Treehouse of Horror XI

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The Simpsons episode
"Treehouse of Horror XI"

Episode no.	249
Prod. code	BABF21
Orig. Airdate	November 1, 2000
Show Runner(s)	Mike Scully
Written by	Rob LaZebnik (part 1) John Frink and Don Payne (Part 2) Carolyn Omine (Part 3)
Directed by	Matt "Groening" Nastuk
Season 12 November 1, 2000 – May 20, 2001
Treehouse of Horror XI A Tale of Two Springfields Insane Clown Poppy Lisa the Tree Hugger Homer vs. Dignity The Computer Wore Menace Shoes The Great Money Caper Skinner's Sense of Snow HOMR Pokey Mom Worst Episode Ever Tennis the Menace Day of the Jackanapes New Kids on the Blecch Hungry, Hungry Homer Bye Bye Nerdie Simpson Safari Trilogy of Error I'm Goin' to Praiseland Children of a Lesser Clod Simpsons Tall Tales
List of all Simpsons episodes...

"Treehouse of Horror XI" is the first episode of The Simpsons' twelfth season, as well as the eleventh Halloween episode. The episode aired on November 1, 2000, one day after Halloween. This was the first of the forced Treehouse of Horror season openers, a tradition which would continue until 2004.

1 Opening Sequence
2 Synopsis
3 Cultural references
4 External links

[edit] Opening Sequence

A spoof on The Munsters, with Homer as Herman, Marge as Lilly, Lisa as Marilyn with a book on copyright law, Bart as Eddie, and Abe as Grandpa Munster. As they are at the front of their mansion, an angry mob of townspeople confront the Munsters, killing everyone except Lisa, who walks away from the mob and the carnage. The intro was done in black-and-white and the Simpsons theme was done similar to the theme of The Munsters.

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

[edit] G-G-Ghost D-D-Dad

Homer reads the horoscope at breakfast, where it says that he is going to die today (and someone from work will compliment him). Marge's horoscope says that her husband will die. Homer mocks the horoscope and dances around, until he gets a serious paper cut on his wrist which slices through the artery. Later, in the driveway, a bolt of lightning strikes a nearby tree, which falls close to the car, missing Homer by inches. Homer dismisses it. Continuing his route to work, a wrecking ball tractor knocks down the globe of the restaurant Planet Springfield, which collapses on the passenger side of Homer's car, but doesn't even touch him. He dismisses that, and carries on. As he drives, a pickup truck in front of him hits a pothole, which causes a pickaxe to fly directly at Homer and lodges in his head. He dismisses it again, a little incoherently this time.

At work, Lenny compliments him... on the snake that is biting his arm. Finally, at home, Marge tells him to finish his broccoli. He does so reluctantly, but he chokes on it and dies. Dr. Hibbert, later while examining Homer, says that it is a case of "death by broccoli", since broccoli is one of the deadliest plants on earth. When Homer goes to Heaven, St. Peter tells him that he hasn't done one good deed. The only way for Homer to get to go to Heaven is if he does a good deed sometime within the next 24 hours.

While Marge and the kids grieve over Homer, his ghost appears and chokes on the same piece of broccoli. He goes back to Heaven, where St. Peter informs Homer he will now have 23 hours left. He appears before Marge that night, looking for good deeds, but when she asks him to clean the garage, he declines, saying that he only wants to get into Heaven, not run for Jesus.

He flies around town looking to perform good deeds. He sees Agnes Skinner trying to cross the road and grabs her just before some Boy Scouts can get to her, but she struggles too much and falls to her death on the street. Then, he sees Bart being bullied by Nelson. When he tries to scare Nelson off, he gets bullied himself in the same way.

Later, as he sits dolefully at the steps of City Hall, with only one minute left to do a good deed, a baby's carriage slides down the steps and Homer catches the baby just in time, as the carriage goes and explodes after being hit by a car. Confident that he will get into Heaven this time, he goes to St. Peter, who informs him that he was not paying attention, so Homer has to go to Hell, where the Devil bullies him just as Nelson did.

