Treehouse of Horror XXI

For the continuation series of Halloween specials, see Treehouse of Horror series.
“Treehouse of Horror XXI” is the twenty-first Treehouse of Horror episode and the fourth episode of Season 22.
==Synopsis==
"War and Pieces" - In a spoof, when Marge suggests playing board games instead of violent video games, Bart and Milhouse manage to make all board games lifesize - and violent as well.
"Master and Cadaver" - In a spoof, Homer and Marge rescue a man at sea (voiced by Hugh Laurie) while on their second honeymoon, but they become convinced that, rather than surviving an attempted poisoning, he is the killer, and Homer and Marge are the next victims on his list.
"Tweenlight" - In a spoof, Lisa falls for a new student named Edmund (voiced by Daniel Radcliffe) who happens to be a vampire.
==Full Story==
===Intro===
While Bart and Homer are carving pumpkins, Bart slices a smile into the seat of Homer's pants. Homer chokes him, so Bart puts a flaming pumpkin on his head. Professor Frink then introduces the show, giving a warning about the content and telling those concerned to skip forward. He skips forward too far and says that he has ruined the show for everyone. Frink then points the remote at himself until he passes away and disintegrates into a pile of dust which blows away to reveal "Treehouse of Horror XXI". The monster who was created by Frink picks up the remote and mentions The Office, where he remembers his days working at "Monster Mifflin" with the Mummy, the Wolf Man, a zombie, and a witch. This leads to a parody of the opening, set in the monsters' workplace.
===War and Pieces===
In a parody of , Marge is worried about Bart playing violent video games, so she encourages him and Milhouse to play the board games in the attic. After rejecting and throwing away other board games, they discover a game that's called "Satan's Path" and play it, causing all the other board games to come to life in a different reality. They have to complete the games to win, which results in a game of Mouse Catch.
Later, once Bart completed the game and everything was restored back to normal, Bart chooses to only play hangman (thinking that it would be safer). When Milhouse answered incorrectly, he and Bart got hung.
===Master and Cadaver===
In a parody of , Homer and Marge (wearing a black bikini) set sail on a second honeymoon, but they encounter a castaway, whom they rescue. Roger was a chef on the Albatross who was knocked out after trying to prevent an attempted poisoning on the ship. Having become convinced that Roger poisoned the passengers and is plotting to murder them after observing a dead shark with a pie pan in its mouth, Homer and Marge take matters into their own hands as they seemingly kill Roger and toss his body overboard. However, finding the Albatross, they realize Roger was telling the truth by finding the bottle of soy sauce that was used to knock out Roger. Roger appears again but Homer still blames him for cooking them a poisonous pie. Roger then explains that the pie was clean and the shark was killed because of fuel leaking from the couples' boat. To convince him, Homer looks through the porthole and sees a squid and other sea animals have died because of the fuel. Homer then kills Roger, and the finds out that the bankers survived because they took an antidote suspecting to be poisoned. Homer immediately kills them and a pelican, so no one will ever realize they attempted to kill Roger. This astonishes Marge and she eats the poisonous pie because she is unable to live with the guilt. Homer mourns over the loss of Marge. 
The scene pulls back to reveal all of this happened in Maggie's mind while she's taking a bath. Homer wonders what Maggie thinks of, and Marge replies "just sugarplums and buttercups." However, Maggie suddenly turning into Alex DeLarge from the movie version of A Clockwork Orange (complete with bowler hat and eyeliner) as the film's main theme plays says otherwise.
===Tweenlight===
In a parody of the book and movie series, Lisa falls in love with a mysterious new student named Edmund Dracula (Spoof of Edward Cullen). After saving Lisa from a bus and other approaching objects, Edmund reveals himself to be a vampire. Lisa is not frightened by this and the two spark a romance much to the dismay of Milhouse, who turns into a were-poodle. Marge invites Edmund and his father Dracula to dinner. Edmund and Lisa are both embarrassed by their fathers and agree to leave resulting. Marge makes Homer and Dracula track them down to a cathedral in "Dracula-la Land." Lisa wants to become a vampire but has second thoughts after learning that she would be eight years old forever. Edmund says that "the blood-lust is upon him" and he has to bite something. Edmund and his father reconcile, and Homer saves Lisa by offering himself up in her place as the two vampires feast on him. However, they both die from the bad cholesterol in Homer's blood as he is turned into a vampire. Transforming into a bat to fly home, Homer's fat causes him to fall. His body is carried off by were-poodle Milhouse while Lisa watches in dismay. Most of these elements happen in the real story, Twilight.
