We’re back to a Simpsons annual tradition, and they’re still actually using a framing sequence and Marge warning parents about the episode’s content.
Marge’s warning is rather quaint considering they don’t even kill any characters off in these things…yet.
After ingesting too much candy, Lisa, Bart, and Homer each have a horror-themed nightmare.
Actually, that’s not right. Bart’s dream, where he’s an all-powerful reality-altering telepath in a story ripped straight from The Twilight Zone, doesn’t seem to bother him too much for most of it. Why would it? He’s an all-powerful monster and no one can stop him. Everything he does is “good”. It’s not until he and Homer bond in the dream, exchange some “I love you”s and hug that he wakes up screaming. And that comes after Homer was temporarily turned into a jack-in-the-box.
I’m actually partial to Lisa’s dream, where Homer buys a wish-with-a-nasty-twist generating Monkey’s Paw while the family is inexplicably on vacation in Morocco. Bart’s answer of, “I can do that but I don’t wanna,” after seeing a contortionist bend himself into a knot and walk away with his ears is an answer I like to give even now.
I could give you, my reader, an example of such an instance, but I do not want to.
The Monkey’s Paw, which Marge finds to be rather disturbing as severed hands go, allows the writers to make some jokes about how popular the show was, poking fun at the series’ success, and even the musical album they put out.
The annual Kang and Kodos appearance comes up then too, as humanity’s superior intellect is no match for their puny weapons. Fortunately, Homer gives the Paw to Ned Flanders, and the wishes seem to work just fine for him.
The final sequence dealt with Mr. Burns putting Homer’s brain into a robot body. It doesn’t work, but does lead to a fun ending which suggests that going forward, Burns’ head would continue to rest on Homer’s ample frame. Was it all a dream? Nope. It was a cartoon.
In the meantime, I need to see to my board with a nail in it.
Gabbing Geek 