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Itchy & Scratchy & Marge
The Simpsons Season 02 Episode 09
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
The Psycho allusion, while obviously a cliche, is just so well done. No Marge! Television is not responsible! You are. Stop being a bad parent and get your baby away from the TV set.
You know, the irony of me sitting there and cataloguing what's happening in the Simpsons while Marge is sitting there cataloguing the violence of Itchy and Scratchy is not lost on me. I have to say, I have very little patience for American mothers' penchant for fascism and censorship. I can't help but be incensed by the moralizing self-righteousness on display here.
Where did Homer get the idea that there are only 20 million women in the world?
I love Krusty's bouncer: Corporal Punishment.
I'm with Homer: "Take that you dumb squirrel!"
Dr. Marvin Monroe, that quack, is back. Woah, the Crusades went on for thirty whole years? That's wild.
Man, I really hate Marge's neutered version of Itchy and Scratchy. I really think they're not being nearly hard enough on her. I guess I would really like it if children played outdoors and did more active stuff, but crappy cartoons are not the solution. The Nelson Tom Sawyer reference is pretty excellent.
Helen Lovejoy and Maude Flanders, oh how I wish you'd both die. Only half of my wish is going to come true; I can tell. What's tragic is that mothers like this do exist in America. Moral majority my ass. At least Marge is reasonable enough to realize that she's been leading us down the road to fascism and she backs down.
I know Springfield is not know for its sophistication, but I refuse to believe that only Marge and Homer would be interested in seeing Michelangelo's David.
CONCLUSION
Despite my rage at the moralizing, I think this episode is indeed one of the classics. None of the jokes are duds. It moves fast, and it actually has a non-sappy point to make. Take that, you dumb squirrel!
THIS EPISODE'S RATINGS
  3/5 donuts from Statler
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RATINGS LEGEND
= LAME
= BAD
= MEH
= GOOD
= CLASSIC
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PLOT SUMMARY FROM WIKIPEDIA
Homer clumsily attempts to build Marge a spice rack. While he is doing so, Maggie sneaks up behind Homer and hits him on the head with a mallet. Marge is initially clueless as to what would motivate Maggie to do such a deed, but then notices that, when Maggie sees an episode of The Itchy & Scratchy Show, a cartoon which is known for its violence, she mimics its content and tries to stab Homer with a pencil. Marge immediately blames The Itchy & Scratchy Show for Maggie's actions and bans Bart and Lisa from watching the show. Despite the ban, Bart and Lisa still manage to watch Itchy & Scratchy at their friends' houses. Marge writes a letter to the producers of the show asking them to tone down their violence, but in response, Roger Meyers, Jr. — the chairman of Itchy & Scratchy International — writes a letter to Marge, telling her one person can not make a difference and calls her a "screwball". In response, Marge decides to "show what one screwball can do".
Marge forms "Springfieldians for Nonviolence, Understanding, and Helping" (SNUH) and forces the family to picket outside the Itchy & Scratchy Studios. Marge's protest gains momentum and soon more people join the group and even start to picket The Krusty the Klown Show, on which Itchy & Scratchy is shown. Marge appears on Kent Brockman's show, Smartline where she confronts Roger Meyers over the violence and suggests that concerned parents send letters to Meyers. Many angry letters are sent to the Studio and Roger Meyers concedes defeat, and agrees to eliminate violence in Itchy & Scratchy. Eventually, a new short in which Itchy & Scratchy sit on a porch drinking lemonade airs, but Bart, Lisa, and other kids across Springfield reject the cleaned-up show. A lengthy montage follows, in which the children of Springfield go outside and engage in various wholesome activities and that night Bart and Lisa brag about their various outdoor activities while Marge listens happily.
Meanwhile, Michelangelo's David goes on a coast-to-coast tour of the United States, and Springfield is one of its scheduled destinations. The members of SNUH try to urge Marge to protest the sculpture, insisting that it is offensive and unsuitable. However, Marge reveals that she believes that the sculpture is a masterpiece. While appearing on Smartline, Marge admits that it's wrong to censor one form of art but not another, and sadly concludes that while one person can make a difference, at the end of the day they probably shouldn't. Because it is now legally able to, Itchy & Scratchy immediately returns to its old form and Springfield's children abandon their wholesome activities and return to spending every day indoors watching the violent Itchy & Scratchy cartoons. Homer and Marge go to see David and Marge expresses her disappointment that the kids are at home watching "a cat and mouse disembowel each other" rather than seeing the sculpture. She cheers up when Homer tells her that the school will be forcing them to go.
Accessed from Wikipedia on Feb. 27, 2010