Animation was never meant to be exclusively targeted towards children; it’s just that kids are naturally attracted to the artifice behind bringing cartoons to life. However, it’s worth remembering that even the most kid-friendly cartoons are still made by grown-ups with adult sensibilities, and that’s why we sometimes see inappropriate (and occasionally even horrific) humor show up in otherwise tame productions.
Matt Groening was well aware of this fact when developing the long-lived animated sitcom The Simpsons. Since this Tracy Ullman Show spin-off was already satirizing a long legacy of existing cartoon families, it made sense that showrunners would also want to poke fun at other trends in the animation industry – such as the common use of over-the-top cartoon violence meant to keep kids glued to the screen. This is how we got Itchy & Scratchy, a recurring show-within-a-show parodying the most horrific trends in children’s programming.
In honor of over three decades of watching a sociopathic mouse repeatedly murder his feline nemesis in increasingly gruesome ways, we’ve decided to come up with a list celebrating six of the bloodiest and most disgusting Itchy & Scratchy segments to ever grace the Simpsons’ television screens.
This obviously won’t be a definitive list of all the best Itchy & Scratchy segments, so don’t forget to comment below with your own gory favorites if you think we missed a particularly memorable one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
6. Scratchtasia – Itchy & Scratchy Land (Season 6)
It makes a lot of sense that a show (within-a-show) meant to satirize the animation industry would eventually take on one of the most iconic achievements in cartoon history, and that’s how we got the infamous Scratchtasia segment parodying the Sorcerer’s Apprentice short from Disney’s 1940 anthology Fantasia.
Following Scratchy as our magical stand-in for Mickey Mouse, this segment is notable for being a rare instance of the hungry cat actually managing to kill Itchy, though he soon regrets his actions as this twisted parody replaces the sentient brooms of the original short with murderous copies of Itchy who multiply after being attacked – with their revenge culminating in an appropriately existential nightmare for Scratchy.
5. Catatouille – Pay Pal (Season 25)
Another over-the-top parody, this Season 25 episode saw the Simpsons writers poke fun at Pixar’s beloved Ratatouille by putting Itchy in control of his nemesis in a restaurant setting. And in a horrific series of events that would make Hannibal Lecter blush, Itchy proceeds to force Scratchy to remove and prepare his own organs and body parts and serve them to his feline customers.
There might not be that much blood involved, but this is still one of the most disturbing maimings in the show’s long-running history – as well as a reminder that The Simpsons was never afraid of legal pushback from Disney even before the company merged with 20th Century Fox!
4. A Briss Before Dying – Today I Am a Clown (Season 15)
Appropriately enough for an episode chronicling Krusty’s belated Bar Mitzvah, A Briss Before Dying is all about a traditional Jewish circumcision gone horribly wrong. In this infamous Season 15 segment, a newborn Itchy decides to prevent his own circumcision by removing Scratchy’s eyes and making the cat mutilate himself with a scalpel in an exceptionally gory (though mercifully brief) display of animated torture porn.
Despite the violence, the segment ultimately ends with Scratchy’s charred remains somehow being turned into a glass goblet that Itchy dutifully covers with a cloth and stomps, leading to the ironically heartwarming delivery of ‘Mouseltov’.
3. The Last Traction Hero – Itchy & Scratchy Land (Season 6)
Another classic from Season 6’s Itchy & Scratchy Land, the Last Traction Hero was more of an advertisement for the show’s park than a proper in-world episode, but it still features some memorable (not to mention uncomfortable) examples of animated gore.
In this segment, Scratchy discovers that his newfound bodybuilder physique is still no match for Itchy’s bloodlust, with the mouse proceeding to wear his nemesis down through hundreds of pinpricks before painfully shaving off his muscles with a chainsaw as if this were a deleted scene from Martyrs. And while the violence here is briefly interrupted by an ad read promoting the duo’s park, the gruesome fun continues once Itchy uses the “cutting ticket prices in half” line as yet another excuse to torment Scratchy.
2. Mouse M.D. – Postcard from the Wedge (Season 21)
Hugh Laurie’s curmudgeonly portrayal of Dr. House is often accused of being unnecessarily cruel, but not even this medical loose canon can compete with Itchy when he becomes Scratchy’s murderous physician in Mouse M.D. A loving parody of Fox’s incredibly popular medical drama (that even borrows the original show’s iconic theme song, Massive Attack’s Teardrop), this segment is surprisingly gruesome even by Itchy & Scratchy Show standards.
From impromptu amputations to forcing Scratchy to give birth to his own decapitated head (all because of a mere splinter), the animated cruelty on display here is simply on another level. In fact, this segment serves as a great example of why creators of hyper-violent cartoons like Mondo Media’s Happy Tree Friends often cite Itchy & Scratchy as their inspiration!
1. The Tears of a Clone – Little Big Mom (Season 11)
Much like other iconic rivalries in the vein of the Joker and Batman or Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd, Itchy and Scratchy are destined to reenact their shtick until the end of time – so it stands to reason that Itchy would be genuinely devastated if his frenemy were to permanently kick the bucket. That’s why Tears of a Clone is such a great segment, as it offers a meta twist on the classic Itchy & Scratchy formula while still delivering a disturbing amount of animated violence.
After all, it’s not every day that you see a cartoon character commit murder on an industrial scale, with Itchy setting up a cloning machine to repeatedly kill Scratchy clones before building a separate machine to continue killing them in perpetuity.
In an unrelated note, this grisly segment also boasts the brief return of fan-favorite Poochie (who seems to have been revived after previously dying on the way back to his home planet in Season 8) – which is yet another reason why it remains a fan favorite!