate it when these stories have a satisfying conclusion rather than a random gag. Not the most amazing segment, but more than solid.

Memorable Gag: “Hmm…2 bucks…and it only transports matter? Eh, I’ll give you 35 cents.”

Easy-Bake Coven:

In 1649 A.D., witches Marge, Patty, and Selma plan to kidnap and eat children…and end up creating the tradition of trick-r’-treating in the process.

It’s surprising that it took eight Treehouses for us to see a witch story, considering how great a visual Marge-as-a-Witch turns out to be. I don’t have a ton of affection for Easy-Bake Coven, but it is fun to see Springfield’s usual cast re-imagined in the old-time setting, even if a parody of The Crucible brings up memories of dull high school English classes. If you’ve been following this blog, you won’t be surprised that my favorite part comes at the very end, where we jump to a present-day Springfield Halloween.

Memorable Gag: The ending–even in the modern day, Springfield is still Springfield-y enough to chase Lisa down for being a “witch”.

Overall Thoughts:

Three segments that are all solid, but not particularly amazing. A fun episode that just doesn’t hit the highs of, say, V and VI.