Why The Simpsons Censorship Episode Stood the Test of Time. Eventually, every grownup animated series does its obligatory anti censorship episode. Maybe, at one point, it was because producers of such series all had similar experiences i. Beavis Butthead injured themselves imitating a TV show but it was a PBS documentary about Ben Franklin. Duckman was enlisted to save the world of stand up comedy from a suspicious trend toward cleanliness. South Park has turned this routine into something of a speciality producing multiple self righteous variations on the theme it was even the plot of South Park Bigger, Longer and Uncut, where the only thing that ever changed was which group Trey Parker and Matt Stone felt were out to get them at that particular moment helicopter parents, Scientology, celebrity political activists, people who dont want you to draw Muhammad, etc. These episodes tend to be very funny, but they also often have surprisingly short pop cultural shelf lives too wedded to passing controversies and built too much off the personal grudge holding of writers and producers to maintain a proper grip on the public consciousness especially in terms of whatever message they were trying to send. Marjorie Jacqueline Marge Simpson ne Bouvier, the deuteragonist of The Simpsons, is the. The main things people tend to remember about South Parks 2. Cartoon Wars mini epic are Cartman teaming up with an expy of Bart Simpson, and Parker and Stones assertion that rival series Family Guy was scripted by manateesNot so much ditto Kyles plaintively earnest Its all okay, or none of it is moralizing. But there is one such episode that still holds up after all these years, despite being older than any of the others in fact, it might well be the progenitor of the entire cycle patient zero and hailing from a series that never truly set out to merely shock in the first place. Naturally, were talking about The Simpsons take on the subject, Season 2s 9th episode Itchy Scratchy Marge. S. N. U. H. FILMThe episode is considered a standout classic, even among the rest of The Simpsons highly lauded first ten seasons, so its likely you remember the plot by heart Baby Maggie injures Homer with a mallet blow to the head, which Marge subsequently discovers is the result of her imitating the antics of Itchy Scratchy the cat and mouse cartoon team whose shorts run as part of the Krusty the Clown Show. After having her fairly passive letter of complaint rudely rejected by the cartoons producer Roger Meyers Jr. Together, they successfully cow the animation studio into reworking Itchy Scratchy into a friendly series so saccharine that its fans are driven to abandon TV and rediscover the joys of idyllic outdoor play. Watch Last Knights Putlocker. But, in a glib final twist characteristic of early Simpsons exasperated take on on the failings of good intentions, Marge doesnt get to rest on her laurels. The rest of S. N. The Simpsons are a family who live in a fictional Middle American town of Springfield. Homer, the father, works as a safety inspector at the Springfield Nuclear. You Are Reading Why The Simpsons Censorship Episode Stood the Test of Time. The origin story continues on Season Three of GOTHAM, and the stakes are higher than ever, as SuperVillains more ambitious and depraved are introduced, and a. Fans of Frequency and No Tomorrow were collectively crushed when CW revealed that neither freshman series would get a second season. While neither show is getting a. Homer uses his paid sick leave to improve his marriage, with the help of his imaginary friend, superspy Stradivarius Cain. Meanwhile, Bart gets revenge on Nelson for. U. H. Itchy Scratchy return to normal, Springfields children are drawn back to television and The Simpsons world goes back perfect imperfection. DONT DO THATSo why does Itchy Scratchy Marge endure like a Twinkie where other shows attempt to tackle the subject age more like poorly preserved cheese The main reason is likely the writing The Simpsons was so far out ahead of every other network sitcom animated or not at this point in time that it was barely even a contest, and this particular piece was an early gem from enigmatic fan favorite writer John Schwartzwelder. Ep Original air date Gag Episode Production code 14 October 11, 1990 The Simpsons pile on to the couch. The couch falls through the floor as Homer says DohSimply put, no one should be surprised that a series routinely cited as one of televisions greatest creations would outgun its rivals and imitators. It also probably helped that the makers of The Simpsons were able to approach the issue from their usual position above the fray, observing and mocking the ridiculousness of humankind, rather than opting to play defense. Detractors of The Simpsons in this era were mainly focused on the shows Bart centric kiddie merchandising empire than the show itself, and by most accounts the episode was based more on the public assault on fellow Fox Network staple Married, With Children, which really was led by an ultra religious housewife whose campaign against the raunchy sitcom gained brief national media attention. By contrast, other series that have taken up similar storylines tended to do so in reaction to direct challenges to their own product and, as such, lack a certain amount of nuance however well disguised. Family Guys PTV starts out broadly mocking the FCC overreaction to the Janet JacksonJustin Timberlake Super Bowl Halftime wardrobe malfunction incident, but it quickly becomes all about Seth Mac. Farlane and his writers bracing at the way that overreaction was felt by their newly returning series the episodes setpiece is an anti FCC musical number that climaxes with a montage of edge skirting gags from the earlier incarnation of the show. Likewise, South Parks Cartoon Wars is all about lionizing Parker and Stones position on the Muhammad cartoon controversy as not only a righteous position, but the only righteous position. The only notable opposing voices being heard are from Al Qaeda terrorists and Eric Cartman, who doesnt actually care about the issue outside of manipulating it to destroy Family Guy, which he views as an inferior pretender to his personal brand of humor. Thats not to say that any work of fiction tackling a controversial subject is obliged to play at false objectivity or indulge in the Golden Mean Fallacy where both sides are held wrong against a hypothetical centrist view, but moral binary tends to create narratives that dont hold up to scrutiny or over time especially when everyone knows youre casting yourself as the good guy. Unsurprisingly, Itchy Scratchy Marge features a prescient gag at the expense of this very tendency At the very moment that Marge is wavering on the efficacy of her campaign, the animators decide to escalate the situation by having their cat and mouse duo declare a momentary detente to decapitate a scolding squirrel sporting her signature hairdo. The next day, Marge appears on Smartline with Kent Brockman and instructs viewers to inundate I S International with angry mail briefly bringing the classic version of Itchy Scratchy to an end. THE SCREWBALLS HAVE SPOKEN. That moment the squirrel is a sly bit of brilliance in an episode made of them, deftly playing Marges endearing incompetence as a DIY activist her protest sign reads, in full IM PROTESTING BECAUSE ITCHY SCRATCHY ARE INDIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR MY HUSBAND BEING HIT ON THE HEAD WITH A MALLET with the sheer obnoxiousness of the animators. The short, prior to Squirrel Marge arriving, appears to consist of little more than a loop of the protagonists hitting each other with baseball bats, and the cartoonist whos inspired to add her chuckles in smug self satisfaction at what we soon see is a pretty stupid joke even by Itchy Scratchy standards. Pies are easier to draw the heroes of the story, even though theyre the ones who ultimately get to win and the story is being conceived by fellow mischievous cartoon makers. After all, they were never designed for self flattery. With Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith. Marge tries to get Homer to lose weight. But instead, he finds a support group that encourages. Bartholomew JoJo Bart Simpson born February 23, also known as El Barto, The boy Homer. Itchy Scratchy and Krusty, for that matter were always meant to be terrible, poorly made television. The show did such a perfect job recreating the addictive vapidity of most childrens programming that if you started watching The Simpsons at roughly Bart and Lisas respective ages, you could easily wind up sharing their affection for a Bozo wannabe embodying the totality of the hack comedian archetype, and the sub Tom Jerry time filler he shilled between commercials. Viewed with adult eyes, however, the satire is clear.