Itchy & Scratchy
Itchy & Scratchy
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Character Information
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Itchy & Scratchy
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Character Information
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Itchy and Scratchy are a super-violent cartoon cat and mouse duo in the style of Tom and Jerry featured on the Krusty the Clown Show.
Contents
The Show
As with Tom and Jerry, the premise is a basic one: Itchy will constantly kill, maim and/or torture Scratchy. Sometimes this can take moments, sometimes decades (when Scratchy got married to some extremely long-fused explosives). The episode titles are regularly violent puns - examples include "Bleeder of the Pack", "Flay Me To The Moon" and "My Dinner With Itchy". Itchy's IQ is stated as 9, while Scratchy's IQ is 1.
Only one episode has ever had Scratchy 'win', but Bart and Lisa never got to see the ending, much to their dismay ("Homer Goes to College").
Themes
The opening theme is short and simple. The lyrics:
"They fight! and bite!
They fight and bite and fight!
Fight, fight, fight!
Bite, bite, bite!
The Itchy and Scratchy Show!"
The closing theme, as featured in Bart the Murderer, is much the same, only at a faster tempo and lyrics in the past tense:
"They fought! and bit!
They fought and bit and fought!
Fought, fought, fought!
Bit, bit, bit!
The Itchy and Scratchy Show!"
Spin-Offs
A short-lived spin-off of the original cartoon series was titled the "Itchy & Scratchy & Friends Hour", which featured the original characters Uncle Ant, Disgruntled Goat, and Ku Klux Klam. While the spin-off was cancelled, merchandise featuring these characters is still available. Itchy & Scratchy International's other characters include Flatulent Fox and Manic Mailman, but it is unclear whether these characters appeared in the Itchy & Scratchy & Friends Hour.
Poochie Era
In the episode "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show", the perennially popular cartoon was experiencing a dip in ratings. After a focus group meeting, Roger Meyers Jr. decided that a new character was needed, and the studio came up with a poorly-devised extreme surfer dog named Poochie. Homer Simpson provided the voice for Poochie, who only co-starred with the cat and mouse for two poorly-received episodes before being hurriedly killed off (with Krusty promising the kids he'll never return). He briefly appears in Treehouse of Horror IX where he is run over by Itchy and Scratchy.
Parody
I&S has been parodied itself in the show. Briefly, during the popularity of the Krusty Show's competitor The Gabbo Show, the rights to air new episodes and the back catalog of Itchy and Scratchy went to the latter, forcing Krusty to replace it with a bizarre Eastern Europe cat and mouse cartoon "Worker and Parasite".
Studio
The show is produced by Itchy & Scratchy International. The company was founded by Roger Meyers Sr., a controversial WWII filmmaker who made a career out of violent cartoons. Roger Meyers Jr. has run the company since the death of his father.
The origin of the show is one mired in mystery; whilst the Meyer's family claim everything in their show as their own, a homeless man named Chester Lampwick claimed that he was the actual creator of Itchy, and that Meyers Sr. stole the idea from him. Lampwick, with the assistance of Bart, successfully sued the studio for US$800 Million, which saw the closure of the company until it was saved by two concerned youngsters (Lester and Eliza).
The duo have their own theme park named Itchy & Scratchy Land (a parody of Disneyworld), and eventually their own musical.
Treehouse of Horror
In the "Treehouse of Horror IX" tale "The Terror of Tiny Toon", Bart and Lisa entered their television and were attacked by Itchy & Scratchy. At the end of the story, they broke out of the TV into the real world: Fortunately they were not a threat, as they were the same size as "real-world" cats and mice.
Original Plans
During the early days of The Simpsons, Itchy and Scratchy were originally intended to appear briefly, but their cartoon shorts proved very popular and became a regular part of the show. The show's highlighting / satire of television violence and the debates surrounding it is still relevant.
Episode Appearances
Comic Appearances
