• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, October 29, 2024

Red and blue monsters grapple with each other and lay waste to Springfield in a timely “Simpsons” Halloween special that takes down blue-red politics, cable news and social media all in one-third of a half-hour episode.

It’s the annual Halloween-themed “Treehouse Of Horror XXXV,” airing Sunday, November 3, on Fox that starts out with the aforementioned media-and-politics story titled “The Information Rage.”

Deep political divisions among the citizens of Springfield are latent until a controversy erupts over lightbulb freedom when Mayor Quimby announces a program to replace all of the town’s incandescent bulbs with LED lights.

Consequences to the fabric of Springfield society ensue, starting with homeowners hammering political signs into their front lawns.

“Steer clear of my chandelier,” says one. “Women’s lights are human lights,” says another.

As the temperature of the neighbor-against-neighbor rage increases, the heat revives and angers monsters from the sea who emerge to do battle and like the classic Japanese monster movies of old, stomp all over Springfield and destroy most of it.

Just when the battle of the blue and red sea monsters seems to be ebbing, other monsters spring from the deep with names such as Four Chan Saurus, Facebookzilla, Mecha-Reddit and Ro-Gan, a reference to podcast star Joe Rogan and a play on an old Japanese movie monster, Rodan.

Eventually, Bart and Lisa Simpson team up to destroy the red and blue monsters and almost succeed.

“Ding-Dongs of Springfield,” says Bart to a gathering crowd of Springfieldites. “We’ve stopped these monsters for now. If we allow them to keep feeding on our fear and rage, they’ll come back even stronger.”

Adds Lisa, “The only way to beat them is to remember what we all have in common and reject the echo chambers of cable news and social media!”

Will the pleas and wisdom of these two earnest children win the day, and bring Springfield’s warring factions into harmony with each other? Take a wild guess.

Elsewhere in this “Treehouse of Horror” special, another story has nuclear plant mogul Mr. Burns running a 19th-century manufacturing plant that is so unsafe it has deadly consequences.

And in the third story, a pair of jeans gives Homer Simpson magic powers. 

“The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror XXXV” airs Sunday, November 3, at 8 p.m. Eastern on Fox.