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VII (Season 8, Episode 1, Aired October 27, 1996)
I… don’t really know what the first segment, “The Thing and I” is supposed to be parodying. I think I’ve alluded to this, but the segments during the “Golden Age” of the Simpsons tended to come in two varieties: EC horror stories and Twilight Zone/Outer Limits parodies, with the occasional movie parody or out there segment like The Raven. This seems to fall into the “EC horror story”, with the “evil, conjoined twin”, which seems to have a long history:
Anyway, it’s a good segment. Good gags, I liked the twist ending that Bart was the evil twin, and how that revelation would logically play out. It’s not exceptional, but it is good enough to keep your interest. I also just realized: Hugo (Bart’s evil twin) has a similar fate as Quasimodo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, written by… Victor Hugo. Maybe that’s what it’s parodying.
“The Genesis Tub” uses one of my favorite tropes: the little civilization. This is specifically a parody of the Twilight Zone episode “The Little People”, written by Rod Serling himself, but I’ve liked this trope whenever I’ve seen it. The George RR Martin story “The Sandkings” and its adaptation in the 90’s Outer Limits remake (come to think of it, this segment might be a…
