Itchy & Scratchy & Marge

Plot

Homer attempts to build a spice rack for Marge but is knocked unconscious by Maggie wielding a mallet. Marge believes Maggie is imitating violence from The Itchy & Scratchy Show and forbids Bart and Lisa from watching it, though they continue viewing at friends' homes. She writes to the cartoon studio, but chairman Roger Meyers Jr. dismisses her concerns and produces a cartoon featuring a squirrel caricature of Marge being killed. Marge forms a protest group called Springfieldians for Nonviolence, Understanding, and Helping (SNUH) and leads her family in picketing the studio.

The boycott gains momentum, and after Marge appears on the panel show Smartline, Meyers receives thousands of angry letters and agrees to remove violence from Itchy & Scratchy, soliciting story ideas from Marge. The children dislike the new schmaltzy format and stop watching to play outside. Later, a traveling exhibition of Michelangelo's sculpture David is scheduled for Springfield. Other SNUH members urge Marge to protest the nudity, but she considers David a masterpiece.

On Smartline, she admits it is hypocritical to censor Itchy & Scratchy but not David, realizing her protests have done more harm than good. SNUH disbands, and Itchy & Scratchy returns to its old format, with children resuming watching. Marge laments to Homer that kids prefer violent cartoons to great art, but Homer cheers her by noting the school is forcing students to see David on a field trip.

Production

The episode "Itchy & Scratchy & Marge" tackled censorship and gave the writers a chance to include several Itchy & Scratchy cartoons, something many fans had been asking for. John Swartzwelder, a big fan of the duo who wrote multiple episodes featuring them, handled the script. The story was partly inspired by Terry Rakolta, who had protested Fox over Married... with Children. Despite their own personal feelings, the writers tried to avoid taking a side on the larger issue.

During the first broadcast, a Fox satellite failure meant the entire West Coast missed the first act. This was Jim Reardon’s first time directing an episode; his violent student film Bring Me the Head of Charlie Brown prepared him for the job. Several characters at the Itchy & Scratchy studio are caricatures of real people: the animator drawing Marge as a squirrel is based on Eddie Fitzgerald, and the three people with Roger Meyers Jr. when he asks Marge for suggestions are caricatures of Rich Moore, David Silverman, and Wes Archer.

Alex Rocco appeared as Roger Meyers Jr. for the first of three times. Many staff members loved The Godfather, so Reardon wanted to shoot Meyers in the eye as a nod to Rocco’s character Moe Greene. Rocco, nervous because he had never done voice-over work, initially tried a unique voice but was told to just be himself. The long montage of Springfield children playing was directed by Bob Anderson and makes a satirical point by expressing the opposite of what the writers believed.

Swartzwelder wrote the segment, and Beethoven’s 6th Symphony was in the original script. James L. Brooks wanted the episode to end with the montage, but the writers disagreed. Roger Meyers Jr. and Sideshow Mel, who has no lines until Radio Bart, both appear here for the first time.

Cultural references

When Maggie conks Homer with a mallet, the sequence closely mimics the shower murder in Psycho, right down to the music and camera work. Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, first movement, plays as the kids play outside, echoing a part of Disney's Fantasia. Nelson whitewashes a fence, a nod to Tom Sawyer and Norman Rockwell's painting of the scene. Maggie later fires at a photo of Homer's eye, referencing Moe Greene's death in The Godfather.

Reception

The original broadcast was watched by 22.2 million viewers, finishing 34th in ratings for the week of December 17–23, 1990 with a Nielsen rating of 12.9, making it the highest-rated show on Fox that week. Gary Russell and Gareth Roberts praised the episode as a superb debate about television violence and censorship, noting the poignant ending involving Michelangelo's David. Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club praised the sequence of children playing outside as one of his favorite in television, calling it a lovely, lyrical moment that presents an alternate universe of innocence before being yanked back.

He also felt the episode made a relevant point aligned with Swartzwelder's libertarianism without sacrificing character. Swartzwelder listed this among his favorite episodes he wrote. Empire named the Psycho parody the second best film parody in the show, calling it the most lovingly rendered Hitchcock reference. Total Film's Nathan Ditum ranked it the 22nd greatest film reference in the show's history.

In March 2023, a Florida charter school principal was forced to resign after complaints about images of David being shown to students, drawing comparisons to the episode's ending.