Treehouse Of Horror IX opens with a very truncated Halloween version of the usual opening credits, with all of the family coming a cropper on the journey home leaving Freddie Krueger and Jason Voorhies sitting on the couch wondering where everyone has got to.
Hell Toupée
“Homer Simpson – you’re under the arrest for the murders of Moe Szyslak and Apu Nahasa..pasa….eh, just Moe, just Moe.”
When Snake is convicted of smoking in a non-smoking area as part of Springfield’s new three strikes policy, he’s executed by electric chair and Homer receives his hair as a hair transplant. Quickly overrun by Snake’s spirit, Homer visits a terrible vengeance on the witnesses which lead to Snake’s execution. It doesn’t quite have as much fun with a hirsute Homer as early episode “Simpson & Delilah” does but the murders are fun and the final fight between Homer, Bart and the Hairpiece is well worth a watch. The highlight has to be Marge getting a joke mid-lecture though.
The Terror Of Tiny Toon
“Ooh – how are Bart and Lisa going to get out of this one?”
This fast-paced riff on “Stay Tuned” sees Bart and Lisa sucked into an Itchy & Scratchy cartoon thanks to replacing the batteries of the TV remote with plutonium. Featuring a brief return for Poochie the Rocking Dog, it’s a fun premise that doesn’t get explored enough with only a couple of other stops in TV Land, including crashing a cooking segment on “Live with Regis and Kathie Lee”. It might have been fun to see them spend longer playing cat and mouse with Itchy and Scratchy through a few more shows but it all wraps up nicely when they return to the ‘real world’ and Itchy and Scratchy’s threat is quickly neutered.
Starship Poopers
“Ooohh…you look lovely tonight. Have you decreased in mass?”
There’s a big role for Kang and Kodos in the final tale of Treehouse Of Horror IX, as it turns out Maggie isn’t Homer’s daughter after all. The abduction and seduction of Marge is hilarious as is the discovery of something being amiss when Maggie loses her ‘baby legs’. It all ends with an appearance on the Jerry Springer show which dates it a little but not enough to undermine the gags.
