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Steamboat Itchy

Wikisimpsons - The Simpsons Wiki
"Steamboat Itchy"
Steamboat Itchy.png
The Itchy & Scratchy Show Episode Information
Pun: Steamboat Willie
Season: 4
Director: Roger Meyers, Sr.
First appearance: "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie"
"Scratchy was teamed up with a psychotic young mouse named Itchy, and cartoon history was made."
Kent Brockman[src]

Steamboat Itchy is a cartoon that was made in 1929 (the year following That Happy Cat) and was the first cartoon to star Itchy and Scratchy together.

History

The cartoon was shown during Eye on Springfield on the same day that The Itchy & Scratchy Movie came out, as a look back at the history of Itchy & Scratchy.[1]

It was later shown as evidence during the court case over the creation of Itchy where the credits have written, directed and created by Roger Myers and music by Roger Myers and George Gershwin, produced by Roger Myers and Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and copyright 1928 by Roger Myers.[2]

Itchy later appears as Steamboat Itchy in the audience with Charlie Chaplin (as The Tramp) and Babe Ruth as Lisa views the peep show.[3]

Plot

Itchy is piloting a steamboat along a river. Scratchy appears on the bridge, whistles briefly, and adjusts his hat, apparently presenting himself as ready for duty. Itchy draws a Tommy gun and unleashes a hail of bullets at Scratchy's knees, stripping them down to the bone. Scratchy screams in pain, falls down, and starts to crawl away, leaving a bloody trail on the deck. As Scratchy crawls, Itchy opens the door to the steamboat's furnace. When Scratchy crawls near the door, Itchy kicks him in the behind, pushing him into the furnace. Itchy then slams the door on Scratchy's neck, leaving him to again scream in pain as his head catches fire. After a few seconds, Itchy opens the door and pulls Scratchy out of the furnace, revealing his head burnt to a crisp. The cartoon ends with Itchy saying, "Oh me, oh my!" as the camera irises onto Scratchy's burned head.

Behind the Laughter

  • Steamboat Itchy is a parody of the classic Mickey Mouse animated short Steamboat Willie with Itchy cast as Mickey and Scratchy as Pete. As such, it is in black-and-white and animated in the style that was prevalent during the 1920s.
  • While drawing the Steamboat Itchy sequence, the animators jokingly referred to it as "Steamboat Lawsuit". David Silverman explained that he did not know "why [they] weren't sued because there's a shot right out of Steamboat Willie in [the episode]."[4]
  • Scratchy whistles the same tune and adjusts his hat when he finishes in the same way as he does in That Happy Cat.
  • At some point during development of The Simpsons Road Rage, Steamboat Itchy was going to play at the Springfield Drive-In in the Downtown level. However for the final game, the film showing was changed to a generic black-and-white Itchy & Scratchy cartoon, although Steamboat Itchy is still advertised outside the drive-in.

Appearances

References