EVERY "TREEHOUSE OF HORROR" EPISODE RANKED!

It’s October and spooky season is in full gear! For many, this month marks a heady, downright gleeful anticipation for everything spooky and scary, from binge-watching the best movies the horror genre has to offer, as well as binging the top crop of Halloween candy your local grocery or drug store has been prematurely shilling since Labor Day (those Reese’s Peanut Butter Pumpkins ain’t going to eat themselves, folks).

A favorite of the Halloween season for the past three decades have been hugely popular, pop-culture staple, The Simpsons “Treehouse of Horror” episodes, which just celebrated its 32nd entry with “Treehouse of Horror XXXII” on Sunday, October 10th. But which TOH episode is the best? To answer this, I made good use of my Disney+ subscription and watched every episode in chronological order. Binge-watching these episodes is to both wax rhapsodic over the segments that were witty, clever, and endlessly quotable, as well as to confront the undeniable decline of The Simpsons franchise as a whole in recent years. In this list, I rank the good, the bad, and the “meh” in this definitive list of every “Treehouse of Horror” episode.

#32: TREEHOUSE OF HORROR XXVI

SEASON: 27

ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/25/2015

BEST LINE: “Twenty-four years of trying to kill a 10-year-old child has finally paid off.”

In “Wanted: Dead, Then Alive”, Sideshow Bob finally kills Bart and doesn't know what to do with his life. “Homerzilla”, a parody of GODZILLA, in which Homer is a giant monster that can only be pacified with donuts. In “Telepaths of Glory,” Lisa, Bart and Milhouse get super-powers from radiation. The blatantly racist and unfunny stereotypes towards Pacific Islanders are rife in the Godzilla segment, and put this episode squarely at the bottom of the list. This one should have been heavily questioned before airing, even back in 2015.

#31: TREEHOUSE OF HORROR XXXI

SEASON: 32

ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 11/1/2020

BEST LINE: “Grandpa, where’s your scrotum?” “I think it’s in my other pants.”

The opening sequence sees Marge trying to get Homer to the polls to vote in the 2020 presidential election. In “Toy Gory,” Bart is horrible to his toys, and pays the consequences. Homers from different dimensions come to the main universe in “Into the Homerverse.” In, “Be Nine, Rewind,” Lisa and Nelson keep reliving the same day over and over again." Though the opening segment still feels topical with the characters all wearing face masks at the voting polls, the rest of the episode is pretty much a mess and lazy in execution and writing.

#30: TREEHOUSE OF HORROR XXXII

SEASON: 33

ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/10/2021

BEST LINE: “That's my pee-pee bed.”

The most recent offering parodied both BAMBI, THE RING, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, and PARASITE, and for the first time, contained five segments instead of the standard three. In “Barti,” Barti and Marge are chased by hunter, Mr. Burns. In “Bong Joon Ho’s This Side of Parasite,” the Simpsons live in a squalid basement until Bart gets hired as a tutor at Rainer Wolfcastle’s manor. In “Nightmare on Elm Tree,” Bart tells scary stories to Lisa and Maggie, angering Homer, who tries to cut down the treehouse in the backyard to put an end to it. A voice reads “The Telltale Bart'' to Maggie in “Poetic Interlude,” and in “Dead Ringer,” the kids at school reveal to Lisa that they had a party without her, but all that watched a TikTok video there begin to die the next week. This episode had a lot of potential considering the movies they parodied, but the combination of rushed storytelling (just stick with three segments and do them well, guys), and a lame transphobic joke only confirmed the decline of The Simpsons relevancy in our current pop culture landscape. Hire new writers, Matt Groening.

#29: TREEHOUSE OF HORROR XXX

SEASON: 31

ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/20/2019

BEST LINE: “Because I know something about you that no one else knows.”
“What’s that?”
“I forget.”

