“Vital organs they are what we’re dressed in/ the family dog is eying Bart’s intestine/ Happy Halloween!” – Simpson Family & Groundskeeper Willie In our continuing mission to bring you only the finest in low class, low brow, and low tech internet Simpsons commentary we’re bringing back our “Crazy Noises” series and applying it to Season 21. Because doing a podcast smacks of effort we’re still using this “chatroom” thing that all the middle schoolers and undercover cops seem to think is so cool. This text has been edited for clarity and spelling (especially on “Halloween”). What a complete waste of a Halloween episode. We weren’t really expecting anything different, but in a format where, as Dave points out below, you can essentially do whatever you want it’s pretty remarkable that they had to resort to chase scenes and a poorly produced fake musical to fill the time. Charlie Sweatpants: So, first things first, did anyone skip this piece of shit? Dave: Nope, I endured it. Mad Jon: No, sadly I watched it. Charlie Sweatpants: Okay, then this’ll be like group therapy. Dave: Isn’t that what this is always like? Mad Jon: Shall we start at the beginning? Charlie Sweatpants: “Show me where Zombie Simpsons put the firecracker?” Mad Jon: I have always hated the four act Zombie, and this is just more proof Charlie Sweatpants: That opening sequence did seem to drag, though I’m not sure if that’s because it sucks or because it was actually long. Mad Jon: The first part was as meaningless and stupid as anything Fox has had the gall to air to date Dave: I don’t know that the quarter-act did much, other than set the stage for disappointment Mad Jon: And sell more commercials Dave: Marge’s warnings, Homer lighting himself on fire – both are infinitely more effective Mad Jon: But didn’t you see homer had x’s on his eyes and that led into the Simpsons XX Halloween special? After he died? Charlie Sweatpants: Oh, I got it. Mad Jon: When the Monster wives came to admonish their husbands? Charlie Sweatpants: I just checked, the opening for this one, that monster party, was substantially longer than the intros in the old seasons. Like, twice as long. Mad Jon: I would have bet a lot of money on that Dave: Same Charlie Sweatpants: So it wasn’t just you imagination, it was long AND crappy. While were on the topic of ways this episode frittered time away to fill its contractually obligated broadcast slot, I thought it was particularly lazy that they had two chase scenes. Dave: I didn’t even notice. Mad Jon: Hmm, funny enough I don’t remember either. Oh wait, there was one in the Hitchcock act wasn’t there Charlie Sweatpants: Yeah, Lisa chases Bart through all the Hitchcock scenes and then they flee the zombies with Apu in the second segment. Dave: All three segments were lazy. Referencing something isn’t enough to make a joke Mad Jon: Oh yea. Charlie Sweatpants: It’s…
Tag: Treehouse of Horror XX
Synergy Resorts to Rote Retellings
Image grabbed from here. “Oh . . . a little sterile, no real insight. What do you think Miss Hoover?” – Principal Skinner “Enh.” – Miss Hoover IGN really phoned it in this week. There are six paragraphs in their review of that reprehensibly dull Halloween episode. There’s an opening full of generic praise, there’s a closing full of generic praise. The four middle paragraphs are dedicated, in order, to simply retelling the story of each of the four segments from the episode, including that tepid little opening. In addition to that, each contains the full title of the segment and two quotes from that segment. It’s like paint by number except that it’s writing. As always, I’ve edited out the synergy. October 18, 2009 – The Simpsons‘ Zombie Simpsons’ "Treehouse of Horror XX" was a fine addition to a gross subtraction from the series’ Halloween specials. And for the first time in ten years, we got an episode that actually aired before Halloween, though it still sucked. That’s got to count for something. Though recent Recent specials have had their share of been nothing but clunker segments, and "XX" had three strong stories that were equal parts funny and dark lived up to that dismal track record. The opening sequence was a lot of fun good way to make sure there were four commercial breaks, as horror classics Dracula, Mummy, Wolfman and Frankenstein’s monster safely roamed meandered the streets of Springfield on Halloween. Running into the school bullies, the four were mocked for their out-of-date attire, for some reason: "Turner Classic Movies called, they want their costumes back." After changing into the likes of Iron Man and SpongeBob, the four crashed the Simpson’s Halloween party, for some other reason. When their wives showed up to end their fun, Homer insulted them and was soon torn to bits. With his severed head floating in the punch bowl and his X-ed out eyes forming the "XX" of the episode’s title, the fun drudgery was ready to begin. The first official segment had one of my favorite titles of the "Treehouse" series so far: "Dial ‘M’ For Murder or Press ‘#’ to Return to the Main Menu." This was a heavily stylized plodding and twist filled segment, shown in black and white, as it was parodying referencing a multitude of Alfred Hitchcock films. After Miss Hoover sent Lisa to detention, Bart hatched a plan to have Lisa "prank" Mrs. Krabappel while he pranked Hoover, therefore eliminating each other as suspects. Lisa did the old "ding-dong ditch" and Bart, of course, murdered Miss Hoover, cuz, you know. It was a simple misunderstanding. To Bart, "Ding-dong ditch" means "you kill her then throw that ding-dong into a ditch." The Hitchcock references throughout the segment were fun to spot impossible to miss because they were crammed in with no regard to whether or not any of them were funny, clever or insightful, though I’m sure I didn’t catch them all. The second segment, titled "Don’t…
Zombie Simpsons Halloween Scores Historically Low
The numbers are in and they are deliciously poor. Last night’s Hitchcock-copy-pasta/zombie-retread/musical-number was only able to bore 8.59 million viewers. That’s an improvement from last week, but it’s well below the high for the season and it’s the first Treehouse of Horror to ever fall below 10 million viewers. I find this encouraging if for no other reason than the Treehouse of Horror episodes are almost always the highest rated of the season. Obviously there’s going to be a lot of twentieth anniversary promotional stuff going on for the rest of the year leading up to Spurlock’s little special on the 14th of January, but they flogged last night’s Zombie Simpsons pretty hard and the audience still didn’t show up. As predicted Zombie Simpsons did manage to out draw The Cleveland Show thus evening their totally relevant blood feud at 2-2, and that’s where the score is going to stand for a while. According to Futon Critic (via) FOX won’t be subjecting America to another Zombie Simpsons until November 15th. In the meantime they’ve got baseball and, on the 8th of November, Seth MacFarlane night. (No, I’m not kidding.) So we get four weeks away from Zombie Simpsons. Hooray!
Zombie Simpsons Abandons Precedent
“Please Lis, they prefer to be called the ‘living impaired’.” – Bart Simpson Typically there are three segments to a Treehouse of Horror episode. (Discounting the opening with the monsters at the Halloween party, which was pointless filler if ever there was such a thing.) The first segment was basically a chase scene that had no jokes. The second segment was another zombie segment (that also had a chase scene that had no jokes). The third segment was a bizarre musical theater number that had, quite literally, nothing to do with Halloween with the exception of Kang and Kodos being in the audience. They couldn’t even be bothered to produce three Halloween segments. There was one truly scary moment though, Al Jean was credited as Al “20 More Years” Jean. So, even though it was only 2/3 of a Halloween episode (and Zombie Simpsons at that) it was billed as a full one and those tend to do well in the ratings. I’m setting the over/under at 9.5 million viewers and, as always, I’m hoping for the under. Update: The numbers are in and at 8.59 million viewers the under has it handily. This also makes XX the least watched Treehouse of Horror ever, by almost two million viewers.