History NightmareFuel / TreehouseOfHorror

The annual ''Treehouse of Horror'' HalloweenSpecial of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', while mostly PlayedForLaughs, still has had its fair share of [[NightmareFuel disturbing images, horrifying scenarios]] and {{Downer Ending}}s over the years.

*** The fallout that occurs when his parents find him and rush him to Dr. Hibbert's is disturbingly realistic. When the doctor informs them of what's become of Bart, Homer and Marge rush to his side and beg for him to speak to them, resulting in Bart's corpse saying a NonSequitur. They then break down sobbing inconsolably as it sinks in that he's gone. The sight is jarring beyond words, and feels like an official version of ''Fanfic/DeadBart''.

*** The fallout that occurs when his parents find him and rush him to Dr. Hibbert's is disturbingly realistic. When the doctor informs them of what's become of Bart, Homer and Marge rush to his side and beg for him to speak to them, resulting in Bart's corpse saying a NonSequitur. They then break down sobbing inconsolably as it sinks in that he's gone. The sight is jarring beyond words, and feels more at home in a Simpsons-based Main/Creepypasta.

** "Toy Gory" starts off fairly tame, but leaves us on one of the most messed up endings since the single-digits of TOH, all without showing a drop of blood or gore. Bart's toys successfully get revenge on him by [[KilledOffscreen killing him offscreen]] and converting his lifeless husk into an imitation of a talking doll by ripping out his bones and organs and replacing them with various toys. It doesn’t help that unlike other segments which involve one of the Simpsons dying, the condition Bart is left in is played entirely straight (with the exception of Homer [[ExtremeOmnivore eating Bart’s substitute brain, which is made of pop rocks and silly putty]], before continuing to cry). He doesn't get resurrected and no one comically underreacts to the situation like in "Wanted: Dead, Then Alive", there's no scenes focusing on Bart in the afterlife, he is just ''dead'' and his broken family is wailing over his loss. Then the segment just ''ends.''
*** The epilogue chillingly implies that after taking Bart to Hibbert's office and finding out he's gone for good, the Simpson family just kept his disemboweled corpse sitting around the house, doing things like [[MummiesAtTheDinnerTable putting it to bed and setting it at the dinner table]] instead of burying it. The fact that we [[NothingIsScarier get no glimpses of any of the family during this]] makes it worse as well, as if they moved out of the house due to trauma and just left Bart there.

*** Milhouse appears in the sketch, only to invalidate Bart's reasoning as to why he treated the toys so badly by saying that Bart treats him badly too, despite knowing he has feelings. How does he prove that he's better than Bart? By standing there as Bart is kicked to the ground and then just vanishing as the "plastic surgery" begins. What if he just went to try and get help? Nope. An image from the epilogue shows him with absolutely no regrets, [[SkewedPriorities happily hugging Puppy Goo Goo]], who had fled him earlier. This means he's either unaware of his friend's demise or indifferent to it. ''Yeesh.'' Makes you wonder what kind of person he really is in this continuity.

* The "Treehouse of Horror XXVI" segment "Wanted: Dead, Then Alive" has several moments that are genuinely disturbing. First, Sideshow Bob finally kills Bart. And it's not an over the top, comically ridiculous death, but fairly realistic. Bart gets [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice harpooned through the heart, and since that doesn't immediately do the trick, Bob RETRACTS the harpoon and]] [[AndShowItToYou RIPS HIS HEART OUT]]. He then tears out Bart's large intestine and uses it to tie his corpse to himself like a harness. It's also then revealed that Bob has kept Bart's corpse as it starts to decompose, eventually stuffing him in a compartment in the wall. To make it worse, Bob revives Bart and then kills him again [[DeathMontage in various other ways]]--including [[FedToTheBeast mauling him by a lion]] and [[DropTheHammer bludgeoning him with a sledgehammer]] while he's still conscious! There's another scene where Bob has left [[LudicrousGibs a dismembered Bart on a table in the basement, and this is seen by Lisa]]. She reacts very casually to it, so it's sort of nullified, but it's still unpleasant.

