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Treehouse of Horror X

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"Treehouse of Horror X"
The Simpsons episode
File:Treehouse of Horror X.jpg
Episode no.Season 11
Directed byPete Scary Spice Michels
Written byDonick Spooky
Terrifying Tim Long
Uh, An Ogre?
Original air datesOctober 31, 1999
Episode features
Couch gagEach member of the family dresses up as something from a previous "Treehouse of Horror" special, save for Lisa, who is an axe victim.
Episode chronology
The Simpsons season 11
List of episodes

"Treehouse of Horror X" is the fourth episode of The Simpsons' eleventh season, as well as the tenth Halloween episode. The episode aired on October 31, 1999, which was also Halloween, and as of 2006 is the last Halloween episode to have aired in time for the holiday.

Opening Sequence

Announcer: Live from fabulous Centauri City, it's The Simpsons Tenth Halloween Special! (curtains reveal a pumpkin-shaped spaceship) Now, please welcome your hosts—if you haven't been probed by these two, you haven't been probed—Kang and Kodos! (they emerge from the spaceship)
Kang: Thank you, thank you.
Kodos: Yes, thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to our tenth anniversary show. Oh, we've got a great g-- (notices Kang lighting an acetylene torch) Kang, what are you doing?
Kang: You said we were going to warm up the audience. (cut to a shot of the audience, which is entirely consisting of aliens including one that resembles Grandpa) (Canned laughter is played, but audience appear unamused)
Kodos: Ladies and gentlemen, I have to apologize for my partner. He had to borrow a human brain. (more canned laughter)
(cut to Simpsons' living room, where the family sits on the couch, with Homer appearing as the jack-in-the-box from "Treehouse of Horror II", Marge as the witch and Bart as the half-fly mutant from "Treehouse of Horror VIII", Maggie as the alien/human mutant from "Treehouse of Horror IX", and Lisa as an axe-attack victim)
Lisa: What do aliens have to do with Halloween?
Maggie: Silence! (she uses her ray gun to disintegrate Lisa)

Synopsis

Template:Spoiler

I Know What You Diddily-Iddily Did

On a foggy day in the countryside, Marge accidentally runs over Ned Flanders and kills him. The day after Ned's funeral, someone tells Marge that the person knows what she did. Shortly afterwards, a mysterious figure begins terrorizing the family. After a confrontation, the Simpsons flee their house, eventually discovering that Ned Flanders was their assailant. Ned was not killed by the accident, he tells them, because he had just been bitten by a werewolf. As the moon rises, Flanders transforms and threatens to eat Homer.

Desperately Xeeking Xena

Marge takes Bart and Lisa to Springfield Elementary, where Chief Wiggum is running a portable X-ray machine to inspect children's candy. Whilst inspecting his son Ralph's candy, he tells them what the candy really contains, 'safe, safe, razor blade, syringe, oh white chocolate!' As Nelson's extremely bulky pillowcase of goodies is being scanned, the X-ray machine inevitably explodes. The subsequent exposure to radiation gives Bart the ability to stretch his body like rubber, and Lisa gains extraordinarily strength. They become superheroes, calling themselves "Stretch Dude" and "Clobber Girl". In their first "adventure" (presented as if they had their own television series), Lucy Lawless (dressed as Xena) addresses fans at a science fiction convention. Comic Book Guy, who has styled himself as a villain called "The Collector", kidnaps her using a magnet to attract her armor. He takes her to his lair, where he puts her in an aluminized PET film bag for "safekeeping" and imprisons her in a room of other similarly-captured celebrities (including Yasmine Bleeth and The Doctor). Stretch Dude and Clobber Girl burst into The Collector's hideout, but he manages to incapacitate them. He suspends the duo over a vat of bubbling Lucite, slowly lowering them towards certain doom. Lawless, still in the bag, kicks The Collector into the vat; he clambers out and barely has time to strike a dramatic death pose before the plastic hardens around him. Lawless flies Stretch Dude and Clobber Girl home to safety on her back.

