Difference between revisions of "Treehouse of Horror XVII"

Revision as of 08:30, March 24, 2010

"Treehouse of Horror XVII" is, as the name indicates, the seventeenth Treehouse of Horror episode of The Simpsons.

This is one of several Simpsons episodes which are considered anthology episodes that features mini-stories.

Plot

Married to the Blob

As Homer and Marge snuggle on the hammock, a meteorite falls nearby, burning off the top of Marge's hair in the process. Cracking open, it reveals a green goo resembling a melted marshmallow. Despite his family's objections, Homer puts it on a stick and eats it (although the goo tries many times to get away). That night, his stomach rumbling from hunger, Homer eats all the food in the house. He also eats the cat and attempts to eat Bart but is stopped by Marge. Now seriously fat, he walks around looking for food. Homer soon becomes a massive fat green blob, rampaging through the streets of Springfield, eating all the fat people he can find. As Homer samples bus passengers as if they were candies, Dr. Phil McGraw shows up with the Simpson family. He tells Homer to stop for their sakes. But, Homer doesn't listen to him and eats Dr. Phil. Homer then ends his rampaging for fear of losing Marge and vows to use his insatiable appetite for more constructive purposes. Later, Mayor Quimby dedicates a new homeless shelter. The homeless people enter the shelter, only to find themselves in Homer's gut. This segment is a spoof of the 1950s horror movie The Blob.

You Gotta Know When To Golem

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. Krusty tells Bart that in the seventeenth century, the Golem was sculpted out of clay by a powerful rabbi. The Golem would do anything written on a scroll and placed in his mouth. He had been passed down through many generations and now works for Krusty. Bart steals the Golem by writing a command for him to come to his home at midnight, while Krusty is wearing a mask in preparation for a "Desperate Houseflies" sketch. At midnight, the Golem shows up at the Simpson's 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 in the balls (though he at first thought Bart wrote walls). Lisa thinks the Golem doesn't like doing the biddings of others and feeds him a scroll reading "Speak". The Golem (voiced by Richard Lewis) reveals that he feels guilty about being used to commit heinous acts. To make him feel better, the Simpsons create a female Golem (voiced by 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.

The Day the Earth Looked Stupid

The population of Springfield, circa 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 and destroy the town. Marge suggests they foil the aliens by cavorting in the mud naked like animals. So they do this all day until the next day, Lisa notifies the citizens that it was all a hoax and, angry at being fooled, the citizens of Springfield vow to not fall for such a trick again. Kang and Kodos decide this is the perfect time for a real invasion, and begin destroying what's left of the town. True to their word, the town does not believe that it's a real invasion and ignores it, although Orson Welles (Maurice LaMarche) comes to Springfield, admits it is not a staged act, and begs them to do something. Unfortunately, they don't, and the segment ends three years later with Kang and Kodos looking over the ruins, mulling on what went wrong and why they weren't greeted as liberators as they rid Earth's weapons of mass disintegration(WMD) during "Operation Enduring Occupation", a parody of the real military operation, "Operation Enduring Freedom". The camera then pans out to reveal the earth has fallen victim to a nuclear fallout.  As the credits roll, "I don't want to set the world on fire" plays in a clear reference to the Fallout videogame series.

Trivia

• For unknown reasons when Bart told the golem not to kick homer`s wall kick the word "balls" was blocked.
• "The Day the Earth Looked Stupid" is very likely a reference to the videogame series, Fallout, as the whole city of Springfield is turned into a post-apocalyptic world after the alien attack, and the fact that the ending song is "The Ink Spots - I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire" which is actually used in the game. The name of the episode is an obvious reference to the movie "The Day The Earth Stood Still".
• Sir Mix-a-Lot makes a parody of his best know song, "Baby Got Back" called "Baby Likes Fat" which plays when Homer starts eating people.
• After Homer eats some fat German men at an Oktoborfest, he remarks "Must eat more fat people. Thank God I live in America."
• When Kang and Kodos invaded Earth, Kodos remarks that "we had to invade! They were working on weapons of mass Disentegration!" which is a reference to how American soldiers invaded Iraq because George H. W. Bush claimed they were working on Weapons of Mass Destruction.
• The chaos in Springfield after the radio broadcast of H. G. Wells' "War of the Worlds" could be based off the mass hysteria in some parts of America and how many people died during the confusion.