This offering opens up with a demon Maggie. In “Danger Things” a Stranger Things parody, sees a mission to rescue Milhouse from another dimension. In “Heaven Swipes Right” Homer’s dead spirit tries on some new bodies for size. “When Hairy Met Slimy” sees Selma finally finding love in an unlikely place: with the alien in the basement. The opening sequence is the best part about this episode, with the rest feeling distinctly lackluster.

#28: TREEHOUSE OF HORROR XXIV

SEASON: 25

ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/6/2013

BEST LINE: “At your 2 o’clock!” “I have a digital watch - I don’t know what that means!”

In "Oh The Places You'll D'oh," the first of three spine-tingling stories, Homer rides around Springfield wreaking havoc as “The Fat In The Hat'' in a rhyming Dr. Seuss-ian tale. In "Dead and Shoulders," Bart is beheaded during a kite accident, his head is attached to Lisa's body and they must live together as one. The final terrifying tale, "Freaks no Geeks," features Mr. Burns' traveling circus, The Burnsum and Bailey Circus, which has stopped in Springfieldland in the 1930s. Trapeze artist Marge and Strong Man Homer are performers and things go awry when circus freak Moe starts to make advances towards Marge." A thoroughly unfunny episode, only marginally saved by the solid “Freaks no Geeks” segment.

#27: TREEHOUSE OF HORROR XXVII

SEASON: 28

ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/16/2016

BEST LINE: “He's wasting water like a Tucson swim-up bar while I'm bathing with a dog's tongue here!”

In "Dry Hard,” Mr. Burns introduces a HUNGER GAMES-style contest, in which Springfield’s children have to fight each other for a day in Burns’ personal water reservoir. “BFF R.I.P.” sees Lisa’s imaginary best friend, Rachel, getting jealous of Lisa’s real best friends and killing them. In “Moefinger,” Moe tells Bart the barflies are actually covert agents and he wants Bart to join their team in Homer's place. This episode is a mess, even having movie parodies within movie parodies, and the Riverdance joke feels like a relic from a 1996 episode.

#26: TREEHOUSE OF HORROR XVII

SEASON: 18

ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 11/5/2006

BEST LINE: “I’m proud of what I’ve achieved during my rioting.”

In "Married to the Blob", Homer eats green extraterrestrial goo and morphs into a rampaging blob with an insatiable appetite. In "You Gotta Know When to Golem,” Bart uses a golem to make wishes come true. In "The Day the Earth Looked Stupid," the residents of early-1930s Springfield refuse to believe news of an actual alien invasion after being duped by Orson Welles' WAR OF THE WORLDS radio broadcast. Blob Homer is the best part of this episode, and though “The Day the Earth Looked Stupid,” is done well, it definitely comes across more somber than scary.

#25: TREEHOUSE OF HORROR XXII

SEASON: 23

ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/30/2011

BEST LINE: “Halloween: the one time of the year where the squalor of our home works to our advantage.”

In "The Diving Bell and Butterball,” the first of three hair-raising Halloween tales, a venomous spider bite leaves Homer paralyzed, but when Lisa discovers Homer's ability to communicate through his farts, he is able to express his love for Marge. The killer segments continue in "Dial D for Diddly,” when Ned Flanders, devout preacher by day, transforms into a cold-blooded vigilante by night when Homer pretends to be God, telling Ned to murder Homer's enemies. In the final terrifying tale, "In the Na'vi," Bart and Milhouse are assigned on a mission to access a sacred extract on a distant planet, Rigel 7 (the notable home of Kang and Kodos). They morph into the land's indigenous one-eyed avatars, but when Bart finds love and an eternal mate abroad, he is caught in planet warfare. The “Diving Bell and Butterball” segment feels juvenile and insensitive, but is saved by “Dial D for Diddly.”

#24: TREEHOUSE OF HORROR XVIII

SEASON: 19

ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 11/4/2007

BEST LINE: “Trick-or-Treat is not something you chant mindlessly like the Lord’s Prayer. It’s an oral contract!”