Life's a Glitch, Then You Die

On December 31, 1999, Dick Clark celebrates his New Year's Rockin' Eve in Springfield instead of Times Square. Homer, the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant's Y2K compliance officer, confidently declares that he fixed every computer at the plant. He is wrong, however, and the "bug" spreads rapidly to systems all over the world. As Dick Clark's New Year's ball drops and hits "2000", the computer display reads 1900. Within minutes, chaos breaks out as airplanes crash, appliances explode and mobs begin looting businesses. As the family roams the streets observing the damage, Krusty's pacemaker sets itself to hummingbird speed and he collapses in front of them. A letter in Krusty's shirt states that a rocket is being populated with humanity's "elite" and will be launched shortly in an effort to preserve human civilization on another planet. Homer unsuccessfully attempts to bluff his way on board, but the armed guard recognizes Lisa as having a seat reserved on the craft. Lisa is only able to take one parent with her, and she quickly chooses Marge. Homer and Bart soon find a second, unguarded rocket nearby and climb on board just before it launches. They quickly notice, however, that this ship is filled with the likes of Dan Quayle, Tonya Harding, Al Sharpton, Spike Lee, Tom Arnold, Pauly Shore, Rosie O'Donnell and Dr. Laura; it is deliberately set for a collision course with the sun. Unable to bear the short trip to oblivion with the B-list celebrities, Homer and Bart eject themselves into the vacuum of space, where they sigh with relief as their heads swell up and explode.

Trivia

(NOTE: (A) indicates a celebrity who has appeared on The Simpsons before)

Cultural references

  • "I Know What You Diddily-Iddily Did" is a parody of the slasher film I Know What You Did Last Summer.
  • The opening of "Desperately Xeeking Xena" is similar to the origin story of the Fantastic Four.
  • "Life's a Glitch, Then You Die" is based on the sci-fi film When Worlds Collide. The name of the sketch is a parody of the saying: "Life's a bitch, then you die."
  • The glitch that was spreading to appliances in the episode was a reference to the Y2K glitch.

Goofs

  • The Collector refers to Tom Baker as 'Doctor Who'. He should know that this is incorrect, however, and that the character is simply called 'the Doctor'.

Quotes

I Know What You Diddily-Iddily Did

  • Homer (singing): Can't get enough of that Sugar Crisp! (After Marge warns him about the foglights) Guess I forgot to put the foglights in!
  • (after killing Ned Flanders)
    Homer: (he pokes Flanders with a stick) He's dead! (he still pokes the body) He's definitely dead!
    Marge: Oh, my God! We killed Ned Flanders!
    Bart: You mean, you killed Ned Flanders.
    Marge: Oh, it was an accident! An accident!
    Lisa: We've got to go the police.
    Bart: They'll never believe a Simpson killed a Flanders by accident. Even I have my doubts.
  • Maude: Neddy? Where have you been?
    Homer: (moving Ned's arm and head and trying to imitate Ned's voice) Hi, Maude, diddily. I've been having fun with my pal, Homer...diddily.
    Maude: Oh, I'm so relieved. Whenever you go on one of your late-night fog walks, I get so worried.
    Homer: Relax, I'm fine. But when I do die, Idont' want any autopsie.
  • Homer: When I think about Ned, I can't help but remember the look on his face when Marge drove over--
    Marge: (whispering from the pews) Homer, shut up, shut up, shut up!
    Homer: Oh wait. What I'd like to say is, we're still looking for the real killers. Anyway, in conclusion, a man cannot be forced to testify against his wife. (He winks at Marge repeatedly.)
    Marge: Stop winking!
    Homer: We'll miss you, buddy. (He punches Ned's corpse in the shoulder.)
  • Homer: Yello?
    Voice on telephone: I know you're alone.
    Homer: Who is this?
    Voice: Is this Maude Flanders?
    Homer: No, it's...Homer.
    Moe: Oh, hey Homer, it's Moe. I must have dialed the wrong number.
  • Homer: Okay, Marge, you hide in the abandoned amusement park; Lisa, the pet cemetery; Bart, spooking roller disco; and I'll go skinny-dipping in that lake where the sexy teens were killed a hundred years ago tonight.
  • Marge: It's impossible. I killed you.
    Flanders: You can't kill the undead, silly.
    Homer: (poking Flanders in the eye with a stick again) He's undead, all right.
    Bart: Are you a zombie?
    Flanders: Oh, I wish!
  • (Flanders turns into a werewolf)
    Werewolf: Roar-diddly!

