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I posted this on my animation review blog, but I'm extra proud of this stupid thing for some reason, and it's among my top favorite reviews I've ever done. So I put it here for you to enjoy as well, if you want to, and I hope you enjoy the memories.
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Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THE SIMPSONS, I DO NOT OWN THE FOOTAGE I DO NOT OWN THE SIMPSONS I DO NOT OWN THE FOOTAGE, THIS ARTICLE IS PURELY FOR PERSONAL ENTERTAINMENT AND EDITORIAL AND EDUCATIONAL NOT FOR PROFIT REASONS ONLY AND ALL SIMPSONS IMAGERY DEPICTED AND CHARACTERS MENTIONED ARE COPYRIGHT TO 20TH CENTURY FOX AND MATT GROENING AND I MAKE NO MONEY FROM ANY OF THIS AND OH DEAR GOD I DO NOT ADVOCATE PIRATING SOFTWARE OR STEALING ANY CREATIVE MATERIAL I DON’T EVEN LIKE PIRATES ALL THAT MUCH, THE EYEPATCHES JUST MAKE ME LOOK COOL AND I LOVE FOX NEWS AND I LOVE BUYING EXPENSIVE DVDS AND YOU SHOULD TOO AND I JUST WANNA TALK ABOUT A SILLY CARTOON ON THE INTERNET CASUALLY, PLEASE DON’T PUT ME IN JAIL MISTER MURDOCH I LIKE SLEEPING IN A SOFT WARM BED WAAAAAH....

The top 10 `Most Disturbing Nostalgic moments’ from the Simpsons

Easy question kids: Who here LOVES the Simpsons?....who thinks that it is has some of the best writing and insane imagination and wit ever made? Show of hands! ☺.….Hmm. Okay. Who here still KINDA likes the Simpsons?….Anyone?
I see you trying to hold your hand up there in the back…you can sit down now….Um….seriously guys?...C’mon now they aren’t THAT bad! Let’s see-
Okay, how about this: Who here loves the Simpsons from during their PEAK.
*Sees the entire audience hold up one giant hand on a stick.*
Yeah. That is what I thought too. I am not among the camp that each new episode sucks monkey dick, and that every episode prior to 2003 was a gem: The series was in its infancy incredibly not very funny, in fact possibly less so than by today’s standards. The plots and characters all were very thin, and censors were far higher then in power during the 80s, NOT weaker. Being the very first adult animated prime time series, it had to be handled delicately, because nobody knew what to do with it. Even in the animation department it is very poor, unlike today, which now thanks to technology has vastly improved both the ordinary shots and the amount of experimental visuals they can create. There have been a couple of recent pleasant surprises:…like the Kricfalusi couch opening- [link] the episodes with Alan Moore, and the Neil Gaiman cameos, and the time where Bart went on a cruise ship with his family….and he didn’t want to get off, so he hilariously caused a mass panic and made the passengers all think on land it was the apocalypse, and-…Wait, why did Bart act like this was such a novelty anyway I could’ve sworn he and his family have been on a cruise ship vacation like 100 times already and-.………*slaps face* Yeah, I get it. I really don’t have much beyond that. When a secretly homicidal Neil Gaiman cameo is present, you need to kiss somebody’s feet. But that still doesn’t escape the fact that the Simpsons has been massively dulled overall. Cut the people who make the series some goddamned slack, as it HAS been running for 20 years, and nothing made to run that long and has to repeatedly please so many fans is gonna rock forever. There’s inevitable low points. See Dr. Who, Star Trek, and Star Wars for proof. And really, is it the worst thing on television ever? I’d still rather sit thru a bland Simpsons episode than an episode of Jersey Shore, or American Idol. I’d rather sit thru a 100 of them. On top of trying to always make you laugh, they need to please censors, Fox executives, not offend any minority or fringe groups, and be also pleasing to the brand new fans who may not be up till this point in the loop of cartoon viewership at all. Is the Simpsons not funny because it just isn’t edgy enough for us jaded post 9-11 viewers? Is it not enough like Family Guy and South Park to keep up, is it too soft? Maybe, but I could bring the argument actually that it’s the ATTEMPTING to be too much like Family Guy that caused it huge problems in the first place as well. When I watch the early 90s Simpsons, I still laugh my heart out, because it STILL is just goddamn incredibly funny. In fact it is even funnier today now than it was when I first saw the 90s episodes as a kid. So the common argument, at least for me, that I am merely wearing rose tinted shades of Nostalgia or that it was simply Novelty alone that made it fresh then, when I look at the Simpsons of today does not hold up. There’s something timelessly wonderful about the humor of the middle-era Simpsons that just lasts with us all because it was just literally better written. So at what point and why did the series choose to deprive itself ? There’s probably numerous factors involved like the writers changing, cultural views, and etc. but I’m not here to discuss them. It’s obviously a gradual evolution and not a sudden overnight thing. To debate exactly when things turned sour is moot point as we all have different tastes in humor and storytelling, so it’s pure 100% emotionally subjective bullshit anyway.
What I am here to discuss and definitely know for a fact I HAVE seen decreased to the detriment of the entire series, in my opinion anyway, is that The Simpsons used to be experts at HORROR. Horror was most of the time used for comedy, but The Simpsons has a history of using it purely as well. Usually the moments that creep you out still want to make you chuckle too, but there were plenty of times when the Simpsons just wanted to be SCARY. The political, environmental, and pop culture satire was often harsher in message to swallow, and crueler to the targets it was shaking a head at. The Simpsons of now seems to just apologetically shrug and grin awkwardly at our mistakes while the old Simpsons used to seem to say: “LOOK AT WHAT YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR, YOU IDIOTIC, SELFISH, INSENSITIVE ASSES!!! FIX IT OR DIE OFF AS A SPECIES GODDAMNIT.” Deaths were undeniably far more dramatic, violent and bizarre. Not only were the mocked targets harmed, many innocent people and creatures often suffered for absolutely no reason too. Even small children, for comedy sake. That was never seen before in any series, be it animated or live action. There was more surreal originality in the Halloween specials that did not rely solely upon just pulling any random popular modern franchise out of a hat, and mirroring that simply because it had ‘Vampires’ or ‘Zombie’ in the title…Heck, I can start naming more Halloween episodes that barely have ANYTHING supernatural in them at all now!
The Simpsons comic series is far superior to the actual ‘Treehouse of Horror’ episodes now, because they dare go father into the whimsy and darkness than the show ever dreamed of going in is current state. The Simpsons was my first brush with adult humor, but it was also my first brush with adult drama, true cartoon violence, and the bleak terrifying awareness of death being anywhere, and at any time, possibly able to get you. I learned about Carrie, the Shining, and Soylent Green first via the Simpson’s references before I watched any of the actual movies. And I often find a lot of the creepy parodies a lot spookier on some tiny level than the original material it mocks. I loved these gags and episodes, but there are some moments of the series I found that went TOO far. They scarred my and a lot of other childhoods the most, and a few of them still make an impact on me to this day. And here they are, my personal top 10 Most Disturbing Childhood Moments from The Simpsons!