[edit] Scary Tales Can Come True

The Simpsons are a peasant family living in a pumpkin cottage, with Homer as the village oaf. When food gets scarce, Homer tosses Josh and Joanne in the woods. There they encounter their older brother and sister, at least what's left of them. Joanne, using her book of Grimms' Fairy Tales, guides them. She steers them away from a bridge, under which a troll (Moe) lives. They go into the house that is inhabited by three bears (who are out at the moment). Josh samples the porridges and mixes the hottest and coolest porridges and eats the mixture. Later the bears return home and Bart and Lisa make good their escape, Josh blocking the door with a chair for good measure. However, Goldilocks (who was sleeping in the "just right" bed) is trapped inside and the bears tear her apart.

Meanwhile, Marge admonishes Homer for throwing out the kids, when they could have just as easily sold them. She tells him to get them back or else... As he searches for them in the forest, he encounters Rapunzel in her tower, who asks him to rescue her. She drops her hair for him to climb, but he is too heavy and rips her hair right off.

The kids go to a gingerbread house where a witch named Suzanne invites them inside and the kids go in unsuspecting. Suddenly, Lisa is in chains, sweeping up the house and Josh is being fattened up with candy. Joanne tells Bart to stop basting himself with butter. Josh asks Suzanne why she should clean up... it's not like she has any friends. Suzanne retorts that she has a boyfriend, George Cauldron, which sounds a bit made up as she is looking at her cauldron when she says the name. Lisa laughs and taunts Suzanne, angering her "Maybe you could hook me up with Ed Ladle". Suzanne grabs her and takes her toward the oven. But Homer shows up (eating the gingerbread house). Suzanne zaps Homer repeatedly, changing him into several mix-and-match creatures. Finally, he manages to push her into the oven and lock the door. Only his hands revert back to their normal state. At that moment, George Cauldron shows up for a date with Suzanne. Homer tells him that she should be ready in about 20 minutes.

Later, the family is eating supper. Marge says that though they are poor, they will never go hungry again, thanks to Homer. We see that Homer's bottom half is still a chicken. He lays an egg with great difficulty so that Bart can have seconds.

[edit] The Night of the Dolphin

Lisa goes to Marine World, a SeaWorld-like park, where she takes pity on a sad-looking dolphin, Snorky. Lisa wants Snorky to go back to the sea, where he is revealed to be the king of the dolphins, who resent humans for forcing them to do silly tricks, and plot to take over the world. The army of dolphins begin their war on the surface by attacking Springfield, approaching on a beach and killing their first victim - Lenny - by repeatadly hitting him with their noses. Soon after, Captain McCallister is suddenly ripped in half by the dolphins. Squeaky Voiced Teen has his head bitten off at the Krusty Burger drive-thru. Grampa Simpson also gets swallowed whole by a dolphin while trying to make a phonecall. Kent Brockman is reporting on the murders when the dolphins get the cameraman. He claims it is 'Intelligent Italians' instead but murmurs killer dolphins in the background. One of the dolphins gets a rubber ball and bounces it off Kent's head repeatadly, smashing his head into a wall causing blood to fly everywhere. After Mayor Quimby speaks Willie is impaled through one of the dolphins and Snorky goes up to the podium and is revealed to be able to speak English. After an unsuccessful fight, the humans are banished to the sea, as the dolphins were. 1`

[edit] Cultural references

The scene in which a baby's carriage is sliding down the steps is a parody of a famous scene of a Russian silent film The Battleship Potemkin (1925) and "The Untouchables"
The title and plot of G-G-Ghost D-D-Dad is inspired by the Bill Cosby film, Ghost Dad.
The plot of Scary Tales Can Come True is mostly based on the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel, and references other fairy tales.
Night of the Dolphins parodies Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.
The scene in which Lenny is killed by dolphins is a parody of the opening scene of Jaws.
- A continuity error occurs later when Lenny is seen alive during the humans vs. dolphins fight scene.
The title is a parody of George C. Scott's The Day of the Dolphin (1973).
When the witch looks at her cauldron and says her date's name is George Cauldron, it references the Brady Bunch episode where Jan made up a boyfriend named George Glass after looking at a glass of water.
When The Three Bears walk back into their house they are humming the tune Teddy Bears' Picnic.