Yes, that's right: On the Simpsons' "Treehouse of Horror" special this year, Sideshow Bob finally managed to do away with his No. 1 nemesis, Bart Simpson. (And no, that's not a spoiler -- the show spilled that Bob would off Bart months ago, at San Diego Comic-Con.)
Of course, Bart isn't really dead. For one thing, he's a cartoon; for another, "Treehouse of Horror" episodes exist outside the show's normal continuity, meaning that the events that transpire during the annual specials don't affect the Simpsons universe for longer than a night.
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"Treehouse," therefore, gives the show's writers a chance to really flex their creative muscles, ttesting outlandish scenarios that would never fly even in the Simpsons' increasingly improbable universe -- like letting Bob, voiced by Kelsey Grammer, actually achieve the goal he's been striving toward since Bart got him arrested way back in Season 1.
Or, to be more specific: Letting Bob murder Bart over... and over... and over again.
"Wanted: Dead, Then Alive," the first segment of "Treehouse of Horror XXVI," finds Krusty's former sidekick luring Bart into a trap that allows him to finally kill the eldest Simpson child once and for all -- only to realize that his life no longer has a purpose. So Bob devises an elaborate reanimation machine -- just go with it -- that'll let him kill Bart as many times as his heart desires.
And boy, does his heart desire a lot of murder. Here's a full list of every way Bob fulfills the promise of his chest tattoo -- "Die, Bart, Die." (It's German for "the Bart, the!")
Shoots him through the heart with a spear gun, then uses Bart's entrails as backpack straps, mixes his blood with a glass of wine, and drives golf balls into Bart's mouth (ew)
Bludgeons him with a sledgehammer
Bludgeons him with a sledgehammer.. again
Literally shoots off his head
Has him mauled by a lion
Flattens him with a steamroller, folds him into a paper airplane, and sends the airplane flying into a fan, which shreds Bart into pieces... then cremates the pieces
Electric bill-induced heart attack
Liquefaction
Chops him into pieces with an axe
It is, of course, an obscenely violent sequence, more along the lines of recent Family Guy than classic Simpsons -- especially when Bob gets his comeuppance by being transformed into a chicken-lion-deer-frog-booger monster.
Still, you've got to admire Bob's creativity. And in a mediocre "Treehouse" that also featured a Chronicle parody that was only serviceable and a ho-hum Godzilla riff that suddenly transformed into a screed against money-grubbing sequels, that might be enough to make "Dead, Then Alive" the night's most successful segment.