Treehouse of Horror III
I love the genre of horror now but it took me a long time to really get into it. As a kid, I couldn't go near things that had a whiff of horror, which is understandable. In particular, I thought Chucky from the Child's Play series of films was the scariest thing ever and even a glimpse of him sent me into a panic. It wasn't until years later that I actually saw the films and... none of them are actually scary. Chucky himself is good actor Brad Dourif doing a Nicholson impression. Also, Chucky's whole deal is needlessly convoluted from the jump. I almost think he would be scarier if his evil was unexplained but his deal is that he's a wise cracking serial killer with voodoo powers and his end goal is to body jump into a child and its all very dumb. That's not to say they are BAD movies... but they aren't good, really. Still, the first two are quite watchable for what they are and the second one has a legitimately funny gag.
Chucky has many skills but pokerface isn't one of them. Anyway, despite ragging on the franchise, I can't deny the impact its had on my psyche. Seriously, I don't get scared watching it but if I'm going to, even for that silly clip, my brain seizes up for a split second. Now, I love horror and it is so rare that I get scared even during a good horror film that I genuinely get excited and feel weird when it happens. The last time was watching the original Black Christmas (and around the same time, the first 20 minutes of When a Stranger Calls, which was originally its own short film). Both tell "the baby sitter story" where "the call is coming from inside the house" and both do it perfectly. Very little music and in "When a Stranger Calls" does it, the burn is very slow so the dread and the feeling of isolation is palpable. The rest of the movie is kind of a mess that tries different things, none quite as successful as the first act. Sorry, I'm digressing. Anyway, its clear that the writers of the Simpsons, at least collectively, have a huge swath of love for horror and genre film based on their Halloween specials, like this one.
In this episode, the family tells scary stories at a Halloween party: Lisa tells the tale of an evil Krusty Doll, Grandpa retells King Kong and Bart tells a story about zombies running amok in Springfield.
I think a lot of kids my age assumed that the first story was intended to be a spoof of Child's Play but while I have no doubt that played a key role in keeping the killer doll trope in people's minds, the only aspect of that I can actually see in the telling is that the doll is a birthday gift. In fact, while there are a few moments that spoof the last scary segment in the Trilogy of Terror anthology TV movie (most famous for its scary weird story about a killer "Zuni Fetish Doll" that has unexpected plans for its victim), a lot of the structure and jokes are more a reference to "Living Doll", the Talky Tina episode of the Twilight Zone, featuring classic voice actor "June Foray" as the titular doll who threatens an abusive dad and gives him what he deserves.
The King Kong spoof features even more homages to the original. Obviously that's in part because it is spoofing one specific film rather than a bunch of media with similar themes but it is also specific within that, such as those weird close ups of King Homer's smiling face, very similar to the Kong in the original.
Out of all of them, this feels more like a Mad Magazine take on the story where the original story happens and a lot of jokes and comments are hung off of it until the story goes a different direction in the final panels. But I feel like there are a lot of loving specifics to the original (which I have still yet to see. Someday, maybe.).
The zombie story is a bit like the first in that rather than being a spoof of a specific zombie film, it takes a lot of different elements from the genre. Its very much a combination of the Romero mythos minus pretty much any social commentary (which makes sense since Bart would in no way be grappling with that aspect of the story in those films) and the much-more Bart Simpson-like film The Return of the Living Dead. Return is the film that famously added brain-eating to the zombie mythos and is a weird nihilistic horror comedy and its pretty good. While the Romero films where dark mirrors into the contemporary human soul (the 68 Night of the Living Dead was about revolution, the 70s Dawn of the Dead was about consumer culture, the 2000s Land of the Dead was about the war between the haves and have-nots, the 80s Day of the Dead was... actually I still haven't seen it), The Return of the Living Dead was a joyfully mean-spirited party anthem to human destruction, both self and otherwise.
Also, weirdly, it incorporates the idea that the original Night of the Living Dead "is based on a true story" within the film.
While the Simpsons Halloween shorts aren't completely divorced from ideas like "theme" and "character", they tend more to be about the joy of taking our already established characters and bouncing them off silly situations. There are certainly parallels: Homer is put in the place of the Bad Dad from the Twilight Zone and the ape-like Kong. But it also delights in the idea that while Homer as King Kong would be destructive, he doesn't really have the drive to ascend an entire building.
But yeah, this is all about the jokes and this episode is chalk full of classics. The entire exchange with the Asian mystic stereotype is one of the all time greatest comedy bits of all time. Its incredibly simple, doesn't overstay its welcome and has the perfect 1-2 punch of endings of revealing Homer's stupidity and Homer being ready for the sketch to end. So legendary is it that it is used in one of the
most heartbreaking comic strips around by Steven Universe's Rebecca Sugar.
But that's not all. There's Candy Apple Island, "Someone set this doll to evil.", "Hey monkey, wanna peanut? I SAID ONE!", "He was a zombie?", "Is this the end of zombie Shakespeare?" If you are looking for all jokes and no emotional filler, The Treehouse of Horror III is God Tier Simpsons silliness.
Jokes I didn't get before:
Homer cocking a gun before yelling "To the book depository" didn't click for me as a JFK assassination reference before.
There are also some cut for syndication jokes I forgot about including Homer swearing on a book of carpet samples and Carl accidentally shooting Lenny and Lenny getting pissy about it before he dies.
Other great bits:
"Scientists have announced that Springfield's air is only dangerous to children and the elderly". Having lived in Beijing, I've lived this.
"The doll's trying to kill me and the toaster's been laughing at me!" I don't know if this is referencing anything, but I love it as a non-sequitor.
Mr. Burns little self-satisfied noise after Marge is kidnapped.
"If we get him alive, we can put him on Broadway. Dead, we can sell monkey stew to the army."
Lenny's slightly annoyed "Quit eatin' me." as if he's still in Power Plant mode. Similarly Marge's "Oh, hi" when he pops outside her window.
I literally laughed the second before "Look at the size of that platform" because I love the joke so much.
"I remember when Al Jolston ran amok at the Winter Garden and climbed the Chrystler Building. After that, he couldn't get arrested in this town."
"Or write parents brains on a three by five card and send it to..." I love how the flesh hungry zombie is still a showbiz professional.
Other notes:
The kids open complaining that they are at a party instead of trick of treating. Sadly, this year we probably won't even get those things.
Man, this is a needlessly awkwardly framed shot.
The "no one wants nudes of Whoopi Goldberg" is some mean body shaming joke that I can do without.
For years I had NO idea was Flanders was saying when he invited those zombies in. He was calling one of them by name: "Sue Dolkes". I always thought he was saying an exclamation I couldn't parse.
Its a shame there isn't much in the way of a Halloween for kids this year but this episode already has me excited to watch some horror and monster movies. Maybe I'll finally get around to King Kong.