“Foolish, Earthlings!” The line most commonly uttered by two drooling aliens who have become a staple of “The Simpsons”‘ famed Treehouse of Horror episodes – Kang and Kodos. No, literally, they’re in every single one, which is an impressive feat, 34 and counting. From major plotlines to brief cameos, they are the unofficial “Where’s Waldo?“ of Matt Groening’s world and beloved (albeit feared) figureheads of the spooky specials.
On a much deeper level, Kang and Kodos are Springfield’s answer to the spinning top of “Inception”, the calling card that helps you realise, ‘phew, I’m watching a Halloween special of “The Simpsons” and this isn’t, actually, real life at all.’ But seeing Kang and Kodos is also just a bit of fun, if you don’t want to get that deep.
Kang and Kodos are two aliens from Rigel VII, and while in season seven, Kang referred to Kodos as his sister, despite only having a slightly higher-than-Kang voice, they’ve established themselves as gender ambiguous. In fact, in season 30, Kodos reveals they have 32 sexual identities when growing intimate with Patty, Marge’s sister.
Like many alien depictions in popular culture (but not all, here’s to you, E.T.), they’re pretty hellbent on destroying humanity and taking over the world, or Springfield at the very least. And let’s not forget a few classic alien behaviorisms like probing and the bio-duplication in 1996’s Treehouse of Horror VII of then-President Bill Clinton for good measure.
But being evil aliens wasn’t always on the cards. In their first-ever appearance, in Treehouse of Horror I, they were merely trying to make friends. Titled “Hungry are the Damned”, the Simpsons family gets abducted by Kang and Kodos and is welcomed aboard the spaceship of the one-eyed, slimy-mouthed, Rigellian-speaking aliens. Fortunately, and if by writer’s magic, Rigellian is an exact match to English, and so we can understand this extraterrestrial chatter.
They explain that they want to take the Simpsons to Rigel IV, “a world of infinite delights to tantalize the senses and challenge your intellectual limitations”. But, as Sherak the Preparer (voiced by the legendary James Earl Jones, I might add), begins to fatten them up with luxurious meals, Lisa grows suspicious.
In one of my favourite moments of Treehouse of Horror history, a misconstrued book seemingly called “How to Cook Humans” is dusted away to reveal it actually says: “How to Cook for Forty Humans”, in an amusing homage to the classic Twilight Zone episode “To Serve Man”.
It’s this assumption of wicked alien behavior from humanity that upsets them, prompting Kang and Kodos to drop the Simpsons back at home and set a target over Springfield for good. As Lisa so poignantly says at the segment’s conclusion: “There were monsters on that ship, and truly we were them”.
From there on out, Kang and Kodos were set on a mission to do bad things to the Simpsons and their hometown, seemingly in retaliation for Lisa’s accusations. And so, throughout the last 30 years, they’ve made numerous attempts to take over the world, and have actually been successful in a couple of them. Though in keeping with classic Treehouse of Horror episodes, everything returns back to normal after the conclusion of each annual spookfest.
But world domination isn’t the only interest of these aliens. We’ve witnessed them voted in as President or Earth’s liberators and even as Selma and Patty’s lovers. That’s not the only case of intergalactic romance, either, as who can forget when Kang, in a bid to cement the Rigellians’ position in sci-fi history, impregnated Marge and fathered Maggie. Aside from birthing the show’s first hybrid alien-human baby, it also spawned one of my favorite Jerry Springer parody episodes: “Wife knocked boots with Space Stud!”.
Most of the time, though, as joked by Kang and Kodos themselves, they are written into the show as background cameos or to simply narrate their observations from their spaceship, laughing at us, maniacally. According to showrunner and executive producer David Mirkin, these laughs sometimes just serve as a tool to make sure the episodes are the correct length for broadcast.
Sci-fi can certainly just be a little bit of fun with Kang and Kodos becoming Rocky & Bullwinkle, quoting Mork & Mindy (“D’oh. Shazbot”), and dancing in the Charlie Brown parody. And, in sci-fi moments I’ll never forget, there’s Kang’s daughter taking Bart’s virginity in Avatar parody episode, “In the Na’vi”, or Selma and Kang making sweet intergalactic love in “When Harry Met Slimy”.
There’s also a few references that Kang and Kodos are simply hired actors in Treehouse of Horror, normalizing their position in the show and adding light and humor to the aliens, despite their penchant for world domination and evading dissection. At the end of it all, “The Simpsons” is doing exactly what it does best, making fun of some pretty serious situations. And given that Space.com itself is actually featured in one of the Treehouse of Horror episodes (well, Thanksgiving of Horror technically), we feel a special bond with these extraterrestrial goofballs.
Our real-life search for aliens has proved a lot less fruitful than those of the Simpson family, but given “The Simpsons” propensity for eerily accurate futuristic predictions like smartwatches, the Apple Vision Pro, and President Trump, who’s to say Kang and Kodos aren’t out there somewhere, laughing at us with constant drool hanging out of their mouths?
While I don’t condone a 30-plus-year grudge, it didn’t take all that much convincing for Kang and Kodos to become the invading aliens that have so often been portrayed in popular culture.
But as Kang (or was it Kodos) once said, “In Rigellian, there are no words as yours or mine,” so maybe they just want to be loved, included, and praised for their acting prowess, and maybe we’re the selfish ones for sometimes nearly forgetting to include them in an episode at all.
You can watch all of The Simpsons, including the regular episodes, the movie, and the Treehouse of Horror specials on Disney+.