** "Toy Gory" starts off fairly tame, but leaves us on one of the most messed up endings in the franchise, all without showing a drop of blood or gore. Bart's toys successfully get revenge on him by [[KilledOffscreen killing him offscreen]] and converting his lifeless corpse into an imitation of a talking doll. It doesn’t help that unlike other segments which involve one of the Simpsons dying, the condition Bart is left in is played entirely straight (with the exception of Homer [[ExtremeOmnivore eating Bart’s substitute brain, which is made of pop rocks and silly putty]], before continuing to cry). He doesn't get resurrected and no one comically underreacts to the situation like in "Wanted: Dead, Then Alive", there's no scenes focusing on Bart in the afterlife, he is just ''dead'' and his broken family is wailing over his loss. Then the segment just ''ends.''

*** Milhouse appears in the sketch, only to invalidate Bart's reasoning as to why he treated the toys so badly by saying that Bart treats him badly too, despite knowing he has feelings. How does he prove that he's better than Bart? By standing there as Bart is kicked to the ground and then just vanishing as the "plastic surgery" begins. What if he just went to try and get help? Nope. An image from the epilogue shows him [[SkewedPriorities happily hugging Puppy Goo Goo]], who had fled him earlier. This means he's either unaware of his friend's demise or indifferent to it. ''Yeesh.'' Makes you wonder what kind of person he really is in this continuity.

** "[=Ei8ht=]" takes place in an AlternateContinuity in which Sideshow Bob successfully murdered Bart in "Cape Feare". The segment opens with the scene of Bob singing "For He Is An Englishman", [[PointOfDivergence but instead of finishing the song, Bob realizes he's been tricked]] and hacks Bart to death with his cutlass while Lisa watches helplessly. It's hard to watch the original episode, one of the wackiest in the history of the show, the same way again, with this segment showing how dangerously close Bob was to winning.

** "[=Ei8ght=]" takes place in an AlternateContinuity in which Sideshow Bob successfully murdered Bart in "Cape Feare". The segment opens with the scene of Bob singing "For He Is An Englishman", [[PointOfDivergence but instead of finishing the song, Bob realizes he's been tricked]] and hacks Bart to death with his cutlass while Lisa watches helplessly. It's hard to watch the original episode, one of the wackiest in the history of the show, the same way again, with this segment showing how dangerously close Bob was to winning.

* ''Treehouse of Horror'':

* ''Treehouse of Horror II'': when Homer is turned into a robot right after Mr. Burns slices open Homer's head with a pizza cutter: "Dammit Smithers, this isn't rocket science! It's brain surgery!". And then Burns puts Homer's brain on his head, while quipping: "Look, Smithers, I'm [[NightmareRetardant Davy Crockett!"]]. The ending of the short has Homer waking up with Burns's head on his shoulder was worse, [[MoodWhiplash complete with a joke teaser for "next week's episode"]].

* ''Treehouse of Horror III'': the ZombieApocalypse Halloween segment "Dial 'Z' for Zombies" was scary by itself, but the ending makes it worse even though the family has destroyed the zombie plague. When they sit nicely in the chair and they watch TV. Marge said that they have to be happy that they didn't change into mindless zombies, but Bart interrupts them for watching TV: a guy falls on screen, and a laugh track plays only for Homer to moan, "Man. Fall down. Funny".

** ''Clown Without Pity'': The doll episode where the CreepyDoll role is played by Krusty [[MonsterClown the Clown]]. The episode's apex is arguably the line following Homer's remark about a doll saying "IllKillYou" supposedly being [[GenreBlindness "cute"]]: "I said I'm going to kill you! You, Homer Simpson!".