In the eighteenth annual “Treehouse of Horror” episode, Bart harbors Kodos the alien in "E.T., Go Home," Homer and Marge are husband and wife assassins who try to take each other out in "Mr. & Mrs. Simpson," and Ned Flanders is given God-like powers during his demonstration on the wages of sin in "Heck House." A decent episode, but a distinct lack of scary content makes it pretty ho-hum to watch.

#23: TREEHOUSE OF HORROR XXVIII

SEASON: 29

ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/22/2017

BEST LINE: “Okay, whoever she stops at has to change her diaper, which appears to contain flaming lava.”

In “The Exor-Sis” Maggie becomes possessed by an ancient demon, and in “Coralisa” Lisa discovers a creepy/perfect version of her family in an alternate universe. “MMM...Homer” sees Homer falling in love with the taste of his own flesh. The animation in the “Coralisa” segment is excellent and creepy and “MMM...Homer” feels like a return to the earlier (and better) TOH episodes.

#22: TREEHOUSE OF HORROR XXIII

SEASON: 24

ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/7/2012

BEST LINE: “I swear I’m not filming...’note to self: edit out my lies.’”

In the opening sequence, we go back to ancient times when a Mayan Homer and Marge are witness to the prediction that 2012 will be the end of the world. In “The Greatest Story Ever Holed,” the Springfield Subatomic Supercollider creates a black hole that terrorizes the city. An unholy pact Marge made when she was younger, makes things go bump in the night in the PARANORMAL ACTIVITY parody, “Un-normal Activity.” “Bart and Homer's Excellent Adventure” sees Bart traveling to 1974 to buy a comic book at cover price, but he inadvertently disrupts Homer and Marge's courtship.

#21: TREEHOUSE OF HORROR XXIX

SEASON: 30

ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/21/2018

BEST LINE: “I’ll give you whatever you want: immortal life, whale watching where you actually see a whale…”

In “Invasion of the Pod-Y Switchers,” Springfield is overrun by plant body-snatchers. “Multiplisa-ty,” a riff on the film SPLIT, Lisa finally snaps, taking Bart, Milhouse, and Nelson hostage. In “Geriatric Park” (wanna guess what film that is parodying?) Mr. Burns opens a retirement home with some “dino-mite” upgrades. A solid offering, and it’s always fun to see Lisa go off the deep end.

#20: TREEHOUSE OF HORROR XXI

SEASON: 22

ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 11/7/2010

BEST LINE: “Get them back! She can’t get neck holes - it’s picture day tomorrow!”

In “War and Pieces," a satanic board game causes other popular board games to come to life. DEAD CALM parody “Master and Cadaver,” has Homer and Marge rescue a possible killer (voiced by the always great Hugh Laurie) and let him on their boat. In the final segment, “Tweenlight,” Lisa falls for a young vampire voiced by Daniel Radcliffe. The guest stars are really what make this episode, with “Tweenlight” being the highlight of the episode.

#19: TREEHOUSE OF HORROR XIX

SEASON: 20

ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 11/2/2008

BEST LINE: “It’s not cheating if you’re wearing a costume.”

In the nineteenth “Treehouse of Horror” episode, "Untitled Robot Parody,” has Transformer robots running amok in Springfield. In "How to Get Ahead in Dead-Vertising,” Homer is hired by ad agents to kill celebrities so their images can be used for free. The final segment features a Simpsons-style parody of IT’S THE GREAT PUMPKIN, CHARLIE BROWN (called "It's the Grand Pumpkin, Milhouse"), where Milhouse summons a demon pumpkin who goes berserk when it sees humans carving its brethren into jack-o-lanterns as part of Halloween tradition. Though this episode is light on the horror, the final “Grand Pumpkin” segment more than makes up for it.

