Treehouse of Horror V

Episode	References	Gags	Appearances	Gallery	Quotes	Credits

◄ Sideshow Bob Roberts

Treehouse of Horror V

Bart's Girlfriend ►

This episode is considered non-canon, and the events featured are not part of the timeline of the series' continuity.

For the continuing series of Halloween specials, see Treehouse of Horror Series.

Treehouse of Horror V
Episode Number	109
Production Code	2F03
Original Airdate	October 30, 1994
Couch Gag	Dismembered Family couch gag
Special Guest Voices	James Earl Jones as Alternate universe Maggie and Marcia Wallace as Edna Krabappel
Show Runner	David Mirkin
Written By	Greg Daniels Dan McGrath David S. Cohen Bob Kushell
Directed By	Jim Reardon

“Ach, I'm bad at this.”

―Groundskeeper Willie

“This is indeed a disturbing universe.”

―Maggie

"Treehouse of Horror V" is the sixth episode of the sixth season, and the fifth episode in the Treehouse of Horror Series. The episode premiered on October 30, 1994, and was directed by Jim Reardon. The writers were Greg Daniels, Dan McGrath, David Cohen and Bob Kushell. James Earl Jones guest-stars as the voice of an alternate universe Maggie, in his second appearance in a Simpsons Halloween episode.

Synopsis

Treehouse of Horror V is an Anthology episode that features mini-stories. "The Shinning" is a parody of The Shining where the Simpsons become the winter caretakers of Mr. Burns' mountain lodge and Homer goes insane and tries to murder the family. In "Time and Punishment," Homer repeatedly travels back in time and alters the future. He tries to change things back, but fails and settles for a reality close to his own. In "Nightmare Cafeteria," Principal Skinner begins using detention students as cafeteria food. When Bart and Lisa are about to be slaughtered, Bart wakes up and realizes it is a dream. But immediately afterward, in the closing sequence, he and the family are attacked by a mysterious fog that turns people inside out!

Full Story

Intro

Marge appears and explains to viewers how scary this Treehouse of Horror episode is. She then gets a letter from Congress explaining that this episode is so scary, that it can't be shown. The episode is cut off and Bart's voice is used in radio waves to tell us that he is controlling the programming. Homer also cuts in and plays with the radio waves using his voice, to Bart's annoyance. Bart manages to introduce the episode. During the intro, Moe Syzlak hangs himself, Patty and Selma, disguised as witches, were being executed by fire, but light their cigarettes, and Bart beheads Principal Skinner. After that, a lightning bolt flashes to the couch, where The Simpsons were built as a Frankenstein’s monster with each other's body parts, and they swap heads until they match closely.

The Shinning

The Shinning title card

In a parody of the late Stanley Kubrick's 1980 horror classic The Shining, the family gets invited to Mr. Burns' summer cottage to look after it while he goes away. On the way, Homer is forced to drive all the way back home to lock the front door to the house, and on the second drive, he is again forced to turn around to go and lock the back door to the house. On the third drive, Lisa points out that they left Grampa behind—Homer does not comply and keeps driving. Upon arriving, Mr. Burns takes them on a tour of the house. He tells them the long, colorful history of the house. It was built on an ancient Indian Burial Ground (like the Overlook Hotel in The Shining), and was the setting of Satanic rituals, witch burnings, and five John Denver Christmas specials. An elevator opens up and blood spills out all over the entire floor (like in The Shining), prompting Mr. Burns to say, "Hmm, that's odd. Usually, the blood gets off at the second floor." While outside, Bart cuts a shortcut in the hedge maze with a hedge trimmer, and annoys Willie and reads his thoughts. Willie tells him that he has "the shinning," and says he should use it to call him if his dad begins to go insane.

"This is less encouraging."

Mr. Burns and Smithers cut the power cable and take all the beer away. Smithers comments that this may have been what caused the previous caretakers to go insane and kill their families, but Mr. Burns simply bets that he owes Smithers a Coke if it happens this time again.

"Heeeere's Johnny!"

No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy!

The absence of television and beer causes Homer to go insane. He tries to occupy himself, going to the bar where Moe, as a ghost, tells him he'll give him a beer if he murders his family. Homer is at first against the notion of murdering his family and questions Moe, who replies that they'd be much happier as ghosts.Marge goes downstairs to check on Homer, and discovers a typewriter with paper in it. Marge reads it and then lightning lights up the room to reveal that Homer has written "No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy" all over the lounge. Homer then bursts through a door and tries to attack Marge. She defends herself with a bat as he chases her up the stairs. Homer falls down the stairs after seeing his reflection in a mirror and is knocked out. Marge locks him in the dry food cellar and grabs some chili to make for supper. Later on in the cellar, Homer has calmed down and happily eats. Moe reminds him of their deal on the other end of the pantry door. When Homer refuses to cooperate, Moe and the gang of ghouls (including Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Dracula, the Mummy, the Wolfman, and Pinhead) carry him out against his will.