* ''Treehouse of Horror IV'': "Terror from 5 at 1/2 Feet" was a homage to ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'''s own "Nightmare from 20,000 Feet", ending with Skinner putting Bart in a mental hospital due to him "[[DisproportionateRetribution misbehaving on the bus]]" despite Bart [[CassandraTruth trying to warn them all about a gremlin he saw through the bus' windows.]] As a final insult to poor Bart and the psychological damage he went through, the gremlin appears in the back window of the ambulance he's in, [[http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lbj2z6yuqa1qdoghio1_500.png while holding Ned's decapitated head]] which is saying "Hidely ho, Bart!" in a garbled voice. And it wasn't a clean decapitation, as Ned's severed spine was clearly hanging out of his ragged neck. Can't blame Bart for screaming; while most Treehouse of Horror stories end on a comedic note, this could easily have been the ending of an actual horror movie.

* ''Treehouse of Horror V'':

** The main plot of "Nightmare Cafeteria" involved [[ImAHumanitarian the teachers of Springfield Elementary eating all of the students]], and Marge telling them to defend themselves [[AdultsAreUseless (saying 'don't eat us' is up to you!)]] when they told her.

* ''Treehouse of Horror VI'': The ''Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet'' parody, when Willie's tongue snakes out of his mouth and strangles Martin Prince. After Martin dies, we hear a familiar, out-of-place haw-haw from Nelson, and Lunch Lady Doris accidentally takes Martin's corpse into the kindergarten part of the school. Martin doesn't exactly leave a handsome corpse either: his bulging eyes and gagging grimace are permanently affixed onto his face.

* ''Treehouse of Horror VII'': "The Thing and I". Due to a discovery of the "evil gene" at Bart and his Siamese twin's birth, Dr. Hibbert suggests to take the newly-separated baby who has it and lock them up in the attic. Ten years later, the kids decide to investigate this and it ends up with the other twin, Hugo, trying to "re-sew" himself to Bart. Luckily, [[BigDamnHeroes the family and Hibbert arrive and stop this before it happens]]. But then, to make that moment of saving moot, it is revealed that [[TwistEnding Bart is the one with the "evil gene"]], and he is forced to switch with his twin's position. It's a good thing that this is only a cartoon, because if this segment had occurred in real life, Homer, Marge, and Dr. Hibbert would end up going to prison for child cruelty, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie would go to child services, and Hugo would probably get taken by scientists in the hopes of "rehabilitating" him into normal society. Does anyone even remember the "Genie" case from the 1970s?

* ''Treehouse of Horror VIII'': In the short "Fly vs. Fly" (WholePlotReference to ''[[Film/TheFly1958 The Fly]]''), when Bart was messing around with Homer's [[TeleportersAndTransporters teleporting machine]] and Santa's Little Helper and Snowball get in the way, that may have been another good example of crossing the line between parody and horror. On the parody side, Bart inadvertently made the ''Simpsons'' version of WesternAnimation/CatDog. On the horror side, he also made a creature that, for the sake of identification, will be called "[=ButtButt=]".

* ''Treehouse of Horror IX'': Bart and Lisa are transported into an Itchy and Scratchy cartoon via a supercharged remote, especially when a bunch of piranha eat most of Bart's flesh.

* ''Treehouse of Horror X'': The third segment, "Life's a Glitch, Then You Die" had the [[MillenniumBug [=Y2K=]]] end the world and two rocket ships, the good people go to Mars, the bad to the Sun. Bart and Homer get stuck on the bad one, and at the end of the short Bart and Homer escape the rocket ship to die faster, only to suffer ExplosiveDecompression offscreen.

* ''Treehouse of Horror XI'': Goldilocks' fate in the fairy-tale Halloween clip has her [[BearsAreBadNews get mauled by the three bears]]. She struggles to get out of the house (was locked in by Bart and Lisa, [[{{Irony}} who fled just a moment before]]). The scene then shoots from the outside of the house and all we can hear are her screams until she dies, and we [[NothingIsScarier only see]] [[GoryDiscretionShot blood coming outside]].

* ''Treehouse of Horror XII'': "The House Of Whacks", when the Simpsons installed the house with Ultrahouse with Creator/PierceBrosnan's voice, who did all the housework for them until things [[MurderTheHypotenuse took a turn for the worse when it fell in love with Marge.]] Homer ended up in a whirling garbage disposal (splattering the kitchen with blood as a result), complete with Homer's terrified scream. Additionally, one of Ultrahouse's other voices was Dennis Miller, infamous for causing murder suicides.

