The Simpsons: Every Treehouse Of Horror Ranked Worst To Best
12. XIX. Untitled Robot Parody; How To Get Ahead In Deadvertising; It's The Grand Pumpkin, Milhous
First off, yes Mad Men is not a horror and Dead-vertising makes no sense as a pun, but the middle segment based on the excellent Mad Men isn't the worst crime in Simpsons' history. It's just not quite as good on the follow-through as the whip sharp idea of Homer killing off celebrities to profit from them appearing post-humously in commercials.
Far better is the opening sequence - a hauntingly pertinent jibe at rigged elections from the Obama campaign - and the opening sequence, which gets away with not really being based on a horror by turning its Transformers homage into a more Twilight Zone sort of deal. It would have been nice for more fun-poking at the crapiness of the movies though, to be honest.
Easily the biggest selling point here is the Grand Pumpkin homage, a stylistically true, infinitely charming ode to Peanuts that is one of the best things The Simpsons have ever done in the series.