Top 10 Greatest Itchy & Scratchy Episodes

Given the depraved violence found in Quentin Tarantino’s movies, the director’s filmography is perfect for an “Itchy & Scratchy” parody. The cartoon recreates an infamous torture scene from “Reservoir Dogs,” with Itchy tying up Scratchy to a chair and cutting off his ear. Then, an animated Quentin Tarantino interrupts the torture session to explain how his short is supposed to be a statement about violence in modern society. At the end, Itchy and Scratchy pay homage to “Pulp Fiction” by dancing like John Travolta and Uma Thurman. Thankfully for this Tarantino parody, they didn’t bring out The Gimp.

Most “Itchy & Scratchy” cartoons involve Itchy killing Scratchy in some horrific way. However, in this episode, Scratchy gets a chance to turn the tables. As Lisa tells Bart, this is the episode where Scratchy finally kills Itchy, and the two are excited to see how it unfolds. Scratchy ties up Itchy and surrounds the mouse with explosives before taking a taxi to get away. Unfortunately, we never get to see the murderous rodent get his comeuppance as the television Bart and Lisa are watching is turned off before it gets to that part.

To hype up the upcoming “Itchy & Scratchy Movie,” the local Springfield station did a story covering the history of “Itchy & Scratchy,” which included this cartoon. In the production’s fictional history, this is the first short to feature Itchy and Scratchy, and it looks like a Disney cartoon from the early black-and-white era. But things take a dark turn when Itchy opens fire on Scratchy with a machine gun and puts his head in a coal furnace. The “Steamboat Willie” spoof gives “Itchy & Scratchy” a sense of lore as if they had the rich history of Mickey Mouse.

During Scratchy’s wedding, Itchy switches out Scratchy’s bride-to-be with a fake one that has sticks of dynamite and bombs attached to it, which Scratchy ends up getting married to. Scratchy somehow has kids with the fake wife that are half cat and half dynamite. And the two grow old before the dynamite blows up next to Scratchy and kills him. This is one occasion where we get to see Itchy die, when he keels over from a heart attack after gloating about Scratchy’s death. Watching the sadistic mouse get his is a satisfying change of pace that we were all robbed of from “Burning Down the Mouse.”

In this episode, which takes place in the 1950s, Scratchy is a cop and Itchy is a no good hoodlum. Scratchy becomes injured when he tries to chase Itchy and is thrown from his motorcycle. Scratchy is put on a plane by paramedics, but since they’re mice that look like Itchy, they obviously don’t have Scratchy’s best interest in mind. In a macabre twist, the plane is revealed to have onboard Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper, which implies that Scratchy was put on board the same flight that killed those famous musicians. But the artists appear to be vampires, so this could be an alternate timeline where they’re undead. Who knows?

Throughout the episode, “The Itchy & Scratchy Movie” is built up as an epic must see film that comes once in a generation. It’s full of cameos from famous celebrities, and its promotions include a billboard that splatters blood on cars passing by. The movie is so significant, the plot of the episode is that Bart is forced to change his behavior because Homer wouldn’t let him see the movie, which resulted in Bart hitting the books and becoming Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. From what we see of the movie, it doesn’t look much different from a run of the mill episode, but the buzz surrounding the film was what made it grand.

This episode starts out with Scratchy’s funeral. It appears that Itchy may have killed the feline one too many times. Itchy begins to lament his friend, looking through an old photo album of all the fun times he had killing his companion, until he comes across a news story about cloning sheep. Through the magic of science, Itchy clones Scratchy from DNA he had on hand from a blood splattered cleaver and clones new Scratchies. This gives him the opportunity to find new ways to kill Scratchy, as the clones pop out of a conveyor belt. Remember kids, if you want to learn how to solve problems, go into a STEM field.

A commentary on the steroid scandal that dogged Major League Baseball, this episode begins with Scratchy as a ballplayer striking out. Posing as a doctor, Itchy gets Scratchy to take steroids, which makes him a power hitter and gives him a successful career. However, six years later, the steroids take their toll and cause Scratchy to grow monstrously large while he’s testifying on Capitol Hill. Disgusted by Scratchy’s behavior, the statue of Abraham Lincoln from the Lincoln Memorial steps out of his seat and pulls Scratchy’s head off and knocks it out of the National Mall into the Hall of Shame. This cartoon is delightfully random from beginning to end.

This was an episode of “Itchy & Scratchy” that Bart and Lisa wrote. We never get to see the full cartoon, and instead get to see the creative process the kids take in penning the script. They write about Scratchy getting a haircut from Itchy, but the mouse doesn’t actually give the cat proper trim. Bart vetoes Lisa’s idea of Itchy slicing off Scratchy’s entire head and instead suggests that Itchy pours barbecue sauce on Scratchy ,which attracts flesh ants that feast on Scratchy’s head. Itchy then raises Scratchy’s chair so high that he ends up on the next floor, where Elvis is watching TV and shoots it in frustration. In writing this episode, Bart and Lisa show that the best “Itchy & Scratchy” episodes take an unpredictable turn at some point.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

“Catatouille”
“Pay Pal”

“Scratchtasia”
“Itchy & Scratchy Land”

“Porch Pals”
“Itchy & Scratchy & Marge”

An Untitled Episode Krusty Poorly Narrates
“You Kent Always Say What You Want”

“Itchy & Scratchy 2”
“The Simpsons Movie” (2007)

In an effort to keep “The Itchy & Scratchy Show” fresh, the producers decided to add a new character, Poochie. Wearing a backwards ballcap and sunglasses, Poochie was full of attitude, but he may have been trying a little too hard to convince everyone how hip he was. For his debut episode, Itchy and Scratchy are taking a ride to a fireworks factory when they pull over to meet up with Poochie. Instead of inflicting violence on their new acquaintance, they decide to build up how cool Poochie is in an obviously forced way.