* ''Treehouse of Horror XIII'': The scene in the "Send in the Clones" segment where Homer nods at his clone after he appears to gesture that he's going to return Ned Flanders' power tools, only for the Homer clone to then hold up Ned's decapitated head. Brief, but very unnerving.

* ''Treehouse of Horror XIV'': In the "Reaper Madness" segment, [[SubbingForSanta Homer becomes]] TheGrimReaper and must kill Marge, but instead kills Patty.

* ''Treehouse of Horror XV'': the end of the segment "In The Belly Of The Boss", which has a shrunken Homer regrowing while still in Mr. Burns. Then, the Simpsons' family is shown eating a fancy dinner with Homer's face covered in Burns' flesh (with Homer complaining he needs a hole for eating "and a couple of other holes too.")
* ''Treehouse of Horror XVI'': [[BecomingTheCostume the segment where everyone turned into what they were dressed as for Halloween]], including Homer becoming a headless ghoul and poor Disco Stu, who had the unfortunate idea of dressing up as 70s-era Creator/SteveMartin, who was known for having a phony arrow through his head. And there were Patty and Selma [[TwoMenOneDress dressed up as a horse]], with the curse [[BodyHorror fusing the horse parts onto their bodies, with the horse head being a seperate entity]]. If that isn't scary, imagine what ''would've happened'' [[MergingMistake if they actually sticked their costume halves together]].
* ''Treehouse of Horror XVII'': the end of "Married to the Blob". The poor people of Springfield gratefully rush through the door of what appears to be a new homeless shelter, and straight into the jaws of a gigantic, ravenous Homer. This gross-out moment becomes chilling social commentary considering that Mayor Quimby organized the whole thing in order to allow the newly mutated Homer to "benefit society" by cleaning up the streets.

* ''Treehouse of Horror XVIII'': Ned turns into the devil and teaches the children a lesson using his [[ScareDare "heck house" ride]]. Some citizens of Springfield are seen suffering fates appropriately suitable for the sin they're committing: Homer bursting inside-out and turning into spaghetti for gluttony ("...More bread, please."), Groundskeeper Willy being attacked by his own tractor for wrath, Dr. Hibbert getting sandwiched by cars (because he put on a bumper sticker saying he's a proud parent) for pride ("Oh, why did I take pride in my children's accomplishments?"), Homer ''again'' [[LampshadeHanging ("I thought I got killed by that magic spaghetti...")]] getting ground through his hammock into huge square chunks of meat for sloth, and Moe taking a stripper's money and then getting kicked in the crotch for lust, greed, and envy (the "envy" part is Moe saying "BOY, do I envy the crotchless...!" after getting kicked there).

* ''Treehouse of Horror XIX'': Krusty being fed through a woodchipper in "How to Get Ahead in Dead-vertising". His constant agonized screaming, the fact he attempts to pull himself out even when he's over halfway in, ending with a pile of an organs in the end... and somehow his entire head. That death wasn't even funny, it was downright horrifying. It was {{Bowdlerized}} out of the UK version, and for good reason[[note]]Though it does derail the plot of Homer being convinced he can kill celebrities and use their likeness in commercials as, in this version, he just pushes Krusty onto a trampoline, and nothing else is edited afterwards.[[/note]]).

* ''Treehouse of Horror XX'': In "Don't Have a Cow, Mankind" (a "Film/TwentyEightDaysLater"-meets-"Film/ChildrenOfMen" parody), Krusty's burgers had mad-cow disease inserted into them and turned the rest of Springfield into ravenous zombies/munchers, after eating the commercialized product. Made even creepier by the [[NothingIsScarier complete lack of background music.]]

*** This also happens at the end of ''Treehouse of Horror XXII''.
* At the beginning of ''Treehouse of Horror XXI'', Professor Frink points a DVR remote at himself and presses fast forward, causing him to age rapidly and turn to dust.

