Treehouse of Horror XX

Episode	References	Gags	Appearances	Gallery	Quotes	Credits

◄ The Great Wife Hope

Treehouse of Horror XX

The Devil Wears Nada ►

◄ Treehouse of Horror XIX

Treehouse of Horror XX

Treehouse of Horror XXI ►

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

Treehouse of Horror XX
Episode Number	445
Production Code	LABF14
Original Airdate	October 18, 2009
Special Guest Voices	Marcia Wallace
Show Runner(s)	Al "20 More Years" Jean
Written By	Edward Danielchunhands
Directed By	Mike Beheaded Anderson 2 and Manic Matthew Schofield

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

“As a vegetarian, I did not eat any tainted burgers. And as a convenience store owner, I'm armed to the teeth.”

―Apu Nahasapeemapetilon

"Treehouse of Horror XX" is the fourth episode of Season 21 and the twentieth Treehouse of Horror episode.

Synopsis

Dial "M" for Murder or Press "#" to Return to Main Menu - Lisa is forced into a Hitchcockian murder scheme by Bart.

Don't Have a Cow, Mankind - Springfield is once again overrun by zombies, thanks to Krusty Burger's latest sandwich.

There's No Business Like Moe Business - In a Sweeney Todd spoof, Moe bleeds Homer dry to create the perfect microbrewed great beer.

Full Story

Opening

The logo for this episode

Frankenstein's monster, a Werewolf, a Mummy and a Vampire in "Modern" halloween costumes

As Frankenstein's Monster, Count Dracula, the Mummy, and the Wolfman take a stroll around town on Halloween, they are bullied by Jimbo, Dolph, and Kearney for having "lame costumes". Deciding to purchase actual costumes at Halloween Headquarters (SpongeBob SquarePants, Iron Man, Captain Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean series and Harry Potter, respectively), they put them on and go over to the Simpson house, where a Halloween party is going on. The monsters see a few women there (Mrs. Muntz, Edna Krabappel, Selma and Lindsey Naegle, respectively), so they begin to flirt with them. However, the monsters' wives gatecrash the party and accuse that their husbands are cheating on them instead of going to kill children. When Homer then tries to convince the female monsters that their husbands weren't cheating on them because they were wearing costumes, the monsters' wives tear his head off and throw it into a punch bowl, while his eyes turn into the Roman numerals for 20, XX.

Dial "M" for Murder or Press "#" to Return to Main Menu

Dial M for Murder or Press Hashtag to Return to Main Menu title card

In a parody of Strangers on a Train, Lisa gets angry at Miss Hoover for not choosing her to represent the class at a reading roundup, and because of her anger, she is given detention. While in detention, she sees that Bart is there, too, upon which they concoct a plan together. During their plan, Bart tells her that he will get revenge on Miss Hoover if she gets revenge on Mrs. Krabappel for putting him in detention. Lisa ding-dong-ditches Mrs. Krabappel, but Bart kills Miss Hoover. Later, when Bart wants to figure out how girls pee, Lisa finds out that Bart killed Principal Skinner, after which Lisa proclaims that she has to kill Bart herself. While chasing him around with a knife, they eventually get onto a merry-go-round. Ultimately choosing not to kill him, Lisa throws her knife in the air instead, which then plummets back down, killing Bart. Lisa and Mrs. Krabappel then walk off, smiling at one another.

Don't Have a Cow, Mankind

Don't Have a Cow, Mankind title card

In a parody of 28 Days Later and Children of Men, Kent Brockman is reporting on Krusty's new Burger², which is a burger that is invented from cannibalistic cows.

Krusty explain how the Burger2 is made

Despite this madness, everyone seems eager to eat the new burger, jokingly labelled as a "crime against nature" by Kent, who is the first person to have a bite of the new burger. Unfortunately for him, the burger is not what it seems. Within seconds, he transforms into a pale, grey-eyed zombie known as a Muncher. He bites Krusty, who also becomes a Muncher. When Muncher Kent bites Jeremy Freedman, he also becomes infected with the virus and turns into another Muncher, giving them extremely pale skin, grey eyes with dark red bruising around the bottom of each eye, and constantly drool infectious saliva.

Krusty becoming a zombie after being bitten by the first zombie: Kent Brockman.

Within 28 days (a reference to the actual film), the Muncher Virus has completely affected Springfield with all of its inhabitants dead or infected. Here, Ned Flanders, Lurleen Lumpkin, Jack Marley, Cookie Kwan, Cletus Spuckler, Brandine Spuckler, and many others have all been infected and become Munchers. Moe, however, is captured by the Munchers, but does not put up any resistance (seemingly because he has nothing to lose) and instead advises them to wash him before eating him, which they appreciate.

