5. In 1995, Euro Disney was having some financial trouble and told the world that it would be moving Vladimir Lenin’s body to its Disneyland Paris theme park. The kicker? Russians campaigned to fill Lenin’s mausoleum with Tsar Nicholas II’s body.

4. Burger King declared in 1998 that it would be making a new product—the Left-Handed Whopper. It would be exactly the same, but with condiments rotated 180 degrees for easy access. Righties were offended and tried to order a Right-Handed burger. Oops.

3. On NPR in 1992, “Richard Nixon” announced that he would be making another run for the presidency, claiming he never did anything wrong. Viewers were shocked and appalled, and many called in to share their outrage on-air. They should have waited until the second half of the program, when the program host announced that he was a lying crook—Nixon would not be running again.

2. In 1998, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced that the Walt Disney Company had bought the university. It was reported that the campus would be moving to Orlando to open new programs like the Donald Duck Department of Linguistics. This announcement even showed up on the university’s website. At a school like MIT, you should expect that students would be able to break into the server, so of course this was just a prank.

1. Taco Bell publicized the knowledge that they bought the Liberty Bell on April 1, 1998. They would be renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell. Sounds yummy. Too bad it was a hoax.

5 – ‘Nightmare Cafeteria’ from‘Treehouse of Horror V’

MCT Campus

Principal Skinner and Lunchlady Doris have problems. Skinner thinks that detention is too crowded, and Doris thinks it’s wrong to serve the children grade-F meat. The solution is hilarious, morbid and so very wrong: Eat the disobedient students. One by one, the children are picked off, until Bart, Lisa and Millhouse are the only ones left. They go to the usually level-headed Marge for aid, but her advice is less than helpful. Also, it’s the best line of the night: “Look them in the eye and say, ‘Don’t eat me.’”

4 – ‘Send in the Clones’ from ‘Treehouse of Horror XIII’

Homer buys a cursed hammock that can clone him. At first, he uses the power for good, relatively speaking. You know, to help with chores and stuff. But soon Homer loses control of the population of belly button-less pea brains. They’re a hungry bunch, eating entire fields of corn and the farmers that tend to the fields. It’s hard to say what’s the best part. Is it the scene where a helicopter suspends a 50-foot donut over a cliff, baiting thousands of Homers to fall to their deaths? No, that’s not it. The episode’s best bit comes when the camera pans over the field of Homers clones, which includes Homers from past episodes, a Homer as he appeared in the original shorts, and, of course, Peter Griffin.

3 – ‘Life’s a Glitch, Then You Die’ from ‘Treehouse of Horror X’

It’s Y2K, and Homer is the only technician in the world who forgot to debug his computer. So when the ball drops, the virus spreads and pandemonium ensues. Planes fall from the skies, and nuclear missiles are deployed. Dick Clark’s face melts off, revealing him to be a robot. In short, the world is doomed. But there’s an out; the Simpsons discover that something called “Operation Exodus” plans to rocket the world’s most important people into space so they can start a new human civilization. They yoink a ticket off Krusty’s body and sprint to Houston. But only Lisa, Marge and Maggie are allowed on the ship (Lisa’s their proofreader), and all hope seems lost until Homer and Bart spy another rocket about to take off. They leave Earth behind, but something about this shuttle doesn’t seem right. Homer looks around in panic at Dan Quayle, Pauly Shore and Tom Arnold, realizing they’re far from being the world’s best and brightest people. Also, their ship is headed directly into the sun. Rosie O’Donnell leads all of the passengers in “Clang, Clang, Clang,” and Homer decides death can’t come fast enough, as he ejects his and Bart’s seats from the shuttle, where their heads can pop in peace.

2 – ‘Night of the Dolphin’ from ‘Treehouse of Horror XI’

Lisa takes pity on a dolphin named Snorky who lives in an aquarium. In an act of activism, she frees the marine creature, and he swims out to sea. But unbeknownst to Lisa, Snorky is the dolphin’s leader, and after years of being treated like a “common seal,” he wants revenge on the humans. The creatures’s first target is hapless Lenny, out for a night swim. “Uh-oh, sharks! The assassins of the sea! Ohh, you’re not sharks. You’re dolphins. The clowns of the sea.” They bludgeon him. Before dying, he asks, “Hey, what’s the gag?” Of course, the humans will have none of it, and Homer leads them in the assault. A quick cut later, and the surviving Springfieldians are floating on driftwood in the ocean. Lisa apologizes for dooming humanity, but Marge consoles her. “Oh, honey, I wouldn’t say ‘doomed.’ It’s going to be an adjustment, no question.”

1 – ‘Time and Punishment’ from ‘Treehouse of Horror V’

MCT Campus

There isn’t much gore or horror to speak of in this segment, but that does not lessen its greatness. While trying to fix his toaster, Homer inadvertently sends himself back in time. Panicking, he remembers his dad’s words to him on his wedding day: “If you ever travel back in time, don’t step on anything.” Easy advice to follow, until a mosquito lands on Homer’s arm. “Stupid bug! You squish now!” Of course, this changes the future detrimentally. For the rest of the segment, Homer bounces from the past to the present again and again in an effort to remake the life he knows. The episode ends with Homer at his usual dinner table, sitting with what appears to be his normal family. Except they have forked-tongues. “Ehh, close enough,” Homer says.