Forgive me as I haven’t the ability or the desire to download every episode of the Simpsons, and many of these events are not found on Hulu, Youtube, or other sites. I can’t recall the majority of the episode titles either, but I think the fanbase will know about 90% of them from reading these as a lot of them are from popular key episodes that most everybody remembers. If you can recall the episode title or know a spot where there is footage or screenshots of said moments (LEGALLY posted, direct me to a tiny url website and I will punch you thru the floor.) please comment below. Hope you enjoy!

HONORABLE MENTION. Cletus’ first introduction (or mine anyway.)
[link]
I don’t know why exactly Cletus freaked me out as a little kid. He’s hilarious. He’s utterly harmless, except on a social commentary level, and even there he’s harmless because he’s so beyond the stereotype he’s just silly. I love to yell his quotes, especially “HEY MA!!! GET OFF THA DANG ROOF!!!!”
I hated him as a kid though. I think it could be due to the constant unphased half-shut eyes, the dull monotone voice, and the way he resembles very closely to a rat or a weasel or some weird creature (thanks to inbreeding no doubt) physically a lot more than the other cast. You have something kinda seriously Uncanny Valley about him somehow. This was really the only clip of him that disturbed me and it’s now just adorable. It severely bugged me then though, to the point I had subtle nightmares about it. Cletus didn’t frighten me as much as just made me feel very suddenly uncomfortable, and confused, by the way he suddenly so directly took the focus away in an unusual manner. The Simpsons does this stuff all the time now, but then it was rare. It’s difficult to explain, but then at the time, it just felt like “….who is this guy???...I never seen him before. Is this the same world? Is this the same animated series even? What the heck is going on?” Understand that I was probably not even in my full adolescence yet and I led an extremely media-sheltered life, cos I lacked cable and so anything off-key was unsettling to me. There’s just something un-Simpsony about the way this clip felt, and still feels now. It’s hard to put my finger on why, but I guess it has to do with the weird cutaway cartoon intro and recap song, and the high shrieky fiddle music. I still feel a bit of an unfairly negative phobia towards being trapped in the middle of nowhere and encountering very sketchy trailer park rednecks. My biker friend’s real life accounts of cannibal families, serial murderers, inbreeding communities, wild cults, and all sorts of creepy rural legends that have occurred in places in or around his general area, have not helped that.

HONORABLE MENTION #2 /11. (okay okay okay so I miscounted on this list, big deal!!!): The HELL-o Kitty factory, from "The Simpsons Go to Japan".
[link]
Giggle away as one of your most beloved childhood girly franchises is exposed for the factory sweatshop reality that it is and the daily never-ending slaughter of innocent thousands of kittens!!! Huzzah!! 8D Extra points if you’re too little to know the definition of the word ‘sarcasm’ yet!

10. Lisa Drinks Water From the Duffworld Boat Ride
Clip not available, so I’ll describe it: Here’s a really fun memorable episode, called ‘Selma’s Choice’. In a nutshell, the kids accompany aunt Selma to Duffworld, a beer themed Disneyland ripoff that sends everyone into wacky hijinks of doom. While riding an indoor boat ride of the ‘It’s a Small World After All’ variety, Bart dares Lisa to drink the river water. I dunno WHAT they’re insinuating is supposed to be in that water, but whatever it is, it hilariously produces this: [link] She hallucinates various things and her very first reaction is to see her aunt Selma transform into a terrifying monster! When it’s your first Simpsons episode with an actual horror element in it, that is pretty awful! (albeit really awesome at the same time.) Yikes! [link] Nice Ralph Steadman tribute though.
A good number of nightmare fuel moments happen in this episode: Bart’s pulling down George Washington’s pants, only to discover it’s not a costume but a GIANT KILLER ROBOT WITH EVIL RED GLOWING EYES, and the Itchy and Scratchy moments (we’ll get to them later) and Maggie slowly sinking to the bottom of a giant ball pit, where other toddlers have long since sunk to, are among the fun things this episode delivers. If you can find an episode to watch,-*kch*ON A REASONABLY PRICED DVD AT YOUR FRIENDLY LOCAL DVD SHOP OR ON AMAZON DOT COM- *kch* give Selma’s Choice definitely a look.

9. Grim Reaper Sideshow Bob says “I Do.”
No footage available. In a nutshell Sideshow Bob is getting married to either Patti or Selma, and plots to murder her. Bart is in on it, and being the only one aware Bob is evil at this time, hallucinates him as a scary Grim Reaper when he says “I Do…” during his vows, speaking in an extremely ominous voice., and staring vacantly at the audience/Bart when he says it. Nothing beyond that or plot-significant really, except to show us the point of view from a little kid’s head. Still, it’s a very effective creepy image.

8. The Inside-Out Fog (Song And Dance Not found.)
[link]
GAH!!! Even for the Simpsons, this is nasty. It would be nasty on Family Guy and South Park!! (Okay, maybe not as big a deal on South Park.) But still, holy shit! I was NOT prepared for this one!....On top of it all, it takes place right after Bart wakes up from the final arc in this TreeHouse of Horror episode, which was about the school cafeteria staff killing the children and serving them to the faculty, one by one, and them becoming addicted to it. An extremely ominous premise, with a very frighteningly slow and thriller movie-like delivery. When Bart wakes up to reality, his family reassure him that it was all just a dream….and that all you have to really fear is that mysterious gas that turns your body inside out! Random, completely unmentioned before, and immediately after talking about it, this happens. Then, to make it worse, the whole family for no reason whatsoever perform a Broadway-style song and dance stage number together while still inside-out as the end credits roll over them, spurting blood and dropping organs all over the place, even one of them being dragged offstage messily by Santa’s Little Helper. This is HILARIOUS still by today’s standards but golly talk about Mood Swing of the Freaking Century…I moodswing’d so hard from this, it gave me whiplash!

7. Bart’s Clown Bed from ‘Lisa’s First Word’
[link]

In a flashback Bart recalls being given his own room for the first time since Lisa was born. He resents his father for doing this nice act just for him, because of this scary clown bed. I had a few nightmares based around this single moment as a child, and I remember in my teen years seeing t-shirts in Hot Topic getting sold with this meme:
[link] and I didn’t recall the connection until later. I don’t have any huge fear of clowns really, neither gothic serial killer or traditional type. I kinda do get disturbed by the kind who deliberately fall intentionally BETWEEN the two groups of ‘Twisted Metal Black’ and ‘Ringling Bros’ like this one though. Mainly it’s the cinematic angles, the voice, and the lack of eyes that gets me. This thing would terrify me so damn bad in real life. I’m much more freaked out by clowns that say scary things like this, and do creepy acts, than clowns who merely just look creepy. But this Simpson’s bed clown got to everybody, kids loved to talk about it. I have a wealth of childhood memories of toys sticking out of my toy chest and old laundry piles and clothes hanging in my closet becoming hideous evil abominations of Satan when the lights turned off. Here's one of them!: [link] Anybody who has ever been a kid who possessed something they loved or paid no attention to by day but is petrified enough to wet their pants by at night, has total understanding of this.

