Treehouse of Horror XX

For the continuing series of Halloween specials, see Treehouse of Horror Series.
"Treehouse of Horror XX" is the fourth episode of Season 21 and the twentieth Treehouse of Horror episode. (Originally going to be in Season 20)
== Synopsis ==
This year's tales of terror include the Universal Monsters making an appearance at the Simpson's Halloween party; Bart tricking Lisa into a crisscross murder plan; Springfield (once again) has a zombie apocalypse and Bart's immunity to Krusty's latest burger may be the key to stopping it; and a macabre musical where Moe (once again) uses Homer to make a best-selling drink for his bar.
== Full Story ==
=== Opening ===
As , 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, , from the 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 attacked and killing Homer and 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 ===
In a parody of , 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 accidentally. Lisa and Mrs. Krabappel then walk off, smiling at one another.
=== Don't Have a Cow, Mankind ===
In a parody of , and , Kent Brockman is reporting on Krusty's new Burger², which is a burger that is invented from .
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.
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. lucky, it was not tainted but this left 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 Marge 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, unfortunately, the SUV drives away, leaving him to get killed. 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.
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) as Bart seemingly pisses in Lisa's bowl of soup in the bath. 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 ===
In a parody of , 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 (a la 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==
 
fr:Simpson Horror Show XX
pl:Treehouse of Horror XX
pt:A Casa dos Horrores XX
Category:Anthology
Category:Annie Award winning episodes
Category:Homer episodes
Category:Marge episodes
Category:Bart episodes
Category:Lisa episodes
Category:Food-themed Episodes
Category:Moe episodes
Category:Romance-themed Episodes
Category:Edna Krabappel Episodes
Category:Episodes with a alternative Gracie Films logo
Category:Halloween Episodes
Category:Holiday episodes
Category:'Of' Episodes
Category:Musical-themed Episodes
Category:Episodes in which Homer almost loses Marge
Category:Parody episodes
Category:Episodes where Homer chokes Bart
Category:Directed by Mike B. Anderson
Category:Episodes with alternate end credits