YMMV / The Simpsons S3 E7 "Treehouse of Horror II"

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • How come Kang and Kodos are evil now? Were they so hurt by Lisa's accusasions that they ended up taking their anger out on Earth? Or were they really Evil All Along and wanted to eat the Simpsons last time? Consider how much the aliens were drooling over the Simpsons when they were being measured and (despite what Kang later says) pressuring them to eat, or the possibility that the How to Cook For Forty Humans cookbook may have been a cover. Another perfectly valid explanation is that, since they're depicted as imaginary characters both here and in the previous special, their change in alignment is merely down to Bart and Lisa's individual perceptions of them.
  • Ned's wishes on the Monkey's Paw don't backfire on him like it did with the Simpsons. Do his wishes have aftereffects we didn't see, or does the Paw see Ned as its true wielder? And, if you want to go further, does it see the rest of the Flanders as its true wielders as well? Could it be that the Monkey's Paw was a Karmic Trickster Aesop Enforcer who was using backfiring wishes to punish those of bad, selfish moral character (like Homer)?
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: During Lisa's dream there's a scene where the Simpsons are boarding the plane back to Springfield when Homer's stopped and frisked by airport security. When it turns out Homer's got souvenirs taped under his shirt, the security team pulls their guns on him and order Homer to pay a $2.00 fine. The Monkey's Paw isn't one of the souvenirs nor does the scene have anything to do with any of the wishes.
• Fair for Its Day: Lisa dresses up as a Native American totem pole as a way of showing appreciation for indigenous people. While Lisa would likely protest against that sort of thing come the 2010s because it would be seen as cultural appropriation, back in the 90s, it was surprisingly progressive to show appreciation for another culture in such a way.
• Fan Nickname: This is the only Treehouse of Horror story where the segments do not have titles, due to the framing device of the stories being the Simpsons' nightmares. "The Monkey's Paw", "The Bart Zone" and "If I Only Had a Brain" were titles invented by The Simpsons Archive for ease of reference.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The appearance of Robot Homer looks very familiar... Driven home by the point that Matt Groening once said that Bender is like a robotic Homer Simpson.
  • This wouldn't be the last time Moe ended up saving the day as a Deus ex machina. Well, actually Ned saved the Earth from the Aliens by wishing them away. But Moe actually chased them off with a board and nail, so it's close enough.
• Pop-Cultural Osmosis:
  • Many, if not most people (especially outside the US) are more likely familiar with the concept of the "monkey's paw" via this episode than the original story. Same goes for "It's a Good Life".
  • The Memetic Mutation that a "finger curls on the monkey's paw" when a wish is granted is not from the original story (which only says it "twists like a snake" in the character's hand when he makes the wish) but from this episode. (Hence there being four wishes because the paw has four fingers, because it's a cartoon.)

---