6. Evil Krueger Groundskeeper Willie of ‘Treehouse of Horror VI’
[link]
I so apologize for the awful quality of this clip, it was the only clip I could find.
This is a Freddy Krueger parody, done horribly well. Groundskeeper Willie becomes incinerated thanks to Homer’s carelessness, and he barges in on a school faculty meeting yelling in agony “HELP MEEEE!!!” The staff are unphased, and demand that they continue their order of business uninterrupted while they discuss idiot school policies. Willie tries to bear it out at first but the flames overcome him and reduce his body to a charred flaming skeleton with blind glowing white eyes! He vows in a much darker raspier voice than normal revenge on all those present by coming for their children where they cannot protect them….”In their DREAMS!!!”….Then he instantly crumbles apart into ashes, and gets swept into a dustpan, and boredly throws himself in the dumpster. Classic old timey Simpsons deflating a sheer horror moment through nonchalant comedy. The rest of the episode is pretty terrifying too, if you’re a kid and/or you’ve been ever scared by the original Krueger movies. But this part definitely takes the cake early. Actually the scariest moment in all the House of Horror episodes for my money.

5. Lisa discovers ‘Slurry’.
No footage available, so have this for context:
[link]
Mr. Burns after having fallen on hard times, turns to Lisa for help. Lisa at first is unsure about how much she can change a bitterly evil, cold, and selfish uber-capitalist like Burns, but she eventually softens her heart and teaches him the way of the ‘Little Person’, and shows him how to be successful and rich by giving back to the community, instead of stealing from it. At first it seems like a wonderful plan, she teaches Burns how to recycle waste, she encourages him to be more fair to his employees, and to love and respect others, and the beautiful diversity of our oceans…He applies all this wisdom in the most effective way possible: …By recycling old soda can wrappers, which Lisa tells him can form a choking net hazard to wildlife and fish, Burns creates one gigantic super-net, similar to fishing trawlers, that catches INSANE amounts of tragic by-catch….Whales, otters, seals, porpoises, turtles, jellyfish, all the innocent creatures that make life on this planet, are caught by the masses indiscriminately, and are ground up violently in the new factory, labeled with Lisa’s Face, into a mixture called ‘Slurry’. Slurry is used for manufacturing cat food, cheap fast food, fertilizer, pain killers, and even dynamite. Somehow that last one works, don’t ask me to explain it. Lisa is obviously horrified, both as an environmentalist, AND as being technically ‘responsible’ for this. Burns she cries out is pure evil, and there truly is no way of changing him. What unsettles me about this episode and this whole moment besides just HOW GOREY and dark it is, up to its conclusion is that THERE IS NO HAPPY ENDING and that we drift off into grim comedic shrugging, after Lisa is discovering that her recycling plant on top of killing whales also causes obscene amounts of pollution, and some form of creepy mass-hypnosis or something upon mankind. It’s one of those episodes that has both negative discontinuity….yet never is revealed to NOT have positive continuity either. And both outcomes would perfectly make sense, given Burns is so evil, and Lisa continues to be so helpless. It’s sad more than scary really, but for me as a child, it terrified the loving shit out of me because 1. I love aquatic animals and 2, I thought this was real. It also feels creepy on a paranoia fuel level, having a big corporation out to get you/you just fund evil no matter WHAT amount of charity that you do , because they’re behind everything…and I felt even better about it when I started to learn that it was not so far off where it came to the giant net of evil thing: [link]

4. The Banksy Intro
[link]
This is the rare exception on here for being the most recent clip on the list, I think it actually aired last year. It traumatically scarred me when I saw it, and I cannot imagine what it would feel like witnessing it as a kid. This is like Hell-O Kitty Factory , and Slurry times eleven. For those of you who have no idea who Banksy is, I suggest you do a Google of him. His work is very thought-provoking on many levels. Banksy is a highly mysterious and invisible wall artist, and does many things of very biting nature like this. He reminds me a lot of early Simpsons, in the way how he has subtle humor to deflate pompous ideas, or destructive consumer ideology. And sometimes, like here, there’s barely any humor at all…it’s just a statement, a forced close-up look at how fucked up you are. A majority of the jokes placed in here were supposedly added by 20th Century Fox, to keep the subject matter from being TOO depressing. Apparently if Banksy’s original storyboards had been completely true to their vision, things would have been, a lot, lot worse. Heaven knows what they are but my curiosity is endless. Fox got a huge amount of fallback from this introduction, in the form of many questions about the way the Simpsons animation and their merchandise is being produced overseas, which means Banksy succeeded, I suppose. I think frankly if it takes a Banksy introduction of this heavy-handedness to finally make the population wake up to the true state of things, we’re really in a lot of trouble. Sure this is probably an exaggeration to some extent (I don’t smell unicorn residue on any of the DVDs I’ve ever sniffed…) but we all know this is too terribly not one either. This is more upsetting/disturbing than truly scary upon repeat views, but the music is always absolutely chillingly unpleasant to me, and it should be on here due to the fact it IS creepy to some extent, and it sure as hell shocked me and terrified me upon watching it for the first time, because the slow dragging out pace makes you wonder what other atrocities are going to bombard you next. Another tiny off-putting clever detail is if you pay attention to the opening, the scenery of the opening Simpsons song has some very tiny but noticeable things amiss: The bird is creepily different, Banksy's signature tag is on the walls, and Bart has gone insane and written all over the classroom in angry letters "I WILL NOT WRITE ALL OVER THE WALLS I WILL NOT WRITE ALL OVER THE WALLS..." much like an angry prisoner in solitary confinement torture. What's unusually the most unsettling part of the whole thing for me, is actually the very first shot where you see the Simpson family couch gag, and it is only a stillframe shot, and the music has changed. There is a pause before we pan out to the bleak reveal, but in that pause, we get an eerie awareness that we have something more than just an animated family program on our hands....THIS IS A PRODUCT. We have all shared in the emotional experiences together with them for over two decades. They feel what we feel in real life, because they often lampoon news topics and universal concerns, and we feel for them as we watch them grow up together like real people. But for the first time, they seem to be almost AWARE of this connection here. And what this static moment seems to drive home, at least for me, is that at the end of the day all this sentimental attachment is a fragile illusion and all we really have is a cold symbol and an icon that is a vacuum until we put in what we want it to say. And the very solemn music and unusually ordinary looking for once couch setup, makes us as viewers for the first time feel very chillingly and awareness of the Fourth Wall....what goes on BEHIND the back of the tv set. It's a bit subtle as to why this so disturbing, but it hits you hard. For some reason, when I first saw this, I honestly expected it was going to reveal on the tv set an acknowledgement of someone or some people who actually died. Even now despite knowing what's already going to occur, this small space of nothingness is eerily terrifying to me.

