Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - Treehouse Of Horror

Episode Date: October 28, 2015

In their first ever Halloween anthology episode, The Simpsons have a brush with an evil house, drooling aliens, and Edgar Allen Poe! Join us in celebration of what is quite possibly the greatest Holiday tradition invented in our lifetime…

Ahoi hoi everybody and welcome to Talking Simpsons, the Later Time Podcast Network's chronological exploration of the Simpsons. I am your host, Bob Mackie. Who else is here today? Christopher Antista, host of the Later Time Show. And? Henry Gilbert of Cave Crisis fame. And I'm Dave Rudden and I didn't like The Raven that much.

Oh man. God, you're an idiot. Get that out there immediately. I don't know what people's issue is. I didn't like a classic poem. We'll get to it. Spoilers, this episode we're doing today, or this week, is Treehouse of Horror, which aired on

October 25th, 1990. Actually, close to Halloween. Chris, what happened on this mystical day in history? Oh, Bobby, this week in Simpsons news, the Cincinnati Reds and the Oakland Athletics battling out in the World Series. Fantasia has been re-released for the night time

against some stiff competition for Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas, and Angela Lansbury announces her intention to leave Murder, She Wrote. It would go on for another six years. What the hell? She just resigned. No, she just resigned. No, she pulled out... Okay, again, we do this to emphasize how fucking old The Simpsons is.

She had gotten tired of doing it and kind of pulled back and diminished her role. The show kept going. She eventually came back, was given more money, executive producer stuff. The show went a lot longer. And we cover this on Talking Murder, She Wrote. And I just want to plug my friend Carolyn. She came up with a great drinking game when watching Murder, She Wrote, which is on Netflix. Drink every time someone calls her lady.

Listen, lady. Listen, lady. That's the ultimate insult if you're an aging woman, I guess. She's just investigating everything, and everybody's pissed at her all the time. Well, I think much like Murder, She Wrote, they needed to warn people about the violence in The Simpsons, too. That's great because a little bit of behind the scenes, the way I watch these episodes, because I'm usually capturing sounds

Henry did today, I downloaded a torrent file just because it's easier for me to deal with. I own these trust me. I not only own them on disk I own the Amazon versions but no buffering, no disk spinning, just to rewind them back. So like my whole file is just the first frame of The Simpsons.

Clouds, clouds, clouds, clouds, clouds, clouds, clouds. In the middle, Marge in front of a curtain. The thumbnail of the Halloween episode, and that's probably how most of you are watching these right now. Thumbnail for Marge sticks out like a sore thumb. It does. Do you guys want to hear the Marge intro? I do, yes.

Everyone, you know, Halloween is a very strange holiday. Personally, I don't understand it. Kids worshiping ghosts, pretending to be devils. Things on TV that are completely inappropriate for younger viewers. Things like the following half hour. Nothing seems to bother my kids. But tonight's show, which I totally wash my hands of, is really scary. So if you have sensitive children, maybe you should tuck them into bed early tonight instead of writing us angry letters tomorrow.

Thanks for your attention. Alessia Marge would not follow herself. But I do love – I didn't realize as a kid because i had this episode memorized i love this episode this is the episode the next episode is the first one i ever recorded because i was like i need this in my life and i want to watch them once a day you left three hours of ours so much i did so i said but like i didn't realize that that is an earnest warning to the viewer yeah i mean this uh there was still controversy about the simpsons and its effect on families and this is actually a parody of the opening of Frankenstein, I believe, the original Frankenstein movie.

That's right. Yeah, I forgot about that. But that is a warning or something? Yeah, a guy comes out and says, hey, this is really scary. It's Frankenstein. Dude, it was a complete gimmick, a bunch of horror movies. It's awesome going to look at the promotional arts. If you're mystery science fans, The Screaming Skull opens with, like, we promise to give you a coffin if you die of fright during the screening of this film.

It's about a skull and a fountain. A lot of William Castle, I believe, movies were about that gimmick. Oh, Bill. Sorry, I didn't. Good old Bill. So what is the plot of this one? Three plots. Yeah, I mean.