* At the beginning of ''Treehouse of Horror XXII'', Homer gets his ''right'' arm stuck under a boulder, and then he can't reach his secret candy-stash. The only way to get himself off the boulder is to gorily [[NauseaFuel chew off his own arm]]. He ''also'' ends up chewing off his right leg and [[ITasteDelicious his left arm]]. It ''doesn't'' help that this Halloween episode aired ''the day before Halloween'' (in one of the rare times in several years that a Halloween episode didn't have to wait until after baseball season [around November] to air). This idea would later be repeated but to the nth degree in Treehouse of Horror XXVIII's segment "Mmm... Homer".

* ''Treehouse of Horror XXIV'' has ''Freaks, No Geeks'' where Mr. Burns runs a freak show. In addition to the eerie sepia tone of the episode, the ending has all the other freaks slowly advancing upon Strongman Homer (the only non-freak character in the circus) and chanting [[MadnessMantra "One of us!"]] with the intention of doing [[OhCrap bodily harm to him]] or [[BodyHorror turning him into one of them]]. Even if he did deserve the punishment and it's ultimately PlayedForLaughs, it's still a disturbing scene, especially for the last segment of the episode. Also, before the freaks attack Homer, the lightning flashes indicate the dead body of Mr. Burns in the background, having been hanged from a tree.
* The ''Treehouse of Horror XXV'' segment "The Others," which had the present-day Simpsons being haunted by their Tracey Ullman-era selves before dying and joining them as ghosts, had a particularly unnerving moment in which Groundskeeper Willie drags off the bodies of the (modern) Simpson kids [[ImAHumanitarian to make]] [[EatsBabies stew with]]. When Lisa asks "Wait, who killed Maggie?" Willie has a shifty-eyed look on his face.
* The ''Treehouse of Horror XXVI'' segment "Wanted: Dead, Then Alive" has several moments that are genuinely disturbing. First, Sideshow Bob finally kills Bart. And it's not an over the top, comically ridiculous death, but fairly realistic. Bart gets [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice harpooned through the heart, and since that doesn't immediately do the trick, Bob RETRACTS the harpoon and]] [[AndShowItToYou RIPS HIS HEART OUT]]. He then tears out Bart's large intestine and uses it to tie his corpse to himself like a harness. It's also then revealed that Bob has kept Bart's corpse as it starts to decompose, eventually stuffing him in a compartment in the wall. To make it worse, Bob revives Bart and then kills him again [[DeathMontage in various other ways]]--including [[FedToTheBeast mauling him by a lion]] and [[DropTheHammer bludgeoning him with a sledgehammer]] while he's still conscious! There's another scene where Bob has left [[LudicrousGibs a dismembered Bart on a table in the basement, and this is seen by Lisa]]. She reacts very casually to it, so it's sort of nullified, but it's still unpleasant.
* ''Treehouse of Horror XXVII'' has plenty of Nightmare Fuel for cat owners and animal lovers. In "BFF R.I.P", Snowball II [[HeroicSacrifice takes a knife]] for Marge (complete with sound effects), then falls into the garbage just in time for Homer to take it out - and nobody remarks upon it or shows any emotion - while "[=MoeFinger=]" features a shot of multiple mutilated bodies of dead cats (presumably having been used as weapons by the Crazy Cat Lady) after the final battle.

* "Treehouse of Horror XXVIII'' has a lot of nightmare fuel like in "Exor-Sis" Maggie is terrifying as a possessed baby; the red eyes, the ominous deep voice, the fire coming out of her mouth, the pazuzu (Matt Groening) statue, etc.

