The Itchy & Scratchy Show

The Itchy & Scratchy Show Fictional Show
The Itchy & Scratchy Show title card.
Format	Animated Children's show
Created by	Chester J. Lampwick
Starring	June Bellamy
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	80+
Production
Executive producer(s)	Roger Meyers, Jr. Krusty the Clown
Broadcast
Original channel	Channel 6

The Itchy & Scratchy Show is a segment or "side-show" featured on The Simpsons which usually appears as a portrayal of the fictional Krusty the Clown TV show, watched regularly by Bart and Lisa Simpson and other characters on the animated series. Itself an animated cartoon, The Itchy & Scratchy Show depicts an anthropomorphic blue mouse, Itchy (voiced by Dan Castellaneta) who mutilates an anthropomorphic black cat, Scratchy (voiced by Harry Shearer).

They first appeared in the Tracey Ullman Show short "The Bart Simpson Show", which originally aired November 20, 1988. Their first appearance in the regular series was "There's No Disgrace Like Home".

Itchy and Scratchy subvert the "cat versus mouse" archetype popularized by Tom and Jerry in that there is no explicit aggressor; instead, both cat and mouse act as aggressors on occasion. Itchy and Scratchy features more gore and injury than its predecessor, in a send-up of the cartoon violence present in the original.

Role in The Simpsons

A scene from the opening sequence of the show

The Itchy & Scratchy Show is a show within a show that appears occasionally in episodes of The Simpsons. They typically appear in the form of 15-60 second cartoons that are filled with over-the-top violence as the two characters, Itchy the mouse and Scratchy the cat, attempt to kill each other. Itchy is almost always the victor.^[1]

A complex backstory for the show has been established. The episode "The Day the Violence Died" (season seven, 1996) reveals that Chester J. Lampwick invented Itchy in 1919, but the character was stolen by Roger Meyers.^[2] Scratchy starred in his first cartoon in 1928, entitled That Happy Cat. The film, a 14-second-long animation showing the cat whistling and tipping his hat, did very poorly commercially. Later that year, Itchy and Scratchy starred in their first cartoon together entitled Steamboat Itchy, a violent parody of Disney's Steamboat Willie featuring Mickey Mouse.^[3] Along with the cartoon shorts, Itchy and Scratchy were featured in a wartime radio series,^[4] at least two films—Pinitchio and Scratchtasia,^[5] and television commercials for Laramie Cigarettes.^[6]

Itchy and Scratchy Studios is run by Roger Meyers, Jr., the son of Roger Meyers, the cartoon's "creator". Itchy and Scratchy Studios was bankrupted after it was sued by Lampwick for $800 million, but was saved after receiving a large cash settlement from the government over its use of Mr. ZIP.^[2]

The Itchy and Scratchy Show airs as a segment on the Krusty the Klown show, but moved to the Gabbo show during the latter's short-lived run.^[7] The show underwent a non-violent retooling following a protest campaign led by Marge Simpson, but after Marge was later discredited, it returned to its original violent format.^[8] The show has spawned an Academy Award-winning film adaptation,^[3] amusement parks,^[5] and a musical.^[9]

Many aspects of The Itchy & Scratchy show are a parody of Walt Disney films and include shorts such as "Scratchtasia", a parody of Fantasia; and "Pinitchio", a parody of Pinocchio.^[10] Itchy & Scratchy are often used for animation-related jokes. For example, the Manhattan Madness cartoon in "The Day the Violence Died" is based on very early animated cartoons such as Gertie the Dinosaur.^[11] Itchy and Scratchy often play out an exaggerated form of the conflict in the surrounding episode. For example, in "Deep Space Homer" (season five, 1994), Homer is recruited by NASA, and later watches an Itchy and Scratchy cartoon which directly (and gruesomely) parodies the films 2001: A Space Odyssey and Alien.^[12]

Characters

The Itchy & Scratchy Show

Itchy and Scratchy are the main characters in the show. The duo first appeared in The Tracey Ullman Show short "The Itchy & Scratchy Show", which aired November 20, 1988. Their first appearance in The Simpsons was "There's No Disgrace Like Home".^[13] Itchy, voiced by Dan Castellaneta, is a blue mouse, and usually is the victor in their battles. An exception is in "Homer Goes to College" (season five, 1993). Bart and Lisa watch a cartoon called "Burning Down the Mouse", as Lisa puts it, "This is the one where Scratchy finally gets Itchy." Due to the Simpsons' television being unplugged, the viewer does not see the end of the cartoon, Krusty proclaims that it will never be shown again.^[14] Scratchy, voiced by Harry Shearer, is a black cat and is the victim of much abuse from Itchy. The writers often forget which character is which; a trick they use is that Scratchy contains the letters c, a and t.^[13]

Poochie, voiced by Dan Castellaneta, is an anthropomorphic dog that appeared in "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show" (season eight, 1997). In the episode, the producers of The Itchy & Scratchy Show believed the cartoons were getting stale, and needed a new character to reinvigorate the show. Homer Simpson gets the job of voicing Poochie, who is introduced in the cartoon, "The Beagle Has Landed". A product of marketing department thinking, Poochie was near-universally despised, and was killed off in his second appearance, despite Homer's objections.

