The Itchy & Scratchy Show

Did You Know?

• Itchy and Scratchy appear in one of the last scenes of the film Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai.
• A version of The Itchy & Scratchy Game for the Sega Genesis was developed but never commercially released.
• The duo host a pre-show video called 'Safety First' for The Simpsons Ride at Universal Studios.

Role in The Simpsons

The Itchy & Scratchy Show appears occasionally in episodes of The Simpsons as 15- to 60-second cartoons filled with graphic violence, almost always initiated by Itchy against Scratchy, with Itchy usually victorious. It airs as a segment on The Krusty the Clown Show and also on its brief replacements, The Side-Show Bob Cavalcade of Whimsy and Gabbo. In some episodes, such as 'In Marge We Trust', it airs as a standalone show rather than a segment. The cartoons parody traditional cartoons or take off on famous films, always with violent and bloody content, with Itchy performing unprovoked acts of graphic violence and homicide. The most direct parody is Tom and Jerry, though in Itchy & Scratchy the mouse acts as the antagonist. Shorts include 'Scratchtasia', a parody of Fantasia, and 'Pinitchio', a parody of Pinocchio. Animation-related jokes are prevalent, such as the 'Manhattan Madness' cartoon based on early animated cartoons like Gertie the Dinosaur. The cartoons sometimes play out an exaggerated form of the conflict in the surrounding episode, as in 'Deep Space Homer', where a cartoon parodies 2001: A Space Odyssey and Alien.

Characters

The show's antagonist is Itchy, a blue mouse voiced by Dan Castellaneta. He nearly always succeeds in his relentless efforts to maim or kill Scratchy and any other cats, with his attacks rarely having any motivation beyond the thrill of killing. He often laughs evilly while committing murder. Scratchy, voiced by Harry Shearer, is the protagonist: a scruffy, not-too-bright black cat who is the constant victim. Unlike Tom from Tom and Jerry, Scratchy almost never provokes the mouse and is usually just an ordinary civilian going about his day until Itchy kills him. Poochie, an orange dog, appeared in the 1997 episode "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show." In that episode, the show's producers felt the cartoons were getting stale and needed a new character. Homer Simpson lands the job of voicing Poochie, who is introduced in the cartoon "The Beagle Has Landed." A product of marketing thinking, Poochie was almost universally hated for getting in the way of the graphic violence, and was permanently killed off in his second appearance despite Homer's objections. The episode served as a reference to TV shows adding new characters to reinvigorate themselves and as a commentary on growing complaints from The Simpsons' fans. Poochie later made brief speaking cameos in "Treehouse of Horror IX," "Little Big Mom," and "The Nightmare After Krustmas."

Background

The Itchy & Scratchy Show made its debut on November 20, 1988, in a Tracey Ullman Show short called "The Bart Simpson Show." These characters were the first major recurring figures outside the Simpson family. Creator Matt Groening, as a child, used to imagine an extremely violent cartoon with his friends, thinking it would be a blast to work on something like that. The names Itchy and Scratchy came from Pixie and Dixie, a segment on The Huckleberry Hound Show. Another likely influence is the comic strip Squeak the Mouse. Groening was also a big fan of the 1961 Disney film One Hundred and One Dalmatians, where puppies watch TV; the concept of a cartoon inside a cartoon excited him, leading to the idea for Itchy & Scratchy. According to David Silverman, these cartoons offer an ironic take on cartoon violence by pushing it to a more realistic extreme, with the Simpson kids laughing at it and the audience laughing at how over-the-top it is. Writer and producer Mike Reiss argues that the show is actually based on Herman and Katnip, which he describes as a low-budget, ultra-violent copy of Tom and Jerry. Silverman agrees, noting that Herman and Katnip is funny precisely because it is so poorly made. The first appearance on The Simpsons was in "There's No Disgrace Like Home." Early on, it became clear that Scratchy is a gentle character constantly tormented by his friend, the psychotic mouse Itchy.

Reception

In his 2004 book Planet Simpson, author Chris Turner describes Itchy & Scratchy as 'by far the most gleeful visual riffing on The Simpsons', noting each snippet packs as much action and physical humor as a half-dozen Road Runner cartoons and a dozen Tom & Jerrys. In 2007, Vanity Fair named 'The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show' the sixth-best episode in the show's history, calling it a classic satire of network influence, obsessed TV fans, and programs that survive long after the shark has been jumped. Todd Gilchrist of IGN called Itchy & Scratchy a masterpiece that could easily be packaged and sold by itself. Robert Canning of IGN wrote that it is always fun to see an Itchy and Scratchy cartoon but believes shorter, simpler cartoons are better than longer, more complex ones. In 2003, Entertainment Weekly named 'Itchy & Scratchy Land' and 'The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show' the seventh-best and 23rd-best episodes of The Simpsons, respectively. In 2006, IGN ranked Itchy & Scratchy tenth on their list of the 'Top 25 Simpsons Peripheral Characters', citing that the show shines a mirror on cartoons, showing how funny cartoon violence really is. In 2014, Vulture published The Simpsons writers' rankings of their nine favorite Itchy & Scratchy cartoons, including 'Steamboat Itchy', 'Bleeder of the Pack', the opening scene of The Simpsons Movie, and the safety video 'Safety First'. A proposed spinoff TV series was planned in the 1990s but did not move beyond an initial screening, as test audiences found the repetition of violence too excessive. Matt Groening affirmed that the gimmick worked in short scenes but would not have been as funny for an entire show.