Desperately Xeeking Xena

  • Milhouse: Check it out, Lisa! I'm Radioctive Man.
    Lisa: I don't think the real Radioactive Man wears a plastic smock with a picture of himself on it.
    Milhouse: He would on Halloween.
  • Bart: I must only use this power to annoy!
  • Lucy Lawless:...but I'm sure that once girls get to know the real you, you'll get plenty of dates. Next questions?
    Prof. Frink: Yes, over here, ng-hey, ng-haven. In episode BF12, you were battling barbarians while riding a wing-ed Appaloosa. Yet, in the very next scene, my dear, you're clearly atop a wing-ed Arabian. Please to explain it.
    Lucy: Ah, yeah. Well, whenever you noticee something like that, a wizard did it.
    Prof. Frink: I see, all right, yes but in episode AG4--
    Lucy: Wizard.
    Prof. Frink: Aw, for glavin out loud!
  • (Lucy Lawless's armor is stuck to the collector's magnet)
    Lucy: Must..remove my..breastplate... (crowd of male fans hold up cameras.) Maybe later.
  • The Collector: (holding original style Star Trek hand phaser) This is the only working phaser ever built. It was fired only once...to prevent William Shatner from recording another album.
  • The Collector: Good night, Retch Dude and Slobber Girl. Sweet screams! Ha, ha, ha! I'm unbelievably amused
  • The Collector: Soon those bratty butttinskis will be encased in Lucite for all eternity. While we're waiting, here are some names you may call me on our wedding night: (clearing his throat, then reading from a list) Obi-Wan Iron Man, Mr. Mxyzptlk, and, of course, Big Papa Smurf.
  • (Lucy Lawless picks up Stretch Dude and Clobber Girl and flies into the air)
    Clobber Girl: Wait a minute, Xena can't fly.
    Lucy Lawless: I told you, I'm not Xena. I'm Lucy Lawless.
    Clobber Girl: Oh.

Life's a Glitch, Then You Die

  • Lenny: Hey, Homer, weren't you the plant's Y2K Compliance Officer?
    Homer: Absolutely!
    Carl: Must've been hard de-buggin' all those computers, eh Homer?
    Homer: Doing what now?
    Lisa: You did do it, right Dad? Because even a single faulty unit could corrupt every other computer in the world.
    Homer (calm): That can't be true, honey. If it were, I'd be terrified.
  • Homer: (as the world's systems collapse) Uh-oh.
  • Dick Clark: (when clock strikes 1900): Oh no, it's... happening... (his skin melts away revealing a robotic endoskeleton)
  • (finding Krusty's invitation to the spaceship)
    Homer: Thank you, sweet clown! In death you saved us all.
    Krusty: I'm not dead!
    Homer (sniffing):I can still hear his voice on the wind.
  • (the Simpsons walk through the streets, watching as every object containing a computer chip {which is everything} goes haywire)
    Lisa (sarcastically): Well, look at the wonders of the computer age now.
    Homer: Wonders, Lisa...or blunders?
    Lisa: I think that was implied by what I said.
    Homer: Implied, Lisa...or implode?
    Lisa: Mom, make him stop!