* "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS32E4TreehouseOfHorrorXXXI Toy Gory]]" starts off fairly tame, but leaves us on one of the most messed up endings in the franchise, all without showing a drop of blood or gore. Bart's toys successfully get revenge on him by [[KilledOffscreen killing him offscreen]] and converting his lifeless corpse into an imitation of a talking doll. It doesn’t help that unlike other segments which involve one of the Simpsons dying, the condition Bart is left in is played entirely straight (with the exception of Homer [[ExtremeOmnivore eating Bart’s substitute brain, which is made of pop rocks and silly putty]], before continuing to cry). He doesn't get resurrected and no one comically underreacts to the situation like in "Wanted: Dead, Then Alive", there's no scenes focusing on Bart in the afterlife, he is just ''dead'' and his broken family is wailing over his loss. Then the segment just ''ends.''
** The epilogue chillingly implies that after taking Bart to Hibbert's office and finding out he's gone for good, the Simpson family just kept his disemboweled corpse sitting around the house, doing things like [[MummiesAtTheDinnerTable putting it to bed and setting it at the dinner table]] instead of burying it. The fact that we [[NothingIsScarier get no glimpses of any of the family during this]] makes it worse as well, as if they moved out of the house due to trauma and just left Bart there.
** The [[SoundtrackDissonance creepily happy song]] that closes the sketch, with lyrics about how Bart lost his human parts and mind juxtaposed with a jovial instrumental. It all plays over a montage of images where Bart's toys "play" with him by tying him up on the floor, shooting rubber darts at him, [[AssShove preparing to insert a hot poker up his anus]] and having Dr. Malibu Stacy carve "Who's sorry now?" into his chest with a scalpel.
** Milhouse appears in the sketch, only to invalidate Bart's reasoning as to why he treated the toys so badly by saying that Bart treats him badly too, despite knowing he has feelings. How does he prove that he's better than Bart? By standing there as Bart is kicked to the ground and then just vanishing as the "plastic surgery" begins. What if he just went to try and get help? Nope. An image from the epilogue shows him [[SkewedPriorities happily hugging Puppy Goo Goo]], who had fled him earlier. This means he's either unaware of his friend's demise or indifferent to it. ''Yeesh.'' Makes you wonder what kind of person he really is in this continuity.

*** "Simpsons World" has a rather disturbing ending. After the Simpsons replicants manage to escape the titular theme park, they seem to find a town to start a new life in. Only, the town is quickly revealed to be a similar theme park modeled after ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'', with several other parks modeled after other shows with little else between them. There ultimately is no escape for the family, especially given the Simpsons robots look different from normal humans in this reality (they more closely resemble people from ''Futurama'' or ''Disenchantment'').
** And any possible ambiguity the ending has is dashed by [[FreezeFrameBonus the book Kang and Kodos are reading from]]: "They would not know that the world had long ago ceased being normal and that non-theme park lives existed only in the daydreams of machines."

** "Simpsons World" has a rather disturbing ending. After the Simpsons replicants manage to escape the titular theme park, they seem to find a town to start a new life in. Only, the town is quickly revealed to be a similar theme park modeled after ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'', with several other parks modeled after other shows with little else between them. There ultimately is no escape for the family, especially given the Simpsons robots look different from normal humans in this reality (they more closely resemble people from ''Futurama'' or ''Disenchantment'').

* "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS32E4TreehouseOfHorrorXXXI Toy Gory]]" starts off fairly tame, but leaves us on one of the most messed up endings in the franchise, all without a drop of blood or gore. Bart's toys successfully get revenge on him by killing him and converting his lifeless corpse into an imitation of a talking doll. It doesn’t help that unlike other segments which involve one of the Simpsons dying, the condition Bart is left in is played entirely straight (with the exception of Homer [[ExtremeOmnivore eating Bart’s substitute brain, which is made of pop rocks and silly putty]], before continuing to cry). He doesn't get resurrected and no one comically underreacts to the situation like in "Wanted: Dead, Then Alive", there's no scenes focusing on Bart in the afterlife, he is just ''dead'' and his broken family is wailing over his loss. Then the segment just ''ends.''

