The Simpsons/Itchy & Scratchy & Marge

Itchy & Scratchy & Marge
Season 2, Episode 9
Airdate	December 22, 1990
Production Number	7F09
Written by	John Swartzwelder
Directed by	Jim Reardon
← 2x08 Bart the Daredevil	2x10 → Bart Gets Hit by a Car
The Simpsons — Season Two

This article about an episode needs to be expanded with more information. Please help out by editing it.

Itchy & Scratchy & Marge is the ninth episode of the second season of The Simpsons, and the twenty-second episode overall.

The episode is a satire on protest groups and violence in children's television programming, a debate that has its roots in the 1960s and continued even through the 1990s as cartoon programming began to wane (and as, ironically enough, rerun networks featuring classic cartoons that were violent, were in the planning stages and would be launched during the 1990s).

Here, Marge clashes with her children, Bart and Lisa, over whether the cartoon "The Itchy & Scratchy Show" is appropriate to watch. This, after an incident at the home where Maggie, who is too young to understand what she was seeing on TV, gets a hammer and hits Homer over the head, knocking him unconscious.

Guest Stars:

Plot Overview

It all starts with Homer wanting to build Marge a spice rack. Homer does his best, but his usual poor handicraft skills makes this project, well ... something less.

But the jokes quickly take a back seat when Maggie suddenly walks into the garage, grabs a hammer and hits Homer over the head. Homer, who was admiring his work as though he were a master, can barely react before he his struck atop the head and knocked unconscious, knocking a bucket of red paint off the bench, making it appear he had been bloodied. In the end, Homer has suffered a light concussion and is excused from work (although he is given hard time by the attendance officer as he gives to poorly-worded explanation "My baby beat me up!").

Meantime, Marge walks in to see Bart and Lisa watching a particularly violent episode of "The Itchy & Scratchy Show," and Maggie, who was also watching, grab a pencil and attempt to stab Homer in the eye. Marge scolds Maggie and, after taking her away, concludes that – moments after the Itchy & Scratchy cartoon they had just seen featured Scratchy stabbing Itchy repeatedly – cartoon violence on television was responsible for influencing Maggie's behavior. She immediately tells Bart and Lisa they are no longer allowed to watch the show.

But that's just the start of things. Marge finds out who produces the cartoons and writes I&S Productions, telling them to tone down the violence. When Roger Meyers Jr., the CEO of I&S Productions, essentially tells her she's nuts, Marge meets with other parents who are concerned about what is airing on television, and they decide to form a group called Springfieldians For Nonviolence, Understanding and Helping (SNUH), an action group to protest violence on television. They picket Channel 5 (where "The Krusty the Klown Show" originates) and I&S Studios. (At this point, an Itchy & Scratchy short using a baseball park setting is released, with a squirrel with Marge's hairstyle running onto the field to demand they don't beat each other up; the two simply hit a home run using the squirrel's head.) After an appearance on "Smartline," Marge's protest movement goes regional, as volumes of mail come in demanding an end to the violence, one letter even threatening to hit Meyers if they see him walking across the street. Meyers concedes defeat.

Eventually, a series of new Itchy & Scratchy shorts is released, the cartoons completely reworked to reinforce positive values. The first of the shorts is "Porch Pals," where the two simply sit on a porch drinking lemonade making small talk. Marge tries to play up the positive values of the cartoons, but Bart and Lisa are so unimpressed they decide to go outside and play ... and so do the other children. Later, Bart and Lisa talk about the fun they had with their friends, and that – along with Maggie no longer being violent toward her father – makes Marge very happy.

Just then, the news airs, with Brockman leading into a story about an original copy of Michaelangelo's David statue being sent on tour across the United States, with Springfield being a stop. Marge's friends from SNUH want her to lead a protest of the sculpture, insisting it is offensive and unsuitable for children to look at. Marge, however, has a different opinion and when interviewed by Brockman, she freely admits that David is a masterpiece. Dr. Marvin Monroe is immediately contacted for a counterpoint and notes the hypocrisy of Marge's crusade on violence and approving of art that some consider pornography, noting it's impossible to reject some forms of free speech and embrace others. Marge is forced to concede the point and gives up on her crusade to end violence in children's programming. It isn't long before an ultra-violent Itchy & Scratchy cartoon airs, with more to follow.

In the wrap-up, Marge bemoans that violence on television will continue to negatively influence generations of children, while a sculpture considered a world masterpiece is considered pornography. Homer, who also considers David a fine work of art, then reveals that Springfield Elementary School has planned for its students to view David at the museum.

Notes

Title Sequence

• Blackboard: "I will not pledge allegiance to Bart."
• Couch Gag: "Where's the couch? Where's the couch?" The family seems to be asking this as they run in to the living room, only to find the couch missing.

Trivia

Allusions and References

• Action for Children's Television: The grassroots parent advocacy group, among others, formed in response to incidents of violence in Saturday morning cartoon programs (most notably, reruns of old Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons) and children injuring others by imitating said violence, is spoofed with Marge's new group Springfieldians For Nonviolence, Understanding and Helping (SNUH).
• Children playing outside:
  • The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer: Nelson (and others) whitewashing a fence during the Fantasia reference comes from the Mark Twain novel.
  • Fantasia: The scene of children playing outside to the music of Beethoven's 6th Symphony parallels the 1940 Disney cartoon short.
  • Testament: Late in the episode, there is a reference to the 1983 movie with the scene of a tumbleweed blowing in the wind and the playgrounds being deserted (as children return to watching "The Krusty the Klown Show" and Itchy & Scratchy cartoons, as normal).
• Nightline: Another reference to the ABC late-night news program, with Kent Brockman as host. Here, he interviews Marge after she initiates a community debate over censorship and television violence.
• Psycho: The scene of Maggie hitting Homer over the head with a mallet while in the garage – everything from the music sting during the shower scene attack, the woman screaming and then falling unconscious as she grabs the shower curtain, blood running down the drain, all the camera angles and so forth – comes from the legendary 1960 Alfred Hitchcock movie.

Quotes

• Marge's letter to I&S Productions: “Dear Purveyors of Senseless Violence: I know this may sound silly at first, but I believe that the cartoons you show to our children are influencing their behavior in a negative way. Please try to tone down the psychotic violence in your otherwise fine programming. Yours truly, Marge Simpson.”

Reviews

• Overall Grade: no reviews yet
• Review Breakdown: A+: 0 A: 0 A-: 0 B+: 0 B: 0 B-: 0 C+: 0 C: 0 C-: 0 D: 0 F: 0