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Treehouse of Horror XII/References

< Treehouse of Horror XII
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◄ Simpsons Tall Tales
Treehouse of Horror XII
The Parent Rap ►
◄ Treehouse of Horror XI
Treehouse of Horror XII
Treehouse of Horror XIII ►

Previous Episode References[]

  • "They Saved Lisa's Brain": A joke is made about Dennis Miller (Professor Frink's line about "The Dennis Miller Ratio" being the phenomenon where one person out of a million would understand an esoteric or intellectual joke/the Dennis Miller voice of the Ultrahouse causing a string of murder-suicides).
  • "A Tale of Two Springfields": Homer's internal organs can be seen after being horribly shredded.
  • "I Married Marge" and "Natural Born Kissers": Homer mentions that he only married Marge because he "...knocked her up" while they were dating.
  • "This Little Wiggy": The leprechaun that Homer captures (and appeared at the end of "Wiz Kids" and during the post-credits scene) looks like the one that tells Ralph to burn things.
  • "So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show": Homer inadvertently reveals something about him that another character exploits (Homer opening a Duff beer that nearly sprays all over him leads to Bart shaking a can so much that it causes the house to explode/Homer casually admits to the Pierce Brosnan Ultrahouse that he married Marge because he knocked her up and, if anything were to happen to Homer, Marge would be free to date whomever she wanted, be they man or machine).
  • "The Springfield Files": Homer and Bart are out in the woods late at night in search of a mythical creature (the alien/a leprechaun).
  • "Lisa's Wedding": A Simpson encounters a gypsy fortuneteller who has oddly specific tarot cards.
  • "Lisa's Pony": Springfield Elementary has a kids' talent show and Principal Skinner comments on Milhouse's act being terrible.
  • "Treehouse of Horror":
    • A Halloween story where The Simpsons live in a sentient house ("Bad Dream House"/"House of Whacks").
    • A Halloween episode that doesn't have scary pun names for the cast and crew members.
  • "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Marge":
    • Marge getting a dart in the neck (Homer shoots one there to get out of doing chores for Marge/the Ultrahouse suggests he put a dart in Marge's neck after refusing to take a stress pill).
    • Nelson doing the "Stop hitting yourself" trick on Milhouse (recording "Stop hitting yourself" as a short film/changing Milhouse's head while saying, "Stop zapping yourself!")
  • "Lisa on Ice" and "Girly Edition": Bart and Lisa are rivals (in hockey/as kid news anchors/in magic).
  • "The Telltale Head": Homer brings a radio/portable TV with him to an event (church sermon/magic recital).
  • "Homer's Night Out" and "Marge vs. The Monorail": Homer and Fred Flintstone (Homer thinks Apu got him mixed up with Fred Flintstone/the episode opening is a spoof of the popular Flintstones opening where Fred slides off the dinosaur and into his car just as work ends/Homer dresses as Fred Flintstone for Halloween).
  • "The Joy of Sect": Mrs. Krabappel teaches a class that also includes students from Miss Hoover's (Lisa's) class.
  • "Treehouse of Horror III":
    • A Halloween story ends with two characters getting married (Marge and King Kong Homer/the gypsy and the leprechaun).
    • A Halloween story ends with an evil character being reprogrammed and forced to be a character's servant (the Krusty the Clown doll gets his evil switched flipped to good and becomes Homer's servant/Homer pulls out the Ultrahouse's units and Marge gives it to Patty and Selma rather than let the garbagemen take it).
    • A Halloween story where Lisa is turned into an animal (a snail from one of the occult books in the school library/a horse as part of Homer's curse).
  • "Treehouse of Horror IV": Homer makes a mistake as he's trying to kill someone/something in a Halloween episode (in "Bart Simpson's 'Dracula'", he accidentally drives a stake through Count Burns' crotch/in "House of Whacks", he accidentally chops up the water softener). Both times also have Lisa pointing out Homer's mistake and both scenes take place in a basement.
  • Treehouse of Horror V and VIII: Homer wields an axe
    • Treehouse of Horror V:
      • One segment from a THOH story is referenced later (the "One" musical number from "The Shinning" is used as the end to "Nightmare Cafeteria"/The leprechaun, Pierce Brosnan, and the mutated frog-prince all appear in the post-credits scene).
      • Someone (Homer/Milhouse, Bart, and Lisa) gets shredded in a giant blender and comes out of it okay (Homer climbs out of the floor/Bart realizes that everything that happened in "Nightmare Cafeteria" was all just a bad dream).
