Simpsons legends Al Jean and Mike Reiss weigh in on Obsession being inspired by one of their episodes

Along with the word “cromulent” and the hit song “Do the Bartman,” The Simpsons is now responsible for another pop culture touchstone, the horror hit Obsession. In a recent interview, Obsession writer/director Curry Barker told Variety that he realized his movie would be a “wish movie” after watching an episode of The Simpsons, specifically “Treehouse of Horror II,” which includes a segment where Homer acquires a cursed monkey’s paw and all of his wishes go terribly wrong.

While some online detractors have used this quote to bemoan that Gen Z’s cultural references are limited to The Simpsons parodies, others have pointed out that Barker was likely already aware of the original story. And even if not, who cares where he got the idea for Obsession when the result is so good.

Perhaps the only people with the right to cast judgment on Barker are the ones who wrote the episode that inspired him. So Polygon reached out to legendary Simpsons writers Al Jean and Mike Reiss, who were showrunning the series when that episode ran in 1991.

The segment — and by extension, Obsession — is inspired by W. W. Jacobs’ 1902 short story “The Monkey’s Paw,” a “be careful what you wish for” tale where a couple acquires a mummified Monkey’s paw that will grant three wishes, but the wishes end up creating terrible consequences. Though a famous story in its prime, it’s probably better known now for inspiring a classic episode of The Twilight Zone and this particular segment from The Simpsons.

“I guess W. W. Jacobs’ monkey’s paw wish was that his work would be famous throughout the world, but that the catch is that he wouldn’t get any money from it, as it’s public domain,” jokes Jean via Zoom.

In the Simpsons segment, the family is on a trip to Morocco when Homer acquires a monkey’s paw, which the vendor explains will give him four wishes, but will only bring him misfortune in the end. Each wish is requested by a different family member. Maggie wishes for a new pacifier (which has no catch, but Homer hates the wasted wish), Bart wishes for the Simpsons to become rich and famous (they quickly realize the pitfalls of fame), Lisa wishes for world peace (so aliens invade a pacifist Earth), and Homer wishes for a turkey sandwich (the turkey is a little dry, though). In typical Simpsons fashion, Marge doesn’t get a wish of her own.

While the official writer of the segment was George Meyer, executive producer Sam Simon originated the idea and the entire Simpsons writers room had a hand in writing it.

“For a little segment, it’s one of those great segments where all the writers have something good in there,” says Reiss, also via Zoom. “My big contribution, which I’m very proud of, is the line [when Kang the alien says] ‘Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!’”

Reiss is also especially proud of what came out of Bart’s wish, as the Simpson family quickly becomes so famous that everyone is sick of them and all their merchandise.

“I really love that we were parodying Simpsons-Mania that early into the show,” he says. “We’d been on like a year-and-a-half and it had already become a phenomenon that people were sick of and we were aware of that.”

Image: Fox/Disney

As for the connection to Obsession, Reiss, who has seen the movie, tells me, “I was blown away. Horror movies are 70% of my media consumption and I loved it.”

“I never thought of ‘Monkey’s Paw’ once,” he adds, “but then to hear, in some very tenuous way, that I had a connection to it really just made my day. I’m just happy that this very talented guy watches our show.”

Jean, who hasn’t yet seen the film, points out another parallel between this episode and Obsession: “I would just like to say, Obsession is getting a lot of well-deserved credit for having a budget of $750,000, but that was our budget for the episode and we gave you two extras.”