Difference between revisions of "Treehouse of Horror XVII"

Latest revision as of 17:25, November 5, 2024

This THOH is considered non-canon and the events featured do not relate to the series and therefore may not have actually happened/existed. The reason behind this decision is: The episode is part of the Treehouse of Horror series. If you dispute this, please bring it up on the episode's talk page.

"Treehouse of Horror XVII"

Episode Information Episode number: 382 Season number: S18 E4 Production code: HABF17 Original airdate: November 5, 2006 Guest star(s): Fran Drescher as the Female Golem Maurice LaMarche as Orson Welles Richard Lewis as the Male Golem Phil McGraw as himself Sir Mix-a-Lot as the "Baby Likes Fat" singer Showrunner: Al Jean Written by: Peter Gaffney Directed by: David Silverman Matthew Faughnan

"Treehouse of Horror XVII" is the fourth episode of season 18 of The Simpsons and the three-hundred and eighty-second episode overall. It is also the seventeenth installment in the Treehouse of Horror series and consists of three parts. It originally aired on November 5, 2006. The episode was written by Peter Gaffney and directed by David Silverman and Matthew Faughnan. It guest stars Fran Drescher as the Female Golem, Maurice LaMarche as Orson Welles, Richard Lewis as the Male Golem, Phil McGraw as himself, and Sir Mix-a-Lot as the "Baby Likes Fat" singer.

Synopsis[edit]

"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 a golem; and in "The Day the Earth Looked Stupid," the residents of early-1930s Springfield refuse to believe news of an actual alien invasion after being duped by Orson Welles' War of the Worlds radio broadcast."

Plot[edit]

Opening sequence[edit]

A zombie Mr. Burns introduces the show in a parody of Tales from the Crypt, with a zombie Smithers backing him up. Moe, who is in an iron maiden, then complains that their talking is worse torture than the torture itself. Smithers then closes the iron maiden, and Moe's blood pours from his body and spells out "Treehouse of Horror XVII".

Married to the Blob[edit]

As Homer and Marge make out on the hammock in the backyard, a meteorite starts falling towards them, burning through Marge's hair. It lands in the backyard and hatches to reveal a ball of strange, alien goo. Homer decides to eat the "space marshmallow," and after some difficulty, he keeps it down. That night, Homer starts sleepwalking and ends up eating through all the food in the kitchen. When Bart comes in to see what is happening, Homer tries to eat him too. Marge stops Homer from doing so and finds out that Homer has also eaten the cat.

Homer leaves the house in search of more food and finds a group of teenagers partying on the beach. After they have a hot sauce fight, Homer starts eating them. As Homer continues eating, he gets bigger and fatter. He then goes to an Oktoberfest celebration and eats everyone there. Homer then starts going around town eating everyone while "Baby Likes Fat" plays. On the news, Kent Brockman reports on Homer's rampage, showing that he has become huge and green. The rest of the Simpson family goes to Homer to stop him, getting help from Dr. Phil. However, Homer also eats Dr. Phil before he admits he has a problem. He tells Marge that he wants his problem to become a positive for the community, so Mayor Quimby opens up a homeless shelter, with Homer on the other side of the door. As the homeless people go through the door, they are eaten by the gelatinous Homer.

You Gotta Know When to Golem[edit]

During a recording of The Krusty the Clown Show, Krusty announces that the show will be broadcast in HDTV. After the recording finishes, Bart tells Milhouse that he will stay behind to complain to Krusty about his Krusty Brand Alarm Clock that sprays acid. Backstage, Bart finds Krusty's prop room and sees a Golem. Krusty finds Bart and explains that the Golem is created in Prague in the 1600s by a rabbi. The Golem then does whatever tasks are written on scrolls and inserted into its mouth. Eventually, the Golem ends up in Krusty's possession, where he uses it to scare audience members who do not enjoy his jokes. After telling the story, Krusty leaves, and Bart puts a scroll into its mouth, telling it to come to his room at midnight.

