Image from here, photoshop by Dave.
Well, that was a nice two weeks, but Zombie Simpsons returns tonight with another indifferent and slow witted entry in the once proud Treehouse of Horror series. Simpsons Channel has the lackluster details:
Homer takes a dangerous dive into an isolated canyon on Candy Peak, but when a crashing boulder traps his arm, he channels Aron Ralston (guest voicing as himself) to save himself. In “The Diving Bell and Butterball,” the first of three hair-raising Halloween tales, a venomous spider bite leaves Homer paralyzed, but when Lisa discovers Homer’s ability to communicate through natural gases, he is able to express his love for Marge. The killer spells continue in “Dial D for Diddly,” when Ned Flanders, devout preacher by day, transforms into a cold-blooded vigilante by night. In the final terrifying tale, “In the Na’Vi,” Bart and Milhouse are assigned on a mission to access a sacred extract on a distant planet. They morph into the land’s indigenous one-eyed avatars, but when Bart finds love and an eternal mate abroad, he is caught in planet warfare.
For those of you scoring at home, that’s two times Homer gets paralyzed/trapped, as well as two topical segments that no one will care about by this time next week.
charliesweatpants.com
(The crotch really does wear out too fast.)
Jesus, Avatar came out almost four years ago. And what the hell is a “Diving Bell and the Butterfly” parody doing in a Halloween episode?
That poster looks pretty good, though. Is it related to this episode specifically?
Here’s my breakdown of the episode:
Cold Open: Liked this one, and a somewhat clever use of a guest star. I was expecting Aron Ralston to be next to Homer, but being the 911 operator
The Diving Bell & The Butterball: Needed far less farting and more Paralyzed Spider-Man. Would’ve liked to have seen Abe in a Black Swan parody over this.
Dial “D” For Diddly: A segment that could’ve benefited from being longer. That ending was just a cobbled mess, and I can relate to Flanders’ exasperation.
In The Na’Vi: Liked this one the most. Sure, Avatar parodies are nothing new (long lead times and all that), but I haven’t seen Avatar.
Overall, I thought that while this wasn’t the strongest of the last few THoHs, I liked this one better than the one with the Mr. & Mrs. Smith parody or the one with the Golem.
Hurp, durp, let’s do listless parodies of stuff that was in the limelight a while ago. In the next episode “The Simpsons” will take on the daring job of satirizing the 2010 congressional elections.
The first segment is a strong candidate for the worst TOH segment of all time (Zombie or otherwise): no logic, no consistent parodies, and almost no humor. I don’t know why they thought communicating through farts was a clever idea, but it was pure torture. The Avatar thing was about a year too late. The only one that was tolerable was the Ned Flanders one and that was only for the opening with the seedy side of Springfield. Then we get into the “parody” of the Dexter intro and Homer convincing Ned that he’s God (because it’s not like Bart did the same thing to Rod and Todd back in Season 3), and it all fell apart.
What a shame. We finally get a Hhalloween episode before Halloween, and it ends up being as disposable as Halloween candy.
So glad you guys do a tear down of these episodes— since I stopped watching it years ago. It’s the rotting corpse of what was a well written, smart and truly funny show. Sad. Now it’s boring and insultingly stupid, but at least you guys make me laugh. Oh, and I especially appreciate Dave’s Photoshop skills on the poster. Great splatter!
Jesus, how many times can they riff on the title “Dial M for Murder”?
Why did they wait until SEASON SIX of Dexter to parody that show?
Also, the farting-Homer thing is probably the single worst Zombie Simpsons moment ever. Jesus.
Horrible episode.
but when Lisa discovers Homer’s ability to communicate through natural gases, he is able to express his love for Marge
Please, God, kill me now.