I got in the way of Bob telling us the episode plot. It kicks off a tradition. That's right. It is one of the only traditions The Simpsons has. Yeah, and this is the only one I believe to take place in a treehouse. Keep in mind I've missed the last ten, but I'm pretty sure the treehouse of horror motif was meant to just explain what's happening in this episode, where the framing devices, Bart and Lisa, are telling each other stories in this treehouse. And this episode actually has a few firsts I want to get to.

It's the first episode with music by Alf Clausen. Wow! So this is the first time The Simpsons' music sounds right. In the next episode, it won't because it's the first one recorded for this season, but it has really good music, and I think that's because Alf Clausen is doing the music for this episode. And the next tradition we have is the Tombstones,

the humorous Tombstones, which will go away in, like, season five or six, I believe. I have them all. Ooh, okay. Ezekiel Simpson, Ishmael Simpson, Cornelius versus Simpson, Garfield, The Grateful Dead, Casper, The Friendly Boy, Elvis, Your Name Here, Paul McCartney, Disco, and Violence on TV are the names in the headstones. Isn't that the one that bleeds? That's a later. It's hard for me.

I have so many of those ones mixed up in my head. Like, next year, Marge's warning to everybody is such a callback to this one, where she says, Hey, you didn't listen to me last year. You're not going to listen to me now. I just watched that, and they used the same animation. They just, like, recycled it through video effects. My favorite one is the stupid TVMA stuff, like, stabbing the censored... Oh, yeah.

Because I didn't realize that it was pretty bold and kind of controversial. I don't know where Sam Simon is credited as a writer, other than here, he is credited as a writer in this episode. He's also in the next episode. Oh, is he? Yeah. He's co-credited with Schwarzwalder. But this one is also a weird production

one because it had three, it was basically them making three mini-episodes together because it's three different directors. That's right. right yeah each one and each one was written by a different person too i think they've said on the commentaries that soon they learn after a few years like no we're not gonna do that we're not it's one director for an episode even the halloween one just to make it easier and now they usually do it at the end of a season instead of at the in the middle of the production run of the current season.

That way it's like we have all this time to edit and think about it and write because it won't be airing for seven months or whatever. There's no scary names on this one either. No, there weren't. That's right. And I've got to get this plug out. I know we want to poo-poo Modern Simpsons. The last episode of The Simpsons,

we're recording this in a timely manner for once. The one that predates the new Treehouse of Horror is an excellent Halloween episode. It really is. I think I need to watch it. You do. It's a great Lisa episode. It's not a Treehouse. They make reference to it. What are you going to do this week, Homer?

I don't know. We're going to be... Skinner's mom is in Psycho and I think we're doing Muppet of Wizard of Oz. I'll be Fozzie people love it is this called like how is this called Halloween of Horror yes it's like it

has the first I don't think this the Simpsons haven't done a lot of sincere stuff since the early seasons but this is like a genuine scenario of terror okay like a real good

Halloween episode and it's a full-length episode it's got makes really funny observations. I have not seen an episode made in the last 10 years I would call classic, but I've watched this one twice. I really like it. But yeah, that episode is notable in that it's the first episode

to really cover Halloween. We had, for a couple years on the Treehouse of Horror episodes, they would celebrate Halloween before they told the next story. But it was very little. You're right. We never had the opportunity to see the Halloween festivities of Springfield for a full episode. And I really can't recommend it enough. Especially to you, baby.

I will watch it and I will just spit my drink out. Well, and Nick Kroll is a guest on it. He's a great guest. Yeah, and the guest stars are great. They play somewhat terrifying characters with a little bit of humor obviously what's interesting for me re-watching this one was that i forgot how like i don't want to say unexpected but like disruptive almost this was like tv shows didn't do this you know that that is true yeah it was out there for them to have these episodes that it feels so normal now but this is an episode where this is like they're into their second

unexpected season like let's just do the weirdest crap we could do let's draw a giant alien let's let's have magic happen and let's do a tour de force version of edrick or alan poe that is like an animator's delight yeah yeah i think it's a really wonderful feat of television animation to be completely honest i think there's a bit of a caveat with these episodes that wouldn't happen with later episodes where the families return to the status quo at the end of both segments. So they return to their normal state. But in the end of other

Halloween episodes, a character could die or the end could be tragic or humorously dark. As far as I read, that was intentional on the writers. They wanted to create a space for Halloween where continuity didn't matter. They could just kill characters. We should mention these are really just super inspired by EC Comics and old horror comics, things like that.

