A day to die for?
Miss out on the spooky six-hour Simpsons marathon at your peril.
Some people go too far in their proclamation of fan status when it comes to Springfield's finest. Changing your name to Homer J. Simpson by deed poll, getting a 20-inch tattoo of a yellow ten-year-old across your back or accumulating a mass of memorabilia worth hundreds of thousands of dollars are extreme examples, but at least these fanatics (in the true sense of the word) are passionate about something that is genuinely good - as opposed to being a Trekkie or a member of the S Club 7 fan club.
Even if you're not quite as 'expressive' in your fondness for the four-fingered family, you'll still want to stay at home on Sunday October 30, between 14.30 and 20.30, when Star World are celebrating all things Springfieldian in their six-hour marathon of spooky Simpsons for Halloween.
With its crooked mayors, bent policemen, and chain-smoking clowns, Springfield isn't the picture of suburban perfection at the best of times, but once a year a thick fog descends, wolves howl at the full moon rising above the nuclear power plant and tentacled aliens invade, as Matt Groening and his team unleash the annual Treehouse Of Horrors episode on the unsuspecting (and eagerly anticipating) public.
During the show's fifteen-year history, the annual Treehouse shows have combined a trio of terrifying tales into one eerie episode. With barefaced parodies of popular fiction – including the Harry Potter lampoon 'Wiz Kids', satire of '60s sci-fi - including 'House of Whacks' where the computerised Ultrahouse 3000 falls in love with Marge, as well as Stephen King send-ups in 'The Shinning', the residents of Springfield have been transformed into blood-sucking vampires, body-snatching zombies, werewolves, and floating sprits for our viewing pleasure each and every Halloween. And this year we are spoilt for choice.
While the repeated (and repeated, and repeated) Treehouse episodes continue to cheek cramping cries of laughter – even when you know every punchline off by heart, there's something satisfyingly scrum-diddlyumptious about seeing the family rush for the sofa in an opening sequence that you have never seen before. This Sunday, Treehouse of Horrors XV screens in Dubai for the first time. In this latest instalment, Ned Flanders develops the power to predict when people will die, Lisa and Bart hunt for a killer through the streets of Victorian London, and Mr. Burns swallows a miniaturized Maggie. With each episode of The Simpsons containing approximately 24,000 individual drawings and taking almost six months and a dollars to produce, it would be rude not to watch.
Despite its focus on parodying American culture, the global appeal of the show – which is broadcast in more than 60 countries – is indisputable. Since the beginning of the month, Dubai's Arabic-speaking population have been given the opportunity to switch over to MBC 1's Al Shamshoon. The newlytranslated Arabic Simpsons has been created to broaden this mass-appeal even further, although viewers may notice some differences with Homer, now known as Omar, snacking on kahk instead of donuts, drinking soda instead of beer, and eating hot dogs made from barbequed Egyptian beef sausages; but rest assured Bart, now named Badr, is still a little terror.
Back on Star World, the adverts are proclaiming that the spooky Simpsons marathon is a 'day to die for', and while the Treehouse Of Horrors episodes haven't always been applauded by the show's fans for matching the quality and sheer laugh out loud-ability of classics, it's the perfect excuse for 360 minutes of good old-fashioned couch potato action that Homer himself would be proud of.
Star World will be showing The Simpsons' back-to-back Treehouse of Horrors episodes October 30 from 14.30-20.30.