In “Treehouse Of Horror” episodes, the rules aren’t just different—they don’t even exist. If writers want Homer to kill Flanders or for a segment to end with a marriage between a woman and a giant ape, they can do so without worrying about continuity or consistency or fans griping that the gang is behaving out of character.

Wo be to you scrybes, and pharises ypocrites, for ye are lyke unto paynted tombes which appere beautyfull outwardes: but are within full off deed mens bones and of all fylthynes.

Where a 10-page presentation with one or two charts would have been acceptable before, now we all suffer from death by PowerPoint.

But in that gale, the port, the land, is that ship’s direst jeopardy; she must fly all hospitality; one touch of land, though it but graze the keel, would make her shudder through and through.