Worst Episode Ever?

It's a well establish fact that The Simpsons "jumped the shark" some time ago. This is the eighteenth season of the show, which means that there are now more years of crappy episodes than quality ones (the slide really started after year seven). That's like Joe Montana playing more years with the Chiefs than the 49ers. Sad really.

If anyone is still watching The Simpsons, tonight's "Treehouse of Horror XVII" should give them reason to finally abandon the pathetic shell that remains of the once grand program. As detailed in a Friday WSJ piece by Dorothy Rabinowitz, the episode is another example of the dangers of a comedy that takes itself seriously:

Something happened to "The Simpsons" on the way to their "Treehouse of Horror XVII" Halloween broadcast (Sunday, 8-8:30 p.m. EST, on Fox) -- something odd, trivial and yet telling. That may sound like one of Krusty the Clown's learned riddles from the sages, but it's one way to describe the little storm of anticipation that blew up after word spread -- thanks to an Oct. 20 interview "Simpsons" producer Al Jean gave the Web site RadarOnline -- that the Halloween show would include a direct assault on the Bush administration for the Iraq war. The only question, the interview revealed, was whether a final grim line on Iraq would appear in the final version, or be cut.

It's doubtful people have been sitting up nights in suspense over the answer, or anything else connected with the news that the ever brilliant "Simpsons" [What show has she been watching for the last ten years?]-- which has steadfastly steered clear of anything smacking of a sober or sincere pronouncement -- has now, in its 18th season, launched into serious-message mode.

Just what I've been looking for: geo-political opinions from the writers of a cartoon. It's a shame that the writers have chosen to make a statement in one of the "Treehouse of Horror" episodes, which have often been the only bright spot in the recent lost years of the show.

Part II's horrors concern a Golem, a legendary power from Jewish folklore, but one, in this case, that has fallen under Bart's control, all of which means dark consequences for many, among them that lost soul, Principal Skinner. It's hard, in fact, not to be reminded a bit of Seymour Skinner when we get to Part III -- a teach-in of sorts built around a saga of alien invaders who have destroyed Springfield. "You said we'd be greeted as liberators," one invader complains to the other, amid talk of "Operation Enduring Occupation" and more of the kind. The allusions to the U.S. campaign in Iraq have all of the teacherly Seymour's subtlety and wit -- proving, once more, that there's nothing like deep earnestness, and the drive to deliver lessons, to kill writing.

And to kill comedy. This is the final nail in the coffin. May The Simpsons rest in peace.