Still trolling the cry-babies (religious types, mostly), Treehouse Of Horror VIII opens with the Fox censor redlining the script for the Halloween Special only to be brutally murdered by his own TV-G rating. Such scandalous behaviour demands punishment and so the couch gag sees our favourite Springfield family executed by electric chair. Only in America!
The HΩmega Man
“Ain’t that always the way? You get nuts with the skin eating.”
When France declares war on Springfield and drops a neutron bomb, Homer is saved because he was out shopping for bomb shelters at the time. Realising he might just be the last man alive, he sets out to everything he’s ever wanted. Until, that is, he attracts the attention of a cadre of horribly mutated freaks who have some sinister designs on his unblemished flesh. It’s a fast-paced story with rapid-fire gags, most of which hit their targets with the precision of a French ICBM.
Fly Vs Fly
“I think she’s right. The pants are a dead giveaway.”
A beautifully realised spoof of the movie “The Fly” – the Vincent Price original rather than the Cronenberg remake – with wonderful additional flourishes along the way, “Fly vs Fly” makes the most of its telportation potential. Professor Frink’s yard sale is a hoot, as are Homer’s actual plans for the teleportation device. Packed with the clever wordplay that used to be a hallmark of The Simpsons during its golden age, this well-observed pastich ends in much happier fashion that it did for Martin Brundle, that’s for sure.
Easy-Bake Coven
“I just wish we hadn’t filled up on all those kids before we got to the Flanders’.”
It’s surprising that it took this long for The Simpsons to turn their attention to the Salem witch trials but Treehouse Of Horror VIII corrects that oversight. Easy Bake Coven starts out with the same old tropes and cliches but once the identity of the real witch is revealed the story turns into an amusingly tongue-in-cheek origin story for how the yearly custom of trick-or-treating became an annual tradition.
