Every year, the iconic series The Simpsons has a Halloween special entitled “The Treehouse of Horror.” Usually (but not always), the featured vignettes are homages to classics of the horror genre, gently spoofing them in the way that this series has made into an art form.
Often, these specials are the highlight of the Halloween season, and there’s quite a lot to enjoy about them. However, it’s also true that, in a few instances, there are some things that just don’t seem to make much narrative sense. This doesn’t make the episodes any less brilliant or enjoyable, but it does make one wonder what the writers were thinking.
10 Why Sideshow Bob Keeps Resurrecting Bart
In one of the later installments of this series, the fan favorite Sideshow Bob actually succeeds in killing Bart, thus fulfilling his one ambition in life. Unfortunately, he discovers that he doesn’t have much meaning after that, and so he repeatedly resurrects Bart, only to kill him again. It’s a fine gag at first, but it soon becomes quite repetitive, and one rather wishes that the writers would have given the character something else to do in the course of the episode.
9 The Fog That Turns People Inside Out
In a very early Treehouse special, Bart has a terrible dream in which the school faculty start devouring children by turning them into sandwiches. When he wakes up, he’s relieved to find out that everything is fine, except for a mysterious fog that turns people inside out. It’s a bit of a strange way to end the episode, particularly since the rest of it is so tightly woven and compelling. There’s no reason, after all, that they had to make it a dream sequence in the first place.
8 Why Everyone Still Voted For Kang And/Or Kodos
The Simpsons has been well-known throughout its run for its pointed political commentary, as can be seen in one episode, in which the villainous aliens Kang and Kodos manage to infiltrate the United States elections. They ultimately remind Americans that they have to vote for one of them, which subsequently happens. Obviously, it’s meant to be funny, but one can’t help but wonder why the people didn’t just find someone to run instead of the two obviously nefarious aliens.
7 What Was The Point Of Homer Moving Into A Virtual World
While most of the Treehouse episodes are quite good and clever, with some bit of commentary or bite, occasionally one comes along that just lacks a certain something. That’s unfortunately the case with the one in which Homer finds himself trapped in an alternate reality that is in three dimensions. It’s fine as a vignette, but it really does sort of strain the audience’s patience, since it doesn’t really seem to have much point beyond showcasing some neat animation.
6 Why Does Time Move So Fast With The Tooth Incident?
One of the best Halloween shorts is the one in which Lisa inadvertently creates her own little universe in one of the teeth that she’s lost. It’s a fascinating experiment, but what doesn’t make a lot of sense is why time seems to move so quickly for them (as opposed to the real world).
In a relatively short period of time, they reach a state of technological advancement that is better than anything in the world that Lisa inhabits.
5 How Did Everyone Not Notice That Marge Was The Head Vampire?
Of all of the characters that the Simpsons encounter, the one who would most likely be a sinister vampire would be Mister Burns. Indeed, he succeeds in turning Bart into a vampire. Though the family thinks that they’ve saved Bart by staking the villain, it actually turns out that it was Marge herself who was the head vampire. It’s a nice twist at the end, but one would think that someone would have noticed that she was a vampire and not the mild-mannered housewife she appeared to be.
4 How Is A Toaster A Time Machine?
There’s a lot to enjoy about the episode in which Homer manages to turn a toaster into a time machine, which takes him back into the primordial past. His clumsiness causes all sorts of chaos, rewriting the future in ways that are definitely not great (especially for Homer). However, what remains a little less clear is how, exactly, one turns something like a toaster into a powerful time machine capable of whisking someone back to the time of the dinosaurs.
3 Why Was Ned Bitten By A Werewolf?
Anyone who has seen the Halloween specials knows that they’re very good at poking fun at popular films. That includes I Know What You Did Last Summer, though in this case the victim of the hit and run accident is none other than Ned Flanders.
The final twist, of course, is that he was turned into a werewolf prior to being hit by the Simpsons’ car. It’s not exactly clear, though, why the writers felt the need to add yet another wrinkle to an already pretty solid story.
2 The Whole Dolphin Short
In the annals of the horror film there are few films as respected as Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, and spoofs of famous films are a big part of the Treehouse tradition. Small wonder, then, that The Simpsons would take a stab at a bit of satire. Unfortunately, they decided to go with making dolphins the unlikely antagonist. It’s a bit strange seeing dolphins attacking people, and it really makes one wonder why they didn’t go with something that would make a little more sense rather than something so patently ridiculous.
1 Why Didn’t Devil Ned Know That Homer’s Soul Was Already Owed To Marge?
Leave it to a show like this one to make Ned, the devout Christian character, into the literal devil. In this case, he manages to get Homer to promise his soul. Unfortunately for Ned, it turns out that Homer had actually promised it to Marge much earlier. This leads one to wonder how it is possible that Satan, a powerful figure in his own right, didn’t already know this prior to trying to get Homer to sell his soul?
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October 31, 2020 at 05:30AM
