Treehouse of Horror vs. Principal Charming

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Treehouse of Horror

Bad Dream House

The Simpsons move into an old house, wondering at its low cost. Their questions are answered when the walls begin to bleed and objects begin to fly through the air, and Lisa senses an evil presence in the house. There is also a portal to another dimension in the kitchen. Marge expresses the desire to leave, but Homer asks her to sleep on it, due to the cost of buying the house. That night, the house possesses Homer and the children, manipulating their minds and making them chase each other with axes and knives. Marge unlike the others however, is instead using her knife to spread mayonnaise on a sandwich and intervenes, breaking the trance. Afterwards, Bart discovers the source of the haunting - a Native American burial ground hidden in the basement. After the Spirit of The House threatens them again, Marge loses her patience and confronts the house, demanding that it treat them with respect during their stay. The house thinks it over, and eventually opts to destroy itself rather than live with the Simpsons.

Hungry are the Damned

The Simpsons are in their backyard having a barbecue when they are abducted by extraterrestrial life forms (specifically Kang and Kodos). The aliens explain that they are taking the Simpsons to their home planet on Rigel IV, "a world of infinite delights," for a 'feast'. En route they present the family with enormous amounts of food and watch eagerly as they gorge themselves, then check their weights, being particularly delighted at Homer's mass. Suspicious of the alien's intentions, Lisa sneaks into the kitchen and finds a book titled How To Cook Humans. She takes the book and shows it to the aliens, who explain to her that part of the title was obscured by space dust, which they then blow away to reveal the title How To Cook For Humans. Lisa, skeptical at this, blows off more space dust, revealing the title to be How To Cook Forty Humans. The aliens blow off the last of the space dust, finally revealing the real title How To Cook For Forty Humans. Enraged at Lisa's mistrust, they return the Simpsons to Earth, explaining that Lisa ruined the family's chance at paradise on the aliens' home planet. Homer and Bart agree with the aliens, but Marge tries to explain to them that Lisa was just concerned for their family and didn't know better. Even she agrees that Lisa sometimes needs to tone down her attitude and just ask.
The Raven

Lisa reads "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe. In this adaptation, Bart is depicted as the raven, Homer finds himself in the role of the poem's lead character, while Lisa and Maggie are seraphim. Marge appears briefly as a painting of Lenore. James Earl Jones narrates.

The episode then returns to the treehouse and Bart, Lisa and Maggie, who are not frightened by any of the stories. They climb down from the treehouse and sleep peacefully the whole night. Homer, on the other hand, lies in his bed terrified. As he notices a raven outside the window similar to the one from the poem, Homer hides under the sheets and exclaims that he "hates Halloween".

Principal Charming
Selma realizes, after going to the wedding of a man that could have easily been hers if Patty had not intervened, that she needs to find a husband and begs Marge to help her. Marge enlists the help of Homer to seek one out; however, Homer has trouble finding anyone suitable. Meanwhile, Bart pulls a big prank by pouring the fictional herbicide sodium tetrasulfate onto the grass of his school, spelling out his own name, and is caught when Skinner sees the mess. Homer meets with Principal Skinner about Bart's behavior and, learning that Skinner is single, invites him home to dinner with Selma. Later that day, Skinner arrives for dinner, but instead of falling for Selma, he becomes instantly smitten with her sister, Patty after she yells at Homer for being the wrong twin.

Skinner asks an unwilling Patty out on a date and she tries to get out of it by refusing. However, as they are going home, Selma tells her that she needs to go on this date because she has not been with a man in 25 years and this would be her best chance to still have a family. On their first date, Patty does not seem impressed with Skinner until he yells at his former student for his lack of promptness. Soon after they go out on more dates, much to Selma's chagrin and she realizes another decent man has just slipped past her.

Skinner enlists Bart's help to get Patty to marry him, while Homer fixes a date between Selma and Barney, which Selma reluctantly accepts. However, Marge disapproves of Barney and demands Homer to find someone else suitable for her sister. Skinner takes Patty to the top of the bell tower to propose. Following Bart's lead, he has written "Marry Me, Patty" in 40-foot letters using the sodium tetrasulfate that got Bart in trouble. Patty is flattered, but declines. She admits to Skinner that she shares a common bond with the emotional grief of her twin sister, which Skinner immediately understands. Patty appreciates Skinner's understanding and his gentlemanly conduct, and if she ever did settle down with a man, she would want it to be with him. Rescuing Selma from her date with Barney, Patty takes her home.

Meanwhile Skinner, who vows to win back his school from Bart's control (who was taking advantage of the fact that Skinner loves Patty and turned a blind eye from all of Bart's recent vandalism), destroys all the grass on the school field with the sodium tetrasulfate, forcing Bart to replant the field seed by seed, much to Groundskeeper Willie's pleasure.

[LoathedVermin72]

I love Treehouse of Horror. I'd say Principal Charming is a low-tier prime-era episode.

[tragabigzanda]

No contest, ToH.