Treehouse of Horror XXI/References

Cultural References

Opening

• The creature inside Professor Frink when he goes past the X-ray resembles an Alien.
• Frink has made his own Frankenstein's monster.
• The monster refers to The Office, and the scene that immediately follows parodies the opening of the show.
• The first few frames of the opening credits are also done in the same style as The Office.

War and Pieces

• The title is an obvious reference to War and Peace.
• The plot references Jumanji.
• The Board games that come to life include:
  • Taffy Land (Candy Land)
  • Kerplunk (various building games)
  • Drops and Risers (Snakes and Ladders)
  • Consternation (Concentration)
  • Ravenous Ravenous Rhinos (Hungry Hungry Hippos)
  • Mouse Catch (Mouse Trap)
  • Battleboat (Battleships)
  • Funopoly (Monopoly and Monopoly variations)
  • Crate of Apes (Barrel of Monkeys)
  • Yahtzu (Yahtzee)
  • Tiddlywonks (Tiddlywinks)
  • Satan's Path (Jumanji)
  • Spinning tops
  • Connect Three (Connect Four)
  • Tumble
  • Ice Hockey Game
  • Dominoes
  • Blocko (Lego)
  • Chess
  • Mystery Dude (Mystery Date)
  • Operation
  • Scrabble
  • Clue
  • Jarts
  • Colonel Ketchup (Colonel Mustard).

Master and Cadaver

• The title is a homage to the book, Master and Commander.
• The plot parodies Dead Calm.
• At the end, Maggie imitates Alex from A Clockwork Orange.
• In the begining scene, we see that Marge was about to be attacked by a shark, referencing the movie Jaws.

Tweenlight

• Twilight is punned in the title and parodied throughout the segment.
• Yogi Bear is seen with Ranger Smith's head.
• Big Bird from Sesame Street is bitten by:
• Seen in Dracula-la Land:
  • Grandpa Munster
  • Michael Jackson
  • Blackula
  • Nosferatu
  • Booberella
  • Count von Count
  • Dracula
  • Count Fudge-ula
  • Selene

Trivia

• If you look closely on the television that Professer Frink is fast-forwarding, you can see Glee flash by quickly.
• This is the first time the viewers were told not to watch ever since Treehouse of Horror V.
• This is the first time since Treehouse of Horror XVII that no one broke the fourth wall at the end to wish the viewers a Happy Halloween.
• Bart, Lisa, and Milhouse were the only ones understood not to be in one of the board games when they came to life, although there were some others that we saw (such as Maggie, Ned, or Patty).
• This episode aired after the three week hiatus on FOX, thus making it the first time since 2008 that a Treehouse of Horror episode aired in November.
• The Wilhelm scream is heard at a couple of places in the episode:
  • During the "War and Pieces" segment, when Bart and Milhouse kill enemy characters in the video game they are playing.
  • After the closing credits, when the Gracie Films card appears.
• This is the second episode where Homer plays Drops and Rises. The first was Any Given Sundance.
• It actually was 187 seconds between the words "Joel Cohen Will Die In 187 Seconds" and "As Predicted, Joel Cohen Just Died" in the opening credits as Joel H. Cohen is both a Co-Executive Producer and a Writer in this episode.
• The answer to the puzzle on the Consternation box is "A Board Game Rip-Off."
• In Tweenlight, Bart mentions that girls lust over him when he takes his shirt off. He does so, and his belly sags.
• This is the second time Homer becomes a vampire. The first was in Treehouse of Horror IV.
• This is the second time Lisa escapes from becoming a vampire, because of Homer's "agreement" in being bitten instead of her. The first time was also in Treehouse of Horror IV, but because the episode ending started instants before Lisa was bitten.
• Bart claims that when he takes his shirt off, girls become smitten. He takes his shirt off and his belly sags, and he walks away in shame.
• In the closing credits, this is the first actual Treehouse of Horror episode to have Nancy Cartwright's halloween name as NecroNance.

Goofs

• Edmund was about to bite Lisa when they were on the window seal, but come next seen they were standing up.
• In the opening when Homer and Bart are carving pumpkins, the door is closed. In the next shot, the door is opened and is facing the opposite side. In another shot, the door is facing the right way.
• When all of the evil board games are approaching Bart, he manages to run back to the mousetrap without having to swim over it again in a previous shot.
• Lisa was not playing Satan's Path with Milhouse and Bart, but unlike other Springfield residents, she was not put into any other board game.