      • Homer has a portable TV.
  • "Treehouse of Horror IX":
    • Marge mentions an actor who played James Bond (on "Hell Toupee", Marge tells Homer that, if his fly weren't open, he'd look like Roger Moore/on "House of Whacks", Marge thinks the Ultrahouse has a George Lazenby option, but picks the Pierce Brosnan one because he was in Remington Steele).
    • Someone dresses up as a hobo on Halloween (Marge thinks Homer dressing in dirty, torn clothes and eating beans from the can is a hobo costume/Bart dresses as a hobo during the pre-credits scene with Mr. Burns' mansion)
  • "The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace": One of the items installed in the Ultrahouse 3000 is the electric hammer that Homer invented.
  • "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious": Homer thinks a woman is a fake and tries to grab her (the elderly nannies that Homer thinks are men in drag because he saw Mrs. Doubtfire/the fortuneteller).
  • "The Boy Who Knew Too Much": Someone (Mayor Quimby's nephew/Homer) says, "I'm going to enjoy this!" before attacking someone/something.
  • "Trilogy of Error": Harry Potter is referenced (Flanders reads the books to his kids, then burns them/"Wiz Kids" is a spoof of the book series).
  • "Dumbbell Indemnity": Homer attacks a water-based appliance in the basement (the water heater/the water softener),
  • "You Only Move Twice":
    • The Simpsons live in an automated house and it affects Marge (in the former episode, she becomes so bored, she starts drinking wine; in this episode, the automated house's AI system falls for her and tries to kill Homer).
    • James Bond is mentioned (Hank Scorpio kills a spy named James Bundt/Marge thinks the Ultrahouse has a George Lazenby AI option, but has Pierce Brosnan).
  • "New Kid on the Block" and "Marge on the Lam": One of the gypsies at the wedding looks like Ruth Powers (the divorced mom who moved next to the Simpsons after the Winfields moved out).
    • "Marge on the Lam", "Treehouse of Horror III" ("Dial 'Z' for Zombie"), and "Treehouse of Horror VI" ("Attack of the 50-Foot Eyesores"): The background music playing when Marge first says hello to the Ultrahouse is the "Please Stand By: Technical Difficulties" music that played when Krusty got attacked by zombie Sideshow Mel (and the "Please Stand By" card was of a drunk cameraman), when Kent Brockman's rant about women causing anarchy of Biblical proportions gets cut off (and the "Please Stand By" card was of Kent Brockman in a straitjacket), and when Kent Brockman gets eaten by a giant ad version of himself (and the "Please Stand By" card was of a puppy pulling an electric plug out of its socket).
  • In "Wiz Kids," Lord Montymort's "wailing wall" features Krusty the Clown, Maude Flanders (who died on the episode "Alone Again, Natura-Diddily"), Comic Book Guy, Snake Jailbird, Bleeding Gums Murphy (who died on the episode "'Round Springfield", though his voice actor, Ron Taylor, would actually die around the time of the episode "Sweets and Sour Marge"), Rainier Wolfcastle, Kent Brockman, Mr. Largo, Patty Bouvier, Blue-haired Lawyer, Üter Zörker (who was last seen on "The PTA Disbands" and was implied to be either dead or missing on "Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner"), Old Jewish Man, Alison Taylor (the girl from "Lisa's Rival" who did everything that Lisa loved better than her), Don Vittorio DiMaggio from "Homie the Clown", Todd Flanders, Mrs. Pummelhorst (the gym teacher first mentioned on "The PTA Disbands"), Mayor "Diamond" Joe Quimby, and Frank Grimes (who infamously committed suicide on "Homer's Enemy").
  • "Bart the Lover": Bart says, "I can't help but feel partly responsible" (or, in this case, "This is partly my fault") when he realizes that a prank (writing love letters to Mrs. Krabappel/switching Lisa's magic wand with a Twizzler during her "levitating dragon" trick) has gone wrong.
  • "Lisa Gets an "A"": Someone sobs while eating something (Homer eating Pinchy after accidentally cooking him in a hot bath/Slithers eating Lord Montymort after Bart stabs Montymort).
  • "Treehouse of Horror X": Bart commits suicide in a THOH story (ejects himself from the rocket filled with horrible and overrated celebrities out into space so his head will explode/drowns himself in his cereal to escape living with a long neck).
  • "The Springfield Connection": Marge is a cop (cf. the gypsy asking Marge if she's a cop).
  • "Treehouse of Horror VI": Someone says, "Shazbot!" (Kang/Kodos as the giant Lard Lad Donut rolls by them/Bart when he realizes that his plot to sabotage Lisa's magic trick is going awry).

