The episode was written by Carolyn Omine, directed by Matthew Faughnan, and featured guest voices from Aron Ralston and Jackie Mason.

He screams in rage as they gorge themselves at home, and Bart opens his mouth to show the episode title spelled in chewed-up candy.

In a parody of Dexter, after hearing a voice that he thinks is God telling him to murder people, Ned Flanders becomes a serial killing vigilante, targeting characters who are Homer's enemies.

In a parody of Avatar, taking place in the future, Krusty the Clown sends the military force to the planet Rigel 7 to find the a sacred extract Hilarrium, so he can easily entertain his Nazi audience.

At the end, Carol of the Bells is played as all of the characters that appeared say various things about Christmas, such as Marge saying that making a sweater causes 27 people to lose their jobs.

[1] The episode is part of the Treehouse of Horror series,[2] which since the second season, has been a tradition for The Simpsons to air a new Halloween special each year.

[3] Treehouse of Horror episodes typically consist of four parts: an opening and Halloween-themed version of the credits, followed by three segments.

These segments usually have a horror, science fiction or fantasy theme and quite often are parodies of films, novels, plays, television shows, Twilight Zone episodes, or old issues of EC Comics.

Now the crew had to find a suitable theremin player and Charles Richard Lester was hired for that episode as well as "Treehouse of Horror XXII".

[10] During the middle, there is a spoof of the 1960 film Psycho, as the same music and similar scenes are used (E.G: Reverend Lovejoy eyeing Homer in his car.

[9] The segment took off in different direction when Homer was bitten by another spider and turned into a paralyzed Spider-Man with reversed colors, swinging around Springfield and fighting crime.

"Dial D for Diddily" featured various references to the television series, Dexter, the titular character whom Ned Flanders is supposed to represent when he goes on a killing spree.

[10] "Treehouse of Horror XXII" originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 30, 2011, the night before Halloween.

The release date was unusual for a Treehouse of Horror episode, because ever since Fox got the rights to the Major League Baseball playoffs, most of the Halloween specials aired in the first week of November.

[13] Major League Baseball decided to move the 2011 World Series earlier than the previous season so that no games would be played in November,[14] leaving October 30 free for Fox to air "Treehouse of Horror XXII" on that date.

[16] Besides a broadcast of an NFL Football game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles on NBC, The Simpsons was the most watched program of the night in the 18–49 demographic.

Club, Hayden Childs gave the episode a C+ grade, saying, "The writers seem unwilling to mock the more outrageous aspects of the movies they are sending up and settle for weakly batting at the obvious.

"[20] Alex Strachan had the opposite reaction in a review in Calgary Herald and concluded that we should "[f]orget all that talk about The Simpsons being past its prime.

Marnell called the parody "wildly unfunny", while Childs was critical of Homer turning into a paralyzed Spider-Man and stated that it was "simply not very funny.

"[10] Tim Surette of TV.com was more ambivalent and said: "I found this sketch to be simultaneously awesome and terrible because I have the maturity of a 6-year old and the intelligence of an average man.

In Marnell's opinion, "[t]he best segment of the entire episode comes when Ned makes his normal routine look sinister and yet when he finally closes his hands to pray, he's actually holding a pair of severed hands", but as for the rest of the segment, he is disappointed: "[W]hen it seems like the short is heading for some darkly hilarious territory, the voice of God turns out to be Homer urging Ned to murder his enemies.

"[9] Likewise, Childs commented that the "segment had a lot of promise for the funny, but it started to sag fast and then sank altogether.

[2] At the 39th Annual Annie Awards, Omine won the "Writing in a Television Production" category for her work on "Treehouse of Horror XXII".