Treehouse of Horror XVII

"Treehouse of Horror XVII"^[1] is the fourth episode of The Simpsons' eighteenth season, and the seventeenth Treehouse of Horror episode.^[1] In "Married to the Blob", Homer eats a green goo he mistakes for a marshmallow and morphs into a rampaging blob with a never-ending appetite; in "You Gotta Know When to Golem", Bart steals a Golem, a legendary monster from Jewish folklore, and brings it to life; and in "The Day the Earth Looked Stupid" a fake radio broadcast convinces the residents of Springfield that they're in the midst of an alien invasion.^[1] It was written by Peter Gaffney and double-directed by David Silverman and Matthew Faughnan.^[1] Dr. Phil McGraw and Sir Mix-a-Lot guest star as themselves, Richard Lewis and Fran Drescher guest voice as the male and female Golems, respectively, and Maurice LaMarche provides the voice of Orson Welles.^[1] In its original run, the episode received 10.43 million viewers.^[2]

1 Plot
2 Production
3 Cultural references
4 Reception
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Plot

The episode begins with a parody of Tales from the Crypt, with Mr. Burns as the Crypt Keeper. The scene begins in a dungeon room, where a crypt opens, and after several mice, sakes, spiders, and rabbits crawl out, so does the Cryptkeeper. He proclaims himself to be the master of "scare-amonies" to the delight of zombie Smithers. A bound Moe interrupts in protest and is killed in an iron maiden, his blood spilling onto the floor and spelling out "Treehouse of Horror XVII". Moe himself takes delight in this and proclaims "Hey, my blood is a genius! Fancy roman numerals and everything!"^[1]

[edit] Married to the Blob

Dr. Phil guest starring

As Homer and Marge snuggle on the hammock, a meteorite falls nearby, burning off the top of Marge's hair in the process. Cracking open, it reveals a green goo resembling a melted marshmallow. Despite his family's objections, Homer puts it on a stick and eats it (although the goo tries many times to get away). That night, his stomach rumbling from hunger, Homer eats all the food in the house. He also eats Snowball II and attempts to eat Bart but is stopped by Marge. Now seriously fat, he walks around, and begins eating many teens. Homer soon becomes a giant massive fat green blob, rampaging through the streets of Springfield, eating all the fat people he can find. As Homer samples bus passengers as if they were chocolates, Dr. Phil McGraw shows up with the Simpson family. He tells Homer to stop for their sakes. Homer ends his rampaging for fear of losing Marge and vows to use his insatiable appetite for more constructive purposes (he eats Dr. Phil though; the doctor's last words are "Food does not equal love!"). Later, Mayor Quimby dedicates a new homeless shelter, in order to trick them by getting rid of them. The homeless people enter the shelter, only to find themselves in Homer's gut.

[edit] You Gotta Know When to Golem

At the end of an episode of Krusty's show, Bart goes backstage to complain about an acid-spraying Krusty brand alarm clock. There he finds the Golem of Prague, a creature from Jewish mythology. Krusty tells Bart that in the seventeenth century, the Golem was sculpted out of clay by a powerful rabbi . The Golem would do anything written on a scroll and placed in his mouth. He had been passed down through many generations (one where he simply shoots intruders with a shotgun) and now works for Krusty. Bart steals the Golem by writing a command for him to come to his home at midnight. He does this while Krusty is donning a mask in preparation for a "Desperate Houseflies" sketch. At midnight, the Golem shows up at the Simpson's house. From then on, Bart uses him to carry out his commands: swinging Principal Skinner up and down like a yo-yo until he splits in half and kicking Homer in the balls (though he at first thought Bart wrote walls). Lisa thinks the Golem does not like doing the biddings of others and feeds him a scroll reading "Speak". The Golem (Richard Lewis) attempts to roar, then coughs, and reveals that he feels guilty about being used to commit heinous acts, and then he throws up excessive scrolls (one of which reads "Kill the Czar"). To make him feel better, the Simpsons create a female Golem (Fran Drescher) out of Play-Doh. The two are married by Rabbi Hyman Krustofski and the female Golem convinces Chief Wiggum not to press charges with the promise of pan-fried latkes, a Jewish delicacy.

[edit] The Day the Earth Looked Stupid

The population of Springfield, circa 1938 (during the Great Depression), are fooled by Orson Welles' infamous The War of the Worlds radio broadcast and believe the world has been invaded. A mass panic breaks out, and the citizens begin rioting and destroy the town. Sideshow Mel suggests they foil the aliens by cavorting in the mud naked like animals. So they do this all day until the next day, Lisa notifies the citizens that it was all a hoax and, angry at being fooled, the citizens of Springfield vow to not fall for such a trick again. Kang and Kodos decide this is the perfect time for a real invasion, and begin destroying what's left of the town. True to their word, the town does not believe that it is a real invasion and ignores it, although Orson Welles (Maurice LaMarche) comes to Springfield, admits it is not a staged act, and begs them to do something. Unfortunately, they do not, and the segment ends three years later with Kang and Kodos looking over the ruins, mulling on what went wrong and why they weren't greeted as liberators as they rid Earth of weapons of mass disintegration during "Operation Enduring Occupation", a parody of the real military operation, "Operation Enduring Freedom".

[edit] Production

At one point the script for The Day the Earth Looked Stupid called for Kodos and Kang to look over the smoking ruins of Springfield and say "This sure is a lot like Iraq will be." Contrary to rumor, ^[3] Fox network did not have any objection to the line, but it was rejected by some of the writers as too obvious and was cut from broadcast. While cut from the aired version, the line does appear in the "review" version that was sent to various newspapers and magazines.^[4]

[edit] Cultural references

The titles, "The Day the Earth Looked Stupid" and "Married to the Blob" are a reference to The Day the Earth Stood Still and Married to the Mob.^[5] The first story references The Blob.^[5] In "You Gotta Know When to Golem", Krusty's "Desperate Houseflies" sketch is a reference to Desperate Housewives, and parodies the time Gabrielle seduced a gardener by saying a fly seduced a garbage man.^[6] Al Jean's credit in the end "July 27th 2007 Jean" references the upcoming airdate of The Simpsons Movie.^[6] The Golem's appearance is an exact resemblance to the Golem in The Golem: How He Came into the World.^[6] "Invisible Carl" is a reference to The Invisible Man.^[6] In "The Day the Earth Looked Stupid", Springfieldians listen to Orson Welles' War of the Worlds.^[7] The ending makes a debacle reference to Iraq.^[7] The song "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire" by Bennie Benjamin is heard.^[6] In the last story, Chief Wiggum tells Orson Welles He'll "Punch him in the nose, bud" to which Welles' replies "Nose bud" seeming to take note of the phrase; this is a reference to Welles' film Citizen Kane in which a reporter tries to find the meaning of the word "Rosebud".^[6]

[edit] Reception

Dan Iverson of IGN gives it a 7.6.^[5] He praises the episodes ingenuity, though found the second story boring.^[5] He praised Lewis and Drescher's appearances.^[5]