S2E9 Itchy & Scratchy & Marge

After Bart and Lisa watch an Itchy and Scratchy cartoon, Maggie whacks Homer with a mallet over the head. Marge is horrified and vows to stop violence on children's television. But when the ball of censorship starts to roll, where will it all end?

In this episode, we discuss:

• The inspiration for this episode: a real-life anti-censorship crusader, Terry Rakolta, who protested the show "Married... with Children".
• The shot-for-shot scene in this episode from AHitchcock'shcok's PsMichaelangelo'sngeo's The Statue of David, and which country's currency has a willie on their note

A deep-dive research podcast with host Perrie Kap examines the most fantastic TV show of our time: The Simpsons.

Pssst. We now have episode chapters! Jump ahead to hear your discussion!

#thesimpsons

#hellomrburns

#itchy&scratchy&marge

Transcript

Perrie Kap  0:12  
Whoo hoo hoo. I'm back, baby. And did I have a really nice break? I did. Oh my goodness. I was away for two weeks for a wedding in India for my good friends Carla and our June so congrats, guys if you're listening to this, although hopefully you're already on your honeymoon. So yeah, so over the past couple of weeks, I lost my voice completely. And while I was in India, I was really upset. I didn't bring my microphone over, because I could have recorded an entire episode with a jazz voice.

Unknown Speaker  0:39  
Oh, you don't have to go to all that trouble just for me.

Unknown Speaker  0:43  
Anyway, sorry. I should introduce myself. So hi, my name is Perry and this is the Hello Mr. Burns podcast, a Simpsons research podcast to help you win pub trivia. Awesome. Okay, so the episode today we're going to be tackling is season two, episode nine. And it's called Itchy and Scratchy and Marge Oh my so Itchy and Scratchy. And Marge is an acclaimed episode that dealt with censorship issues, and really, like allowed the writers to insert several Itchy and Scratchy cartoons, which amongst the writing team was their favorite thing to write. This is the first episode in The Simpsons to have martyrs name in the title and it's got some really cute moments throughout. So you'll see it's, I personally really liked seeing behind the scenes at Itchy and Scratchy studios. That was really cool seeing all the writers and I found out that most of the characters in this episode that are writers are based off the real life writers so that's why they look a little bit more human than the classic Simpsons character look. So in this episode, Marge is inspired to embark on a censorship campaign against Itchy and Scratchy after Maggie hits Homer on the head with a mallet. Alrighty Roush we get into the episode synopsis I think we shall oh and as per the last episode if you want to jump right ahead to the first discussion. Now's your chance. If not, strap it and let's go.

Unknown Speaker  2:03  
Rosemary a smidgen of time. pincher Marjorie,

Unknown Speaker  2:07  
Mom, you know March you make the best pork chops in the whole world.

Unknown Speaker  2:11  
The episode begins with Homer attempting to build a spice rack for March while he's busy in the basement building it. Maggie sneaks up on him and bunks him on the head with a mallet.

Unknown Speaker  2:29  
As the family sit around and try to figure out where Maggie got this violent idea from Marge notices that the kids are watching the Itchy and Scratchy cartoon. Marge immediately decides to blame the show for Maggie's decision to be a violent baby and she decides to put a household ban on the kids watching Itchy and Scratchy. God bless Bart and Lisa they just go to their friend's house to watch the cartoon. Meanwhile, Marge sits down to write a letter to the producers of the show and basically ask them to tone down their violence. In response, the CEO of Itchy and Scratchy international Roger Myers Jr. writes a letter to Marge

Unknown Speaker  3:04  
took a lot of sway. Give out your viewer thank you for taking an interest in the attune scratchy program, and closed as a personally autographed photo of America's favorite cat and mouse team to add to your collection. In regards to your specific comments about the show, our research indicates that one person cannot make a difference, no matter how big a screwball she is. So let me close by saying

Unknown Speaker  3:26  
I wish I wrote in on our show number one screwball can do

Unknown Speaker  3:33  
much decides to form an angry mob known as Springfield Ian's for nonviolence understanding and helping or snur which kind of reminds me of SPE W which I always pronounced as spew from Harry Potter. And then I listen to the audio book and God bless Stephen Fry. Like every single time he's like s p e. W. So this SNA and marches angry mob gained momentum and soon more and more people join the group, and they start to pick it the Krusty the Clown show so much spends more and more time at these protests. Meanwhile, at home, the family is beginning to fall apart. They're stuck with TV dinners and Homer is just beside himself with stress. Marge ends up appearing on Kent Brockman show Smartline and she ends up confronting Roger Meyers over the violence and in the nine seconds she's allowed to speak she says this,

Unknown Speaker  4:22  
I'd like to ask all the parents in Springfield who are concerned about this Dryden and let the cartoon makers know how you feel Thank you

