Treehouse of Horror XXI

"His blood! It's full of cholesterol!"

- Count Dracula

“Treehouse of Horror XXI” is the twenty-first Treehouse of Horror episode and the fourth episode of Season 22. It originally aired on November 7, 2010.

Synopsis
"War and Pieces" - In a Jumanji spoof, when Marge suggests playing board games instead of violent video games, Bart and Milhouse manage to make all boardgames lifesize - and violent. "Master and Cadaver" - In a Dead Calm spoof, Homer and Marge rescue a man at sea (voiced by Hugh Laurie) while on their second honeymoon, but they become convinced that, rather than surviving an attempted poisoning, he's the killer, and Homer and Marge are next on his list. "Tweenlight" - In a Twilight spoof, Lisa falls for a new student (voiced by Daniel Radcliffe) who happens to be a vampire.

Intro
When Bart and Homer are carving pumpkins and Bart slices a smile into Homer's pants. Homer chokes him, so Bart puts a flaming pumpkin on his head. Professor Frink then introduces the show, giving a warning about the content and telling those concerned to skip forward. He skips forward too far and says that he has ruined the show for everyone. He points the remote at himself until he dies and turns to dust. This blows away to say "Treehouse of Horror XXI". The monster who was created by Frink picks up the remote and mentions The Office, where he remembers his days working at "Monster Mifflin" with the Mummy, the Wolf Man, a zombie and a witch. This leads to a parody of the opening, set in the monsters work place.

War and Pieces
In a parody of Jumanji, Marge, is worried about Bart playing violent video games, encourages him and Milhouse to play the boardgames in the attic. They discover a game called Satan's Path and play it, causing all the board games to come to life in a different reality. They have to complete the games to win, which results in a game of Mouse Catch.

Later Bart decides to only play hangman (thinking it would be safer). Then it is shown that Bart and Milhouse have been hung.

Master and Cadaver
In a parody of Dead Calm, Homer and Marge set sail on a second honeymoon, but they're interrupted by a castaway, whom they rescue. Roger was a chef on the Albatross who was knocked out after trying to prevent an attempted poisoning on the ship. Convinced that Roger poisoned the passengers and is plotting to murder them after seeing a dead shark with a recently made pie pan in its mouth, Homer and Marge take matters into their own hands as they seemingly kill Roger and knock his body overboard. However, finding the Albatross, they realize Roger was telling the truth by finding the bottle of soy sauce that was used to knock out Roger. Roger appears again but Homer still blames him for cooking them a poisonous pie. Roger then explains that the pie was clean and the shark died because of fuel from Homer's boat. To convince him, Homer looks through the window and sees a squid and other sea animals dead because of the fuel. Homer then kills Roger, and the finds out that the bankers survived because they took an antidote suspecting to be poisoned. Homer immediately kills them and a pelican, so no one will ever know they attempt to kill Roger. This shocks Marge and she eats the poisonous pie because she can't live with the guilt. Homer mourns over the loss of his wife. It would all turn out to be Maggie's imagination. Homer soon asks what Maggie thinks and Marge replies that it's nice things. Soon Maggie sinisterly changes into Alex DeLarge from A Clockwork Orange, while eerie music plays in the background as the screen fades out.

Tweenlight
In a parody of Twilight, Lisa falls in love with a mysterious new student named Edmund (Spoof of Edward Cullen). After saving Lisa from a bus and other approaching objects, Edmund reveals himself to be a vampire. Lisa is not frightened by this and the two spark a romance much to the dismay of Milhouse, who turns into a were-poodle. Marge invites Edmund and his father Dracula to dinner. Edmund and Lisa are both embarrassed by their fathers and decide to leave resulting. Marges makes Homer and Dracula track them down to a cathedral in "Dracula-la Land." Lisa wants to become a vampire, but has second thoughts after learning that she would be eight years old forever. Edmund says that "the blood-lust is upon him" and he has to bite something. Edmund and his father reconcile, and Homer saves Lisa by offering himself up in her place as the two vampires feast on him. However, they both die from the bad cholesterol in Homer's blood as he is turned into a vampire. Transforming into a bat to fly home, Homer's fat causes him to fall. His body is carried off by were-poodle Milhouse while Lisa watches in dismay. Most of these things happen in the real story, Twilight.

Production
Daniel Radcliffe, the main star of the Harry Potter franchise, guest starred in the third segment which parodies the Twilight novels and movies. Radcliffe said that he is a fan of the show and guest starring is "a huge honor." Hugh Laurie guest starred in Master and Cadaver as Roger.

The episode aired November 7, 2010.

Reception
The episode was up 23% in viewership compared with the previous episode, "MoneyBART," which aired October 10.

The episode received mixed-to-negative reviews. Us Weekly said: "the three oddball tales run from mildly amusing to flat-out inspired. In one goofy vignette, Homer and a bikini-wearing Marge pluck a scary mystery man from the sea. However, watching Lisa crush on a brooding vampire in a dead-on poke at Twilight is the hilarious treat here."

USA Today said about the episode: "It is possible that The Simpsons has worn out the Treehouse franchise. The three installments just seem to be reaching for jokes that aren't there, and falling in the attempt. As you'd hope from The Simpsons, the segments all boast a few clever moments that will make you smile if not laugh. But they're not scary, they're not particularly funny, and outside of some stupid Twilight jokes, they're no longer even trying to be real parodies of the original stories."