Trivia[]

  • This is the final Halloween episode to be titled, "The Simpsons Halloween Special." Starting with "Treehouse of Horror XIII", the words "Treehouse of Horror" will be in its place in the title before the Roman numerals.
  • Starting with this episode, Homer is now dubbed by Vlastimil Zavřel in the Czech version of the show.
  • The "Burns family corpses" in the opening sequence are as follows (from left to right as seen on-screen):
    • A man's body wearing an Army uniform and has a pipe and sunglasses like General Douglas MacArthur; however, it's a three-star general and MacArthur was a five-star. The body has a tomahawk stuck in its chest.
    • A man's body dressed as a pirate. It has a patch over its left eye and a cutlass stuck in its right eye socket.
    • A woman's body, dressed as a burlesque dancer, with three bullet holes in its forehead.
    • A man's body wearing a suit of armor with a pitchfork stuck through the helmet's eye slits.
  • All of the episode writers' names return to the opening credits in this episode, rather than each segment's writer(s) names appearing at the beginning of each segment (as in "Treehouse of Horror X" and "Treehouse of Horror XI").
  • This is the last Halloween episode to use traditional cel animation. Starting with "Treehouse of Horror XIII", all Halloween specials were digitally animated.
  • According to the DVD commentary, the Ultrahouse on "House of Whacks" was going to be voiced by either Gary Oldman, Lyle Lovett (had Lyle Lovett actually voiced the Ultrahouse, the house would have had a pompadour and played guitar), or (ironically) another actor known for playing James Bond: Sean Connery. Also, "House of Whacks" was supposed to have a more bittersweet ending where, after Marge discovers that the Ultrahouse killed Homer, the Ultrahouse would erase his current personality and replace it with Homer's so Marge can be happy.
  • According to the DVD commentary, Carolyn Omine (the segment writer) had a difficult time writing "Wiz Kids", because only about four of the show writers had read Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (…Sorcerer's Stone in America) while the rest did not know about the book and thought viewers would not know who Harry Potter was, despite that the Harry Potter series already had four books out and a movie adaptation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone would be released ten days after this episode premiered. Despite critics and fans hating "Wiz Kids" for being a shallow parody of Harry Potter, the author of the series, J.K. Rowling, liked the segment.
  • A special end credit had to be made that states that series regular Dan Castellaneta voiced the Dennis Miller option of the Ultrahouse to avoid confusion as to whether or not the real Dennis Miller did voice-work on the show, marking the first time since season two's "Old Money" where a voice actor and the role he plays on the show is simultaneously shown in the credits and the first time since season 12's "Insane Clown Poppy" that a special credit stating that one voice actor is impersonating a celebrity is shown (the credit stating that Jay Mohr was playing Christopher Walken, as the real Walken turned down the chance to voice himself on the show due to a pay dispute).
  • According to producer Ian Maxtone-Graham, the reason this Treehouse of Horror and next season's Treehouse of Horror (Treehouse of Horror XIII) didn't have "scary names" for the credits (a staple since season 3's "Treehouse Of Horror II") was out of sensitivity due to the September 11th attacks in 2001, although executive producer and showrunner Al Jean claims that the "scary names" were dropped because the writers were running out of ideas for them and decided to retire them. Eventually, they were brought back starting with season 15's "Treehouse of Horror XIV".

Spells used in "Wiz Kids"[]

