It Christmas month! The time of joy and giving! And to celebrate, I'm doing a proposal about a Halloween work!... What? It's not weird!

What's The Work?[]

Everybody knows the Treehouse of Horror. A series of scary non-canon Simpsons episodes. For this proposal, we will be looking at Treehouse of Horror V... The entire episode. Not a single segment. There is a reason for this.

Who is Groundskeeper Willie? What Does He Do?[]

Normally, Willie works as the Groundskeeper for Springfield Elementary. In "The Shinning", is is working at a mansion that Mr. Burns owns and has families come to stay at. However, Burns set it up to where there isn't any television or beer with the expectation that it would motivate the men to work. This is in spite of the fact that it does the opposite and drives them insane to the point of killing their family. Willie has witnessed it before and has been powerless to stop it... until one fateful day. While working in the garden, Bart Simpson uses shears to cut a hole in the hedge maze. Willie is ready to lose it, but he knows that the boy isn't likely to live much longer when his father goes insane and turns him and his family into haggis. To Willie's surprise though, Bart actually reads his thoughts as he didn't actually say those words. He only thought them. Yet Bart actually asked him what Haggis was. This means Bart has the Shinning! (Not Shining! You wanna get sued?) With this, Willie realizes there could be hope for this family, so he tells Bart to use the Shinning to call him for help and he would come running (while setting a few times where he is unavailable, which is fair).

Sure enough, no TV and no beer make Homer something something...

With Homer making a move to kill the Simpsons, Bart uses the Shinning to summon Willie. Sensing Bart's call, Willie realizes the boy and his family are in trouble and sets off to save them in his pajamas. He makes it to the mansion and is ready to throw down! He is ready to fight Homer to the- wait! Nevermind. He got an axe to the back courtesy of Homer.... At least the portable tv he threw in the snow earlier was able to quell Homer's urge to kill... at least until he and his family ended up frozen in the snow and unable to change the channel. Now Treehouse of Horror segments don't tend to be canon to one another, so that's it then, right? Wrong! I already said we are covering each segment.

So the next segment, "Time and Punishment", has Homer turn his toaster into a time machine where he finds himself in prehistoric times. Despite his efforts to make sure he doesn't touch anything, he ends up killing something each time, altering the future severely. The first time, he kills a mosquito which makes Flanders ruler of the world. The second time, he sits on a fish, making everybody giant. The third time, he sneezes, killing all the dinosaurs. This alteration didn't turn out so bad actually as Bart and Lisa were well behaved, the house is well decorated, and Patty and Selma are dead, with the only thing that prompt Homer to go back being that donuts are apparently non-existent (If only he stayed a moment longer to see the rain). After a few attempts, he runs into Willie who informs him that he still hasn't made it back to the correct time. Willie knows how to get him home. Homer just has to listen to what Willie- oh, come on! Again, Willie? Why did he get axed this time even? And by Maggie of all people... this is indeed a disturbing universe.

Now for the final segment. "Nightmare Cafeteria". In this segment, the school has a serious detention overflow, and the cafeteria has the worst quality meat possible. What solution does Skinner come up with? Well, there's a reason he was deemed to be Near Pure Evil. The teacher become cannibalistic, and the parents are absolutely useless. Realizing that staying in the school will only result in their own deaths, Bart, Lisa, and Milhouse attempt to sneak out, but they are quickly cornered by the school staff who are ready to devour them. Fortunately, Willie has come to save the day! He won't let the kids get eaten no mat- He gets axed again. Doesn't he? yeah... Willie, don't quit your day job...

At least he gets to join the Simpsons family in their inside out song at the end, so... consolation prize?

Admirable Standard[]

Again, due to this being Treehouse of Horror, it is not part of regular Simpsons canon. Most of the time, the segments aren't even canon to one another. However, we can probably make an exception here as Willie at least appears to be aware of how he keeps dying in each segment (his last words in the third are "I'm bad at this."), which actually connects the three segments in a way. And even if he fails miserably, he still made an effort to save multiple lives in the first and third segments and even tried to fix the timestream in the second segment. As such, I'd say he is very admirable.

Inconsistencies[]

Now Willie doesn't actually display the jerkishness he has in canon. The one time he is ready to explode, he stops himself quickly.

No. The inconsistency is actually quite obvious. He is WAY too incompetent! Like he gets axed the moment he attempts to help in every single segment. Like sure. There is some sympathy for him, but the fact he is even aware of his deaths only shows that after getting axed in the first and second segment, he should have seen it coming in the third. Womp womp womp.

Verdict[]

Let Willie be an example that just because somebody appears admirable doesn't mean that they are capable. I say yes.