#18: TREEHOUSE OF HORROR XXV

SEASON: 26

ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/19/2014

BEST LINE: “It’s probably some private school that costs a million dollars a year, and then they squeeze you for extra money through book fairs, silent auctions...and parents get twenty emails a day from the school, and everyone hits ‘reply all’ to everything!”

In this spooktacular episode, Bart and Lisa are transported to a demon-filled alternate universe after Bart reads a set of Aramaic symbols he finds on the underside of his desk in “School is Hell.” In “A Clockwork Yellow,” a young Moe's street gang is disrupted when Dum (Homer) falls for a girl (Marge) who wants him to give up the thug life. The final segment parodying THE OTHERS, which is called...wait for it…”The Others,” sees the Simpson family haunted by a family of ghosts, which turn out to be the family from the shorts, who were murdered and buried in the house. It took 26 seasons to finally get an EVIL DEAD parody from The Simpsons, but it was worth the wait.

#17: TREEHOUSE OF HORROR XX

SEASON: 21

ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/18/2009

BEST LINE: “Dad, are you becoming a muncher?”
“I think the better brains is, are you brains are brains, Blarrrgh!”

In "Dial 'M' for Murder or Press # to Return to Main Menu," Lisa is forced into a Hitchcockian murder scheme by Bart. In "Don't Have a Cow, Mankind,” Springfield is once again overrun by zombies thanks to Krusty Burger's latest sandwich, and in "There's No Business Like Moe Business," Moe the bartender bleeds Homer dry to create the perfect microbrewed beer. This was a return to the TOH’s of old, and proves that, when the effort is put in, The Simpsons writers can still turn out a great Halloween episode.

#16: TREEHOUSE OF HORROR XI

SEASON: 12

ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 11/1/2000

BEST LINE: “Whoa, whoa...I’m just trying to get in, I’m not running for Jesus.”

In "G-G-Ghost D-D-Dad", Homer chokes to death on a piece of broccoli and his spirit must perform a good deed in order to enter heaven. "Scary Tales Can Come True," reveals the dark side of fairy tale characters, and in "Night of the Dolphin," the world is overtaken by dolphins after Lisa frees their leader from captivity. A great episode, and it is genuinely creepy seeing hordes of dolphins standing upright, silently staring as the Simpson family walks by them, a’la THE BIRDS.

#15: TREEHOUSE OF HORROR XVI

SEASON: 17

ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 11/6/2005

BEST LINE: “Smooth move, SpaceLax - you’ve destroyed the totality of existence.” “It’ll be fine. I’ll just leave a note.”

The seventeenth season sees TOH opening with "B.I.: Bartificial Intelligence,” in which the family replaces Bart, who is in coma, with a robot son, but when Bart wakes up he wants revenge on the robot. In "Survival of the Fattest,” Mr. Burns invites many of the townspeople to go hunting, but Mr. Burns plans on hunting the townspeople. In "I've Grown a Costume on Your Face," a witch turns everyone in Springfield into their costumed characters, and Maggie, being dressed as a witch and therefore becoming a witch herself, is the only one who can break the spell. When The Simpsons tackle the Halloween holiday in TOH, it’s always so much fun, and the “I’ve Grown a Costume on Your Face,” really allows for a lot of great comedic elements when everyone becomes their costumes.

#14: TREEHOUSE OF HORROR XII

SEASON: 13

ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 11/6/2001

BEST LINE: “You’re carrying quite a bit of tension in your back fat.”

In "Hex and the City," the Simpsons deal with a Gypsy’s curse. "House of Whacks” sees our yellow-hued family buying a computerized upgrade for their house (voiced by Pierce Brosnan), with the house developing an obsessive attraction to Marge. "Wiz Kids" is a Harry Potter parody about student wizards Bart and Lisa and an evil plot by the Dark Lord “Montymort.” All the segments in this episode are great, with “House of Whacks” being the standout just for Pierce Brosnan’s version of “Alexa” before it was even a thing.