==Behind the Laughter==
===Production===
Daniel Radcliffe, the main star of the Harry Potter franchise, guest starred in the third segment which parodies the Twilight novels and movies. Radcliffe said that he is a fan of the show and guest starring is "a huge honor." Hugh Laurie guest starred in Master and Cadaver as Roger.
The episode aired November 7, 2010.
===Reception===
The episode was up 23% in viewership compared with the previous episode, "MoneyBART," which aired October 10.
The episode received mixed-to-negative reviews. Us Weekly said: "the three oddball tales run from mildly amusing to flat-out inspired. In one goofy vignette, Homer and a bikini-wearing Marge pluck a scary mystery man from the sea. However, watching Lisa crush on a brooding vampire in a dead-on poke at Twilight is the hilarious treat here."
USA Today mentioned about the episode: "It is possible that The Simpsons has worn out the Treehouse franchise. The three installments just seem to be reaching for jokes that aren't there, and falling in the attempt. As you'd hope from The Simpsons, the segments all boast a few clever moments that will make you smile if not laugh. But they're not scary, they're not particularly funny, and outside of some stupid Twilight jokes, they're no longer even trying to be real parodies of the original stories."
Emily VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club gave the episode a C, and felt that "There were laughs in all three segments, but the episode as a whole left something to be desired. The first, a vague parody of Jumanji (really?) and Ouija board panic, eventually descended into a long string of mostly lame board game jokes, as if the writers had been coming up with board game puns for the last 15 seasons or something and wanted an excuse to unload a bunch of them all at once. The idea of Bart and Milhouse playing with a Ouija board ripoff was promising, so to see it descend into gags about Marge getting sucked into Clue was disappointing. The second segment was probably enjoyable for diehard Dead Calm fans, but that segment of the populace is surprisingly low (though the film does feature Nicole Kidman at her most attractive, so that's something). There were fewer good gags here than in the board game segment, but it was balanced out by a fairly solid Hugh Laurie performance. Fortunately, the last segment, the inevitable Twilight parody, was funny across the board, both in how it took the piss out of the Twilight films and how it satirized vampire mania. These aren't exactly fresh topics, but it felt like something that might have fit in a stronger "Treehouse of Horror" episode, and it made me laugh more than a couple of times. Still, it wasn't the best "Treehouse" ever, and you could make a good claim for it being the worst, particularly if the Twilight segment wasn't in there."
== Promo Cards ==
promo-thohxxi-2.jpg|Logo of Treehouse of Horror and Fox Broadcasting.
Edmund.jpg|Edmund
Roger.jpg|Roger
promo-thohxxi-3.jpg|War and Pieces
thohxxi-4.jpg|Master and Cadaver
Treehouse_of_Horror_XXIII_-_Promo_Card.jpg|Tweenlight
===Videos===
Promo The Simpsons- "Treehouse of Horror" with Elena Maksimova & Dan Radcliffe
== Citations ==
fr:Simpson Horror Show XXI
pl:Treehouse of Horror XXI
pt:Casa do Horror XXI
ru:Дом ужасов XXI
Category:Anthology
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Category:Bart episodes
Category:Milhouse episodes
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Category:Holiday episodes
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Category:Episodes in which Homer almost loses Marge
Category:Episodes with a alternative Gracie Films logo
Category:Halloween Episodes
Category:'Of' Episodes
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Category:Written by Joel H. Cohen
Category:Directed by Bob Anderson
Category:Episodes where Homer chokes Bart
Category:Parody episodes
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Category:History
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