“The Twilight Zone” and “The Simpsons” — one is perhaps the most groundbreaking series in American television history, daring to ask the big questions, transcending genre and transporting audiences to a bold new story in every episode; The other is “The Twilight Zone.”
Since the very first “Treehouse of Horror” Halloween special in the show’s second season, “The Simpsons” has regularly been parodying “The Twilight Zone.” In fact, the first four “Treehouse of Horror” episodes of “The Simpsons” all featured a “Twilight Zone” parody and many more since then continued the tradition, up until “Treehouse of Horror XVI.” In “Treehouse of Horror” episodes, “The Simpsons” largely abandons official canon to instead tell stories featuring the titular family in a range of horror-themed parodies.
Every episode of “The Twilight Zone” takes place in its own continuity, providing an anthology of sci-fi and supernatural stories that are all ripe for parody by a series like “The Simpsons.” The original series of “The Twilight Zone,” from which “The Simpsons” drew inspiration for many of its parodies, aired between 1959 and 1964. While this meant there was more than two decades between “The Twilight Zone” ending and “The Simpsons” beginning, the timeless nature of the former meant that even viewers unfamiliar with the original stories could enjoy their comedic counterpart tales on the latter.
Over the years, “The Simpsons” parodied a total of nine episodes of “The Twilight Zone,” but some of these parodies immediately rose to become classic “Simpsons” stories.
5. The Genesis Tub (The Little People)
“The Genesis Tub” is a segment on “Treehouse of Horror VII,” in which Lisa accidentally creates a microscopic civilization during a science experiment for the school science fair. After placing a tooth into a dish of soda, Lisa gets a static shock from Bart, leading her to inadvertently shock the tooth and create life. The organisms that emerge on the tooth evolve at an accelerated rate to become a futuristic — but tiny — society.
Lisa is worshipped as a god by the tiny people she has created, though they consider Bart the Devil after he steals the petri dish and destroys swathes of their city by prodding it with his finger. The scientists of the microscopic world, led by a tiny blue-skinned version of Professor Frink, use a “Debigulator” to shrink Lisa down so that they can beg for her aid. Unfortunately, when Lisa tells them that she can help if they first restore her to normal size, the micro Frink reveals that the notion of “some sort of a Rebigulator” is “a concept so ridiculous, it makes me want to laugh and chortle.”
On “The Twilight Zone,” the episode “The Little People” sees an astronaut becoming a megalomaniac when he discovers a society of tiny people, making himself their god. He gets his comeuppance when an even bigger astronaut arrives and accidentally crushes him. Lisa, on the other hand, just has to watch Bart take credit for her science fair project.
4. Lisa’s Nightmare (A Small Talent for War)
The majority of “Lisa’s Nightmare” in “Treehouse of Horror II” is not actually a parody of an episode of “The Twilight Zone,” but of the W. W. Jacobs short story, “The Monkey’s Paw.” In the segment, Homer, much like the protagonist of the original story, comes into possession of a cursed monkey’s paw that will grant its owner three wishes, albeit at a terrible cost. The mysterious merchant who sells Homer the monkey’s paw demonstrates the cost of using it, hilariously revealing, “I myself was once president of Algeria.”
The segment’s “Twilight Zone” parody arrives when Lisa takes the paw and wishes for world peace. This wish might seem pure and selfless — despite Homer’s claim to the contrary — but the worldwide disarmament leads to disaster. With Earth defenseless, it suddenly becomes subject to alien invasion, via a welcome cameo from Kang and Kodos, two of the best characters on “The Simpsons.”
This section of the story parodies “The Twilight Zone” segment, “A Small Talent for War,” — a rare instance of “The Simpsons” lampooning a story from the 1980s revival. That story saw an alien ambassador telling humanity that their “small talent for war” was grounds for their destruction. In an attempt to save themselves, humanity achieves world peace — only to learn the aliens were disappointed humanity’s talent for war was too small and their disarmament has left them vulnerable to the incoming alien war fleet.