Unknown Speaker  4:30  
after being absolutely inundated with letters a little bit like in Harry Potter when he's trying to get his acceptance letter. Oh my God, why am I thinking so much about Harry Potter? I have no idea anyway, Myers ends up accepting defeat, and he decides to tone down Itchy and Scratchy of course Itchy and Scratchy without the violence is the most boring show in the world. And as the kids lose interest in watching cartoons and begin to head outside more, Springfield feels a little bit better. The sun is shining kids are playing and doing wholesome activities. And Marge is finally content knowing that she's made a difference. Meanwhile, we see some art curators in Italy discussing Michelangelo's David and the World Tour they're planning to have which interestingly stops by Springfield, the members of SNA began urging march to protest the sculpture, insisting that sculpture is offensive and unsuitable,

Unknown Speaker  5:20  
but that's Michelangelo's David. It's a masterpiece. It's filthy. it graphically portrays parts of the human body,

Unknown Speaker  5:27  
which practical is they may be our evil men. I like that statue. I told her she was soft on full frontal nudity. Come on girls,

Unknown Speaker  5:34  
Dr. Marvin Monroe starts capitalizing on this hypocrisy and begins to ask Marge, how can she believe it's wrong to censor one form of art, but not another, to which Marge is forced to admit that she can't and admits defeat, she chooses to give up her anti cartoon violent protests, which in the end results in Itchy and Scratchy immediately turning to air. So now the playgrounds and backyards of Springfield are empty as the kids sit in front of the idiot box day after day watching violent cartoons. Homer and Marge decide to go and see the statue of David and they're the only two in the museum. She is a little bit sad. And she does talk to Homer about how she thinks it's such a tragedy that the kids wouldn't be able to see one of the most noted masterpieces in world history. But you know, instead they're cooped up watching a cat and a mouse dissemble each other. However, she does tear up one home and tells her

Unknown Speaker  6:24  
Don't worry, Marge, really dude, every boy and girl at Springfield Elementary School is gonna come and see this thing really nice.

Unknown Speaker  6:42  
So this episode, of course, like obviously, it's dealing with censorship and whether or not children should be watching shows that are violent, and whether or not that's kind of corrupting the youth of today. For the record, I watched a lot of violent cartoons. In fact, when I was about 10, I watched a beheading on live Lake and I'm absolutely fine. Look at me go anyway. So it's interesting to find out that this episode was actually inspired by real life events. So this whole episode is inspired by a person named Terry Rikolto, who protested the Fox network over the show married with children. So Terry recalled her. He's an American former anti obscenity activist, and she's best known for this boycott against the show married with children, which happened in 1989 Rikolto, who lives in Michigan is a staunch Mormon. And she was actually married to the former ambassador of the United Arab Emirates during the Trump administration in her Wikipedia because yes, she has her own Wikipedia just about this protest. Her sister Ronna Romney, is a Republican political activist and radio talk show host, who was formerly married to Scott Romney, the son of former Michigan Governor George Romney, and brother of former Massachusetts governor and current Senator Mitt Romney. I'm not American, but I recognize those names. So I I'm just going to assume that that's quite a profound thing. Anyway, so the episode I mentioned that she was very upset about was, was called her cups runneth over. And you got to understand that married with children was at the time like quite a cheeky little bit of a naughty TV show. Like it was one of those sort of raunchy sitcoms back in the day when we didn't really have raunchy sitcoms, of course, like, now, this episode, if you watch it back, it's a little bit lame. It is a little bit misogynistic, but you just that's harmless. Right? So in this episode, Peg becomes depressed on her birthday because she discovers that her favorite bra has been discontinued, Allen Steve decided to go and buy her a new bra to make her happy. And they discovered that her favorite bra are still being sold at a laundry store called France scenes of Wisconsin. pretty harmless, right? And you can find these clips on YouTube.

Unknown Speaker  8:49  
About like this 3060 You're lucky man. Yeah, they came out of court.

Unknown Speaker  8:56  
Just give me 10 Yeah, it's that kind of stuff. Anyway, so what Rikolto got really upset about was that she said she was offended by the images of an old man wearing a woman's garter and stockings. The scene where Steve touches the pasties of a mannequin dressed in sadomasochistic gear, clearly homosexual man wearing a tiara on his head and Al's line, and they wonder why we call them queens, and a half nude woman who takes her bra off in front of owl, and she's kind of shown from the front but she's covering her bare chest with her arms. So these were the scenes that really upset Rikolto and she began a letter writing campaign to the advertisers demanding that they boycott the show. Interestingly, during the original airing of the Married with Children episode, the fox satellite blew out and the entire west coast of the United States completely missed the first act.