3. The Angel of Death…OF HIGH PRICES!
No footage available, of the moment I want of it anyway, so have this for context. I apologize SO much to you for the Spanish dialogue, poor video, and shaky camera. I didn’t take it, some youtuber did, and I am just showing it for convenience, please don’t waste your time flaming me, and PLEASE don’t flame this poor kid from Mexico or Spain or wherever, it’s just not worth it: [link]
Anyone who is Spanish, I’d be so delighted if you post a translation in the comment box. Here is a clearer image of the angel itself. [link] This was an INCREDIBLE episode. It asks a lot of very big adult questions, and doesn’t really have much of any straight answers….but I think if this scenario were to take place in reality, a lot of what happens here would be witnessed on a grand scale. This episode has a paleontologists’ site Lisa is visiting dig up a huge fossil of what seems to be a giant angel. People don’t know whether to decide if it is a real angel, or an evolutionary discovery about our origins, or just a big prank being played on the public. HUGE debates on religion versus science wrap the entire globe in chaos, and the worst part about it all, is the angel at the bottom is discovered eventually saying “THE END IS NEAR”. The angel itself is very creepy on its own, but when the climax occurs, boy does the drama and magnitude of the situation strike a chord. The red skies, the eerie voice, and many other brief but frightening things, along with the payoff at the end, are what make this episode so memorable. There were a lot of ‘end of the world’ Simpsons scenarios, but this was the first one, or at least the first one I have witnessed, and I think next to Bart’s comet, this is the one that does it best, with the most spiritual questioning, comedy, and darkness involved. I like how the priests, the scientists, even Lisa herself is at a loss for explanation for what this thing really is or what they should do about it, if Armageddon really is god forbid upon them. I placed the shitty footage in order to demonstrate weakly as I could the majority of the public’s reaction…utter total fear…and WORSHIP. It is their universal confusion and sudden huge fanatical helplessness that makes the situation feel so dramatically tragic and scary. Homer of course, is doing what any logical person would do, in a situation like this, and pimp it out just for the cash. Who wants a Death Angel Glo Stick?? Woohoo!!!

2. Itchy and Scratchy do ‘Fantasia.’
[link] Not the entire clip, but I’ll take what I can get. Really, just ALL Itchy and Scratchy show clips terrified the shit out of me. It was my first brush with violence! EVER! PERIOD! Let alone ANIMATED, dear god, what I would not have done for some brain bleach in those days! This Fantasia parody was from an episode when Bart and his family all go on a trip to Itchy and ScratchyLand, where it’s very similar to the Duffland episode, but all the gags are about violence, not intoxication. Itchy and Scratchy Land I don’t know if I would find hilarious, or terrifying if I visited it today, but by god it was wet-pants-with-fear scary level back then! Killer robots with red glowing eyes, that actively SEEK to murder one another, (see here: [link] axe-chopping doors, creepy puppets bashing the shit out of each other and singing everywhere…it’s like some kind of sick Superjail Episode meets Disneyworld, gone very very right…er, I mean wrong! Itchy and Scratchy make me hoot with laughter as an adult, but I am not entirely sure why. It’s not that I abhor cartoon violence, it’s just most of the time I don’t really find it that funny. And these guys are HILARIOUS! I think it’s partially due to the timing, and the squeaky over-the-top reactions of both characters, and the parodies only get more and more artistic and cleverer beyond the violence. But Fantasia is where I start to draw the line. YOU DON’T mess with Fantasia. Period. Ever. Its like Winnie the Pooh, and Babar, and Mister Rogers, and certain other things, are just too ‘innocent’ or pure hearted in their intent or something, or maybe its just they made up so much of my childhood, that to see them used as satire hurts me in a personally way, though it’s likely these creators aren’t mocking their source material so much as usually paying cheeky homage to it. Still, it really upsets me even today when I see certain things lampooned. This clip doesn’t bug me now at all but come on now, even for Itchy and Scratchy, that’s a pretty gruesome death! What they do not show you is the really ominous part….Remember when Mickey has got the broom cornered, and it is hidden offscreen but you can tell by their shadows and the timing of the music that he is violently in silhouette form hacking Broom-guy to pieces? Well, Itchy and Scratchy have the same joust, only Itchy gets butchered, and Itchy shows everything openly in silhouette form, WHICH DOES NOT MAKE IT BETTER. AT ALL. SERIOUSLY. Then, what you see here, is the many reproducing tiny Itchys going to attack Scratchy, and getting ground up again, and coming back ever tinier, again, and coming back, ever tinier again….until they form an endless loop, and finally turn into inhalable dust. Scratchy inhales their microscopic forms, and they hack away at his body like instant cancer. Dear god, that is TERRIFYING! Imagine if this were REAL? Like a real gas that could kill you by dissolving you in seconds, or an airborne disease that ravaged your body so quickly?? This should make a horror movie! Holy shit, can you imagine how scary this would be, if done via live action WITH HUMAN actors? With CHILDREN? With dogs!? Pathetically hacking up blood which turns to dust, as whimpering they scuttle along the laboratory floor, bloodily scrambling and collapsing into dust….Oh my lord! What could be a worse image than that in order to get rid of this in my mind!?

1. “HOW ABOUT A HUG”

[link]

……………….*sucks thumb, hiding under the blankets* O___O
………………….Why. Just…..why. ……………….WHY is this in here.

This clip comes from “Brother from the Same Planet”, and Bart is angry at Homer for failing to pick him up from soccer practice. While in the car Homer explains to him that he really is very sorry for his carelessness, yet again. And naturally Bart is rightfully pissed off, but he is not saying anything to him. He just bitterly looks away in silence. It’s a basic slice of life episode.
Then Homer in a creepy drone-like voice suddenly says “Now how about a hug…”…………and it gets worse and…………………aghk. For 3 whole seconds, I almost swore off of watching this series as a kid. Forever. Period. I never thought I would return to it ever again, but it was just too funny. I didn’t even tell anyone about it it happened so fast and confused me and terrified me so much….What’s most confusing of all, when you’re a kid, is the whiplash. They cut RIGHT back to the main storyline, and the original light-hearted mood of the episode….Okay, this was a pretty dark episode even for the early days, probably among the darkest: [link] (That Bart skeleton bugged me out pretty badly too!) But THIS was by far, at the time, the darkest part, of the darkest part in the series. In time I thought even this possibly didn’t exist, that maybe this footage was something my innocent child brain cooked up over a much lesser image, because my imagination was too strong, or I was all hopped up on cold medicine that night, or I had simply dreamed it all….my memory was so faded of the episode in its entirety, I figured it really wouldn’t be impossible to come up with something that didn’t make sense. But nope. Turns out that it was real. And just as bad, if not worse, than I remembered. Why they do it like this is anybody’s guess. I suppose maybe it’s to indicate Bart’s reaction, and is probably saying in some really clever way: “Go rot in Hell Homer”. But either way….it just seems….unnecessary. BRILLIANT, but really fucking unnecessary. But this is where the original glory of the humorous Simpsons lies. Surrealism and humor walk hand in hand. The horror present here, as well as having a gag in of itself, isn’t relevant to the plot, and doesn’t really HAVE to be there at all. The script would be unchanged if you eliminate this one joke. But the writers don’t. Why? Just because it’s funny. It shocks you. It just gets the audience’s attention. The newer episodes try so hard to make every waking second a joke that when they do make jokes even of higher caliber, or moments of real human drama and pathos (WHEN ever they bother to do.) they don’t hit you very hard. Keeping the jokes and the drama elements to a minimum, and then when you need one to liven up a dull moment, you pull NO FUCKING STOPS OUT and do something so highly unusual and out of left field, that whether it is smacking you in the gut, or the heart, or tickling your funny bone, or just making you gawk and say: “….what the fuck is THIS shit…” the Simpsons writers know, just like the successful writers on South Park and Family Guy know, that they have definitely captured your attention. They have your attention, and you’re gonna memorize the events now, because it is just too damn weird and unique to not.

