A Ranking of Every Treehouse of Horror Segment: #65-53

It's one of scariest times of the year. With Halloween now only days away, it's time to turn on the TV and find what will tingle your spine and make you have nightmares for nights on end. Among the most iconic of the horror-themed entertainment is The Simpsons' annual Treehouse of Horror anthology series; where pop culture meets violence and surrealism with hilarious results. Over the next six days, join me as I count down all 78 of the current installments from the absolute worst (That's bad), to the absolute best (That's good) of the golden years; with a very unlucky 13 entries at a time. Who will come out on top? Well, there's only one way to find out. Click the button below, if you dare.



65. "Frinkenstein"

Episode: XIV
The One About: Professor Frink resurrects his dead father, who proceeds to steal people's organs.
The Good: Speaking as Frink was always a Jerry Lewis knock-off, it's great to see the legendary actor cast as his father.
The Bad:  It's an idea that has already been done on the show with "Homer's Nightmare (If I Only Had a Brain)," and with better results. Seeing Frink's father run amok by stealing people's organs is initially comical, but lacks any payoff. The finale features Frink's father understanding the follies of his ways, but it's not enough to make up for a lackluster "Frankenstein" parody that squanders Lewis' potential.

64. "Survival of the Fattest"

Episode: XVI
The One About: Mr. Burns decides to hunt his staff for sport.
The Good: It is done comically like a sports broadcast. A cameo by Terry Bradshaw is a nice touch.
The Bad: While based on "The Most Dangerous Game," I don't know that it does anything of value with the premise. Burns may be sadistic in a fun way, but it's also further evidence that Homer is cowardice, choosing to protect himself by using his friends as a shield. Adding to the sexual attraction to sadomasochism, Homer and Marge end the episode by beginning to make out as Bradshaw commentates. The abrupt ending doesn't help, either.

63. "House of Whacks"

Episode: XII
The One About: The Simpsons move into a new house that wants to kill Homer
The Good: Pierce Brosnan stars as the house, adding a classy touch to the psychopathic murderer story. Also, the conclusion is resolved with a nod to 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The Bad: Even if the motivations of the house killing Homer are sound (it's in love with Marge), it's still a very dumb story. It was around this time that the series became keen on doing more violent stories that lacked any payoff. Yes, it's nice to see the programming unit have some punishment - serving as a slave to Selma and Patty - but it's an obvious joke that doesn't save the segment's many flaws. 

62. "Bart and Homer's Excellent Adventure"

Episode: XXIV
The One About: Bart travels back to the 70's to keep Homer from marrying Marge.
The Good: There's an extended gag about Homers throughout history. "I'm Renaissance Homer."
The Bad: It's the least scary/horror-based segment in the show's history. With the series doing alternative history episodes like "Days of Future Passed," it doesn't make sense why this needed to be in a Halloween episode. While it is a fairly accurate Back to the Future parody, it doesn't really do much but remind us that Artie Ziff regrets not marrying Marge. Everything else is stuff that has been done dozens of times before.

61. "Untitled Robot Parody"

Episode: XIX
The One About: Transforming robots invade Springfield
The Good: All of the robots have humorous personalities that compliment a sillier take on Transformers. Beating the Michael Bay franchise by a few years, Homer becomes trapped in a robot after it transforms from a car into a human-like structure.
The Bad: Beyond the clever sight gags that start the episode, it evolves into predictable, lazy material that loses the ingenuity in favor of an illogical battle between robots. While it's still fun, it doesn't really have any clear focus and ends up feeling rushed. Also, the robots-versus-humans plot was done a lot better in "Life's a Glitch, Then You Die."

60. "In the Belly of the Boss"

Episode: XV
The One About: When Mr. Burns digests a shrunken Maggie, the family must rescue her.
The Good: A lot of clever jokes about the human body.
The Bad: It's territory that Futurama has done better. While the episode is adequate, one cannot help but recognize that the ideas aren't as strong as they can be. Along with sexualizing Marge, it doesn't really do much with its premise besides point out the frail interiors of Mr. Burns, which has already been a running joke. The finale in which Homer fails to exit Mr. Burns is also a little disturbing. The episode ends with Homer, regular sized, stuck inside of his body while dancing to love songs. If nothing else, it's the strangest image that the series created during this time. In a strange fourth wall-breaking moment, Lisa acknowledges that this may be the worst "Treehouse of Horror" segment ever. This list begs to differ, but not by much.