The episode was both a reference to TV shows which added new characters purportedly to reinvigorate the show, and a commentary on the growing complaints of fans of The Simpsons.^[15] The original idea for the episode was the Poochie would be obnoxious because he was so rich, rather than because he was so cool.^[15] Poochie would later make brief speaking cameo appearances in "Treehouse of Horror IX" and "Little Big Mom".^[16][15]

Production staff

Roger Meyers, Jr., voiced by Alex Rocco and Hank Azaria, is the CEO of Itchy & Scratchy Studios and is the son of Roger Meyers. He first appeared in "Itchy & Scratchy & Marge" (season two, 1990). He distributes the cartoon and is a jaded and selfish businessman who has nothing but contempt for the children who comprise his audience.^[17] He also possesses an extremely obnoxious personality, where he only cares about people who can help him. This is displayed in his contempt for the writers of The Itchy & Scratchy Show.^[18]

Alex Rocco also voices Meyers in "The Day the Violence Died" and "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show". He said that he liked voicing Meyers because "I get to be a big-shot."^[19] However, he professed being nervous when voicing the character for the first time in "Itchy & Scratchy & Marge" because he said that he had never done a voice-over before. At first he tried doing a special voice, but was told to "just be yourself."^[19] Rocco was one of Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein's favorite guest stars, and they liked including him in their episodes so they could "have a little fun with him."^[11] On occasions when Rocco was unavailable to do a voice over, Meyers was voiced by Hank Azaria in "The Front" (season four, 1993), "Lady Bouvier's Lover" (season five, 1994) and "Itchy & Scratchy Land".^[20]

The spelling of Meyers' name has been inconsistant in the show. His last name was spelt Myers in "Itchy & Scratchy & Marge", and the later episode "The Day the Violence Died".^[8][2] However, his name is spelt Meyers in "The Front", as well as in the book The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family.^[18][21] For purposes of this article, his name is spelt Meyers.

Roger Meyers, Sr. first appeared in video footage in "Itchy & Scratchy Land" and has never had a speaking role. He was created because the writers felt it would have been "tortured logic" to have the Roger Meyers, Jr. be the creator.^[11] Roger Meyers Sr has similarities to Walt Disney.^[22] For example, Disney's alleged antisemitism is spoofed when it is revealed that Meyers made a cartoon called Nazi Supermen are our Superiors.^[23]

June Bellamy, voiced by Tress MacNeille, is the actress who portrays both Itchy and Scratchy. Her only appearance was in "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show". She is a reference to veteran voice actress June Foray. In the episode, it is said that a woman voiced the characters, but in reality both Itchy & Scratchy are voiced by men.^[15]

Chester J. Lampwick, voiced by Kirk Douglas, is the creator of Itchy and only appeared in "The Day the Violence Died". Douglas was not the producers' first choice for the character, they first wanted William Hickey, but he turned them down.^[11] Douglas's recording session was fraught with interruptions because he refused to wear the earphones supplied to him in the recording studio, and said the maximum he would do was two takes.^[24]

Writing staff: In several episodes centering around the production of The Itchy & Scratchy Show, charicatures of the show's staff are used as the staff of The Itchy & Scratchy Show. This first occured in "Itchy & Scratchy & Marge" where charicatures of animators David Silverman, Wes Archer and Rich Moore can be seen.^[25]In "The Front" many of the show's writers were used, this in-joke was purely an idea of the animators. John Swartzwelder, George Meyer, Jeff Martin, Al Jean, Sam Simon, Jon Vitti and Mike Reiss all appeared in the episode.^[20] This joke returned in "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show". Almost all of the writers shown are caricatures of the actual staff of The Simpsons. In the first scene at the production table the person in the lower right corner, wearing a squid T-shirt, is David X. Cohen. On the left side, the furthest away is Bill Oakley with Josh Weinstein next to him. Next to Weinstein is George Meyer, who is the writer who speaks out and gets fired. The animator shown designing Poochie is supervising director David Silverman. Others who appear include Dan McGrath, Ian Maxtone-Graham, Donick Cary, Ron Hauge, Ned Goldreyer and Mike Scully, who had to be added in later, as the animators "didn't have his photo" from which to get an accurate likeness.^[15]