Description
I posted this on my animation review blog, but I'm extra proud of this stupid thing for some reason, and it's among my top favorite reviews I've ever done. So I put it here for you to enjoy as well, if you want to, and I hope you enjoy the memories.
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Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THE SIMPSONS, I DO NOT OWN THE FOOTAGE I DO NOT OWN THE SIMPSONS I DO NOT OWN THE FOOTAGE, THIS ARTICLE IS PURELY FOR PERSONAL ENTERTAINMENT AND EDITORIAL AND EDUCATIONAL NOT FOR PROFIT REASONS ONLY AND ALL SIMPSONS IMAGERY DEPICTED AND CHARACTERS MENTIONED ARE COPYRIGHT TO 20TH CENTURY FOX AND MATT GROENING AND I MAKE NO MONEY FROM ANY OF THIS AND OH DEAR GOD I DO NOT ADVOCATE PIRATING SOFTWARE OR STEALING ANY CREATIVE MATERIAL I DON’T EVEN LIKE PIRATES ALL THAT MUCH, THE EYEPATCHES JUST MAKE ME LOOK COOL AND I LOVE FOX NEWS AND I LOVE BUYING EXPENSIVE DVDS AND YOU SHOULD TOO AND I JUST WANNA TALK ABOUT A SILLY CARTOON ON THE INTERNET CASUALLY, PLEASE DON’T PUT ME IN JAIL MISTER MURDOCH I LIKE SLEEPING IN A SOFT WARM BED WAAAAAH....

The top 10 `Most Disturbing Nostalgic moments’ from the Simpsons

Easy question kids: Who here LOVES the Simpsons?....who thinks that it is has some of the best writing and insane imagination and wit ever made? Show of hands! ☺.….Hmm. Okay. Who here still KINDA likes the Simpsons?….Anyone?
I see you trying to hold your hand up there in the back…you can sit down now….Um….seriously guys?...C’mon now they aren’t THAT bad! Let’s see-
Okay, how about this: Who here loves the Simpsons from during their PEAK.
*Sees the entire audience hold up one giant hand on a stick.*
Yeah. That is what I thought too. I am not among the camp that each new episode sucks monkey dick, and that every episode prior to 2003 was a gem: The series was in its infancy incredibly not very funny, in fact possibly less so than by today’s standards. The plots and characters all were very thin, and censors were far higher then in power during the 80s, NOT weaker. Being the very first adult animated prime time series, it had to be handled delicately, because nobody knew what to do with it. Even in the animation department it is very poor, unlike today, which now thanks to technology has vastly improved both the ordinary shots and the amount of experimental visuals they can create. There have been a couple of recent pleasant surprises:…like the Kricfalusi couch opening- [link] the episodes with Alan Moore, and the Neil Gaiman cameos, and the time where Bart went on a cruise ship with his family….and he didn’t want to get off, so he hilariously caused a mass panic and made the passengers all think on land it was the apocalypse, and-…Wait, why did Bart act like this was such a novelty anyway I could’ve sworn he and his family have been on a cruise ship vacation like 100 times already and-.………*slaps face* Yeah, I get it. I really don’t have much beyond that. When a secretly homicidal Neil Gaiman cameo is present, you need to kiss somebody’s feet. But that still doesn’t escape the fact that the Simpsons has been massively dulled overall. Cut the people who make the series some goddamned slack, as it HAS been running for 20 years, and nothing made to run that long and has to repeatedly please so many fans is gonna rock forever. There’s inevitable low points. See Dr. Who, Star Trek, and Star Wars for proof. And really, is it the worst thing on television ever? I’d still rather sit thru a bland Simpsons episode than an episode of Jersey Shore, or American Idol. I’d rather sit thru a 100 of them. On top of trying to always make you laugh, they need to please censors, Fox executives, not offend any minority or fringe groups, and be also pleasing to the brand new fans who may not be up till this point in the loop of cartoon viewership at all. Is the Simpsons not funny because it just isn’t edgy enough for us jaded post 9-11 viewers? Is it not enough like Family Guy and South Park to keep up, is it too soft? Maybe, but I could bring the argument actually that it’s the ATTEMPTING to be too much like Family Guy that caused it huge problems in the first place as well. When I watch the early 90s Simpsons, I still laugh my heart out, because it STILL is just goddamn incredibly funny. In fact it is even funnier today now than it was when I first saw the 90s episodes as a kid. So the common argument, at least for me, that I am merely wearing rose tinted shades of Nostalgia or that it was simply Novelty alone that made it fresh then, when I look at the Simpsons of today does not hold up. There’s something timelessly wonderful about the humor of the middle-era Simpsons that just lasts with us all because it was just literally better written. So at what point and why did the series choose to deprive itself ? There’s probably numerous factors involved like the writers changing, cultural views, and etc. but I’m not here to discuss them. It’s obviously a gradual evolution and not a sudden overnight thing. To debate exactly when things turned sour is moot point as we all have different tastes in humor and storytelling, so it’s pure 100% emotionally subjective bullshit anyway.
What I am here to discuss and definitely know for a fact I HAVE seen decreased to the detriment of the entire series, in my opinion anyway, is that The Simpsons used to be experts at HORROR. Horror was most of the time used for comedy, but The Simpsons has a history of using it purely as well. Usually the moments that creep you out still want to make you chuckle too, but there were plenty of times when the Simpsons just wanted to be SCARY. The political, environmental, and pop culture satire was often harsher in message to swallow, and crueler to the targets it was shaking a head at. The Simpsons of now seems to just apologetically shrug and grin awkwardly at our mistakes while the old Simpsons used to seem to say: “LOOK AT WHAT YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR, YOU IDIOTIC, SELFISH, INSENSITIVE ASSES!!! FIX IT OR DIE OFF AS A SPECIES GODDAMNIT.” Deaths were undeniably far more dramatic, violent and bizarre. Not only were the mocked targets harmed, many innocent people and creatures often suffered for absolutely no reason too. Even small children, for comedy sake. That was never seen before in any series, be it animated or live action. There was more surreal originality in the Halloween specials that did not rely solely upon just pulling any random popular modern franchise out of a hat, and mirroring that simply because it had ‘Vampires’ or ‘Zombie’ in the title…Heck, I can start naming more Halloween episodes that barely have ANYTHING supernatural in them at all now!
The Simpsons comic series is far superior to the actual ‘Treehouse of Horror’ episodes now, because they dare go father into the whimsy and darkness than the show ever dreamed of going in is current state. The Simpsons was my first brush with adult humor, but it was also my first brush with adult drama, true cartoon violence, and the bleak terrifying awareness of death being anywhere, and at any time, possibly able to get you. I learned about Carrie, the Shining, and Soylent Green first via the Simpson’s references before I watched any of the actual movies. And I often find a lot of the creepy parodies a lot spookier on some tiny level than the original material it mocks. I loved these gags and episodes, but there are some moments of the series I found that went TOO far. They scarred my and a lot of other childhoods the most, and a few of them still make an impact on me to this day. And here they are, my personal top 10 Most Disturbing Childhood Moments from The Simpsons!

