Very few months offer as much choice as October, and all of those choices feature Halloween in some way. Shall I buy candy even though I never have kids come by? Shall I be a sexy witch, sexy pirate, sexy ghostbuster (all female costumes share a common trait, unless you're a little girl—then you have your choice of several kinds of princess)? What SIMPSONS's Halloween specials shall I show my Simpsons class?
With almost twenty years of Halloween specials (they didn't start until season 2), there are many to choose from. Thankfully, for the first year in a long time, this year will feature a Halloween special before Halloween (Stupid sports--D'oh!).
The wonderful thing about Halloween specials is that we tend to get a lot of movie parody.
Here are the parody ones I like best:
Treehouse of Horror IV. It's not often that I like all three vignettes this much, but all three of these are golden. "The Devil and Homer Simpson" is a parody of THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER. I love the ironic punishment division of hell (someone's been reading their Dante). I also love Lionel Hutz's completely inept defense strategy. I'm not sure why he comes back after running away, but what's really amazing is that he comes back with an empty pizza box.
"Terror at 5 ½ Feet" is a parody of "Terror at 20,000 Feet" from THE TWILIGHT ZONE. 
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It's not often that you get to see Bart take over a role originally inhabited by William Shatner.
"Bart Simpson's Dracula" features the best wall shadow ever (don't you sort of hope Gary Oldman's does what Mr. Burns's does in the original?), as well as what looks like an awesome slide! In addition to BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA (by the way, vampires do get to walk around in the daytime in the original book), there are also some LOST BOYS references.
"The Shinning" from Treehouse of Horror V—I've never actually seen THE SHINING. It's one of those things I feel like I've experienced, though, like reading MOBY DICK, due to overwhelming cultural references. My two favorite moments in this parody—when Willie warns Bart about getting sued if they use the original title and when we learn what happens to Homer in adverse conditions. I often have "No T.V. and no beer make Karma something something" as my Facebook status.
"Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace" from Treehouse VI—NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET is one of the classics and so is this remake. The dreams themselves are okay, but the entire PTA meeting flashback is beyond wonderful.
"The Homega Man" from Treehouse of Horror VIII—I AM LEGEND was originally a movie (based on a book) called THE OMEGA MAN. After a disaster, Homer finds himself alone in the world, which apparently 
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doesn't bother him, as he finds various ways to enjoy himself (luckily for him, he doesn't just want to read). Naturally, these stories only really become interesting when there are slightly-human others to deal with and these mutants don't disappoint.
"I Know What you Diddily-Iddily Did" from Treehouse X—Things go awry when Ned takes a late night fog walk. I giggle every time I hear Homer sing "Guess I forgot to put the fog lights in." I'm hearing it in my head now.
Even though they're not movie parodies, I highly recommend "Citizen Kang" and "Starship Poopers" and "Scary Tales Can Come True."
Even though my students don't remember the Clinton/Dole election, they can still appreciate "Citizen Kang," which is my favorite all time Halloween story. Homer is abducted by aliens, who want to be taken to the leader (but "have reached the limits of what rectal probing can teach" them). When the aliens impersonate the Presidential candidates, the American political system is satirized in several ways—our destructive obsession with the two party system, the way we prejudge our candidates (Marge comments on "slick Willie" even after he says he'll rule brutally), and the pandering our candidates do ("Dole" realizes that he must find a middle ground on abortion, so he proposes "Abortions for some; miniature American flags for others!"). It also reminds us that our system usually has us basically deciding between two monsters.
In "Starship Poopers," Homer leans that Maggie was actually fathered by Kang (Marge was abducted and forced to be inseminated in her choice of the four most common places (can you guess what they are?)). Kang's mind control technique is awesome (I swear some guys have tried it on me). But the episode gets even better when Kang and the Simpson family appear on JERRY SPRINGER to resolve their problems.
"Scary Tales Can Come True" begins with a commentary on violence, which is fabulous—we can think about "story" violence as compared to real violence. It's the age of fairy tales and Marge is concerned that the fire is too violent for Bart to watch, but then we realize this is a society in which children can be left out by their parents to starve. Yes, we've entered the world of the Grimms. The Grimm brothers collected old folk tales and took out the sexual references (fairy tales weren't originally for children), left in the violence, and sometimes insinuated "morals." If you haven't read the Grimm version of tales, you likely only know Disney-fied versions, which is really too bad.
THE SIMPSONS revisits the tales as only they can, with the help of a witch named Suzanne.
Halloween is almost here! Trick or treat!
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| Comedies with Dr. Karma |
Every other Wednesday
Dr. Karma discusses all things comic, from the classics to what may become classics. Laugh with, but not at, her, please.
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| Karma Waltonen |
Dr. Karma is a silly, nerdy know-it-all, but in a good way. She brings all her overeducation to discuss that which truly matters: comedy. As some famous guy once said: “And if I laugh at any mortal thing, ‘tis that I may not weep.” Or something like that.
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