Caster Incantation Result

Lisa

"Abraca-dairy!" A pitcher filled with milk appears and pours its contents onto Bart's cereal.
Lisa "Five minutes more-ious!" Time turns back five minutes, prompting Marge to object: "That's not good for the clock."
Nelson "Stop zapping yourself!" Nelson grabs Milhouse's wand and touches it to his head (while Milhouse is still holding the wand). Milhouse's head successively turns into a banana, an ostrich head, and Mr. T's head.
Milhouse "Slimy Prince Limey!" Milhouse's toad turns into a drunken loutish prince who hits on Mrs. Krabappel.
Lisa "Hocus-croakus!" Lisa's toad turns into a British handsome prince, whom Mrs. Krabappel hits on.
Bart "Abra-ca ... turn into a prince guy?" Bart's toad turns into a hideous toad-prince creature, which constantly vomits and asks Bart to kill him.
Lisa "Head Zeppelin!" Bart's head turns into a Zeppelin and he floats toward the classroom ceiling.
Milhouse None (The Invisibility Cloak) Milhouse is supposed to turn invisible, but instead his clothes disappear, leaving him standing naked on the stage at the Magic Recital.
Principal Skinner None (Amnesia Dust) Skinner uses the Amnesia Dust twice at the Magic Recital: 1) To make the audience forget Milhouse's performance, and 2) To make the audience forget a bad joke he tells.
Lisa "Alakazai-dragonfly!" Nothing happens. The spell is presumably supposed to lift the dragon into the air, but Bart stole Lisa's wand and left a black Twizzler in its place. The dragon reveals itself to be Lord Montymort in disguise and grabs Lisa.
Bart "Prank be undone! Destroy the evil one!" Bart casts the spell with Lisa's wand, trying to save her by attacking Montymort, but instead he zaps himself.

Cultural references[]

Opening sequence[]

Hex and the City[]

  • Sex and the City - Punned in the title. It also has the same font and logo.
  • ATMs - The sign in the Gypsy's shop window says "Fortune Teller. After Hours Use Automated Teller."
  • Aer Lingus - Moe says that Leprechauns come to the USA by hiding in the wheel wells of Aer Lingus jets. Aer Lingus is the oldest and second-largest airline in Ireland.
  • Homer lures the Leprechaun into his pit trap using Lucky Charms cereal, the mascot of which is a leprechaun named Lucky.
    • Homer accidentally pours Trix cereal into the hole first, attracting rabbits (The Trix mascot is a rabbit).
    • Bongo, the one-eared rabbit from Life in Hell, is the last rabbit to jump in.
    • One of the creatures lured into the trap by the Lucky Charms is Katie Couric.
    • Another creature was Tinker Bell in the Lucky Charms hole from Peter Pan.
  • The Metamorphosis - Maggie is transformed into a ladybug by the Gypsy's curse; in The Metamorphosis, the character Gregor Samsa awakens to find himself transformed into an insect.
  • Yoda from the Star Wars saga is the priest at the Leprechaun/Gypsy wedding. He says, "Husband and wife I pronounce you now."
  • Lisa as a horse tapping twice for "yes" (Clever Hans was a horse that supposedly did math, giving the answers by clapping his hoof).

House of Whacks[]