Forgive me as I haven’t the ability or the desire to download every episode of the Simpsons, and many of these events are not found on Hulu, Youtube, or other sites. I can’t recall the majority of the episode titles either, but I think the fanbase will know about 90% of them from reading these as a lot of them are from popular key episodes that most everybody remembers. If you can recall the episode title or know a spot where there is footage or screenshots of said moments (LEGALLY posted, direct me to a tiny url website and I will punch you thru the floor.) please comment below. Hope you enjoy!

HONORABLE MENTION. Cletus’ first introduction (or mine anyway.)
[link]
I don’t know why exactly Cletus freaked me out as a little kid. He’s hilarious. He’s utterly harmless, except on a social commentary level, and even there he’s harmless because he’s so beyond the stereotype he’s just silly. I love to yell his quotes, especially “HEY MA!!! GET OFF THA DANG ROOF!!!!”
I hated him as a kid though. I think it could be due to the constant unphased half-shut eyes, the dull monotone voice, and the way he resembles very closely to a rat or a weasel or some weird creature (thanks to inbreeding no doubt) physically a lot more than the other cast. You have something kinda seriously Uncanny Valley about him somehow. This was really the only clip of him that disturbed me and it’s now just adorable. It severely bugged me then though, to the point I had subtle nightmares about it. Cletus didn’t frighten me as much as just made me feel very suddenly uncomfortable, and confused, by the way he suddenly so directly took the focus away in an unusual manner. The Simpsons does this stuff all the time now, but then it was rare. It’s difficult to explain, but then at the time, it just felt like “….who is this guy???...I never seen him before. Is this the same world? Is this the same animated series even? What the heck is going on?” Understand that I was probably not even in my full adolescence yet and I led an extremely media-sheltered life, cos I lacked cable and so anything off-key was unsettling to me. There’s just something un-Simpsony about the way this clip felt, and still feels now. It’s hard to put my finger on why, but I guess it has to do with the weird cutaway cartoon intro and recap song, and the high shrieky fiddle music. I still feel a bit of an unfairly negative phobia towards being trapped in the middle of nowhere and encountering very sketchy trailer park rednecks. My biker friend’s real life accounts of cannibal families, serial murderers, inbreeding communities, wild cults, and all sorts of creepy rural legends that have occurred in places in or around his general area, have not helped that.

HONORABLE MENTION #2 /11. (okay okay okay so I miscounted on this list, big deal!!!): The HELL-o Kitty factory, from "The Simpsons Go to Japan".
[link]
Giggle away as one of your most beloved childhood girly franchises is exposed for the factory sweatshop reality that it is and the daily never-ending slaughter of innocent thousands of kittens!!! Huzzah!! 8D Extra points if you’re too little to know the definition of the word ‘sarcasm’ yet!

10. Lisa Drinks Water From the Duffworld Boat Ride
Clip not available, so I’ll describe it: Here’s a really fun memorable episode, called ‘Selma’s Choice’. In a nutshell, the kids accompany aunt Selma to Duffworld, a beer themed Disneyland ripoff that sends everyone into wacky hijinks of doom. While riding an indoor boat ride of the ‘It’s a Small World After All’ variety, Bart dares Lisa to drink the river water. I dunno WHAT they’re insinuating is supposed to be in that water, but whatever it is, it hilariously produces this: [link] She hallucinates various things and her very first reaction is to see her aunt Selma transform into a terrifying monster! When it’s your first Simpsons episode with an actual horror element in it, that is pretty awful! (albeit really awesome at the same time.) Yikes! [link] Nice Ralph Steadman tribute though.
A good number of nightmare fuel moments happen in this episode: Bart’s pulling down George Washington’s pants, only to discover it’s not a costume but a GIANT KILLER ROBOT WITH EVIL RED GLOWING EYES, and the Itchy and Scratchy moments (we’ll get to them later) and Maggie slowly sinking to the bottom of a giant ball pit, where other toddlers have long since sunk to, are among the fun things this episode delivers. If you can find an episode to watch,-*kch*ON A REASONABLY PRICED DVD AT YOUR FRIENDLY LOCAL DVD SHOP OR ON AMAZON DOT COM- *kch* give Selma’s Choice definitely a look.

9. Grim Reaper Sideshow Bob says “I Do.”
No footage available. In a nutshell Sideshow Bob is getting married to either Patti or Selma, and plots to murder her. Bart is in on it, and being the only one aware Bob is evil at this time, hallucinates him as a scary Grim Reaper when he says “I Do…” during his vows, speaking in an extremely ominous voice., and staring vacantly at the audience/Bart when he says it. Nothing beyond that or plot-significant really, except to show us the point of view from a little kid’s head. Still, it’s a very effective creepy image.

8. The Inside-Out Fog (Song And Dance Not found.)
[link]
GAH!!! Even for the Simpsons, this is nasty. It would be nasty on Family Guy and South Park!! (Okay, maybe not as big a deal on South Park.) But still, holy shit! I was NOT prepared for this one!....On top of it all, it takes place right after Bart wakes up from the final arc in this TreeHouse of Horror episode, which was about the school cafeteria staff killing the children and serving them to the faculty, one by one, and them becoming addicted to it. An extremely ominous premise, with a very frighteningly slow and thriller movie-like delivery. When Bart wakes up to reality, his family reassure him that it was all just a dream….and that all you have to really fear is that mysterious gas that turns your body inside out! Random, completely unmentioned before, and immediately after talking about it, this happens. Then, to make it worse, the whole family for no reason whatsoever perform a Broadway-style song and dance stage number together while still inside-out as the end credits roll over them, spurting blood and dropping organs all over the place, even one of them being dragged offstage messily by Santa’s Little Helper. This is HILARIOUS still by today’s standards but golly talk about Mood Swing of the Freaking Century…I moodswing’d so hard from this, it gave me whiplash!

7. Bart’s Clown Bed from ‘Lisa’s First Word’
[link]

In a flashback Bart recalls being given his own room for the first time since Lisa was born. He resents his father for doing this nice act just for him, because of this scary clown bed. I had a few nightmares based around this single moment as a child, and I remember in my teen years seeing t-shirts in Hot Topic getting sold with this meme:
[link] and I didn’t recall the connection until later. I don’t have any huge fear of clowns really, neither gothic serial killer or traditional type. I kinda do get disturbed by the kind who deliberately fall intentionally BETWEEN the two groups of ‘Twisted Metal Black’ and ‘Ringling Bros’ like this one though. Mainly it’s the cinematic angles, the voice, and the lack of eyes that gets me. This thing would terrify me so damn bad in real life. I’m much more freaked out by clowns that say scary things like this, and do creepy acts, than clowns who merely just look creepy. But this Simpson’s bed clown got to everybody, kids loved to talk about it. I have a wealth of childhood memories of toys sticking out of my toy chest and old laundry piles and clothes hanging in my closet becoming hideous evil abominations of Satan when the lights turned off. Here's one of them!: [link] Anybody who has ever been a kid who possessed something they loved or paid no attention to by day but is petrified enough to wet their pants by at night, has total understanding of this.

