By Madeleine Caprosz
The Simpsons’ annual special Treehouse of Horror does Halloween like no one else does any other holiday. Ever since their second season in 1990, The Simpsons have championed fun and scary Halloween themes. From the opening couch gag to the cameos by our alien friends Kang and Kodos, and even the spooky end credits, The Simpsons’ know how to get in that Halloween spirit. They began with several interconnected disturbingly entertaining short segments contained in one episode (the first Treehouse of Horror episode was actually in a treehouse).
The Simpsons’ annual special Treehouse of Horror does Halloween like no one else does any other holiday. Ever since their second season in 1990, The Simpsons have championed fun and scary Halloween themes. From the opening couch gag to the cameos by our alien friends Kang and Kodos, and even the spooky end credits, The Simpsons’ know how to get in that Halloween spirit. They began with several interconnected disturbingly entertaining short segments contained in one episode (the first Treehouse of Horror episode was actually in a treehouse).
The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episodes have been nominated for the Primetime Emmy Awards under the category of Outstanding Animated Program twice, they have won three times for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation and have been nominated several times for music composition and sound mixing.
The specials are spooky, gory, and jarring (the entertaining kind). They walk the line between unpredictable and nonsensical (spilling only occasionally into mild insanity). These Halloween specials are carte blanche for Halloween enthusiasts and enthuses those who were Halloween sceptics. A fair word of warning for those committed Simpsons fans who are faint of heart, these episodes are non-cannonical. Yes, non-canonical, but so what? In the spirit of Halloween, The Simpsons are breaking all the rules even the ones enforced upon them by their die hard fans. This is the time of year in which Simpsons fans get to see the incorrigible and utterly loveable green aliens, Kang and Kodos. The pair has made a cameo, no matter how small, in every single Treehouse of Horror special (and a few non-Halloween episodes). We get to see how they, much like a certain large-headed rat villain and his companion with an onomatopoeia fixation, plan to ‘take over the world’. They really are The Pinky and the Brain of Halloween (Narf).
The Simpsons have incorporated the Treehouse of Horror tradition into their mobile game, The Simpsons: Tapped Out, with a special in-game update every year with new content related to that year’s episode. While The Simpsons’ popularity has been declining in recent years, the Treehouse of Horror special remains one of our undoubtedly favourite Halloween traditions. So sit back, watch The Simpsons, and ‘plan to take over the world’.
The specials are spooky, gory, and jarring (the entertaining kind). They walk the line between unpredictable and nonsensical (spilling only occasionally into mild insanity). These Halloween specials are carte blanche for Halloween enthusiasts and enthuses those who were Halloween sceptics. A fair word of warning for those committed Simpsons fans who are faint of heart, these episodes are non-cannonical. Yes, non-canonical, but so what? In the spirit of Halloween, The Simpsons are breaking all the rules even the ones enforced upon them by their die hard fans. This is the time of year in which Simpsons fans get to see the incorrigible and utterly loveable green aliens, Kang and Kodos. The pair has made a cameo, no matter how small, in every single Treehouse of Horror special (and a few non-Halloween episodes). We get to see how they, much like a certain large-headed rat villain and his companion with an onomatopoeia fixation, plan to ‘take over the world’. They really are The Pinky and the Brain of Halloween (Narf).
The Simpsons have incorporated the Treehouse of Horror tradition into their mobile game, The Simpsons: Tapped Out, with a special in-game update every year with new content related to that year’s episode. While The Simpsons’ popularity has been declining in recent years, the Treehouse of Horror special remains one of our undoubtedly favourite Halloween traditions. So sit back, watch The Simpsons, and ‘plan to take over the world’.
