Treehouse of Horror IX

"**Treehouse of Horror IX**"
"Treehouse of Horror IX"
The Simpsons episode
	File:Treehouse of Horror IX.jpg
Episode no.	Season 10;
Directed by	Steven Dean Moore
Written by	Donick Cary; Larry Doyle; David S. Cohen
Original air dates	October 25, 1998
Episode features
Chalkboard gag	Bart paints "The Simpsons Halloween Special IX" on the board with a blood-soaked brush
Couch gag	Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees sit on the couch, waiting for the family
Commentary	Matt Groening; Mike Scully; George Meyer; Ron Hauge; David S. Cohen; Donick Cary; Steven Dean Moore
Episode chronology
	The Simpsons season 10
	List of episodes

"Treehouse of Horror IX" is the fourth episode of The Simpsons' tenth season, as well as the ninth Halloween episode. The episode aired on October 25, 1998, tied with 1990's Treehouse of Horror as the earliest a Halloween episode has aired.

Opening Sequence

This is exactly the normal opening sequence, except Bart writes "The Simpsons Halloween Special IX" on the board with blood once. Bart trips over Homer's car, and dies where Marge parks. Lisa trips over Bart, getting her head stuck in the wall above the garage door and dies. Marge loses control because of hitting Lisa's legs, so she crashes into Homer, killing him. At the couch, Freddy Krueger asks Jason Voorhees of where the Simpsons are; Jason responds: "Eh. Whaddya gonna do?", and turns the TV on, watching with Freddy.

Plot

Hell Toupée

Snake is arrested for smoking inside the Kwik-E-Mart. Chief Wiggum explains that after burning down an orphanage and blowing up a bus full of nuns (which Snake claims was self-defence) this is Snake's third strike, so he will be executed in accordance with the three strikes law. Before hauling Snake away, Chief Wiggum helpfully points out that Apu, Moe and Bart are all witnesses; Snake threatens to kill all of them. Snake is executed in the electric chair on World's Deadliest Executions, hosted by Ed McMahon and proudly broadcast on Fox. Chief Wiggum then sends the body to the hospital to be carved up for organ donations. Shortly afterwards, Homer visits Dr. Nick Riviera, who gives him a transplant of a full head of still-smoldering hair. The hair is Snake's, and when Homer goes to sleep the following night, it plants its roots in Homer's brain. With the hair controlling his mind, Homer murders Apu by stuffing him in his own Squishee machine. Homer later removes Moe's heart with a corkscrew and leaves him slumped facefirst in a bowl of Penicill-Os cereal. Bart realizes that the other two witnesses have been killed, but is shocked when his own father comes after him. He begs Homer to fight the hair and, after a struggle, Homer rips the hair off his head. The hair tries to smother Bart and then, as Wiggum bursts through the door with Eddie and Lou, jumps toward the window. Wiggum opens fire and the hair is riddled with bullets and is thus used as a blanket by Maggie. The story closes with Wiggum remarking, "That's what I call a bad hair day!"

The Terror of Tiny Toon

Marge forbids Bart and Lisa from watching the Itchy and Scratchy Halloween special, even going to the lengths of taking the batteries out of the remote control. They refuse to go trick-or-treating with Marge as Homer is dressed as a hobo and Maggie is dressed as a pirate. But when Marge goes, Bart finds a piece of highly unstable plutonium in Homer's toolbox and hammers it into the remotes battery slot (strangely, the plutonium is in the shape of a large battery) and when they use the remote, they actually enter the world of Itchy and Scratchy. They watch Itchy decapitate Scratchy when he trick or treats at his house and use his head in the manner of a Jack-o-lantern. While the two laugh, Scratchy's head asks them why to which Itchy replies that they are laughing at his misfortune. Scratchy re-attaches his head to his body, declares what the duo did was mean, and forms a partnership with Itchy to "teach them a lesson". They then throw deadly objects at Bart and Lisa. As they try to escape, the hated character Poochie (voiced again by Daniel Castellaneta/Homer Simpson) passes by, but he is run down by their car. They escape from the car, and wind up on Live with Regis and Kathie Lee in a pot of soup when Homer changes the channel and they return to Itchy and Scratchy's house when he changes it back. Lisa urges Homer to press the "exit" button, which gets her and Bart (whose body was devoured from the neck down by piranhas, leaving only his skeleton) out of the TV. She presses the "rewind" button on the remote to restore Bart's flesh, but unfortunately, Itchy and Scratchy smash through the screen. However, they emerge the same size as their real animal equivalents, and they are therefore harmless. Homer decides to make Itchy a pet running on a wheel, and Snowball II rubs up against Scratchy and he falls in love with her. However, Marge decides to neuter him, causing Scratchy to scream.

