For more than three decades, The Simpsons has been entertaining fans with more than 700 episodes, and it’s hard to say that the annual parodies of The Treehouse of Horror are considered the pearls in the crown. (Or crown bulls, if you like.) Since a possible endgame is in sight somewhere in the future, the Simpsons are doing their best for a special edition of the 34th season dedicated to Halloween, offering fans TWO different specials. And what’s more, one of them is going to pay homage to Stephen King classics.
How The Simpsons Pay Homage to Stephen King with a Treehouse of Horror
As it became known at Comic-Con 2022 in San Diego via Variety, the 34th season of The Simpsons will feature the very first episode of the long-running animated series “House of Horrors on a Tree”, which will be entirely devoted to parody of only one classic of the genre. And in this case it will be a monster from Stephen King’s novel “It”. Obviously, the book is thick enough and narratively dense enough to make up an entire season of episodes, but The Simpsons isn’t exactly at risk.
Although no important details other than the existence of the special edition have been revealed, fans can almost certainly look forward to Bart, Lisa and other young Springfield residents reviving the Losers Club. It will be weird if Bart is Bill and Lisa is Bev, although not necessarily as weird as the orgy scene in the book, which hopefully gets some kind of reference to The Simpsons.
Revealing the upcoming “Treehouse of Horror” news, executive producer Matt Selman mentioned the existence of mixed tattoos combining Krusty the clown with the terrifying Pennywise, saying:
We have never done a single fantastic, bloody, scary, dark story told within the 20 minutes and 40 seconds that make up an episode. I think the fans will be very excited. Of course, Krusty’s Pennywise tattoos already exist. So now we’re just writing about tattoos. You want to have as many tattoo-worthy moments in your episodes as possible.
Would it be even funnier if Chief Wiggum or Ralph Wiggum played the role of Pennywise in a parody of The Simpsons? Maybe, although I don’t want to see what other objects are floating around Ralph.
This will be only the last, but definitely not the first time Stephen King gets a nod in the annual Simpsons specials. It all started back in the 6th season of 1994, with the well-remembered segment “Shining”, although it took another ten years for a second parody with “Ned’s Zone” to appear in the 16th season. 13 years later, in 2017, The Simpsons “Mmm… Homer” parodies the hyper-disgusting short story “Survivor Type,” which marks the most recent homage to King.
What will be parodied by another Simpsons special “House of Horrors in a Tree”
Obviously, season 34 also marks the first time The Simpsons will provide a double dose of “Treehouse” specials, as the information technology-focused episode will be complemented by a second iteration that will take on the traditional trio of parodies. At the moment, only one of the planned parodies has been revealed, but it is solid: “The Notebook of Death”.
This will not be the first time The Simpsons has taken on an anime project, although this genre has not been widely covered in the “Treehouse of Horror” segment. (And many will say it’s time for that, given that Halloween special editions of the show have parodied “Multiplicity” and “Ghost Dad” in the past.) years ago, but soon it will be turned into a full-fledged series on Netflix thanks to the creators of “Very Strange Cases” Matt and Ross Duffer.
Interestingly, The Simpsons will use a completely different animation studio to put together this part of the episode “Tree House”. Matt Selman called it “incredibly authentic” and said:
So I really think people are going to worry about that. We are not trying to tackle every anime, it is an incredibly rich and diverse genre in itself. We’re not trying to do 20 shows and fit them all in six minutes. It’s just one favorite thing, it’s the Death Note show.
The other segments of “House of Horrors” are being kept secret for now, and Selman teases that one of them will break a rule that has never been broken before in “The Simpsons,” but it’s impossible to guess what it might be at such an early stage. Could this be the first episode to be fully animated using blood? Probably not. But maybe?
Although it is unclear when any of these episodes will air, the 34th season of The Simpsons will debut on Sunday, September 25, at 20:00 Korean time. ET, and every past season is available for streaming on a Disney+ subscription. Head over to our TV premiere schedule for 2022 to find out what other new and returning shows are coming soon.