* "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS32E4TreehouseOfHorrorXXXI Toy Gory]]" starts off fairly tame, but gets absolutely ''chilling'' at the end. Bart's toys successfully get revenge on him by killing him and converting his lifeless corpse into an imitation of a talking doll. It doesn’t help that unlike other segments which involve one of the Simpsons dying, the condition Bart is left in is played entirely straight (with the exception of Homer [[RefugeInAudacity eating Bart’s substitute brain]] before continuing to cry, which is made of pop rocks and silly putty). He doesn't get resurrected, no one [[BreakingTheFourthWall calmly points out he'll be revived for the next segment]] prompting an EverybodyLaughsEnding, Bart is just ''dead'' and his broken family is wailing over his loss. Then the segment just ''ends.''

** Bart's organs may be gone, but if his soul is still in his body, he'd be aware of ''[[AndIMustScream everything happening to him]]''.

** Than what immediately follows. Moe's death isn't much better,

* ''Treehouse of Horror XXIV'' has ''Freaks, No Geeks'' where Mr. Burns runs a freak show. In addition to the eerie sepia tone of the episode, the ending has all the other freaks slowly advancing upon Strongman Homer (the only non-freak character in the circus) and chanting [[MadnessMantra "One of us!"]] with the intention of doing [[OhCrap bodily harm to him]] or [[BodyHorror turning him into one of them]]. Even if he did deserve the punishment and it's ultimately PlayedForLaughs, it's still a disturbing scene, especially for the last segment of the episode. Also, before the freaks attack Homer, the lightning flashes indicate the dead body of Mr. Burns in the background, having been hanged from a tree.]]

!! The Comic

* In the story "Willie: Portrait of a Groundskeeper", Homer kidnaps and cooks Groundskeeper Willie's mail-order emu ([[ItMakesSenseInContext don't ask]]) and causes Willie to go mad with grief, locking Homer in a basement and [[ImAHumanitarian eating Marge's corpse]] while Homer is ForcedToWatch, though things quickly go off the rails when Bart [[BigDamnHeroes saves the day]] by breaking Willie's back with his rampant (and [[PrehensileHair prehensile]]) chest hair (again, ''[[ItMakesSenseInContext don't ask]]'')
* "The Slipsons" from from ''Treehouse of Horror #15'' [[SurrealHorror seems to take inspiration from actual nightmares.]] It starts with Homer and Marge sitting in the living room (which is depicted as a WhiteVoidRoom), and Groundskeeper Willie peering at them through the window. Willie then breaks in through the window, stating that the Simpson's house is filthy. He then discovers ''broomsticks with Bart and Lisa's heads at the end.'' He prods at Homer's side with the Bart-staff (his head inverted and greatly enlarged for this panel alone, seemingly for RuleOfCreepy), causing his ''entire upper half'' to come off, revealing a [[BigCreepyCrawlies massive cockroach]] underneath.'' Roach!Homer runs off, Marge lamenting his exit. Willie then does the same thing to Marge with the Lisa-staff, revealing a tomahawk missile, which promptly counts down and explodes. It then cuts to Ned Flanders, who then takes off his glasses ''and his eyes'' and announces that's all there is.

** From the “The Shinning” segment, the 'No TV and No Beer make Homer something something...' bit- some of the faces Homer pulls are quite spooky, and his eerie calm tone as he tells Marge 'Give me the bat!' is a little chilling. Then you factor in how many people are killed by their spouses, and this sequence can hit quite close to home.

** In "Time And Punishment, Flanders is seen as a [[Literature/NineteenEightyFour Big Brother]]-esque supreme overlord as a result of Homer messing with his toaster (he accidentally turns the toaster into a time machine and changes the future by stepping on prehistoric bugs), specifically [[http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Obrh-gTsU7w/Tpsro3X8f5I/AAAAAAAAADA/hN4iby66EgY/s1600/Moe_lobotomy.jpg the part where a lobotomized Moe shows Homer "you get to keep the little piece they cut out",]] or even worse, where a lobotomized Marge says "It's bliiiiiiiiiissssss..." shortly afterwards. More generally, the nicest guy in Springfield playing the Big Brother role is [[BewareTheNiceOnes unsettlingly ironic]]. Heck, he even has his own version of the Two-Minutes Hate: