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XXX (Season 31, Episode 4, Aired October 20th, 2019)
Alright, we’re at the home stretch. Just two more after this, one on Disney Plus and one on Hulu. And appropriately enough, this is the 666th episode of the show (glad they remembered to do this). This opening is a parody of the 1976 horror film The Omen, with Maggie as Damien Thorn. They kinda did this already last episode with the Exorcist parody, but this still has some decent jokes to it. Like, the jab at Disney’s acquisition of Fox with the Mark of the Beast being the Mickey Mouse head or Rod and Tod becoming hipsters. I like the opening XXX are the stakes driven through Homer, Marge, and Ned at the end. Also hedging their bets with the joke about the episode being the 667th, if Fox changes the schedule.
“Danger Things” is a parody of the Netflix show Stranger Things (get it? Because Danger rhymes with Stranger! That’s the joke, for some reason.), featuring 80’s-ified versions of the characters. Which is weird, given The Simpsons started in the 80’s (the first sketches on the Tracy Ullman Show came out in April 19th, 1987 and the first episode debuted on December 17th, 1989). It’s fundamentally weird that a show that started in the 80’s is now doing a parody of an 80’s homage show, and even though the characters have remained the same, they’re made into 80’s versions of themselves. Anyway, Milhouse appears to be the Will counterpart. The parody of the show is decently done, a lot of nods and subversions that work if you’ve seen the series. The design of the Upside-Down in…
