Treehouse of Horror VIII/References

Episode	References	Gags	Appearances	Gallery	Quotes	Credits

◄ Lisa's Sax

Treehouse of Horror VIII

The Cartridge Family ►

◄ Treehouse of Horror VII

Treehouse of Horror VIII

Treehouse of Horror IX ►

Cultural References

• "The HΩmega Man" is an extended homage to film The Omega Man, which was one of Mike Scully's favorite movies as a child.
• The song Homer dances to in the church is "War" by Edwin Starr.
• In "The HΩmega Man," Homer runs over Johnny and Edgar Winter while fleeing the mutants pursuing him, and he cries, "Die, you chalk-faced goons!" The Winter brothers are both albino.
• The title "Fly vs. Fly" is a reference to the Mad magazine comic strip "Spy vs. Spy". The segment itself is

  

  Spy vs Spy

  based on The Fly.
• The creature with two butts that comes out is reference to a Sean Silverstri poem in Where The Sidewalk Ends that explains the positives of a creature like that.
• The creature with Santa's Little Helper's head in one side and Snowball II's head in the other side is similar to CatDog, which premiered on Nickelodeon only six months after this episode originally aired.
• In "Easy-Bake Coven", the animators referenced the film The Crucible for many of their designs.
• In "The HΩmega Man" when Ned says why Norms and Freaks can't get along, it is similar to the movie franchise "Monster High" where Normies (Humans) and Monsters do not get along.
• Edna Krabappel is wearing a Scarlet A, which is a reference to the novel The Scarlet Letter.
• "Easy Bake Coven" is loosely based on the Salem witch trials, while the title is a reference to the children's toy called an Easy-Bake Oven. There is a brief reference to the Looney Tunes character Witch Hazel when Marge, Patty and Selma float on their brooms and click their heels before flying away on their brooms.
• In "The HΩmega Man", Homer as his first official act of being "the last man alive" was watching a David Spade/Chris Farley film, which based on Homer's remark of "Oh, Spade... why did you put Farley in charge of the bees?" as well as the buzzing sounds from the screen, is most likely the film Tommy Boy.
• Bart uses Taz's sounds when his head is in the fly and there's another reference to the view of the cliff similar to a Roadrunner cartoon.
• Brad Bird has the scary name 'NEVERMORE'. This is based on the poem 'The Raven', also parodied in the original Treehouse of Horror.
• In "Easy-Bake Coven", Homer is dressed as Jeannie from I Dream of Jeannie.
• In "Easy-Bake Coven" segment, Patty and Selma say to Marge, "So you finally left Derwood," which is a reference to the show Bewitched when Samantha's mother, Endora, would purposely get Samantha's husband Darren's name wrong because Endora hated Darren. Kinda the same way Patty and Selma think of Homer.
• Ken Wunderlich says, "In the case of the Salem witch trials, 28 `witches' were hung and one was crushed to death with a heavy stone and none of them were burned.
• "Hansel and Gretel" The eating of children.
• The Salem bewitching Patty and Selma are burned at the stake.
• MacBeth More Eye of Newt and three witches.
• The movie Hocus Pocus Third story of the plot is very similar.
• In the movie Clueless Homer's story about what Lenny said is like the dialogue of this film.
• In the TV series Maniac Mansion Bart mutates into a fly.
• Lost in Space Floyd the Robot looks similar to Robby the Robot.
• Mood shirts (a.k.a Hypercolor) changed color with body temperature. Spinoff of mood rings in the 1970’s (referenced with Professor Frink's mood pants).
• In "Day of the Dead" dead bodies are laying on the road and sidewalk.
• In "The HΩmega Man," Mr. Burns saying "and now you must die" is a reference to Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, when the emperor says something similar, "And now, Young Skywalker, you will die!" in a similar robe and shape of Mr. Burns.
• In Easy-Bake Coven, after Marge transforms into a witch, she’s flying on her broomstick and laughing like the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz, especially since she has black hair and green skin.
• Easy-Bake Coven, is a reference to the popular kid’s toy Easy Bake Oven.

Trivia

• This is the seventh Treehouse of Horror to have the cast's names changed due to Halloween e.g. Bat Groening. The first six being Treehouse of Horrors II-VII.
• Kang and Kodos originally weren't supposed to appear in this episode, but David Cohen managed to persuade the producers to keep them in.
• Homer already had a bomb shelter built, in the Tracey Ullman short "World War III".
• Marge, Patty and Selma click their heels before flying away on their brooms.
• Marge, Patty and Selma's brooms sound like airliner jet engines when flying.
• Technically, Homer's "That sounds like witch talk to me, Lisa" was correct because if Marge was a witch, then Lisa would be part witch(and in the witch trials a girl like Lisa would likely be accused because she is a "free thinking" girl.
• The neutron bomb has an Intel Inside logo.
• The actual TV rating system does not have a TV-21 or TV-666 rating in real-life.
• Homer's line of, "Where did you get those cloaks?", was a result of one of the Writers being a big fan of The Omega Man and buying all of the props from the movie, but didn't know where to find the cloaks from the movie.
• The mutants Bart, Lisa, and Marge killed were Sideshow Mel, Chief Wiggum, Ned Flanders, Mr. Burns, Moe Szyslak, and Dr. Hibbert.

Goofs

• 

  Nedwin with a totally smooth moustache

  Even though the film Homer watched was implied to be Tommy Boy, the scene that's being used is shown in the daytime, while in the actual film the scene was taken from, it was nighttime.
• When Nedwin urges Maude to do something against the witches in the final story, his moustache loses its texture for a frame.
• When Homer walks into the shelter, the steak is in a green can. When he comes out after the blast, the can has a yellowish color.