“The Simpsons” is a reasonably tame present, no less than by grownup animated sitcom requirements. However each Halloween, it ramps issues up a notch. All of the sudden, the characters are having their pores and skin turned inside out, or they’re being killed and eaten by their cannibalistic lecturers. The “Treehouse of Horror” specials are the present’s annual probability to actually stick it to that meddling FCC. Certain, among the imagery could also be traumatizing to the kids watching, however what else is Halloween for?
For sequence creator Matt Groening, there was a second within the eighth “Treehouse of Horror” particular (in season 9) that truly scared him. Groening admitted within the DVD behind-the-scenes commentary that the episode’s opening scene, by which a Fox censor was repeatedly stabbed to loss of life, left him “truly frightened.”
Mike Scully, who was the “Simpsons” showrunner on the time, spoke in that very same DVD commentary about how troublesome it was to get the scene permitted. The precise Fox censors had been fantastic with the fictional Fox censor being killed; they simply thought the violence was slightly too visceral. Scully defined how the censors thought the scene was “slightly bloody, or violent,” and the way, “There was quite a lot of speak in regards to the measurement of the sword. I feel there (had been) quite a lot of arguments about if it was a small knife. What’s funnier [versus] what’s extra horrifying. And [also] in regards to the sounds and the quantity of blood.”
The episode’s director Mark Kirkland elaborated additional, saying, “I bear in mind, initially, it was a dagger. However the censors did protest that it was too grotesque.” The dagger was then lengthened into extra of a sword, with the logic apparently being that the longer the weapon, the much less violent the scene got here throughout. I can type of perceive the logic behind this one: killing with a knife requires the attacker to stand up shut and private, whereas a sword offers them distance.
The entire story feels quaint, given how violent ‘The Simpsons’ has now gotten
When Disney purchased “The Simpsons” in 2019, quite a lot of followers anxious the present would get too protected and PG, but it surely seems the alternative has occurred. Relating to Halloween no less than, “The Simpson” has gotten a lot extra comfy with gore. Take, as an example, the latest “Se7en”-inspired “Treehouse of Horror” phase, the place we get to see a number of beloved “Simpsons” characters get murdered in completely brutal, R-rated style. I had no concept Disney nonetheless had this type of factor in them.
However even earlier than Disney purchased the rights to the present, “The Simpsons” has grown more and more violent. For me, essentially the most disturbing second continues to be its Goldilocks homage in season 12, by which a personality is trapped in a home and mauled to loss of life by the three bears. We do not truly see her loss of life — simply quite a lot of screaming and blood leaking beneath the door — however that solely makes it extra horrifying.
I suppose it helps that by this level “Household Man” was additionally airing on Fox and sure taking over a lot of the censors’ time and power. With its rival present making jokes about their child character consuming horse sperm, it is laborious for “The Simpsons” to really shock anybody anymore. A Fox censor getting stabbed to loss of life could have made Groening uncomfortable again in 1997, however contemplating we’re eight years previous that “Treehouse” sketch the place Homer eats himself alive, the scene now feels remarkably tame.
