In Season 5’s “Bart Gets an Elephant”, Stampy escapes and Homer and the family try to find the pachyderm by following the trail of destruction.  Unfortunately, a tornado has come through since Stampy did.  Homer then points up and says, “Look, it got Patty and Selma!”  We’re then shown Patty and Selma in rocking chairs (a la The Wizard of Oz) and they make a joke:

Now, compare that with Season 8’s “Hurricane Neddy”, which we discussed at length back in June.  Homer ventures out of the basement during the eye of the storm; then, for no real reason, he’s caught up in a tornado-like wind, which causes the following:

Homer is grabbed by Lisa, Lisa is grabbed by Bart, and Bart is grabbed by Marge who then pulls them all back into the basement.  This isn’t even a subjective example, where I don’t think a joke is funny but someone else does.  There simply is no joke.  The musical score is set to “exciting action” and nothing at all funny happens.  As soon as they’re back inside Marge begins praying for their safety (which is itself not nearly as funny as when she does the same thing in “Homer Defined”).  There’s no punchline and nothing to be quoted, just a few seconds of cartoonish “danger”.

Both segments are short and both involve characters getting sucked up into the sky, but only one is funny.  The other doesn’t even try.  Sadly, it’s sequences like the one from “Hurricane Neddy” (family-in-danger!!!!!) that have become a staple of Zombie Simpsons.