  • House of Wax - Punned in the title.
  • The Mafia - "Whacking" someone is Mafia slang for killing them.
  • Demon Seed - The film and characters are parodied throughout the segment, especially Susan Harris and the Proteus IV computer.
  • 2001: A Space Odyssey
    • The Ultrahouse 3000 camera eyes resemble the HAL 9000 computer.
    • The Ultrahouse suggests that Marge take a stress pill. HAL 9000 makes the same suggestion to astronaut David Bowman in 2001.
    • Homer disables the Ultrahouse by removing the circuit boards from its CPU, and while he does so, the Ultrahouse's voice becomes less sophisticated, then slow and garbled, and finally stops. The same thing happens to HAL 9000 at the hands of David Bowman.
  • The gloves on the Ultrahouses mechanical hands resemble his that are worn by Mickey Mouse.
  • Friends - When the Simpsons test the Matthew Perry voice for the Ultrahouse, it says "Uh, yeah, could I be any more of a house", a reference to Chandler's usual attitude.
  • Another voice option for the house is comedian and former Saturday Night Live cast member Dennis Miller (whose voice is actually impersonated by Dan Castellaneta rather than provided by Miller himself), whom Lisa recognizes as "the voice that caused all those suicides" (with Marge correcting her by saying they were "murder-suicides").
  • When Bart suggests "007's" voice for the Ultrahouse (referring to Pierce Brosnan being the fifth Bond actor), Marge thinks of George Lazenby (the second Bond).
  • Marge recalls that Pierce played the lead in Remington Steele, which the Ultrahouse confirms the first time it speaks with Pierce's voice.
    • At the time of filming the Remington Steele TV series, Pierce Brosnan was considered for the role as James Bond after the third Bond actor, Roger Moore retired from the role after completing his seventh film and the 14th film of James Bond film series, A View to a Kill, released in 1985, but due to the popular ratings of Remington Steele, Brosnan was unable to get out of his contract for the show. As a result, the role of James Bond went to Timothy Dalton. Brosnan's first wife, the late Australian actress, Cassandra Harris (who was married to Brosnan until her death at the age of 43 from ovarian cancer on the 28th December 1991), had a minor role as the ill-fated Countess Lisl von Schlaf in the 12th film of the series and Moore's fifth film, For Your Eyes Only, released in 1981. Cassandra Harris had also starred in the Remington Steele series, appearing in three episodes. It was during the production of For Your Eyes Only, that Bronson met film series' producer, Albert "Cubby" Broccoli. After Dalton retired from the role as Bond after starring in his second Bond film and the 16th film in the series, Licence to Kill, released in 1989, Brosnan took over the role as Bond, making his debut as Bond in the 17th film of the series, GoldenEye, released in 1995. After GoldenEye, Brosnan went onto star in the 18th, 19th, and 20th films of the series:
      • Tomorrow Never Dies, released in 1997.
      • The World Is Not Enough, released in 1999.
      • Die Another Day, released in 2002 and the last film to star Brosnan as Bond. Brosnan role as Bond, was succeeded by the sixth and current Bond actor, Daniel Craig who made his debut as Bond in the series' 21st film, Casino Royale, released in 2006. Craig also went onto star in the 22nd, 23rd, 24th, and 25th film of the series:
        • Quantum of Solace, released in 2008 and the follow-up to Casino Royale.
        • Skyfall, released in 2012.
        • Spectre, released in 2015.
        • No Time to Die, released in 2021 and the final to star Craig as Bond as well the final film in the overall series.
      • Like Brosnan, Timothy Dalton was also considered for the role of Bond by the producers earlier in the film series as a successor to first Bond actor, Sean Connery for the series' sixth film, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, released in 1969. But Dalton declined the role as he felt that he was "too young" for the role, only being 22 years old at the time of the film's production. As a result, the role went to Lazenby who only starred in On Her Majesty's Secret Service before Sean Connery was brought back into the role as Bond to star in the series' seventh film, Diamonds are Forever, released in 1971 and the final to star Connery as Bond, before Moore took over the role.
  • Bad Taste - Homer is presumed to have been murdered by the Ultrahouse, but is revealed as having survived when he emerges from the floor. The family discovers that the back of his head is missing, revealing his brain. In Bad Taste, Derek falls off a cliff, presumably to his death, only to wake up later and notice that a piece from the back of his head is missing, also revealing his brain.
  • The song playing in the background when the Ultrahouse 3000 is in Patty's and Selma's apartment is "Rhythm Divine" by Enrique Iglesias, though the closed captioning back when the episode premiered had the song as "Bailamos", also by Enrique Iglesias.
  • The Veldt: The idea of a "Smart House" is similar to the one from this Ray Bradbury short story, only the Simpsons version doesn't have a 3D hologram playroom that the kids use to murder their parents by imagining the room as an African veldt filled with hungry lions.

Wiz Kids[]

Goofs[]

  • At the end of "Hex and the City", Homer is first seen at the Leprechaun/Gypsy wedding in his regular outfit (white shirt, blue pants). In the next scene, however, Homer is seen close-up wearing a formal blue suit.
  • In "House of Whacks", the Pierce Brosnan A.I. begs Homer not to take out his British Charm Unit. Pierce Brosnan is Irish in real life (though this could be a joke about how he's typecast as British).
  • In "Wiz Kids", Lisa's British prince disappears when Lisa uses her "Head Zeppelin" spell on Bart.
  • The Gracie Films logo has the homemade music instead of the organ and scream.

Production Notes[]

  • The final draft for this episode was published on September 25, 2000.[1]

Citations[]

  1. ↑ https://cocatalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?v1=2&ti=1,2&Search_Arg=cabf19&Search_Code=FT%2A&CNT=25&PID=5ZYeFz_V6kf7n7OyZjc_hizf9xe


◄ Season 12 Season 13 References/Trivia Season 14 ►
Treehouse of Horror XII • The Parent Rap • Homer the Moe • A Hunka Hunka Burns in Love • The Blunder Years • She of Little Faith • Brawl in the Family • Sweets and Sour Marge • Jaws Wired Shut • Half-Decent Proposal • The Bart Wants What it Wants • The Lastest Gun in the West • The Old Man and the Key • Tales from the Public Domain • Blame it on Lisa • Weekend at Burnsie's • Gump Roast • I Am Furious (Yellow) • The Sweetest Apu • Little Girl in the Big Ten • The Frying Game • Poppa's Got a Brand New Badge
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