6. Evil Krueger Groundskeeper Willie of ‘Treehouse of Horror VI’
[link]
I so apologize for the awful quality of this clip, it was the only clip I could find.
This is a Freddy Krueger parody, done horribly well. Groundskeeper Willie becomes incinerated thanks to Homer’s carelessness, and he barges in on a school faculty meeting yelling in agony “HELP MEEEE!!!” The staff are unphased, and demand that they continue their order of business uninterrupted while they discuss idiot school policies. Willie tries to bear it out at first but the flames overcome him and reduce his body to a charred flaming skeleton with blind glowing white eyes! He vows in a much darker raspier voice than normal revenge on all those present by coming for their children where they cannot protect them….”In their DREAMS!!!”….Then he instantly crumbles apart into ashes, and gets swept into a dustpan, and boredly throws himself in the dumpster. Classic old timey Simpsons deflating a sheer horror moment through nonchalant comedy. The rest of the episode is pretty terrifying too, if you’re a kid and/or you’ve been ever scared by the original Krueger movies. But this part definitely takes the cake early. Actually the scariest moment in all the House of Horror episodes for my money.

5. Lisa discovers ‘Slurry’.
No footage available, so have this for context:
[link]
Mr. Burns after having fallen on hard times, turns to Lisa for help. Lisa at first is unsure about how much she can change a bitterly evil, cold, and selfish uber-capitalist like Burns, but she eventually softens her heart and teaches him the way of the ‘Little Person’, and shows him how to be successful and rich by giving back to the community, instead of stealing from it. At first it seems like a wonderful plan, she teaches Burns how to recycle waste, she encourages him to be more fair to his employees, and to love and respect others, and the beautiful diversity of our oceans…He applies all this wisdom in the most effective way possible: …By recycling old soda can wrappers, which Lisa tells him can form a choking net hazard to wildlife and fish, Burns creates one gigantic super-net, similar to fishing trawlers, that catches INSANE amounts of tragic by-catch….Whales, otters, seals, porpoises, turtles, jellyfish, all the innocent creatures that make life on this planet, are caught by the masses indiscriminately, and are ground up violently in the new factory, labeled with Lisa’s Face, into a mixture called ‘Slurry’. Slurry is used for manufacturing cat food, cheap fast food, fertilizer, pain killers, and even dynamite. Somehow that last one works, don’t ask me to explain it. Lisa is obviously horrified, both as an environmentalist, AND as being technically ‘responsible’ for this. Burns she cries out is pure evil, and there truly is no way of changing him. What unsettles me about this episode and this whole moment besides just HOW GOREY and dark it is, up to its conclusion is that THERE IS NO HAPPY ENDING and that we drift off into grim comedic shrugging, after Lisa is discovering that her recycling plant on top of killing whales also causes obscene amounts of pollution, and some form of creepy mass-hypnosis or something upon mankind. It’s one of those episodes that has both negative discontinuity….yet never is revealed to NOT have positive continuity either. And both outcomes would perfectly make sense, given Burns is so evil, and Lisa continues to be so helpless. It’s sad more than scary really, but for me as a child, it terrified the loving shit out of me because 1. I love aquatic animals and 2, I thought this was real. It also feels creepy on a paranoia fuel level, having a big corporation out to get you/you just fund evil no matter WHAT amount of charity that you do , because they’re behind everything…and I felt even better about it when I started to learn that it was not so far off where it came to the giant net of evil thing: [link]

4. The Banksy Intro
[link]
This is the rare exception on here for being the most recent clip on the list, I think it actually aired last year. It traumatically scarred me when I saw it, and I cannot imagine what it would feel like witnessing it as a kid. This is like Hell-O Kitty Factory , and Slurry times eleven. For those of you who have no idea who Banksy is, I suggest you do a Google of him. His work is very thought-provoking on many levels. Banksy is a highly mysterious and invisible wall artist, and does many things of very biting nature like this. He reminds me a lot of early Simpsons, in the way how he has subtle humor to deflate pompous ideas, or destructive consumer ideology. And sometimes, like here, there’s barely any humor at all…it’s just a statement, a forced close-up look at how fucked up you are. A majority of the jokes placed in here were supposedly added by 20th Century Fox, to keep the subject matter from being TOO depressing. Apparently if Banksy’s original storyboards had been completely true to their vision, things would have been, a lot, lot worse. Heaven knows what they are but my curiosity is endless. Fox got a huge amount of fallback from this introduction, in the form of many questions about the way the Simpsons animation and their merchandise is being produced overseas, which means Banksy succeeded, I suppose. I think frankly if it takes a Banksy introduction of this heavy-handedness to finally make the population wake up to the true state of things, we’re really in a lot of trouble. Sure this is probably an exaggeration to some extent (I don’t smell unicorn residue on any of the DVDs I’ve ever sniffed…) but we all know this is too terribly not one either. This is more upsetting/disturbing than truly scary upon repeat views, but the music is always absolutely chillingly unpleasant to me, and it should be on here due to the fact it IS creepy to some extent, and it sure as hell shocked me and terrified me upon watching it for the first time, because the slow dragging out pace makes you wonder what other atrocities are going to bombard you next. Another tiny off-putting clever detail is if you pay attention to the opening, the scenery of the opening Simpsons song has some very tiny but noticeable things amiss: The bird is creepily different, Banksy's signature tag is on the walls, and Bart has gone insane and written all over the classroom in angry letters "I WILL NOT WRITE ALL OVER THE WALLS I WILL NOT WRITE ALL OVER THE WALLS..." much like an angry prisoner in solitary confinement torture. What's unusually the most unsettling part of the whole thing for me, is actually the very first shot where you see the Simpson family couch gag, and it is only a stillframe shot, and the music has changed. There is a pause before we pan out to the bleak reveal, but in that pause, we get an eerie awareness that we have something more than just an animated family program on our hands....THIS IS A PRODUCT. We have all shared in the emotional experiences together with them for over two decades. They feel what we feel in real life, because they often lampoon news topics and universal concerns, and we feel for them as we watch them grow up together like real people. But for the first time, they seem to be almost AWARE of this connection here. And what this static moment seems to drive home, at least for me, is that at the end of the day all this sentimental attachment is a fragile illusion and all we really have is a cold symbol and an icon that is a vacuum until we put in what we want it to say. And the very solemn music and unusually ordinary looking for once couch setup, makes us as viewers for the first time feel very chillingly and awareness of the Fourth Wall....what goes on BEHIND the back of the tv set. It's a bit subtle as to why this so disturbing, but it hits you hard. For some reason, when I first saw this, I honestly expected it was going to reveal on the tv set an acknowledgement of someone or some people who actually died. Even now despite knowing what's already going to occur, this small space of nothingness is eerily terrifying to me.

