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| Oh man, am I watching the parody or the real thing I can't even tell anymore! |
The episode opens up with a heavily modified, Guillermo del Toro directed opening sequence full of references that went on for way too long.
Oh, the Places You'll D'oh!
In a Cat in the Hat parody, the three Simpson kids are left to stay at home during Halloween as they nurse the mumps. Just then, a large Homer-like creature barges in and cures the three of their ailments, calling himself the "Fat" in the Hat. He promises to take the kids out to get some candy, but in the process gets into all sorts of rather twisted encounters throughout town, including burning a buzzard Burns, forcing Apu to spend time with his family, and skinning a Grinch-like Moe. The kids start to fear for their safety and escape the Fat and the Hat to return home. However, the Fat is waiting for them there, but they're saved when Maggie is able to kill the Fat with his own weaponized umbrella. So in all, its a good night for the kids who got a lot of candy when Fat was ransacking Apu's store.
Individual Score: +0.7
Dead and Shoulders
Bart is flying a box kite near an airport in an attempt to screw with pilots. The efforts continues to the night, when Bart decides to continue by tying the kite string around his own neck to keep it from flying away. Of course, a short time later, the box kite gets caught up in a traffic copter, the result of which causes the kite string to cut Bart's head clean off.
Bart wakes up a short time later seemingly okay, but it turns out his head was grafted onto Lisa's shoulder, with Lisa still in full control of her body. The two, of course, bicker with their new predicament, but a psychiatrist helps the two start getting along. One night, though, Bart realizes that when Lisa is asleep, he gains control of her body. Quickly ensuring Lisa stays asleep, Bart attempts to remove Lisa's head so that he can have her body all to himself (man that sounds weird out of context).
After one failed attempt, Bart ties Lisa's body up on a log heading towards a saw, but Lisa wakes up just in time and is able to shift her body in such a way where Bart's head is instead chopped off. Lisa is proud of her victory, when her head is also cut off by a second saw. A short time later, Bart wakes up again to learn in horror his head has now been grafted onto his Aunt Selma (I guess?), while Lisa's head is now on Krusty's body.
Individual Score: +0.6
Freaks No Geeks
In a 1920's era circus ran by Mr. "Burnsome", its attractions include an acrobat act by a Marguerite (Marge, obv.), a strongman act by a Homer-like fellow, and of course a large freak show, its highlight attraction being Moe - just Moe. A short time later, as Burnsome yells at the freaks, Marguerite defends them as she, too, has the freakish feature of differing eye colors. Moe befriends Marge at this point, and other freaks encourage Moe to ask Marge out. Moe considers it, thanks in part to a supposedly valuable emerald ring he possesses. Strongman, who is engaged to Marge sees this, and concocts a plan to let Marge marry Moe so he can kill Moe and take his ring and then marry Marge himself even though he is already engaged to her.
Still, Strongman begins his plan and quickly Marge marries Moe, quickly becoming part of the freaks. In short time, Strongman attempts to poison Moe's drink but is caught by Marge, who kicks him out. On a rainy night, Strongman sees the other freaks slowly advance on him, and sees Burnsome having been hung by the freaks. Aiming to make Strongman one of them as well, the freaks advance on him with tar and feathers. Reimagined by the freaks into a limbless 'duck', Strongman tells the kids the story about how he met their mother via the story that was just told.
Individual Score: +0.7
Quick Review
My opinions on this installment are pretty mixed. I was really not a fan of the opening sequence, it was too long and there were just so many references that I just did not care about. So, the episode really started on a drag for me.
The Cat in the Hat spoof I probably should've liked more, but there were some jokes that really missed in it which hampered my enjoyment of it. The middle segment wasn't anything particularly great, but I really enjoyed the last story, it really hit its marks even with the oddly tossed in How I Met Your Mother reference at the end.
In the end though, its not a particularly noteworthy Treehouse of Horror, in fact the third-lowest rated of the 24 thus far. Just too much did not work for the episode and it offset the decent amount of humor it did present.
Final Score: 7.0
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