Background

Origins

The Itchy & Scratchy Show first appeared in the Tracey Ullman Show short "The Bart Simpson Show", which originally aired November 20, 1988. They are based on Tom and Jerry and other cat and mouse cartoons. As a kid, series creator Matt Groening and his friends would fantasize about an ultra violent cartoon and how much fun it would be to work on a show like that.^[26][13] The names "Itchy" and "Scratchy" were inspired by "Pixie and Dixie", who were mice on the cartoon show Pixie and Dixie and Mr. Jinks.^[26] The show is also based on Herman and Katnip, a show that, according to director David Silverman, "is hilarious because it's just bad".^[27][25] As a kid, Groening really liked the 1961 Disney film One Hundred and One Dalmatians, and it was one of the reasons to why he got into cartooning.^[28] In the film, the puppies watches television in the course of the film, and the idea that you can have a cartoon within a cartoon thrilled Groening. From that idea he got the inspiration for The Itchy & Scratchy Show.^[28]

David Silverman states that Itchy and Scratchy cartoons are "an ironic commentary on cartoon mayhem in the sense that it's taken to a more realistic level. The kids on The Simpsons are laughing at it, and we're laughing too, but part of what you're laughing at is the over-the-top excessiveness of the violence."^[27]

Development

Itchy and Scratchy cartoons are often added when a show needs expanding^[29] or when there is an issue that the writers wish to satirize.^[30] In some cases, notably in "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show", the writers use Itchy & Scratchy as a way to comment on The Simpsons.^[15] The shorts are often hard for the writers and take a long time to develop and come up with a title for the short and in the end they do not fill up a large amount of time.^[31] Writing the Itchy & Scratchy cartoons is quite often a group effort, with it being pitched out one gag after another.^[32] Itchy & Scratchy are a favourite of John Swartzwelder, who has written many of the episodes that centre around them and quite often pitches the ideas for the shorts.^[31] In the early seasons, fans wanted more Itchy & Scratchy, so the writers decided to do "Itchy & Scratchy & Marge", an episode also dealt with censorship issues which would allow them to show several cartoons.^[25] The cartoons are often kept short, because according to David Silverman, "it doesn't really work as a long cartoon."^[27]

During his tenure as showrunner (season five and six) David Mirkin was asked by the FOX network not to do any more Itchy & Scratchy cartoons due to the amount of violence in them. In response, the show produced "Itchy & Scratchy Land". The network asked them not to do the episode, and threatened that if the episode was produced, they would cut the Itchy & Scratchy parts out themselves, but relented when showrunner David Mirkin threatened to tell the media. The writers nevertheless promised to try not to overdo the violence and in some scenes the violence was cut.^[22]

During their tenure as executive producers, Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein tried to fit in one episode relating to The Itchy & Scratchy Show every season. They note that as the seasons went on, it became harder and harder for them to come up with new Itchy & Scratchy episode ideas.^[11] Although the episode was quite difficult to animate, "Itchy & Scratchy Land" was "a dream come true" for the animators, as they quite enjoyed animating scenes filled with violence.^[33]

Reception

In a 2006 article IGN.com ranked Itchy & Scratchy in tenth position on their list of the "Top 25 Simpsons Peripheral Characters", citing that "the Itchy & Scratchy Show shines a nice mirror on cartoons, showing just how funny cartoon violence really is."^[34] In 2007, Vanity Fair named "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show" the sixth best episode in the show's history, describing it as "a classic satire of network influence, obsessed TV fans, and programs that survive long after the shark has been jumped, the episode is a meta-celebration, a tongue-in-cheek rebuttal to everyone who claimed that the quality of The Simpsons had declined over the years."^[35] Todd Gilchrist called it a masterpiece, stating it "could easily be packaged and sold by [itself]."^[36] Comic Book Guy's phrase "Worst. Episode. Ever" was named as a quote that could be used in everyday life, as well as being one of the most popular quotes from the show, by The A.V. Club.^[37]

Merchandising

A video game named The Itchy and Scratchy Game was released for Sega Mega Drive, Game Gear, Super NES and Game Boy.^[38] Another game, Itchy and Scratchy in Miniature Golf Madness, was released for Game Boy.^[39] A level of the SNES/Genesis game Bart's Nightmare also prominently features Itchy and Scratchy. Itchy and Scratchy play roles in "Grand Theft Scratchy" section in The Simpsons Game.

See also

• List of Itchy and Scratchy cartoons

Notes

References

• Richmond, Ray; Antonia Coffman (1997). The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family. New York City: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-00-638898-1. 
• Turner, Chris (2004). Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Documented an Era and Defined a Generation. Toronto: Random House Canada. ISBN 0-679-31318-4. 

External links

• Itchy & Scratchy episode guide