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The 36th “Treehouse of Horror” episode was the third episode of the 37th season of The Simpsons. These days, even as viewership of The Simpsons has dwindled and many have stopped watching the show, curiosity remains about “Treehouse of Horror” episodes. The Halloween episodes have become a culture staple, a chance for the show to break free of canon, internal logic, and the need to not have characters be violently murdered. Since we have continued apace with watching The Simpsons, let’s break down “Treehouse of Horror XXXVI.”
We begin with an opening credits scene from cartoonist Ward Sutton (aka Stan Kelly) related to his famed, meme-ified “sickos” character, with Matt Groening in the “sicko” role. It’s brief, but fun in its distinctness.
The first story is “Last Days of Crisco” which marries The Blob with Jaws with a smidge of Smokey and the Bandit for whatever reason. Hey, Homer and Bart make a fun riff on Big Enos and Little Enos, but also Buford T. Justice and Junior Justice. It’s essentially what if Jaws had a blob of cooking fat come to life instead of a shark, but it works. Weirdly, it’s also the biggest role Lou the cop has ever had? All in all, a fun riff that gets violent without going wild.
Now, “Clown Night with the Devil” does go wild. Kids get violently killed by Satan left and right in this one. Apparently it is a riff on an indie horror film from 2023 called Late Night with the Devil with which we were not familiar, but it still played. You can still understand the riffing on found-footage tropes, and the final joke about Krusty and Satan trying to sell the thing to Netflix is clever commentary on the industry.
Lastly, these episodes have taken to getting adventurous with the animation in one segment, and this time it was “Plastic World.” In a dystopian world where everything is plastic, Lisa and some survivors try to find dirt to plant food, while Bart leads a violent group of raiders. Everything plastic is 3D animated, which becomes more pertinent when 3D plastic people (including Homer and Marge) show up. There are a few fun jokes, but mostly it is an animation showcase. Plus, Viola Davis voices Maggie! Always nice to get Maggie talking in a “Treehouse” segment.
All in all, while none of the segments were all-timers, none was a swing and a miss either. “XXXVI” is a solid entrant into the “Treehouse of Horror” canon, which is remarkably impressive given that they have done over 100 segments by this point.
