Treehouse of Horror XIX

In the opening scene, Homer tries to vote for Democratic candidate Barack Obama in the 2008 United States presidential election. However, the voting machine is rigged to register his vote for Republican candidate John McCain. After six attempts to vote (including actually voting for McCain once in the hopes that it would register for Obama), Homer heads out to report the mishap, but the machine sucks him in and kills him to hide the truth, then shoots his body out of the voting booth. Jasper sticks a patriotic-themed "I voted" sticker on Homer's forehead. The title of the episode and opening credits are shown in red, white and blue in front of him.

The opening segment of the episode, which was leaked onto the internet weeks before the episode aired,[2] features Homer voting for Barack Obama. Rather than taking sides in the election, executive producer Al Jean says it is "mostly a comment on what many people to believe to be the irregularities in our voting system."[3] "Untitled Robot Parody" is modeled on the live action Transformers film, rather than the cartoon.[4] Al Jean said it was "just really fun to do transformations [and] you can see why they enjoyed doing that film."[4] "How to Get Ahead in Dead-Vertising" featured a parody of the title sequence of Mad Men. Jean was a fan of the series and pitched the scene.[5]

The final segment is based on the Halloween cartoon It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. It could not be titled "It's the Great Pumpkin, Milhouse" to exactly match its namesake because of a "big legal issue", according to Al Jean.[6] However, the characters were redesigned to resemble the style of Peanuts, and they also obtained rights to use Vince Guaraldi's music.[4] Jean said in 2011 that "For years we had never been able to parody Charlie Brown's Halloween special, which is one of the all-time top three animated shows ever. The Vince Guaraldi music is such a huge part of it, so we got to clear it. It was just a dream come true to satirize it. I thought it was a really funny idea that instead of not ever seeing the Grand Pumpkin, it comes to life, and he's really horrified at the way humans cook pumpkins into pies, and eat pumpkin seeds, which are basically pumpkin fetuses...."[7]

In the second segment, Homer kills celebrities including actor George Clooney

The first segment of the episode is a parody of Transformers.[8] The second segment features a parody of the opening of Mad Men and Homer kills several celebrities, including Kate Winslet, Prince, George Clooney, and Neil Armstrong, set to the song "Psycho Killer" by Talking Heads.[9][10] Krusty getting killed in a woodchipper references the woodchipper scene from the movie, Fargo. Other celebrities shown include Golda Meir, Edward G. Robinson, John Wayne and John Lennon, who says "All we're saying is 'Let's eat some brains'", a reference to the chorus of "Give Peace a Chance" by the Plastic Ono Band.[11] The commercial "Planet of the Taste" is a parody of the 1968 film Planet of the Apes.[11]

The final segment, "It's the Grand Pumpkin, Milhouse" is a parody of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (and was supposed to be named "It's The Great Pumpkin, Milhouse," but due to legal reasons, was renamed) and contains several references to the Peanuts series. In the segment, Milhouse wears the same clothes and plays the same role as Linus van Pelt. Lisa is modelled after Sally Brown and Bart looks like Charlie Brown; he even says "good grief", echoing Charlie Brown's catchphrase. The main theme to Peanuts "Linus and Lucy" is played several times. A redesigned version of Santa's Little Helper can be seen sleeping on top of his dog house and Homer is seen sleeping on top of his house in a manner similar to Snoopy.[12] When Marge first speaks, she uses a muted trombone. This is a parody of the "wah wah wah" voice that is used for adults in the various Peanuts specials.[13] At the end of the segment, she says to the audience that they can send complaints to an address which she only says in more muted trombone noises. Milhouse' prayer to the Grand Pumpkin is similar to the Nicene Creed.[14] The dance scene during the Halloween party is a parody of the dance scene in A Charlie Brown Christmas right down to Kang and Kodos in a nonspeaking cameo as the twins 3 and 4.[15]

In its original airing, the episode was viewed by 12.48 million viewers and achieved a 4.9 Nielsen rating.[16] It was the highest rated episode of the night in the 18–49 demographic, the sixteenth highest rated show of the week, and the fourth highest rated on Fox after two airings of the World Series and House. It was the highest rated episode since season 18's "The Wife Aquatic".[8]

"Treehouse of Horror XIX" received mixed reviews from critics. Rick Bentley of the Seattle Times described it as a "paint-by-numbers episode".[15] Robert Canning of IGN gave the episode a 7.9/10, calling it "funny, entertaining and even nostalgic [which] only makes this yearly tradition that much better."[10]

"It's the Grand Pumpkin, Milhouse" was regarded by reviewers as the best segment in the episode. Canning wrote, "this segment may not be all that gory, but it's funny and, quite honestly, it will just make you feel good",[10] and Bentley described it as "a dead-on comedy assault of the Charlie Brown animated Halloween special."[15] Rob Owen of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette concurred, writing that it "succeeds because it offers sly cultural commentary."[14] Show Patrol wrote "The nostalgia factor makes “Grand Pumpkin” the best of these amusing bits for me, but they all lack that trademark “Simpsons” brand of satirical smartness."[9] Hal Boedecker of the Orlando Sentinel gave the episode a 4/5 and called the final segment a "witty parody of Charlie Brown's Halloween classic. [...] The best gag, though, is a subtle one. Marge plays a trombone, a loving salute to the way the Peanuts specials portrayed adult voices."[17] Film and television critic Matt Zoller Seitz has cited the segment as one of The Simpsons' "flashes of greatness" in the later seasons, writing in 2016 with Alan Sepinwall that "Whenever you're about to count The Simpsons out, it produces a magnificent segment like... 'It's the Grand Pumpkin, Milhouse'".[18][19]

Director Bob Anderson received an Annie Award nomination for "Best Directing in an Animated Television Production" but lost to Avatar: The Last Airbender.[20]

• "Treehouse of Horror XIX" at IMDb