"Treehouse of Horror XVII"[1] is the fourth episode of The Simpsons' eighteenth season, and the seventeenth Treehouse of Horror episode.[1] In "Married to the Blob", Homer eats green extraterrestrial goo and morphs into a rampaging blob with an insatiable appetite; in "You Gotta Know When to Golem", Bart uses Krusty's golem to wreak havoc on his tormentors; and in "The Day the Earth Looked Stupid," the residents of an early-1930s Springfield refuse to believe news of an actual alien invasion after being duped by Orson Welles' War of the Worlds radio broadcast.[1]
It was written by Peter Gaffney and double-directed by David Silverman and Matthew C. Faughnan.[1] Dr. Phil McGraw and Sir Mix-a-Lot guest star as themselves, Richard Lewis and Fran Drescher guest voice as the male and female Golems, respectively[1] In its original run, the episode received 10.43 million viewers.[2]
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Plot [edit]
The episode begins with a parody of Tales from the Crypt, with Mr. Burns as the Crypt Keeper. The scene begins in a dungeon room, where a crypt opens, and after several waves of rats, snakes, spiders, and rabbits crawl out of a coffin, the Cryptkeeper sits up in it. He proclaims himself to be the master of "scare-amonies" to the delight of zombie Smithers. A bound Moe interrupts in protest and is killed in an iron maiden, his blood spilling onto the floor and spelling out "Treehouse of Horror XVII". Moe himself takes delight in this and proclaims "A Ho Ho! Look at that my blood is a genius! Fancy Roman numerals and everything!"[1]
Married to the Blob [edit]
As Homer and Marge make out in the backyard, a meteorite falls nearby, burning off the top of Marge's hair in the process. It cracks open to reveal a green gooey substance that resembles a burning marshmallow. Homer, despite his family's objections (and the goo's attempts to flee), puts it on a stick and devours it. Later that night, his stomach rumbles from hunger, and Homer eats all the available food. He also eats Snowball V and his son Bart. Homer then becomes morbidly obese, and eats a teenager in an attempt to "savor" him from the flames of a barbecue fire. Homer morphs into a giant yellow blob, rampaging through the streets of Springfield, eating all the overweight people he can find. Homer snacks on bus passengers as if they were chocolates and decapitates Ned Flanders. Dr. Phil McGraw shows up with the Simpson family and tells Homer to stop for their sakes. Homer ends his rampaging for fear of losing Marge and vows to use his insatiable appetite for more constructive purposes (he eats Dr. Phil anyway; his last words are "Food does not equal love!"). Later, Mayor Quimby dedicates a new homeless shelter. The homeless people enter the shelter, only to find themselves inside Homer's gut.
You Gotta Know When to Golem [edit]
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At the end of an episode of Krusty's show, Bart goes backstage to complain about an acid-spraying Krusty brand alarm clock. There he finds the Golem of Prague, a creature from Jewish mythology, whose design is from the 1915 German expressionistic film, The Golem. Krusty tells Bart that in the 17th century, the Golem was sculpted out of clay by a powerful rabbi and would obey any command written on a scroll and placed in his mouth. Although the golem was created ostensibly to protect Jewish villages, he would obey any scroll placed in his mouth, evil or good. He had been passed down through many generations and now works for Krusty (primarily to deal with hecklers). Bart steals the Golem by writing a command for him to come to his home at midnight. At midnight, the Golem shows up at the Simpsons' house. From then on, Bart uses him to carry out his commands: swinging Principal Skinner up and down like a yo-yo until he splits in half, and kicking Homer's walls (the result of a misunderstanding, as the Golem cannot read Bart's handwriting). Lisa thinks the Golem does not like doing the biddings of others and feeds him a scroll reading "Speak". The Golem (Richard Lewis) attempts to roar, then coughs, and reveals that he is a decent being who feels guilty about being used to commit heinous acts, and then he throws up excessive scrolls, one of which reads "Kill the Czar". To make him feel better, the Simpsons create a female Golem (Fran Drescher) out of Play-Doh. The two are married by Rabbi Hyman Krustofski and the female Golem convinces Chief Wiggum not to press charges with the promise of pan-fried latkes, a Jewish delicacy (though she only gets to the words "pan fried" before Wiggum agrees).