That night, Bart waits for the Golem to arrive. After a fake-out with his drunken father, the Golem turns up at Bart's room, and Bart puts a scroll in its mouth, telling it to "kick Homer's balls." The Golem does as it is ordered, and Bart takes the Golem with him to school the next day, ordering it to attack the bullies. Lisa realizes what Bart has done and puts a scroll in the Golem's mouth, telling it to speak. The Golem starts speaking and feels horrified by the people he has hurt and killed. After using the Golem to kill Skinner, the Simpsons discuss him and decide that he needs to form a friendship with someone. They create a Female Golem out of Play-Doh and bring her to life. While Homer does not like his creation and wants to get rid of her, the Male Golem falls in love and decides to marry her, with Rabbi Krustofsky officiating the ceremony. The police arrive at the wedding to investigate the Golem, but they are persuaded to drop the matter with a free latke bar.

The Day the Earth Looked Stupid[edit]

In 1938 Springfield, during the Great Depression, the people of Springfield line up to receive bread from The Salvation Army. At home, as Homer and Marge dance to the radio, a broadcast starts announcing that alien cylinders from Mars have started landing around the country. Orson Welles then starts describing the invasion in more detail, causing panic and riots in Springfield. This all turns out to be a broadcast of The War of the Worlds, which is intended to lift spirits. However, the Springfield citizens keep rioting, not realizing it is a work of fiction. Eventually, Marge comes up with an idea and has everyone pretend to be animals since the aliens are only killing humans. The townspeople strip naked and wallow in filth, making animal noises until the next day when Lisa reveals that the radio broadcast is a hoax.

After finding out it is a hoax, the people of Springfield decide to go back to their normal lives. However, Kang and Kodos choose that moment to invade the town, knowing that the people will just think it is another hoax. Orson Welles shows up in town to tell Chief Wiggum to call the military, but Wiggum doesn't believe him. Kang and Kodos then come down in their UFO and kill Wiggum, draining his body. Three years later, the town is a wasteland. Kang and Kodos argue because they think they would be greeted as liberators. Kang says that they are starting to think that Operation: Enduring Occupation was a bad idea, and Kodos says that they had to invade since the people of Earth were working on weapons of mass disintegration.

Production[edit]

The episode was written by Peter Gaffney, who was someone Al Jean knew from college as part of The Harvard Lampoon.^[1]

The opening of the episode, with the pan through the halls of Burns' manor, was animated by multiplaning. This is done by having different levels of artwork which are moved at different rates towards the CG camera to make it appear as though it's moving through 3 dimensional space. Silverman was the director of the episode right until the animatic stage, which is when The Simpsons Movie started production. Matthew Faughnan then took over directing from Silverman so he could focus on The Simpsons Movie.^[2]

The original ending had Kang and Kodos saying that the post-apocalyptic Springfield was "just like Iraq would be". After the episode was sent to critics, critics said that the line was too "on the head". James L. Brooks and Matt Groening decided that the sentence should be changed.^[1]

Reception[edit]

In February 2012, Matt Zoller Seitz of Vulture listed "Treehouse of Horror XVII" in his "Nine Latter-Day Simpsons Episodes That Match Up to the Early Classics", with his favorite segment being "You Gotta Know When to Golem".^[3]

Dan Iverson of IGN gave the episode a 7.6 rating. He said that the episode "is pretty funny no matter when you watch it". However, he also said that it "isn't up to the quality that was started so many years back". He said that although the "dialogue was solid", "the clever stories that helped build the popularity of these episodes is no longer there". He also said that the story of "You Gotta Know When to Golem" "was actually really boring when you get down to it".^[4]

Kyle Ryan and Erik Adams of The A.V. Club listed the "The Day the Earth Looked Stupid" segment in their "10 anxiety-reflecting Simpsons Halloween segments". They said that the show had been "awfully quiet" during the Bush presidency, and called the segment the "most political—and bleakest—Treehouse segment ever".^[5]

As of September 2024, the episode has a 6.8 rating on IMDb.^[6]

In other languages[edit]

Language Name Translation Deutsch "Krieg der Welten" War of the Worlds Español "La casa-árbol del terror XVII" Treehouse of Horror XVII Español "La casita del horror XVII" The little house of horror XVII Français "Simpson Horror Show XVII" Simpson's Horror Show XVII Français "Spécial d'Halloween XVII" Halloween Special XVII Italiano "La paura fa novanta XVII" Fear makes ninety XVII

Gallery[edit]

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  Title screen

References[edit]

Wikisimpsons has a collection of images related to "Treehouse of Horror XVII".