59. "Dead and Shoulders"

Episode: XXIV
The One About: Bart grafts his head onto Lisa's body after a traumatic incident.
The Good: It's got some playful sibling rivalry.
The Bad: It's very forgettable and not all that effective. The inciting incident in which Bart's head gets decapitated when his box kite's string strangles him is very lazy. The story feels like it was taken from the epilogue of "Homer's Nightmare (If I Only Had a Brain)." Yes, it relies heavily on the bratty attitudes of sibling rivalry, but nothing exciting happens. It's not a terrible segment, but its lack of memorable moments that keeps it from ranking among the better half. Also, ending the episode where everyone has grafted their head on someone else's body is needlessly excessive.

58. "The Day the Earth Looked Stupid"

Episode: XVII
The One About: Springfield loses their minds when Orson Welles does his "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast.
The Good: Maurice LaMarche is really good at playing Orson Welles.
The Bad: This feels like it was an attempt to recapture the magic from "The Raven" sequence. Even if it's less of a literal interpretation, it still comes across as more of a tribute with sight gags than a particularly well thought-out routine. It's "War of the Worlds," but with the infamous paranoia that the real-life broadcast supposedly created. Even then, the final moments decide to go over the top, only adding to the question as to what this segment was exactly trying to achieve. Was it a tribute? Was it a parody? It doesn't really achieve either too well.

57. "I've Grown a Costume on Your Face"

Episode: XVI
The One About: A curse causes everyone in Springfield to turn into their costumes.
The Good: It has a lot of clever gags, especially regarding the curse's misinterpretation of many costumes.
The Bad: It kind of just ends with Maggie turning people in pacifiers. For all of the good jokes that happened before, it doesn't know how to end everything. It makes no sense and having Maggie fly off to the Bewitched theme is a little much. Also, having Dennis Rodman do public service announcement on adult illiteracy to cap the episode feels like a joke that was never earned. 

56. "Telepaths of Glory"

Episode: XXVI
The One About: Bart, Lisa, and Milhouse receive telepathic powers after falling down a hole.
The Good: It's great to see The Simpsons tackling Chronicle
The Bad: Speaking as telepathy means that there's room for limitless jokes, this segment rarely feels like it does anything exciting or clever with it. Yes, they do the basic fly around gags that you'd expect, but the segment takes too long to get started, and by that point it's over. What's even more baffling is that it's further evidence that the writers will lazily throw the conflict onto Maggie's shoulders because she doesn't speak. She is responsible for various tragedy throughout town. That's how the episode ends, even if Maggie doesn't fit into the rest of the episode.

55. "Dial D for Diddly"

Episode: XXII
The One About: Ned is secretly a serial killer in the mold of Dexter.
The Good: The opening credits parodying Dexter. The first is a rather impressive homage to Taxi Driver that sets up the plot nicely. The random Road Runner gag with Ned holding a "Diddily" sign makes me want a Looney Tunes-inspired segment so badly. The brief cameo of Maude.
The Bad: The segment breaks a certain realism that is disappointing (yes, even with a Looney Tunes gag). Nelson's Mom attends a prestigious school for prostitutes, which is a very random and odd joke that goes nowhere. When it is revealed that Homer is pretending to play God so that Ned will spite his enemies, it swifts into a disappointing reveal in which an actual God is angry at Ned. While it is nice to see Maude, it isn't enough to justify an ending that feels more like a defeat than a clever final punch line. It was also material that was done better in "I Know What You Diddily-Iddily Did."

54. "The Greatest Story Ever Holed"

Episode: XXIII
The One About: Springfield gets attacked by a black hole.
The Good: There's a lot of great animated gags within this segment. The slow revelation that the town throwing garbage into the hole only makes it more powerful. The final reveal of what's on the other side of the hole being a civilization that uses the garbage resourcefully. The aliens finding the Zune to be a holier-than-thou artifact is great. 
The Bad: It's a plot that stems back to "Bad Dream House," which arguably handled the garbage joke a lot more swiftly. It's not a  bad plot, but there's a few moments that are far fetched about it, such as being able to keep a black hole in your basement without it consuming various household appliances.

53. "In the Na'vi"

Episode: XXII
The One About: Whatever Avatar was.
The Good: The Kang and Kodos character designs are perfect. The bullies being self-aware that their avatar bodies cost billions of dollars each. The show is great at making a world as bizarre as Pandora. The reality that everything on the planet is a living being, causing Milhouse to accidentally have sex with a tree. The pieces of land falling onto the planet is a great jab at Avatar's strange laws of gravity. The final battle scene is rich with small, inspired moments.
The Bad: The short initially is off-putting, and the aliens are possibly too bizarre with bad speech impediments and odd sexual preferences. The strange and pointless joke about an alien getting space warts from Milhouse is especially odd since Milhouse previous establishes his virginity within the segment. For those that thought that this short was a few years too late, the closing is especially jarring with Grampa coming out and asking about a Black Swan routine.



UP NEXT: Gun-toting zombie cowboys, illegitimate alien babies, and a tribute to every Stanley Kubrick movie not called The Shining.

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