3. Clown Without Pity (Living Doll)
Once again, Homer buys an evil item from a mysterious merchant in this “Treehouse of Horror III” segment that parodies “The Twilight Zone” episode, “Living Doll.” The “Simpsons” version of the story opens on Bart’s birthday, as he opens gifts from the rest of the family. Homer suddenly realizes he has forgotten to buy Bart a present and rushes out to the House of Evil — “Your One Stop Evil Shop” — where he finds a talking Krusty the Klown doll. The shopkeeper sparks an iconic and hilarious exchange as he warns Homer the doll is cursed (“Oh, that’s bad”), but it comes with a free “frogurt” (“That’s good!”), which is also cursed, but comes with a choice of topping, but the topping contains potassium benzoate … which is bad.
While Bart loves the Krusty doll, the doll takes a dislike to Homer. The cursed doll tries to kill him, until Marge catches it in the act and calls the manufacturers. A repairman arrives at the Simpsons’ house, looks at a switch on the doll’s back, and discovers it has been flipped from “Good” to “Evil.” He switches it back to stem its murderous tendencies.
On “The Twilight Zone,” “Living Doll” has a similar story unfold — sans a good/evil switch — when a mother buys her daughter a talking doll, infuriating the girl’s cruel stepfather, whom the doll soon attempts to kill. Fun fact: The father in the episode is played by none other than future “Bond” villain, Telly Savalas.
2. Homer³ (Little Girl Lost)
“Treehouse of Horror VI” features one of the most memorable moments from “The Simpsons” when Homer enters the third dimension. Falling through a portal behind a bookcase while trying to hide from Patty and Selma, Homer finds himself in a 3D world, realized through CGI — an innovative animation technique when the episode debuted and one that surprisingly holds up to this day. While Homer is trapped in the third dimension, his family — and other residents of Springfield who show up to help — can still hear him in the house, until he eventually falls through a black hole and into the real world. This results in a rare live-action “Simpsons” segment: The only others being a few throwaway shots, and some creative “Simpsons” couch gags.
In addition to standout visuals, the segments features some fantastic laugh-out-loud moments, characteristic of the earlier “Simpsons” episodes. These include some classic Chief Wiggum lines, such as his nonsensical response to Professor Frink’s explanation of the third dimension, “Enough of your borax, poindexter!” and his exclamation while firing his gun into the portal, “Take that, you lousy dimension!” The segment parodies “Little Girl Lost,” an episode of “The Twilight Zone” in which a mother and father can hear their daughter calling for help, but cannot find her. With help from a physicist friend, they realize she has passed through a portal to another dimension. Of course, this 1960s episode of “The Twilight Zone” lacked the impressive CG animation seen on “The Simpsons.”
1. Hungry Are the Damned (To Serve Man)
The very first parody of “The Twilight Zone” on “The Simpsons” remains the series’ best. “Hungry Are the Damned” is based on the classic “Twilight Zone” episode, “To Serve Man.” The original version of this story, from the third season of “The Twilight Zone,” sees a supposedly benevolent alien race visit Earth and offer to share their advanced technology with them. It is only as the aliens are shepherding a group of humans onto their ship that a book they brought with them, “To Serve Man,” is deciphered and, in a horrifying twist, is revealed to be a cookbook.
“The Simpsons” spectacularly subverts the original story in true comic form. On this early “Treehouse of Horror” segment, the Simpsons are abducted by Kang and Kodos in the aliens’ first appearance. This time, they are joined by a third alien, the chef Serak the Preparer. They encourage the Simpsons to eat heartily until they can bring them to a prosperous new life on the planet Rigel Four. Lisa becomes suspicious and finds Serak’s cookbook — “How to Cook Humans.” This time, though, reveals are piled on top of the reveal. Blowing dust from the cover, the book’s true title is revealed as “How to Cook For Humans,” then “How to Cook Forty Humans” and finally, “How to Cook For Forty Humans.”
The aliens are disgusted the Simpsons thought they would eat them. Their distrustful nature bars the family from paradise, with Lisa taking the blame.