The Day the Earth Looked Stupid [edit]
The population of Springfield, October 30, 1938 (during the Great Depression), are fooled by Orson Welles' infamous The War of the Worlds radio broadcast and believe the world has been invaded. A mass panic breaks out, and the citizens begin rioting. Marge voices her belief that the Martians will only destroy humans, so Sideshow Mel suggests they foil the aliens by cavorting naked in the mud like animals. They do this until the following day, when Lisa notifies the citizens that it was all a hoax, and, angry at being fooled, the citizens of Springfield vow to never fall for such a trick again. Meanwhile, the aliens Kang and Kodos, observing the entire event from their orbiting spaceship, decide this is the perfect time for a real invasion, and begin destroying what is left of the town. True to their word, the town does not believe that it is a real invasion and ignores it. Orson Welles (Maurice LaMarche) comes to Springfield, admits it is not a staged act, and begs them to do something. Unfortunately, they do not as the police do not take him seriously. The segment ends by jumping forward to three years later, with Kang and Kodos looking over the ruins of occupied Springfield and mulling on what went wrong and why they were not greeted as liberators, as they planned the invasion to rid Earth of "weapons of mass disintegration" which they refer to as "Operation Enduring Occupation" (in a clear reference to the war on Iraq). The segment ends with the camera pulling away from the smoking ruins of what was once Springfield, as the song "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire" by the Ink Spots plays. This is thought to be a reference to the popular series of Fallout games, which uses the same music as its theme tune.
Production [edit]
The Day The Earth Looked Stupid was originally supposed to end with Kang and Kodos making a direct reference to the War on Iraq as they observe the ruined remains of 1938 Springfield. While the FOX censors had no objections over the line, the producers and writers felt the reference was too obvious and had it cut to make the joke more subtle (though the leaked Internet version has the line that ended up being cut).[3]
Once again Maurice LaMarche voiced Orson Welles, doing his impression of Welles used earlier for The Brain on Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain.
Cultural references [edit]
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This section does not cite any references or sources. (September 2012) |
The segment "Married to the Blob" partially parodies the 1985 horror movie The Stuff and the 1958 horror film The Blob.
The title of "The Day the Earth Looked Stupid" is reference to the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still as well as the Futurama episode "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid".
Billie Holiday's version of "Gloomy Sunday" plays during the intro of "The Day The Earth Looked Stupid" segment.
The title of "You got to know when to golem" may be a reference to the lyric from Kenny Rogers' song, "The Gambler".
The song "Baby Likes Fat" in "Married to the Blob" spoofs the real-life song, "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix-A-Lot.
The date shown at the end is quite possibly a reference to the release date of The Simpsons Movie.
Chief Wiggum's line "...punch you in the nose, bud" followed by Orson Welles saying "Nose bud" is a reference to "Rosebud", a plot device in his film Citizen Kane.
Reception [edit]
"Treehouse of Horror XVII" was declared by New York magazine as being one of ten later Simpsons episodes that was good as the show's classic era.[4]
References [edit]
- ^ a b c d e f "The Simpsons: "Treehouse of Horror XVII"". The Futon Critic. Retrieved 2008-06-01.
- ^ Ratings
- ^ Redeker, Bill (Oct 23, 2006). "'Simpsons' Halloween 'Horror' Could Hit GOP". ABC News.
- ^ Seitz, Matt Zoller (February 10, 2012). "Nine Latter-Day Simpsons Episodes That Match Up to the Early Classics". New York (magazine). Retrieved February 11, 2012.
External links [edit]
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