3. The Angel of Death…OF HIGH PRICES!
No footage available, of the moment I want of it anyway, so have this for context. I apologize SO much to you for the Spanish dialogue, poor video, and shaky camera. I didn’t take it, some youtuber did, and I am just showing it for convenience, please don’t waste your time flaming me, and PLEASE don’t flame this poor kid from Mexico or Spain or wherever, it’s just not worth it: [link]
Anyone who is Spanish, I’d be so delighted if you post a translation in the comment box. Here is a clearer image of the angel itself. [link] This was an INCREDIBLE episode. It asks a lot of very big adult questions, and doesn’t really have much of any straight answers….but I think if this scenario were to take place in reality, a lot of what happens here would be witnessed on a grand scale. This episode has a paleontologists’ site Lisa is visiting dig up a huge fossil of what seems to be a giant angel. People don’t know whether to decide if it is a real angel, or an evolutionary discovery about our origins, or just a big prank being played on the public. HUGE debates on religion versus science wrap the entire globe in chaos, and the worst part about it all, is the angel at the bottom is discovered eventually saying “THE END IS NEAR”. The angel itself is very creepy on its own, but when the climax occurs, boy does the drama and magnitude of the situation strike a chord. The red skies, the eerie voice, and many other brief but frightening things, along with the payoff at the end, are what make this episode so memorable. There were a lot of ‘end of the world’ Simpsons scenarios, but this was the first one, or at least the first one I have witnessed, and I think next to Bart’s comet, this is the one that does it best, with the most spiritual questioning, comedy, and darkness involved. I like how the priests, the scientists, even Lisa herself is at a loss for explanation for what this thing really is or what they should do about it, if Armageddon really is god forbid upon them. I placed the shitty footage in order to demonstrate weakly as I could the majority of the public’s reaction…utter total fear…and WORSHIP. It is their universal confusion and sudden huge fanatical helplessness that makes the situation feel so dramatically tragic and scary. Homer of course, is doing what any logical person would do, in a situation like this, and pimp it out just for the cash. Who wants a Death Angel Glo Stick?? Woohoo!!!

2. Itchy and Scratchy do ‘Fantasia.’
[link] Not the entire clip, but I’ll take what I can get. Really, just ALL Itchy and Scratchy show clips terrified the shit out of me. It was my first brush with violence! EVER! PERIOD! Let alone ANIMATED, dear god, what I would not have done for some brain bleach in those days! This Fantasia parody was from an episode when Bart and his family all go on a trip to Itchy and ScratchyLand, where it’s very similar to the Duffland episode, but all the gags are about violence, not intoxication. Itchy and Scratchy Land I don’t know if I would find hilarious, or terrifying if I visited it today, but by god it was wet-pants-with-fear scary level back then! Killer robots with red glowing eyes, that actively SEEK to murder one another, (see here: [link] axe-chopping doors, creepy puppets bashing the shit out of each other and singing everywhere…it’s like some kind of sick Superjail Episode meets Disneyworld, gone very very right…er, I mean wrong! Itchy and Scratchy make me hoot with laughter as an adult, but I am not entirely sure why. It’s not that I abhor cartoon violence, it’s just most of the time I don’t really find it that funny. And these guys are HILARIOUS! I think it’s partially due to the timing, and the squeaky over-the-top reactions of both characters, and the parodies only get more and more artistic and cleverer beyond the violence. But Fantasia is where I start to draw the line. YOU DON’T mess with Fantasia. Period. Ever. Its like Winnie the Pooh, and Babar, and Mister Rogers, and certain other things, are just too ‘innocent’ or pure hearted in their intent or something, or maybe its just they made up so much of my childhood, that to see them used as satire hurts me in a personally way, though it’s likely these creators aren’t mocking their source material so much as usually paying cheeky homage to it. Still, it really upsets me even today when I see certain things lampooned. This clip doesn’t bug me now at all but come on now, even for Itchy and Scratchy, that’s a pretty gruesome death! What they do not show you is the really ominous part….Remember when Mickey has got the broom cornered, and it is hidden offscreen but you can tell by their shadows and the timing of the music that he is violently in silhouette form hacking Broom-guy to pieces? Well, Itchy and Scratchy have the same joust, only Itchy gets butchered, and Itchy shows everything openly in silhouette form, WHICH DOES NOT MAKE IT BETTER. AT ALL. SERIOUSLY. Then, what you see here, is the many reproducing tiny Itchys going to attack Scratchy, and getting ground up again, and coming back ever tinier, again, and coming back, ever tinier again….until they form an endless loop, and finally turn into inhalable dust. Scratchy inhales their microscopic forms, and they hack away at his body like instant cancer. Dear god, that is TERRIFYING! Imagine if this were REAL? Like a real gas that could kill you by dissolving you in seconds, or an airborne disease that ravaged your body so quickly?? This should make a horror movie! Holy shit, can you imagine how scary this would be, if done via live action WITH HUMAN actors? With CHILDREN? With dogs!? Pathetically hacking up blood which turns to dust, as whimpering they scuttle along the laboratory floor, bloodily scrambling and collapsing into dust….Oh my lord! What could be a worse image than that in order to get rid of this in my mind!?

1. “HOW ABOUT A HUG”

[link]

……………….*sucks thumb, hiding under the blankets* O___O
………………….Why. Just…..why. ……………….WHY is this in here.

This clip comes from “Brother from the Same Planet”, and Bart is angry at Homer for failing to pick him up from soccer practice. While in the car Homer explains to him that he really is very sorry for his carelessness, yet again. And naturally Bart is rightfully pissed off, but he is not saying anything to him. He just bitterly looks away in silence. It’s a basic slice of life episode.
Then Homer in a creepy drone-like voice suddenly says “Now how about a hug…”…………and it gets worse and…………………aghk. For 3 whole seconds, I almost swore off of watching this series as a kid. Forever. Period. I never thought I would return to it ever again, but it was just too funny. I didn’t even tell anyone about it it happened so fast and confused me and terrified me so much….What’s most confusing of all, when you’re a kid, is the whiplash. They cut RIGHT back to the main storyline, and the original light-hearted mood of the episode….Okay, this was a pretty dark episode even for the early days, probably among the darkest: [link] (That Bart skeleton bugged me out pretty badly too!) But THIS was by far, at the time, the darkest part, of the darkest part in the series. In time I thought even this possibly didn’t exist, that maybe this footage was something my innocent child brain cooked up over a much lesser image, because my imagination was too strong, or I was all hopped up on cold medicine that night, or I had simply dreamed it all….my memory was so faded of the episode in its entirety, I figured it really wouldn’t be impossible to come up with something that didn’t make sense. But nope. Turns out that it was real. And just as bad, if not worse, than I remembered. Why they do it like this is anybody’s guess. I suppose maybe it’s to indicate Bart’s reaction, and is probably saying in some really clever way: “Go rot in Hell Homer”. But either way….it just seems….unnecessary. BRILLIANT, but really fucking unnecessary. But this is where the original glory of the humorous Simpsons lies. Surrealism and humor walk hand in hand. The horror present here, as well as having a gag in of itself, isn’t relevant to the plot, and doesn’t really HAVE to be there at all. The script would be unchanged if you eliminate this one joke. But the writers don’t. Why? Just because it’s funny. It shocks you. It just gets the audience’s attention. The newer episodes try so hard to make every waking second a joke that when they do make jokes even of higher caliber, or moments of real human drama and pathos (WHEN ever they bother to do.) they don’t hit you very hard. Keeping the jokes and the drama elements to a minimum, and then when you need one to liven up a dull moment, you pull NO FUCKING STOPS OUT and do something so highly unusual and out of left field, that whether it is smacking you in the gut, or the heart, or tickling your funny bone, or just making you gawk and say: “….what the fuck is THIS shit…” the Simpsons writers know, just like the successful writers on South Park and Family Guy know, that they have definitely captured your attention. They have your attention, and you’re gonna memorize the events now, because it is just too damn weird and unique to not.