While the family is eating dinner, Homer chops down a door with an axe ("Heeeere's Johnny!"), but the room's empty. He chops into another room ("Daaavid Letterman!"), but it's just Grandpa. And then into the right room with a stopwatch in his hand ("I'm Mike Wallace, I'm Marley Safer, and I'm Ed Bradley! All this and Andy Rooney tonight on 60 Minutes!"), the family flees to escape the rampaging Homer. After Marge contacts the police to no avail, Bart uses his "shinning" to call Willie to help. Willie immediately comes to their aid, only to get an axe in the back by Homer. Homer picks up a different axe from the collection hanging on the wall and chases the family outside into the snow and is ready to kill them until Lisa finds Willie's TV radio in the snow. Homer immediately drops the axe to watch Kent Brockman on Channel 6 News. The return of television brings back his sanity. He calls his family to sit in the snow with him to "bask in television's warm, glowing, warming glow" and they freeze while watching. However, Bart tells Homer to change the channel when the announcer informs them that the upcoming programming will be The Tony Awards, hosted by Tyne Daily and Hal Lindon, Homer replies, "Can't. Frozen." But as a theme plays, they all scream in terror, and Homer says, "Urge to kill rising."

Time and Punishment

"What the hell are YOU smilin' at?"

Time and Punishment title card

In a parody of A Sound of Thunder, Homer is sitting down at the table, eating breakfast with the family, commenting that despite his troubles, where he feels that he is a really lucky guy sitting down with them in their cozy home in this beautiful free country. Lisa then alerts Homer that his hand is stuck in the toaster, and Homer frantically tries to get it off. He succeeds and throws it across the room, but Bart alerts him that his hand is in the toaster again, causing another panic to get it off. Homer attempts to fix it using the tools in the basement. He test-toasts it, and modifications to the toaster turn it into a time machine, and Homer is sucked into the time-space continuum. Homer travels back to the time of the dinosaurs, and realizes that touching anything will impact the future. However When he accidentally kills a mosquito, he returns to find that Flanders is the unquestioned lord and master of the world.

After escaping his "Re-Neducation" (a process that includes a glass of warm milk, a lie down, and a total frontal lobotomy), he goes back to the time of the dinosaurs in hopes to fix the future, and ends up accidentally sitting on a fish while escaping from a Tyrannosaurus Rex. He returns only to find that Bart and Lisa are giants that mistake him for a bug, then try to smash him.

Time and Punishment poster

His second attempt to fix the past succeeds in him wiping out all the dinosaurs by sneezing on another T-Rex, who in turn sneezes on another dinosaur, which also sneezes on another dinosaur and so on, and they all drop dead. Homer returns to the future in the basement. He goes upstairs to see a large, fancy kitchen, he scans the room to see his family, who are all dressed elegantly. As he sits down, he asks Marge to pass him a donut. When Marge replies, "What's a donut?" Homer screams uncontrollably at this shocking discovery and runs back to the basement and the sound of the time machine zapping is heard. After he is gone, donuts begin to fall from the sky and Marge says,"It's raining again," implying that the rain in this universe is donuts.

Homer returns to his basement to discover Groundskeeper Willie in his kitchen. Willie attempts to help Homer, but he falls to the floor, showing that Maggie has killed him with an axe. Maggie takes out her pacifier and says in the deep, distinctive voice, "This is indeed a disturbing universe."

Homer returns to the dinosaur era. Holding a club, he destroys anything in the past that he can before returning to the future. The family's house in the present ends up changing multiple times. Homer finally stops and returns to the present. He returns to the kitchen and asks Marge several questions: his name, the color of the sky, and what are donuts. Marge answers them all accurately. Homer, now satisfied, sits down to eat with the family. Everything appears to not be what it seems when the family start eating a breakfast with lizard tongues. Homer decides it is close enough.

Nightmare Cafeteria

Nightmare Cafeteria title card

In a parody of Soylent Green, Bart suggests that his class face their desks backward before Mrs. Krabappel arrives. The students all support the idea. Then When Mrs. Krabappel arrives, only Bart's desk is facing backward. When Bart gets to the detention room, Principal Skinner approaches him, requiring him to spend his detention in the lunchroom as the detention hall is becoming dangerously overcrowded with students. Meanwhile In the lunchroom, Principal Skinner expresses himself worried that a critical amount of students are in detention, Lunchlady Doris explains that, because of Springfield Elementary's budget cutbacks, is reduced to serving Grade F meat (consisting of circus animals and filler) in the cafeteria.

