"Treehouse of Horror XXIII" is the second episode of the twenty-fourth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons.

In the United Kingdom and Ireland, the episode aired on Sky 1 on March 24, 2013 with 1,312,000 viewers, making it the most watched program that week.

A Mayan Homer, who has been fattened up, showing that he is ready to be sacrificed, hears about it for the first time (as he did not pay attention during orientation) and attempts to back out to no avail.

After the sacrifice, a Mayan Professor Frink confirms that the world will end after the 13th Baktun, which, accounting for the Gregorian calendar and the birth of Jesus, puts the end of days in the year 2012 (with the Mayan Mayor Quimby placing the blame on President Barack Obama).

The stone trio start to wreak havoc on Springfield and the Earth with one stone god throwing fireballs at Springfield City Hall and throwing Lard Lad's donut at a UFO and then taking this to popular landmarks like moving the Eiffel Tower to crash it into Big Ben, ripping up the Great Wall of China; causing it to sink to a river of lava, making George Washington's head kiss Abraham Lincoln's head in Mount Rushmore; causing rivers of lava to appear, and splitting Earth into large fissures.

Professor Frink activates the machine and it works, but nothing exciting happens, and everyone blames Lisa for her suggestion.

In a Paranormal Activity homage,[1] when strange events occur at the Simpson house, Homer sets up cameras to photograph what is haunting them.

As part of the deal, the demon would return 30 years later to take Marge's favorite child as payment (which turns out to be Maggie, much to Lisa's shock).

After learning that the safe word is cinnamon, Homer throws his robe over the camera saying he'd like to try something and the Moe-like demon is heard yelling 'cinnamon'.

[2] Executive producer Al Jean stated that the first act about the black hole ties in with the discovery of the Higgs boson in the summer of 2012.

There was no warmth, no subtlety, no lessons learned, and no attempt at a coherent story—just a lot of gross-out humor and a chance to see Springfield stretched even further past reality.

But, like the couch gag at the start of each episode, 'Treehouse Of Horror' tempts us with the chance to see something that doesn't feel borrowed (and a bit dumbed down) from the show’s glory years.