Starship Poopers

On an ordinary day, Marge discovers Maggie's first baby tooth, which appears to be a sharp fang. Maggie later loses her "baby legs" and grows green tentacles. Marge decides to take her to Dr. Hibbert, who prescribes "Fire, and lots of it!" after Maggie crunches his equipment with her fang. At home, it is found that Maggie can contact somebody by sucking extra-rapidly on her pacifier, which appears to be the alien duo, Kang and Kodos. They arrive at the Simpson house, coming to retrieve Maggie. Marge reveals that Kang is Maggie's real father and retells the story: Kang and Kodos abducted her while she was doing laundry, selecting Marge for a cross-breeding program. She says the aliens used mind-control techniques on her (Kang simply pointed and said "Look over there!" before zapping her with an insemination ray). She recalls that nine months after the abduction, Maggie was born. Kang and Kodos demand that the Simpsons give Maggie to them and a struggle ensues. Both Homer, Marge, and aliens start to fight over Maggie until Bart (who is angered by this) stops them and suggests that there can be only one way to solve the problem: let the Simpsons appear on The Jerry Springer Show, with Homer and Kang duking it out. When they appear to discuss things, Kang and Kodos use their ray gun to vaporize an annoying audience. During Jerry's "final thought" Maggie attacks Jerry and kills him while Homer and Kang resume fighting.

Marge: "I can't believe it. Jerry Springer didn't solve our conflict"
Lisa: "And now he's dead"

Jerry, Homer and Kang swear a lot in the process with Marge swearing once to express the humilation of it all. Kang and Kodos now threaten to kill every American politician unless the Simpsons give Maggie to them. Marge and the Simpsons slyly imply that the aliens couldn't possibly kill every politician, and as they fly off to do so, Bart reminds them not to forget Ken Starr. Just when they're about to leave, Maggie takes out her pacifier and tells everyone in an alien voice "very well, I'll drive! Ha ha ha! I need blood!".

Trivia

Ed McMahon's appearance was very surprising: the writers originally got Troy McClure to host World's Deadliest Executions, but the scene had to be re-done after Phil Hartman died. This would have been Hartman's last appearance on the show, and it would have been retained if not for the dark subject matter in relation to his recent murder. Phil Hartman did an Ed McMahon impersonation on Saturday Night Live.
The final episode with David X Cohen as a writer. He would go on to co-create Futurama with Matt Groening. His name on the credits appears as David "Watch Futurama" Cohen
At the start of the Terror of Tiny Toon sequence, Marge denies Bart and Lisa to see the Itchy and Scratchy Halloween episode, saying: "If I let you watch those gruesome Halloween cartoons, I'd be a pretty lousy mother". This is a joke to the fact to real-life mothers letting their children watch the Treehouse of Horror episode.
Regis Philbin and Kathie Lee Gifford appeared as live-action guests as themselves in this episode, a Simpsons first, and the fifth time live-action has been used in a Simpsons episode. The first time was at the beginning of Treehouse of horror V where a clip from the film 200 miles to Oregon was shown, as Congress' supposed suggested alternative to this overly violent episode. The second time was at the end of Treehouse of Horror VI. The third time was a shot of clouds in El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer (The Mysterious Voyage of Homer). The fourth time was a live-action hand spinning the family like a spin art painting in the couch gag to the episode Girly Edition.
In 'The Terror of Tiny Toon', Poochie makes a brief appearance, once again voiced by Homer, until he is run over by Itchy and Scratchy who are fighting with Bart and Lisa.
Alien-Maggie reappears in Treehouse of Horror X.
This is the only "Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror" episode to feature a chalkboard gag.
Regis Philbin and Kathie Lee Gifford appearing as live-action guests very likely occurred due to that scene being a "last minute" addition. Originally, Bart and Lisa, when Homer changed the channel, were supposed to end up in Ally McBeal (with the Ally McBeal cast appearing in animated form). However, the scene was dropped when Calista Flockhart declined to reprise her role as the show's title character for the episode.

Cultural references

"Hell Toupée" is loosely based on the Wes Craven film Shocker, as well as the Amazing Stories episode also called "Hell Toupée." The ending, spoofing the horror convention of the ever-undying villain, specifically parodies the end of the 1988 film Child's Play, about a doll, Chucky, inhabited by the soul of a serial killer, plus that take its ending. Also, the plot's aspect of an innocent patient having serial killer parts transplanted onto them seems to be a reference to the 1993 TV movie Body Bags, directed by John Carpenter, which featured a story where a hair transplant contained an alien parasite, and a story in which an eye transplant carried with it the personality of the eyeball's murderous previous owner. The death of the toupee is also similar to the end of Child's Play.
Some of the plot from "The Terror of Tiny Toon" is similar to the 1998 movie Pleasantville as well as from segment #3 of "Twilight Zone - The Movie", which was the same segment that contained Nancy Cartwright (the voice of Bart Simpson) getting trapped and killed in a TV cartoon. Also the Dark Comedy "Stay Tuned" and the sixth film of the "A Nightmare on Elm Street" series have cartoon/video game sequences. The title of the episode comes from the 1938 western/comedy movie The Terror of Tiny Town and possibly from the series Tiny Toon Adventures.
The title of "Starship Poopers" is a parody of the novel Starship Troopers. Maggie kills Jerry Springer in a similar fashion to Alien.

External links