In response to this, the Simpsons have boarded up their house completely and refuse to let anyone in (not even Grampa, who gets killed and later infected). However, Bart sneaks out, gets a Burger², and eats it without suffering any ill effects, leaving his parents puzzled. While strangling Bart, Homer uses Bart's head to dial the buttons on the telephone and calls Dr. Hibbert, who is besieged by Munchers in his office. While fighting them off with a variety of medical equipment, and eventually getting bitten while requesting that they tell his wife that he loves her, Hibbert says that it is possible that Bart is immune to the burger's virus and instructs the Simpsons to go to a "safe zone".

When the family tries to sneak out of their house to their car (which is inexplicably unharmed when everything else is destroyed) to take Bart to the safe zone, Homer loudly exclaims his relief for getting out of the house, attracting the entire Muncher population of Springfield. Homer tries to hold the front door shut, but it collapses under the onslaught. Fleeing through the sitting and living rooms, Homer shouts to flee to the non-existent panic room as Munchers come down the chimney. The family is forced to detour through the kitchen when a zombie Rod and Todd come through the dog flap, barely avoiding Grampa when he bursts through the window.

Eventually, Rainier Wolfcastle kills the Munchers blocking the door and says (in Terminator fashion), "Come with me, if you want to live", but is immediately swarmed and affected as Homer remarks on "another politician who can't keep his promises". At that moment, Apu (who is uninfected due to his vegetarianism, and the fact that, as a store clerk, he has weapons stocked, while his wife is seen as a muncher, and his octuplets might be munchers, too) arrives in an armored SUV, driving the family out of Springfield.

While driving their way to the "safe zone", Helen Lovejoy attacks the car and, though initially reluctant because Helen is Lisa's godmother, Marge relents and shoots her off of the car after Apu tells Helen to "Apologize in Hell!" However, the SUV gets stuck in a pile of junk at the city dump. Apu sends the vehicle on its way by pushing it down the pile, unintentionally staying behind as he gets devoured (because Marge thinks that he gave his life for them). When the SUV runs out of fuel, the Simpsons are forced to travel the rest of the path to the "safe zone" on foot with Homer guarding them with an M14 Rifle.

Dead Mr. Burns and Smithers

Halfway there, they notice a muncher Mr. Burns and a muncher Smithers lying unconscious by the road. Homer takes the opportunity to make fun of Burns, who surprisingly springs back to life and bites Homer's hand, infecting him as well. When Homer rejoins the family, they all notice his changes. Bart then rips the rifle out of his hands and threatens to kill him, but Marge takes the gun for herself and points out that he can be cured once at the safe zone.

With Homer seemingly being able to hold back his urge to kill, they make it to the safe zone, where a stationed soldier says that they need to eat Bart in order to gain his immunity. Not wanting to sacrifice her son, Marge advocates for an alternative. Some time later, Lisa narrates that the world has returned to normal, as the survivors gained immunity to the Muncher plague and the surviving Munchers were cured, by eating soup with Bart's antibodies (something made possible due to putting him inside the cooking pot). Only Homer remains infected, but he is locked up in a cage, seemingly because he refuses to eat the food his son has been bathing in, leaving him not complaining.

There's No Business Like Moe Business

There's No Business Like Moe Business title card

In a parody of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, in which is the style of a stage play, Homer and Marge are at Moe's Tavern together while Moe is cleaning a mug and Barney is sitting at the bar. Homer falls down the door that leads to the boiler room, and is impaled onto a brewing machine. Moe doesn't want Marge to know that this happened, so he tells her that Homer wants to leave her in order to see what it is like to be gay. They drink beer together (which got mixed with Homer's blood), and Marge chooses to say yes, but later, Homer appears with the brewing machine still attached to him and attacks Moe. Even though Homer has a brewing machine through his back, Marge still loves Homer. During the intermission, Kang and Kodos are within the massive audience, where Kang says that this is the best play in lightyears, while Kodos reminds him that lightyears is a measure of distance. When the play is over, in a parody of the show's ending theme (the theme before the end credits theme), everyone in the segments (except for Kang and Kodos) sing "Number XX". To the tune of the Simpsons Theme Song, the cast sings to the audience and tells them that they hope they enjoyed this year's Halloween show, and as they finish the song, the Roman numerals for 20 (XX) land down behind them. Kodos then shushes the audience (ala Gracie Films) and gestures at Kang, who has fallen asleep while a Playbill issue is on his helmet.

Behind the Laughter

Production

This episode was written by Daniel Chun and directed by Mike B. Anderson and Matthew Schofield.

Reception

The episode was watched by 8.59 million viewers and was the most watched of "Animation Domination," which was ahead of American Dad! and The Cleveland Show. IGN praised the episode by saying "it was a fine addition to the series' Halloween specials". The Sweeney Todd segment was "a nice treat". "Treehouse of Horror XX" won an award for "Best Writing in a Television Production" at the 37th Annie Awards. *Australia: 3 November 2009 on Channel 10. *UK: 4 February 2010 on Sky1.

Citations