In keeping with a couple of recent “Favorite Simpsons ______” threads, I invite you to share your favorite Treehouse of Horror segments.
The ones that immediately spring to my mind are the one where Homer’s time machine creates parallel universes, including one where it rains doughnuts, and the one with Stretch Dude and Clobber Girl.
The time machine is probably the best. The Tesseract episode where Homer ends up turning 3D is special for me.
that’s absolutely positively darn diddly unpossible to answer.
these are where they stretch the boundaries of the show. in any year 3 or 2 of the episodes are excellent. they go after culture, science, philosophy, technology so well.
i might be able to give you a list of my favorite 25 or so if pressed.
so the language is ambiguous. favorite segment is singular, favorite Treehouse of Horror segments is possibly more than one.
I like the one where Homer purchases a matter transporter from Prof. Frink. “Hmm…it only transports matter”.
It’d be tough to find a ToH better than the toaster time travel segment, though.
“What’s a doughnut?”
The segment about Bart having an evil twin is one of my favorites, mostly because of the visual joke that follows Dr. Hibbert saying the Siamese twins must be separated immediately.
Nitpick: In that episode and in the story on which I believe it was based, parallel universes weren’t being created. Instead, the course of evolution on earth was actually changed.
BTW, here is the Wikipedia list of the Treehouse of Horror episodes for those who need a reminder (although not plot descriptions, sadly). I always liked how the stories referenced various Twilight Zone episodes, science fiction stories, classic horror stories, etc. Part of the game for me was identifying the source material.
Counter-nitpick: as far as Homer was concerned, evolution had changed; as far as everyone else on each “reality” that Homer left was concerned, Homer jumped into a parallel universe.
There are lots of good ones, but the Clinton/Dole/Kang/Kodos episode is jam-packed with awesomely quotable lines.
EDIT: Did I say Dole? I meant Mumbly Joe.
The very first one, actually. It was that segment that got me hooked on Simpsons in the first place. The animators made the house look spooky, and the writers did an excellent job of giving the segment an eerie feel while still keeping the show humorous.
I’m just sad that the ToH specials have went downhill since ToH8. I can’t even stand to watch reruns of any of them past 16.
Another vote for “Time and Punishment.” Some other segments need love, though: “Dial Z for Zombies” is a classic and gave us one of the most quotable exchanges in the history of the show:
Bart: Dad! You killed the zombie Flanders!
Homer: He was a zombie?
Plus “Is this the end of Zombie Shakespeare?”
I’m also a big fan of the ones that really felt like nightmares the kids were having- many of the best Treehouse segments centered around Bart and Lisa facing some kind of horrifying scenario that most other people (especially the adults) accepted as normal or failed to notice. They wrangled some great creepiness out of that in the early years. I’m thinking here of segments like “Bart Simpson’s Dracula,” “Terror at 5 1/2 Feet” (The “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” parody) and “The Shinning.” “Nightmare Cafeteria” (teachers eating kids) had some of that quality, too, although it wasn’t as good. In recent years the Hitchcock parody “Dial ‘M’ for Murder or Press ‘#’ to Return to Main Menu” got close to that feel.
How to cook
How to cook people
How to cook for people
How to cook forty people
How to cook for forty people
“Tell you what, if we come back and everyone’s slaughtered, I owe you a Coke.”
That’s my favorite.
How could you forget this?
Another bit from Dial Z:
[the family hunkers down]
Marge: Homer, did you board up the door?
Homer: [sitting on couch] Why? [pause] Oh, the zombies. No.
“Dammit, Smithers, this is brain surgery, not rocket science!”
They did this joke in TOH 4:
GRAMPA
Quick, we have to kill the boy!
MARGE
(entering) How do you know he’s a vampire?
GRAMPA
He’s a vampire?
Willie: Boy, you’ve got the Shinning.
Bart: You mean shining.
Willie: Shh. You wanna get sued?
Homer: No TV and no beer make Homer something something.
Marge: Go crazy?
Homer: Don’t mind if I do!
Every skit in the 1992 one was wonderful: the Zombie skit, the Krusty doll skit, and the King Homer skit.
Carl: Hey, I hear we’re going to Ape Island.
Lenny: Yeah, to capture a giant ape. I wish we were going to Candy Apple Island.
Charlie: Candy Apple Island? What do they got there?
Carl: Apes, but they’re not so big.
-or-
[after Homer runs, screaming and naked, through the kitchen]
Patty Bouvier: There goes the last lingering thread of my heterosexuality.
I’ve always been partial to the one where Kang and Kodos takes over the Earth with “puny weapons.”
Run! He’s got a board with a nail in it!