#13: TREEHOUSE OF HORROR XIV

SEASON: 15

ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 11/2/2003

BEST LINE: “My slacks! They’ve descended!”

In the 14th annual Halloween special, Homer bludgeons the Grim Reaper to death in “Reaper Madness,” assuming the ghastly ghoul's role, armed with a scythe and a scroll listing residents of Springfield, including Marge. In “Frinkenstein,” Professor Frink learns he will be awarded the Nobel Prize, leading Lisa to retrieve Professor Frink Senior from the cryonics lab, reviving his body with human body parts from various Springfield residents, including Flanders and Skinner. Bart and Milhouse discover a watch that can stop time in “Stop the World, I Want to Goof Off,” using their new ability to play a variety of pranks on the residents of Springfield. Homer as the Grim Reaper is great and Professor Frink gets his time to shine in a great FRANKENSTEIN parody.

#12: TREEHOUSE OF HORROR XIII

SEASON: 14

ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 11/3/2002

BEST LINE: “They look like you, they were rude to Patty and Selma, and the horde has been described as very gassy.” “Yeah, it’s a good group.”

First, in “Send in the Clones,” Homer uses a magic hammock to clone himself. Then, gun-wielding zombies attack Springfield after a ban on firearms in "The Right To Creep And Scare Harms." Finally, the Simpsons are trapped on an island where people are transformed into animals in "The Island Of Dr. Hibbert.” The visual alone of thousands of Homers, each clone getting dumber and dumber in the process is hilarious and “The Island of Dr. Hibbert” is worth it just to see Marge turn into a giant blue cat-woman hybrid and Homer milk a cow-hybrid Ned Flanders.

#11: TREEHOUSE OF HORROR XI

SEASON: 10

ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/25/1998

BEST LINE: “If your fly weren’t open, you’d look just like Roger Moore.”

In "Hell Toupée," Homer receives a hair transplant from executed criminal Snake which possesses him and makes him go on a murder spree. In "The Terror of Tiny Toon," a plutonium-powered TV remote zaps Bart and Lisa into an Itchy & Scratchy cartoon. "Starship Poopers" reveals that Maggie's real father is Kang, which leads to a custody dispute and an appearance on The Jerry Springer Show. A terrific episode from the peak of The Simpsons era, and I definitely appreciate the nostalgic nature of that Jerry Springer parody.

#10: TREEHOUSE OF HORROR II

SEASON: 3

ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/31/1991

BEST LINE: “There’s something I don’t like about that severed hand.”

After eating too much Halloween candy, Lisa, Homer, and Bart each have nightmares. In Lisa’s nightmare, Lisa dreams Homer purchases a monkey's paw granting the family four wishes. In Bart's nightmare, he dreams he has the power to read minds, and he punishes people if they aren't happy - subsequently turning Homer into a jack-in-the-box. In Homer's dream, his brain is put into a Frankenstein-style robot. I love the references to TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE (fun fact: Nancy Cartwright, who voices Bart, was actually in that kid psychic segment of TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE as Ethel, who gets sent to a cartoon hell inside their TV). The Lisa segment is a great nod to the W.W. Jacobs short story, “The Monkey’s Paw,” (remember books, kids?), making this a solid classic TOH episode.

#9: TREEHOUSE OF HORROR X

SEASON: 11

ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/31/1999

BEST LINE: (Homer singing) “Guess I forgot to put the foglights innnn…”

In "I Know What You Diddily-Iddly-Did," The family (with Marge driving) run over Ned Flanders and believe he’s dead until they start receiving threatening messages. Bart and Lisa gain superpowers and must rescue Xena star Lucy Lawless from the Comic Book Guy's alter ego, The Collector, in “Desperately Xeeing Xena,” and in "Life's a Glitch, Then You Die" Y2K destroys the world and Springfield in riff on the film MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE. This episode is a great blend of horror movie parody and Halloween themed fun, particularly the Xena segment, which has Lawless delivering the fantastic line, “a wizard did it,” when trying to explain continuity errors on her show to a geek at a sci-fi convention.