Unknown Speaker  9:46  
What are you doing?

Unknown Speaker  9:47  
I'm cataloging the violence and these cartoons. I don't think adults have ever actually sat down and watch them before.

Unknown Speaker  9:56  
In the beginning of the episode, of course, we see Maggie hitting Homer over the head with them. palate and this is actually a shot for shot extensive parody of the famous shower scene from psycho. And in it you'll see the music and camera angles are almost exactly the same. Also, homers mallet still has the price tag attached.

Unknown Speaker  10:15  
But that's Michelangelo's David. It's a masterpiece,

Unknown Speaker  10:19  
it's filthy. Let's talk a little bit more about naked men. So if you've been living under a rock, or if you're really unsure, and you forget, and you think Michelangelo might have been one of the Ninja Turtles, because he was don't get confused. There was another Michelangelo, who created a masterpiece sculpture that we're gonna be talking about now. David, or the statue of David was created in marble between 1501 and 1504 by the Italian artists, Michelangelo. Well, there

Unknown Speaker  10:45  
he is, Michelangelo's David Davis.

Unknown Speaker  10:50  
Oh, what really shocked me is I haven't actually seen the statue in real life. But I was looking at the measurements online. The Statue of David is 5.17 meters tall. That's about 17 foot. That is gigantic. Like if you get Megillah phobia, I feel like statue of David might be quite a startling experience for you. Anyway, so it's, it's a marble statue of the biblical figure, David, and it's like quite a favorite subject in the art of Florence. So of course, David, the giant killer has been used as a political figure, especially in Florence. In fact, these political overtones led to the statue being attacked twice in its early days, so protesters pelted with stones in the year that it debuted. And then in 1527, an anti McGeachie right resulted in his left arm being broken in three pieces. So of course, the fact that David is a five metre tall naked man has caused controversy throughout history because, you know, God forbid we see a winner. So I had a look to see about statue of David going on tour and whether or not it has been banned or considered unsightly or unsuitable in different countries. And I found out so in 2008, it was a Michelangelo exhibition in St. Petersburg, Russia. They had like a really cute little replica of the Statue of David. Some residents of the city though, began petitioning because they thought and I quote, that naked giant deforms children's souls,

Unknown Speaker  12:16  
what is his own world? What are your people want? We want you to get our big Italian but outta here,

Unknown Speaker  12:22  
in the same paragraph talking about this controversy with the statue of David. I did find honorable mention to the statue of Apollo. The statue of Apollo is pretty innocent to be completely honest. It's basically the Greek god Apollo riding a four horse chariot, and it's kind of just above the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. And like he's naked, it's fine. So in 2011, when they ended up renovating the theater in the area around it, once they did the grand reveal, they revealed that that also tapped a little fig leaf on top of Apollo's junk. And this kind of divided the internet because some people were like, Oh, thank God, we're so sick of looking at his junk. But then the other side of the internet was like, Have you lost your damn mind? And even more ridiculous? Did you know that the same statue of Apollo appears on the 100 ruble note in Russia, and you can see everything, like on their money. They have this guy's dick. And like he's not in doubt. It's not something like it's not impressive. You have to really squint and look at this note to cease to see it. But yeah, it's really weird. They covered up his deck on the statue, and then they just left it on the money. In a letter to the central bank. The Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Roman could the gaff can't say his last name. He actually called for the removal of the classical Greek statue of Apollo, saying that the statue showed intimate parts of the body and the banknote should come with an 18 plus rating speaking with Reuters television in 2012 Corridor golf said you can clearly see that Apollo is naked you can see his genitalia hmm I want everyone to go away now and just Google 100 ruble note Apollo tell me if you can see his junk because to me it just looks like a scribble

Unknown Speaker  14:06  
you know, Joe, these stories are pretty good. I never knew my students such interesting lives.

Unknown Speaker  14:11  
That's the end of another episode. I'm trying to make these episodes a little shorter sharper. So if there's something that you think we could add or remove, please let me know. Yeah, this episode was a fun one actually. rewatching it it's it's a little less funny this episode. And it is definitely more like a political commentary or whatever you want to call it, but it's a good one. It's cute. I also liked seeing inside the Itchy and Scratchy studios because all the animators are really funny and just when they try to like rewrite the episode, and they're asking Marge for help, and she's like cutting vegetables on the phone to them. What I was gonna say is the next episode we're going to be doing is another great one. This one actually is one that not a lot of people would remember but once you start watching it, you're like, oh shit, yeah, I remember that. That was a good one. So next one off the chopping block is season two episode 10 but gets hit by a car And yeah, is that everything? I think that's everything. All right guys.

Unknown Speaker  15:05  
So concludes our tale. Goodnight and keep watching the skis. Oh skies

Transcribed by https://otter.ai