History WesternAnimation / TreehouseOfHorror

-->'''Homer:''' Hey! ''*digs in*'' Not bad. Nice, hot mustard. Good bread. The turkey's a little dry. ''*In realization*'' The turkey's a little dry?! Oh, foul, accursed thing! What demon from the depths of hell created thee?!

-->'''Homer:''' "I wish for a turkey sandwich, on rye bread, with lettuce and mustard, and, '''and''' I don't want any zombie turkeys, I don't want to turn into a turkey myself, and I don't want any other weird surprises. You got it?"

-->'''Homer:''' "Hey!" ''*digs in*'' "Not bad. Nice, hot mustard. Good bread. The turkey's a little dry." ''*In realization*'' "The turkey's a little dry! Oh, foul, accursed thing! What demon from the depths of hell created thee!?"

* ActorAllusion: The "Treehouse of Horror II" segment "Bart's Nightmare" parodies the episode "It's a Good Life" from ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'', with Bart cast in the role the bratty, powerful child Anthony had in the original story. Creator/NancyCartwright previously appeared in the "It's a Good Life" segment from ''Film/TwilightZoneTheMovie'', playing a sister of Anthony who ends up [[HilariousInHindsight getting trapped in a cartoon.]]

* ProphecyTwist: Ned thinks in ''The Ned Zone'' that he must avoid his scary vision about Homer, instead [[spoiler: he's forced to shoot Homer to stop him causing a nuclear meltdown-which then happens anyway]]. Also see, ForWantOfANail.

** The first TOH had a different director for each segment, and lacked the scary names for the cast and crew which would become standard.

* HorrorDoesntSettleForSimpleTuesday: Mostly averted. Outside of the wraparounds, which are ''all'' set on Halloween, most of the stories could theoretically take place on any random day of the year. There are a few exceptions, including "I've Grown a Costume on Your Face", "Heck House", "It's the Grand Pumpkin, Milhouse", "The Diving Bell and the Butterball", and "Oh, the Places You'll D'oh"[[note]]Halloween[[/note]]; "Citizen Kang"[[note]]The week leading up to America's Election Day, which ''coincidentally'' includes Halloween[[/note]]; "Easy Bake Coven"[[note]]Which, InUniverse, retroactively ''created'' Halloween[[/note]]; "Life's a Glitch, Then You Die"[[note]]New Year's Day[[/note]]; and "Untitled Robot Parody"[[note]][[TwistedChristmas Christmas]][[/note]].

An annual ''Treehouse of Horror'' comic book was also published by Creator/BongoComics during their existence, and is ''considerably'' DarkerAndEdgier.

* DemonicPossession: In the comic story "The Exor-sister", Lisa is possessed by Music/{{Madonna}}...even though Madonna is still alive.

** Burns of course parodies the [[Film/BramStokersDracula '92 version of him]] in ''Bart Simpson's Dracula''. Drac also shows up at the beginning of Treehouse of Horror XX (dressed up as Comicbook/IronMan at one point) with the wolfman, Frankenstein's monster and the mummy.

* ParodyAssistance:
** One for the comics: one issue tells the story of Homer becoming a terrible blob creature made out of Squishee drink, in a very obvious Swamp Thing homage (""Squish Thing''). So who did they get to write and draw said story? Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson, the duo who created Swamp Thing to begin with!
** "Treehouse of Horror XXXIII" has the {{animesque}} segment "Death Tome" spoofing the ''Manga/DeathNote'' anime that is being animated by the same studio responsible for the original anime.

* PlotTriggeringBook: In the 14th issue of the comics, named "Murder, He Wrote", Bart finds a notebook similar to the one in ''Manga/DeathNote'' which the comic parodies as it operates by the same rules.

The specials are anthologies of [[ThreeShorts three short stories]] with a {{horror}} theme (there are exceptions, though, simply for the sake of NegativeContinuity), all PlayedForLaughs. The first episode had a FramingDevice of the Simpson children telling scary stories in their [[ArtifactTitle treehouse]], hence the name. The next three had different framing stories (respectively, Homer, Bart, and Lisa having nightmares after eating too much candy, telling scary stories at a Halloween party, and a parody of ''Series/NightGallery''), but from the fifth onward, they were cut because of time constraints and the fact that the writers couldn't think of any good framing devices for the stories.

* LongTitle: One of the segments in the ''Treehouse of Horror #16'' comic book is, "I Screwed Up Big-Time and Unleashed the Glavin on an Unsuspecting World! ...I Totally Saved the Earth's Butt and Made the Glavin Cry Like a Little Wuss!"

** The first few specials opened with Marge on a stage warning parents about the content that was about to follow (the first one was a sincere attempt to head off inevitable complaints from MoralGuardians).

In 2001, Fox Interactive, Software Creations, and [=THQ=] Inc. released ''VideoGame/TheSimpsonsNightOfTheLivingTreehouseOfHorror'' for the UsefulNotes/GameBoyColor, which saw the Simpsons going through levels based off of the classic segments.

->''"Hello, everyone. You know, Halloween is a very strange holiday. Personally, I don’t understand it. Kids worshiping ghosts, pretending to be devils. Things on TV that are ''completely'' inappropriate for young viewers. Things like the following half hour! Nothing seems to bother my kids, but tonight's show, which I totally wash my hands of, is really scary. So, if you have sensitive children, maybe you should tuck them into bed early tonight instead of writing us angry letters tomorrow. Thanks for your attention."''

* WholePlotReference: Often Hitchock references, fairy-tales and classic ''[[Series/TheTwilightZone1959 Twilight Zone]]'' episodes, also see ''Film/TwentyEightDaysLater''... There should be a whole list of [[ShoutOut Shout-Outs]] here...

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* TheArtifact: The ThreeShorts format came because of the FramingDevice within the episode, and would feature each segment being written and directed by a different team. After the first few episodes, they abandoned a framing device altogether and the segments would be written by the same team, functionally making it like a regular episode but continuing the ThreeShorts format out of tradition.

* YourWorstNightmare: In a "Treehouse of Horror", Bart and Lisa, in a parody of ''Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet'', are being terrorized by Groundskeeper Willie in their dreams.

-->AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH...!
-->''*(insert Gracie Films jingle played by organ here)*''

An annual ''Treehouse of Horror'' comic book is also published by Creator/BongoComics, and is ''considerably'' DarkerAndEdgier.

* AlienInvasion: Some scenarios with Kang and Kodos involve one, although just how competent they are at it [[DependingOnTheWriter varies.]]

# [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS31E8ThanksgivingOfHorror Thanksgiving of Horror]], a horror-themed ThanksgivingEpisode done in the style of the "Treehouse" specials, featuring "A-Gobble-Lypto", "The First Thursday After Tomorrow", and "The Last Thanksgiving".

Not to be confused with ''[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS31E8ThanksgivingOfHorror Thanksgiving of Horror]]'', a ThanksgivingEpisode formatted like a ''Treehouse Of Horror'' episode, or ''[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS27E4HalloweenOfHorror Halloween of Horror]]'', the only canonical HalloweenEpisode of ''The Simpsons''.

# [[/Recap/TheSimpsonsS31E8ThanksgivingOfHorror Thanksgiving of Horror]], a horror-themed ThanksgivingEpisode done in the style of the "Treehouse" specials, featuring "A-Gobble-Lypto", "The First Thursday After Tomorrow", and "The Last Thanksgiving".