#8: TREEHOUSE OF HORROR IV

SEASON: 5

ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/29/1992

BEST LINE: “Come join us Lisa, it's so cool. You get to stay up all night drinking blood!” “And if you say you're a vampire, you get a free small soda at the movies.”

This Halloween episode opens with a parody of Night Gallery with Bart introducing each of the three segments by walking through a gallery of paintings and each time choosing one of them as the focus of his story. When Homer announces he will sell his soul for a donut, the Devil, disguised as Ned Flanders, shows up to take him up on the offer in “The Devil and Homer Simpson.” In “Terror at 5 ½ Feet,” while riding to school, Bart believes he sees a malevolent gremlin on the side of the bus. And in “Bart Simpson’s Dracula,”, Mr. Burns is Dracula, in a spoof of Francis Ford Coppola's vampire film. All the segments in this one are great, the best part being in “The Devil and Homer Simpson” when Homer decides not to eat the last part of the doughnut, thus saving him from hell. Hilarious.

#7: TREEHOUSE OF HORROR XV

SEASON: 16

ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 11/7/2004

BEST LINE: “You die eating a submarine sandwich.” “What kind of bread?” “Uh, Country Parmesan.” “Whoo-hoo!”

In "The Ned Zone," Ned Flanders gains the power of foretelling people's deaths after suffering a head injury, and is shocked to discover that he will be the one to kill Homer. In "In the Belly of the Boss," Maggie is shrunken inside a vitamin capsule in a freak science accident and is swallowed by Mr. Burns. In "Four Beheadings and a Funeral," set in Victorian London, Master Detective Eliza Simpson and her faithful sidekick, Dr. Bartley, attempt to catch The Muttonchop Murderer, a Jack the Ripper-esque serial killer. This may be a controversial pick to put so high on the list, but I love every segment, in particular “Four Beheadings and a Funeral,” because when The Simpsons do historical comedy, I’m always here for it.

#6: TREEHOUSE OF HORROR VII

SEASON: 8

ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/27/1996

BEST LINE: “Well, then, I’m going to vote for a third-party candidate.” “Go ahead, throw your vote away!”

In the seventh annual "Treehouse of Horror" episode, Bart discovers his long-lost twin in “The Thing and I.” In “The Genesis Tub,” Lisa grows a colony of microscopic beings, and Kang & Kodos impersonate Bill Clinton and Bob Dole in order to win the 1996 Presidential election in “Citizen Kang.” Though the election segment will fly over the heads of millennials, it’s perhaps the best of the bunch, if only for the Kang/Bob Dole line, "Abortions for some, miniature American flags for others!" Matt Groening ranked this episode himself as his 7th favorite in the history of the show, so I can at least feel assured in my positioning of this episode on my list.

#5: TREEHOUSE OF HORROR VI

SEASON: 7

ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/29/1995

BEST LINE: “Now let’s have no more discussion of this obvious cover-up.”

As with the other “Treehouse of Horror” episode, season 7’s offering contains three self-contained segments. In "Attack of the 50-Foot Eyesores", a freak storm brings Springfield's oversized advertisements and billboards to life and they begin attacking the town. "Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace" is a parody of the A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET film series, in which Groundskeeper Willie attacks schoolchildren in their sleep. In the third and final segment, "Homer³", Homer finds himself trapped in a three dimensional world. A clever and funny episode, and though the three-dimensional Homer segment feels slightly out of place in a Halloween episode, it’s still hilarious and visually imaginative to watch.

#4: TREEHOUSE OF HORROR III

SEASON: 4

ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/29/1992

BEST LINE: “I heard we’re going to Ape Island.” “Yeah, to capture a giant ape. I wish we were going to Candy Apple Island.” “What do they have there?” “Apes. But they’re not so big.”

In the third annual “Treehouse of Horror,” Homer buys Bart an evil talking Krusty doll in “Clown Without Pity.” In “King Homer,” a gorilla Homer is captured by Mr. Burns, and in “Dial "Z" for Zombies,” Bart and Lisa inadvertently cause zombies to attack Springfield." The talking Krusty doll is probably my favorite out of the three, and the sight gag of the switch on his back being set to “Evil” instead of “Good” the whole time still makes me chuckle, and “Dial ‘Z’ for Zombies” is particularly impressive and hilarious. This offering always makes me nostalgic for the fantastic TOH episodes of old.

#3: TREEHOUSE OF HORROR VIII

SEASON: 9

ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/26/1997

BEST LINE: “Geez...what’s with all the death?”

In the eighth annual "Treehouse of Horror" episode, Homer discovers he is the last man left alive after a neutron bomb destroys Springfield in the segment, "The HΩmega Man," (a spoof of THE OMEGA MAN). In "Fly vs. Fly" (a spoof of THE FLY), Homer buys a transporter that Bart uses to switch bodies with a housefly, and "Easy-Bake Coven" features Marge being accused of witchcraft in a Puritan rendition of 1649 Springfield. One of the best episodes of the entire “Treehouse of Horror” franchise. “The HΩmega Man” always makes me laugh out loud at the sight of Homer dancing and singing completely nude in church to Edwin Starr’s “War” when he realizes he can partake in every heathenistic act he can fathom now that humanity has been destroyed. The writing, direction, and pacing of this episode is all on point and brilliantly done.

#2: TREEHOUSE OF HORROR V

SEASON: 6

ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/30/1994

BEST LINE: “We come back and everyone is slaughtered, I owe you a Coke.”

"The Shinning" is a parody of THE SHINING where the Simpsons become the winter caretakers of Mr. Burns' mountain lodge and Homer goes insane and tries to murder the family. In "Time and Punishment", Homer repeatedly travels back in time and alters the future. He tries to change things back, but fails and settles for a reality close to his own. In "Nightmare Cafeteria,” Principal Skinner begins using detention students as cafeteria food. When Bart and Lisa are about to be slaughtered, Bart wakes up and realizes it is a dream. But immediately afterward, in the closing sequence, he and the family are attacked by fog that turns people inside out. This episode is a fantastically witty and does a great job of incorporating Halloween and horror-themed stories together with The Simpsons charm. “The Shinning” segment is by far the most notable part of this offering, and is perhaps the best “Treehouse of Horror” segment that The Simpsons have ever done. However, this episode doesn’t quite claim the top spot due to a weak final third segment that overall, holds this episode back from being the best of the best.

#1: TREEHOUSE OF HORROR I

SEASON: 2

ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/25/1990

Best Line: “They’re all against you Bart...they all must die.” “Are you my conscious?”

Sometimes the original is the best, and this holds true in this case, as The Simpsons have never been able to top this fully-realized contribution to the “Treehouse of Horror” canon. The first of what would become an annual Halloween tradition, the very first TOH includes “Bad Dream House”, where the family moves into an old haunted house, are possessed by an evil spirit, and attempt to kill each other. In “Hungry are the Damned”, the clan are abducted by fan-favorite aliens Kang and Kodas and are fattened up so much that Lisa questions their motives. In the final segment, the Simpsons go literary with “The Raven,” the famous poem by Edgar Allan Poe, recited with the family as characters within the tale. Each one of the segments is comedy perfection, and set an extremely high standard for the Halloween specials to come. “The Raven” in particular is gorgeously done, and beautifully illustrates how The Simpsons can be both highly hilarious and extremely intelligent. Though in subsequent offerings, The Simpsons “Treehouse of Horror” have continued to push the envelope with creativity and humor, they will never again be able to capture the charm and whimsical fun of the original. The “Treehouse of Horror” franchise was built upon this rock and it is the best foundation for the series they could ever hope for.