The Biggest Fan of Stanley Kubrick Parodies on ‘The Simpsons’ Was Stanley Kubrick Himself
All October long, Cracked is catching up with some of the greatest writers in Simpsons history to discuss the most beloved segments from the “Treehouse of Horror” series. From the cursed monkey’s paw to Krusto the Clown, we’re digging into the making of some real fan-favorites.
When it comes to The Simpsons, longtime showrunner Al Jean has seen just about everything. Which means that when he’s picking show favorites, the competition is fierce. Maybe never more so than among “Treehouse of Horror” episodes, as he was half of the creative team behind the second one (with his stalwart writing partner Mike Reiss), and he’s played a role in pretty much every installment since.
When I ask him and Reiss for a favorite, though, the answer comes pretty easy: Season 26’s “Treehouse of Horror XXV.”
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Per usual, it contained three segments, all written by Stephanie Gillis. The first was “School Is Hell,” where Bart attends school in hell and becomes a stellar student. The second was “A Clockwork Yellow,” a parody of Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, narrated by Moe the Bartender. And finally, there was the strange, meta parody of The Others, in which the Simpson family is haunted by the Tracey Ullman incarnation of themselves.
Below, they explain why it’s their favorite “Treehouse of Horror” episode — and how it came to be…
Where did “School Is Hell” originate from?
Jean: That was Stephanie’s idea, à la Buffy the Vampire Slayer on the mouth of Hell. The segment had all these great designs of these hellish characters. There’s a great shot when the flaming hand comes out of the desk and it pulls Bart down.
Reiss: The animators get to really strut their stuff in the Halloween episodes. They do stuff we’re not allowed to do or we don’t get a chance to do in other episodes, so they really shine.
How about “A Clockwork Yellow”?
Jean: The Kubrick parody was Stephanie’s idea too. We had done different Kubrick parodies over the years, but this was a chance to do so much more. One cool thing about this episode was, after it was done, I’d found out that Kubrick had been a fan of The Simpsons before he died (in 1999). Apparently, he would get VHS tapes of Seinfeld and The Simpsons in the 1990s. I heard he loved the joke in “Duffless” where it’s like A Clockwork Orange, where Bart reaches for the cupcakes in the same way Alex reaches for the woman’s breasts in the movie.
Reiss: We always find this stuff out after the person is dead. If we could have had Kubrick on the show, that would have been great. We heard the same thing about Alec Guinness when he died — he used to watch The Simpsons in his trailer in between shooting.
Why was Moe chosen as the lead for “A Clockwork Yellow”?
Jean: We wanted to do it in that Nadsat language. I think (co-showrunner) Matt Selman suggested Moe because Hank Azaria is great, and Moe has a great voice for the narration, being like Alex. One of the great things about the book and the movie is the way Alex talks, which seemed good for Moe.
Where did the parody of The Others originate?
Jean: That was my idea, which was based on the observation that the Simpson family has changed their voices so much since the early days. With Homer, as people have observed, Dan Castellaneta was modeling it on Walter Matthau. Online you see The Simpsons 1990 versus The Simpsons 2020, so we thought we should put them together. We based it on the Nicole Kidman movie The Others where there’s a ghost family living in the house.
Was it tough for Dan to get that Matthau voice back?
Jean: No. Not in the least. People don’t realize that Bart’s voice had a similar transformation, and Nancy Cartwright got it right back too. You can’t imagine how talented this cast is. It’s like a special effect.
Was it a challenge to recapture the old animation style?
Jean: We have all those old model sheets, so we referred to those. That was less of a problem than a lot of things.
Reiss: We’re also fortunate because of the show’s consistency. David Silverman did the shorts, and he’s still here now. All the same voices too.
The end of this segment features the Simpsons in tons of different animation styles like South Park and Lego and a bunch of others. Did you have a favorite?
Jean: It was fun to have the Minions. That whole ending was really incredible, and it was part of the reason we submitted the episode for an Emmy. It ended up being nominated but not winning. It did win an Annie Award, though.
