This Is Halloween

[vovat]

Halloween was one of my favorite holidays, if not my overall favorite, when I was a kid. It wasn't that I liked being scared (really, I was a pretty paranoid kid), but that I enjoyed the creativity involved. As an adult, I'm constantly trying to recapture my favorite parts of childhood, and I get the feeling that bethje is the same way. Unfortunately, there really isn't as much adults can do for Halloween, unless you get invited to parties, which we don't. I guess one reason people have kids is so they can participate, but that involves too much work to get the brief rewards. Still, we did do some things that were kind of fun. On Friday evening, we went on two haunted hayrides, one at a fire station and the other at a mulch store. For some reason, the latter had a lot more attendees. It also had a maze, which was more confusing than I would have thought. I mean, there was only one way to go, but what with the weird flashing lights and such, I sometimes found myself walking into walls. On the actual Halloween, we went to Beth's aunt's house, and walked around the neighborhood a bit. Beth went for themed costumes, dressing as Little Red Riding Hood with Dewey as the Big Bad Wolf in grandmother's clothing.

I put together a last-minute addition to the theme by getting a red plaid jacket and axe (although it was the wrong sort of axe) to be the woodsman, but I don't think anybody really noticed. Dewey's nightcap kept slipping off, too. Also, I'd forgotten to request the day off from work, so I worked four hours that evening. We used to go out to eat on Halloween night, but that wasn't possible this year.

We watched the new Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episode tonight, and I must say I was not particularly impressed. The first segment was mostly just Homer farting for a few minutes. Come on, Family Guy has fart jokes in pretty much every episode, but even they never drag them out THAT long. The second, with Homer getting Ned Flanders to kill people, wasn't particularly original and seemed like the germ of an idea that wasn't really developed. Some good jokes, but nothing to write home about. (Writing a blog post about it is another story.) The third might have been the best, and it was a parody of a movie I haven't seen, so I probably missed a fair number of the jokes. The bulldozersaurus was pretty cute, though, and we finally got to see Kang and Kodos at home.

Comments

[revme.livejournal.com]

There is nothing sadder than a shitty Treehouse of Horror. And man, was that a shitty Treehouse of Horror. The Flanders/Dexter parody was the best, but was really kinda... confused. Like they weren't really sure what to do with it or how to go with it.

I was sort of all "Avatar. Really?" on the third one. I never saw the movie either, but I feel like I have from the sheer amount of spoofs and whatnot there've been in the last three years. I don't know -- so many kinda cliche jokes in that one, too, like the pregnant women needing hilarium and whatnot. I liked Chalmers, though, but that was about it.

The less said about the stupid fart joke one, the better.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I wonder if the Flanders one would have been better if they hadn't gone for the obvious out of the Voice of God having been Homer all along. If they'd actually explored why Ned might turn to being a serial killer, that could have been more interesting. Then again, they DO only have a few minutes to tell the stories. If they had to do the Avatar one, I'm not sure why it had to be in a Halloween episode. It's not like they don't do plenty of other non-canonical three-story episodes these days.

[revme.livejournal.com]

Yeah -- I was quite into it until it turned out that Homer was behind this weirdly complicated plan that required him to be everywhere to know what was going on. I was hoping it actually WAS God (or, rather, Ned going insane, or whatever -- some non-Homer related solution). And I was kinda "again?" on the whole having-a-Dial-M-For-Murder based title. The four-act structure now hasn't helped either -- the intro was almost a full segment, which cut away from time that could have been used on the real stories so they could maybe actually GO somewhere.

But given that they were the stupid fart joke one and the Avatar parody, perhaps that's for the best....

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think they've now done as many title parodies of "Dial M for Murder" as of "The Old Man and the Sea."

[kevenn.livejournal.com]

Adorable costumes!!!! :)

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Thanks! (Well, I didn't have anything to do with them, but still.)

[rose gardner (from livejournal.com)]

I'd invite you to my parties!

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Thanks, but I can't very well reach your neck of the woods just to attend a party. Or CAN I?

[zimbra1006.livejournal.com]

I love Beth (and Dewey)'s costume!

I don't even remember the last time I watched a Treehouse of Horror, or any other new Simpsons episode other than if I was flipping channels. That show started disappointing me a long time ago and I have happier memories about it if I just don't watch new ones. :)

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I still like the show enough to watch the new episodes, but I wouldn't feel bad at all about missing this particular one. And thanks!