Also, this episode specifically, Twilight Zone, Amityville Horror, Poltergeist. This is where The Simpsons are at their most referential. I think this is where the heavy references started. The on-the-nose references. I guess let's start with the first one, Bad Dream House. Which I love. I really liked it, but it can't pick its own thing. It's like now it's Poltergeist, now it's Amityville Horror,

and then it just kind of bounces back and forth. I do think they have less time to work with because they need an entire setup, which is longer than the other setups for the other stories. Though commercial breaks were shorter back then. That is true. But, oh, here's one of my favorite jokes from the Bad Dream House. So I had never seen Amityville Horror or Poltergeist before this. And so once I saw Poltergeist, I just wanted to see it just for the vortex scene to have it match up with the vortex in this.

I just love it. Ooh, a vortex sketch. it just for the vortex scene to have it match up with the vortex and this i just love it it looks like a vortex way into another dimension love that sound pretty slick so i i don't know i love that scene just the little sound i made yeah i think this is a little kid that might have been the first time I heard the word vortex. And I used to keep a dictionary next to the television. I'd go look this up. I really do.

I love this episode so much. I know every line of it verbatim. Yeah. It was so violent, too. Like, all the blood dripping off the walls. Yeah. I remember it being like, I don't know if I was ready for it. I didn't, like, run out of the room.

But when the Simpsons start grabbing all the knives and, like, are about to murder each other, that was, like, a legitimately, like, they're going this far kind of moment when I was a kid. Yeah, I was just like, wow. And I think I would use that phrase when, like, I was pretending to be angry. Die. Die. Everybody die. Even Maggie gets a knife.

Yes. Yeah. Not the last time. No, it's, I really I really liked too the bit where Bart thought, I think one of my favorite jokes of the episode was Bart thinking that it was his conscience. All against you, Bart.

You must kill them all. They all must die. Are you my conscience? Yes, I am. Yeah, I like that the ghost house can roll with it. And they slowly build up his humor in there. It's kind of funny.

They have James Earl Jones playing multiple roles in this episode. But he plays just a mover. Yeah, with two lines. But he doesn't play the house, which I think would be much more appropriate. I love Harry Shearer's delivery in this, especially when he's talking about the things he's going to do to them. Something really gross with blood. You will die. You will die slowly. Your stomach will swell.

Your intestines will rise and boil Your eyes will burst And some horrible stuff Possibly your brain Will start coming out through your nose Shut up! Quit trying to push us around! Stop saying those horrible things

And show some manners! I thought that was a big moment too because March had never shown that much fire on the show to that point. She's like, I can't believe I'm shaking. I've never been this mad in my life. There's a joke in this that I believe was cut out for syndication because it feels like the first time I've seen this. They find out the house is

set on an ancient Indian arrow ground. Homer's like, they never told me this. And then he calls the guy and it turns out oh like this yeah oh got it mr plute homer simpson here when you sold me this house you forgot to mention one little thing you didn't tell me it was built on an indian burial ground no you! You did it! Well, that's not my recollection. Yeah, well, alright, goodbye. He says he mentioned it five or six times. That is like a

Homer joke you could have in like season six or seven. That my dad lost his shit. Well, that's like a Bob Newhart joke, too. Just the idea of one side of a telephone conversation. Oh, it's so good. This overall...

Mr. Plute. Mr. Plute's a great name, too. But overall, this episode is just such a great, like, tour de force for Dan Castellaneta. Oh, for sure. Yeah. He gets to freak out. Wonderful, wonderful range in that, too. Yeah.

I miss this Homer. Like, this Homer is one of the best they had in this one. And the resolution for this is kind of weird, where it's like the house decides it would rather not live with the Simpsons than, you know, exist at all. Yeah. That just felt like an ending where they just kind of shrug their shoulders like, we've got to stop. Yeah. Like, all right, he kills himself when they decide to stay. I don't think the Simpsons did anything particularly bad or anything or showed any kind of dysfunction.

I guess the house could see things coming. It was kind of commentary like they're the worst family. They're the worst family but then he clearly said every scary thing he could possibly do to them

and Marge is shaking from anger. So maybe I'm not... I can't push this family around. That's true. That visual joke too I love when Marge says we're getting out of here and then their jackets are just like zipped oh my god, I can't push this family around. That's true, yeah. Oh, that visual joke, too, I love when Marge says, like, we're getting out of here,

and then their jackets are just, like, zipped to magically. And then Homer's like, no, no, no, come on, let's just sleep on it. Because I think a more modern Simpsons joke would be, like, flash forward to years later in the house living together. I think, yeah. I tape Dynasty for you. Or it just would have killed them all. Like, it would just ended with all their deaths. That's the thing, too.

None of them get to die. Not much grievous harm actually happens to the Simpsons in this one. There will be a lot more deaths in future years. Maggie walking around with a knife still feels like something iffy back then. Like, wow. But I can't fully verbalize it, but as a nine-year-old kid, this was captivating. Like, a no-show had ever done anything like this before. I still am astonished with the Simpsons get away with

on regular television for their Halloween episodes. Like, it just doesn't matter to disembowel somebody on camera. Oh, one more bad Dreamhouse side effect I wanted to burn off is this one. Okay, boy, let's see you talk yourself out of this one. It's just not like Homer thinks that he... Homer seems to think that Bart was doing that somehow. The one thing Bart couldn't have done himself. When he was floating and

being strangled by a lamp. Yeah. And then Homer's just like, ah, explain your way to this one, boy. I finally got you. Let's move on to another one. I love this one. Yeah, this one is called Hungry or the Damn. Sorry, I was reading the original Twilight Zone episode. Which I watched recently.

I did too for the first time. To Serve Man is the name of the episode. Isn't it awesome that in that Twilight Zone episode, the aliens speak telepathically and have enlarged foreheads like Itchy in a much later episode. That's right. They mentally communicate and tear them apart with their minds. That is exactly the Twilight Zone character from To Serve Man. And he's also played by Iga, Richard Kiel.

Yes. Oh, my God. I forgot that. But just to explain things really quick, in the Twilight Zone episode, these aliens land, and they're like, we can bring you all this great stuff, and we have all these cures, we've solved hunger, we've solved war, just come with us on our ship. And in the end, it turns out they're going to eat the humans, all the humans that go aboard the ship. It is, in retrospect,

very stupid. It is really. Because they hand them a manual and it's like, well, once you figure out this manual, we'll put our best code breakers on it. And they have, well, we got the title. It's called To Serve Man. And then later in the episode it's, it's a cookbook! It's a cookbook! Like, why would the

aliens hand you their plan and how to cook you i guess it's like well you're too stupid to figure this out so we're just gonna rub it in i guess at the end they do just look like big bullies because he just he just slams the door it's like you're going on this road trip whether you like it or not yeah that's that's what i this was my favorite of the three because it's so it's it's a specific takedown of a terrible of a twist type writing. That's right, yeah. It's a very writerly sketch

of just an overly nerdy writer saying this twist is stupid and so they instead so overly telegraph it. They lay it on so thick. And one thing I totally forgot is the reason why the space aliens are always drooling is because it's implied they want to eat the the reason why the space aliens are always drooling is because it's implied

they want to eat the Simpsons. So they never stop drooling. And in this episode, they even like add sound effects to the drool. You don't hear those again in the future. Yeah, I always,

the drool grossed me out so much as a kid. I was like, oh, it's disgusting. And they drool a lot more. You can even hear it on James Earl Jones. Yeah.

He's like, his mouth is stupidly frothy. And you mean James Earl Jones as Sarek the Preparer? Iflings, take all you want, but eat all you take. Thank you very much, mister. To pronounce it correctly, I would have to pull out your tongue.

So would he come back the next year? No, he was back in the shitting one. The one with the shits. This is indeed a disturbing universe Him and Liz Taylor Oh but this is the only appearance of Sarek the Preparer Yeah He should have been the independent vote

In that presidential episode Which by the way, nerd voice But he says you'd have to tear out your tongue To prepare it and then later they say To say his name And then they just say yeah it's Sare it's sarah slaved all day for you um my my big nerdy gripe look i don't mind that lisa doesn't eat vegetarian that has not been established yet that's right i refuse to believe a young kid's favorite food is fried shrimp that isn't that is absolutely impossible

lisa's kind of sophisticated though though. I think she might... Just thinking about it makes me want to fucking vomit. I didn't get a clip of that, but I loved Marge's reaction to Radish Rosettes. These are hard to make. She's impressed by the craftsmanship. Just like in the Twilight Zone episodes, they show the Simpsons, all of the advanced technology, but then they get to the one piece of thing that is not advanced. Do you have that clip, Henry? And over here is our crowning achievement

of technology. An electronic version of what you call table tennis. Your primitive paddles have been replaced by an electronic... Hey, that's just Pong. Get with the times, man. Marge and I played that old game before we were married. Well, we did build this spaceship, you know. Anyone from a species

that has mastered intergalactic travel raise your hand. And Bart raises his hand, right? Sideshow Mel is an alien or something. Oh, God. And also, Maggie's sucking is so loud in every scene in this. I want to go back to the beginning just because I have, as an observation,

is this kind of the first Homer is fat joke when he's being levitated? But not just fat, but like... How we use electricity can be smarter, cleaner, and greener. At Electric Ireland, we can help guide you there. You see, our new Net Zero Hub has all you need to know about smart meter plans, EV tariffs, solar panels, and much more.

Making your usage clearer, your trips greener, your home cozier, and your world brighter. Find our Net Zero Hub at electricireland.ie. The fattest person in Springfield. Yeah, I mean, they made fat jokes plenty of times, but it's like, this is like absurdly fat. Absurdly fat joke. Yeah, like a, they made fat jokes plenty of times, but this is like an absurdly fat joke. Yeah, like a UFO cannot lift him. And I could not read what the fuck was on... Because another one of my dad and I's favorite gags was the barbecue grill.

They eventually revisited that, yeah. And then, also, this is the first time I ever heard anybody say the word bitching on television. Oh, right. But also, could you read what was on Homer's apron? Mafia staff apron. Oh, see, I didn't get that joke yet I didn't either there was a lot of high profile mafia trials

at the time it was a joke like your bumper sticker would say mafia staff car and your t-shirt would be like mafia bodyguard I forgot all about that it is really dumb I also remember as a kid thinking that yeah Pong is so old. Now even thinking that in 1992, Pong is so old in 1992.

We're talking about Super Mario World, man. Sonic 2. I think they'd be showing Bart that seems like a Dreamcast game or something. This is called Sonic Adventure. We present to you Halo 3. Here's how much of a bad kid Bart is, is that he'll lie just to, like, who's invented space travel? Yeah, I love it. So this is one that I –

The HBO line, by the way, also. Like, we get channels from all over. Do you get HBO? Of course not. That would cost extra. I love, too, the joke. I don't know. So I knew this from the commentaries, other commentaries, not this one.

That was something that George Meyer would do in the meeting room. At the table reads, somebody would say, this new album by this person sucks. This new album by Madonna sucks. She's terrible. They'd say, anyone who's sold multiple platinum records, raise your hand. I thought so. This is invoking Worthington's law. It does sound like an obnoxious thing to constantly do.

I might steal it. To just kill any conversation. Yes. So how is this episode wrapped up? Lisa, we have the book, the whole book thing. Do you have a clip for that, Henry? Well, so she discovers the book and she presents it. So she doesn't say that it says to serve humans.

Wait a minute. Wait, there's still more space dust on here. There's still more space dust on here. Yeah, that's one of those things I never noticed. That is like the first taste of really modern, hyper-advanced Simpsons writing, where it's like they're going to hang a lantern on what they've been doing the entire time, and it's great. I know, that's such an advanced joke for them to do. Just like, there's still more.

We're still going to keep blowing on this thing. Like, how to cook humans, how to cook 40 humans, how to cook 440 humans. And I believe there was going to be a joke at the end before the episode changed it was going to be called how to cook for 40 humans and then eat them but i guess they went with the original non-twist and that would kill the end yeah it's such a it's such a great undercutting of the whole thing and they also bring up i think on the commentary they say the way they act the entire time before this reveal, if they're not going to eat them,

doesn't make a single bit of sense. Because they are weighing them in the Twilight Zone episode, and they're super impressed by how much weight Homer's gaining. It's like, your wife is quite a dish. But then their reaction is so great, too. I love it.

I love it. They thought we were going to eat them. Good God. Is this some kind of joke? No, they're serious. No, they're serious. And so

they make Serac the Preparer cry. Slaved all day for you. I slaved for days for you people. Well, if you wanted to make Serac the Preparer cry, mission accomplished. You aren't the only beings who have emotions, you know. Even though Joe really tries hard on that one.

That's Darth fucking Vader. Yeah, it feels like he, like, gargled raw eggs or something. I know, it's like, not a bass in that voice. So viscous. Yeah, or that he has he has like Marlon Brando style tissue in his mouth so it's basically Lisa's fault that they are just brought back to Earth

and they don't get to experience the amazing planet where they'll experience so many greater emotions and feelings than they ever will on Earth we offered you paradise you would have experienced emotions a hundred times greater than what you call love I like that Marge got that joke line, too. She was the one who got to say it. And that is also just a commentary on weird science and all those types of things that would end with a twist of like,

well, I guess you don't get to have everything. We would have done it all, but you showed your distrust. And then just having the human finally say, like, yeah, right, we get it. It's like, I get the moral thank you yeah please and i did also get hold my fist in the air and damn koreans because marge's pearls are white and that's no reason they couldn't recolor it it was too late well there's also speaking of bad animation when the aliens show up that zoom in on lisa reacting like it's weird yeah it's like blue Slideshot. Yeah, it's like blue screen or something. It's just

bad. It's supposed to be a rack shot. I think it's like a video effect mesh with animation. It doesn't work. Yeah, they do that like early on sometimes. Yeah. Like Brad Bird was the executive consultant, so I think he's the guy I always attribute like weird camera angle to and like visual references to other films.

And I just want to blame Brad Bird for that. And the next segment has tons of weird camera angles. It's only animation. And special guest writer Edgar Allan Poe. And that is the Raven. And here, okay, let me establish something. It is the entirety of the Raven. Exactly.

I think it's like The Simpsons is in this space where it's like we need to give a disclaimer because we're this edgy show that people think is trash. But here is something we're going to do to redeem ourselves. We're going to be literary. We're still going to play and have fun with this idea of reciting this poem. But we're going to do something artsy, like something artsy and interesting with animation and not be lowbrow. In which I think they do on occasion in ways that don't really get appreciated. I love the couch gag stuff.

That is kind of The Simpsons celebrating the art of animation in a way the show doesn't do very often. Well, not anymore. But, yeah. And this is a David Silverman one, right? That's right, yeah. He's going crazy in this one. And it is beautiful, especially considering the limitations he was working under and just how early it was in The Simpsons' timeline.

The camera spins around. There's so many different angles and only visual jokes I wish I had technical terms To teach animation To convey to animation fans How hard that was You can't really zoom in on a cell very well

Without losing a lot of quality Today you have artifacting Why is Lisa's line like 8 inches thick So they can't do that So when the camera pans around a room, it means someone just drew this giant picture of a room. Like a super long, it's like when you have an iPhone and you're taking a landscape photo

when you're like moving it all the way. That long image is like basically what the background is. I'll always argue the reason why Simpsons looks weird today is because they don't do any of that anymore. It's like two people walking into frame, three quarters front, very stagey. It is very like family guy-ish. It is. Like prosceniumium staging it is that's that

was the hallmark of what Simpsons wasn't if I have any complaints about modern Simpsons go back to doing things like that exactly yeah and but this be honest be honest is this the first time you've ever heard of Edgar Allan Poe's the Raven as a kid oh yeah this was the first it was for me I'd never heard of

Edgar Allan Poe to that point because I was like Dave and like yeah yeah, he's boring. And then my fucking study literature and had to read The Raven like eight times. And then seeing like, wow, wow, why did they do that? That is such a cool thing to do to celebrate this little odd poem on The Simpsons. That is so neat. Yeah, it made it famous. Not make it famous.

It made it more famous. I think it clip. It did not make it famous. It made it more famous. I think it did make more kids aware of it, for sure. I both loved and hated the Raven section. And the thing that I hated about it was I wish they had just gone whole hog, but they kept inserting these lines from Bart and Lisa that just undercut the whole thing, just because I think they were

worried children would be bored. I think so, too. It's six minutes. It's really short. You don't need Bart and Lisa talking for six whole minutes. And those jokes that they say aren't really worth saving or worth saying. And a lot of them just feel so inserted into it after the fact. So I have this clip I call everything good and bad about the raven. Don't I, Crespi, shorn and shaven thou?

I said. Buturn, O craven Can't decrim an ancient raven wandering from the nightly shore Tell me Tell me what thy lordly name is on the night's plutonium shore Quoth the raven Eat my shorts Bart, stop it He says never more

And that's all he'll ever say Okay, okay See, that's again Lisa's mad at him for the reasons I'm mad at him. Yeah, it's like, shut up, Mark! He's also interrupting. You're right.

As a kid, though, did you feel that way? As a nine-year-old, yes, but you watched it as a 32-year-old adult, David. Come on, I'm still as unimpressed. It's just like,

I never really read the poem. It's just, it doesn't work for me. Dan Castellaneta's performance in this is really good, as evident from the clip, but I feel like he's finding the current Homer voice by just having to fluctuate so much through different emotions with this poem. Yeah, Homer feels, when I watched the episode that follows this one, I was like,

it feels like Homer's taking a step back again. And now you mentioned earlier that it was a different recording order. But yeah, I put this as like, I think this might be some of my favorite acting by Homer ever. It's some of the best acting from Dan Castellaneta of all time. Don't be that word outside of parting, murder fiend! I shrieked up starting. Get thee back into the tempest

and the night's plutonium shore! Don't leave no black plume as a token of the lie thy soul has spoken! Leave my loneliness unbroken! Quit the bust above my door! If you know anything about voice acting, it's extremely hard to stay in character while screaming and singing. But also, he goes, like, I didn't want to make that, like, even longer, that clip. But he goes, like, quaff, quaff. Like, just him saying quaff. Having read The Raven, this is not my reading of the character.

So I think that's why I also give Haslund more credit. Because, like, this is, I feel like an original performance. It is, like, a very sullen character who's, like, just drowning in his own sorrows. But it's Homer reacting to the same situation with the Homer attitude, which makes it, I think it makes it more fun. If you want to find out more, look up The Raven, Christopher Walken on YouTube. The best readings of it.

And that Silverman is really going, like, these are classic Homerisms by Silverman. Like, he's moving his fingers a lot. He moves his arms so much in his gesticulation, especially that get thy house. There are some super David Silverman drawings in this episode. Tony and Shore. And then very briefly, I think to entertain kids again, they just turn it.

It becomes a loony. It becomes like a Tweety Bird cartoon for about 40 seconds. Yeah. That's kind of the weakest part of this episode or this segment, I think. I think it was. Again, they were just worried about kids. They're like, we can't bore these. Not about kids. I think it's about the average audience worried about kids they're like we can't bore these I think it's about

the average audience like they didn't want to people like Dave because my reading of the character is like a guy terrified with

like a guy who's kind of trembling with terror when he's yelling at the raven when I read but not Castaneda's take

which is why I love it so much I did like the also the in joke or the visual joke of like forgotten lore. There's a book just on his

stomach that says forgotten lore volume 4. Oh right, yeah, there are a lot of visual jokes that play with the words in the poem. There's L'Aslénor, which is Marge and her hairs on what she does. I thought that was hilarious. Yeah, I love it. Like the Raven also attacks home with other poems by Edgar Allan Poe that now comprise

entire heavy books. Must smell like large print. So that kind of ends the episode. It ends on an understated line that I like. Bart says, that's not scary even for a poem. And this is the one that ends up scaring Homer. Because, like, Bart's like, that's not scary. I was mad that Homer got, as a kid, I was like, those are scary.

Homer should not be scared. And it seemed like Homer was the only one in the family trick-or-treating, which is great because he's like a 38-year-old man. I have to assume they trick-or-treated, Bart and Lisa trick-or-treated earlier. Yeah. Having read a ton of this, a ton of horror literature from that era, it's not very scary. Seriously, like someone being lost in the woods, that was a horror story in the 1800s.

That's how most people die die either that or tuberculosis but again to people like dave imagine a bird who flies in your house and says one word when you're contemplating the death of your wife it is it is very it is very terrifying it's a terrifying scenario kind of undercut by a couple of simpsons gags i love this i love this by the way not to not to plug anything but yes you can support us lasertertimePodcast.com. You can buy on Amazon. They don't have all Simpsons episodes streaming. In fact, pathetically few.

But you can buy Treehouse of Horror packs. And I disappear into them. They're low-priced, given what they're giving you. And it's usually like five to seven Treehouse of Horror episodes. And there's three volumes of it. And you can just buy Treehouse of Horror episodes digitally. Do people have a favorite line?

I don't know. Do you? That's the joke. Definitely, I loved, I already played it but him going like, no,

they're serious. How hurt that fucking alien is. They built interstellar travel but never, never imagined being offended by the emotional humans. There was this inserted line

that I was talking about how much I hate the Raven lines that Bart and Lisa say, but I do like this one. Wait a minute. That's a book. Don't worry, Bart. You won't learn anything.

Yeah, just that. I like that book. You won't learn anything. Mine was the line about the space dust. Oh, there's more space dust. But again, that's one of the things I do know this episode pretty verbatim. I remember I was

turning away and I'm still reading it in my head. And space dust is one of those things I just picked up. Oh man, that's great. I like later Halloween episodes more just because they get bigger and bigger and more ambitious and bloodier too and more specific in their parodies. No, this is just simply The Shining.

Right. But there was something quaint about this one I loved. And also the To Serve Man one was just so funny. Just such a great... I love old 50s horror comic stuff like that. And for them to just do such a great parody of how they do that. I think they do that pretty well every year. Even if you think you don't like The Simpsons anymore,

always check out The Treehouse. I'll say this. I think it's one of the crowning pieces of human culture. American cultural achievement is The Treehouse. I love them so much. I really do. I don't think we have any more other

televised Halloween traditions outside like Charlie Brown pumpkin. Yeah. It's so fucking cool and their only job every year is to

shock and scare you and maybe make you laugh a little bit. But the laughter kind of takes a side. I don't know. It has to sit at the side for a second

for ingenuity and weirdness. I love that about the Simpsons Halloween treehouse of horror episodes. So yeah, that was the treehouse of horror. Ituity and weirdness. I love that about the Simpsons Halloween Treehouse of Horror episodes. So, yeah, that was the Treehouse of Horror. It was awesome, guys. Thanks for joining us. And as for me, I am Bob Servo on Twitter.

Also, please listen to Retronauts, the Classic Gaming Podcast. All these guys have been on it, and you will like it, too. Any other plugs for us? Yeah, laser time, baby. I forget what's going up this week, but we've been doing a bunch of Halloween stuff all week. Halloween comfort food, classic horror theme song quizzes, and I forget the other one. What did we do? Evil Kids!

Oh, Evil Kids. Evil Kids. Evil. Yeah, LasertimePodcast.com. No, we don't have any other Simpsons features up this week, but I've been writing way too much about Aladdin. Yeah, but again, if you like this, you haven't heard the first season, get on the Patreon. You can listen to the whole thing for the first season.

The whole first season. 13 episodes await you for the low cost of $5. And we write so many cool things on the site. And I wrote an article about why Spider-Man is the biggest Mets fan around. I did not know that. And a cheap podcast. That podcast has old man stink. That's it, everybody.

We'll see you next week with a Mr. Burns episode. Later.