"Isn't there a little Üter in all of us?"

Principal Skinner discovers a common solution to both problems: eating the detention students. Jimbo Jones trips Lunchlady Doris, accidentally spilling stew all over himself. Skinner takes a taste of the stew, and is impressed with the Jimbo/stew combination. Skinner orders Jimbo to help Lunchlady Doris in the cafeteria, and Jimbo is put to work cleaning a giant pot while someone spills meat tenderizer on him. Eventually the lid is closed on him and Jimbo is killed and cooked, ending up being served as "Sloppy Jimbos" in the teachers' lounge and the cafeteria. Everyone likes the new dish, especially the teachers. In the cafeteria, Üter cuts in line to get another Sloppy Jimbo, and Skinner sends him to detention.

Lisa becomes suspicious when Üter disappears and a German meal called "Üterbraten" is served in the cafeteria. Lisa asks Bart if he find that to be strange. Skinner, overhearing the conversation, says he's got a "gut feeling" that Üter is still around, asks, "Isn't there a little Üter in all of us?", and then says "You might even say we just ate Üter and he's in our stomachs right now!" Skinner then backpedals, telling Bart and Lisa and to "scratch that one," but it's too late: Now they all think that something's up.

At home, Bart and Lisa and tries to tell Marge what's happening at school, but Marge doesn't believe them. She says that since they're eight and ten years old now, she can't be fighting all of their battles for them. Bart and Lisa reluctantly return to school. Eventually, so many students have been placed in "permanent detention", that the remaining students have all been merged into one class, taught by a now noticeably obese Mrs. Krabappel, stuffed from a recent meal. Only Bart, Lisa, Milhouse, Wendell, and Ralph are left. When Wendell drops his pencil, Mrs. Krabappel gleefully sends him to detention. Milhouse sees Mrs. Krabappel reading a book titled The Joy of Cooking Milhouse, and he suggests to Bart and Lisa that the three of them should make a break for it, since any one of them could be next.

Hungry teachers

The trio sneak down the hall, but are caught by Lunchlady Doris, who charges at them with a spinning eggbeater. Groundskeeper Willie tries to come to their rescue, but is quickly killed by Skinner hitting him in the back with an axe. Skinner and the teachers advance on the three students, and they are quickly cornered on a ledge above a giant food processor, which Skinner turns on and switches to the "gooify" setting. But As they're forced closer to the edge, Bart tells Lisa and Milhouse not to worry and says that something always comes along to save them. Milhouse falls into the food processor and is instantly "gooified," killing him. Bart changes his statement to "Something will come along and save the two Simpson children." No rescue comes, however, and Bart and Lisa are also forced over the edge, screaming as they fall toward the rapidly whirling blades of the food processor.

Evil Lunchlady Doris

Immediately after falling into the food processor, Bart screams and wakes up to find out it was all a dream. Marge reassures him that there's nothing to worry about except the mysterious fog that turns people inside out. The fog then seeps in through the window and does just that (interestingly, the drawings of the skinned characters show a discontinuity in the bottom area suggesting an earlier version of the animation was retouched so to erase the buttocks). The family and Groundskeeper Willie all begin to do a musical number (to the tune of "One" from A Chorus Line) about being turned inside out. At the end, Santa's Little Helper drags Bart offstage and devouring him by his intestines.

David Mirkin deliberately placed more graphic violence in the episode due to complaints about excessive violence in the show. The episode features a recurring joke in every story where Groundskeeper Willie is struck in the back with an axe when trying to help someone. Willie even lampshades this in the final sketch, saying "I'm bad at this".

Signs/Thoughts

In "Nightmare Cafeteria", Jimbo Jones, Uter and others were killed and served for meat. Here are signs and thoughts on how the kids died. (Bold can show how they died)

Jimbo Jones: Cleaning a giant pot while Skinner is smearing him with meat tenderizer, Bite Me Skinner, Sloppy Jimbo, Young and Impudent.

Uter: Fat, Soft and Tender, 7 minutes a pound, Oktoberfest Celebration, Bart and Milhouse eating their German grub, (Uterbraton). Skinner saying puns of Uter's disappearance.

Milhouse: The Joy of Cooking Milhouse.

Behind the Laughter

Censorship

This episode is one of the most graphic episodes of The Simpsons because of its third mini-story: "Nightmare Cafeteria", which contains blood and gore.

This episode is rated PG in the UK, in spite of being more graphic than the 12-rated "Treehouse of Horror X". This episode was originally rated TV-PG in America, but was later re-rated TV-14. In all airings, the episode's ending is not removed and the blood is removed from Lunchlady Doris's apron. The episode is rated M in Australia's Fox 8 channel.

Citations