Bart vs. Itchy & Scratchy (The Simpsons)
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 How does it feel for us to have our beloved show be trolled, memed, gif’d, and dare we say... pwned? Not good. Not good at all.
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Bart vs. Itchy & Scratchy is the eighteenth episode of season 30 of The Simpsons.
Plot
Krusty releases an all-female reboot of Itchy and Scratchy, so Bart and his crew of all-male friends decide to boycott the show. After Bart's friends turn on him for laughing at the reboot, Bart joins a group of sixth-grade girls who commit crimes against patriarchy.
Why It Needs to Get (Dare We Say) Pwned
- This episode is a rehash of Season 2's "Itchy and Scratchy and Marge", which had a similar premise and was executed much better but turned into 23 minutes of nothing more than pure feminist and political propaganda, only made to trigger controversy in an attempt to stay relevant and have a heavy political view.
- The episode also feels like 23 minutes of Bart torture, which does not feel satisfying at all.
- The episode's writer, Megan Amram, did a terrible job with the plot from how it is handled.
- One question: Has she even watched a single episode of The Simpsons? Of course, this is Amram's first episode written. But still.
- Misleading title: The episode is named "Bart vs. Itchy & Scratchy" implying that it is Bart against his favorite cartoon, however, the title has nothing to do with the plot of the episode, at the same time Itchy & Scratchy do not have an important role in the story.
- The episode has a total of five plots which are very poorly executed:
- Krusty announces the female reboot of Itchy and Scratchy, which brings him financial troubles.
- Bart joining the Bossy Riot.
- Milhouse and his friends forming an opposition group against the Itchy and Scratchy reboot.
- Lisa trying to join the Bossy Riot and humiliate Bart.
- The Bossy Riot vandalizing the city and being persecuted by the authorities.
- At the start, Krusty only plans to make the all-female reboot of Itchy & Scratchy for the sole purpose of gender diversity. This is solely against Krusty's normal depictions in some episodes like "Once Upon a Time in Springfield", where he rejects the idea of having the show catered towards only one gender. That said it is implied Krusty is doing the reboot for money, which fits in with his characterization.
- Lisa is completely unlikeable in this episode, to the point of being as bad as her depiction in "On a Clear Day I Can't See My Sister". She publicly humiliates Bart after he laughs at a gag on the reboot by publishing the stream that Bart was in onto the internet, causing Bart to get beaten up at school.
- On that note, she also got away scot-free with humiliating Bart and never got arrested for filming him laughing at the Itchy and Scratchy reboot without his consent, as filming someone on camera to humiliate them is considered a felony.
- Apart from Lisa, several characters (Especially Milhouse and Marge) act out of her personality.
- The Bossy Riot group's main purpose is to eliminate all "societally systematic misogyny", going as far as to try and destroy the master tapes of Itchy and Scratchy. Speaking of which, they get no comeuppance for any of their actions, which are far worse than anything Milhouse's opposing group set up for during the episode.
- The scene in which the Bossy Riot throws the Itchy and Scratchy tapes to the nail polish to the children refers to the introduction of Saving Private Ryan, however, this reference doesn't fit with the context of the scene.
- Terrible ending: Bossy Riot allows Bart to "join", only for them to beat him up after he expresses disgust at their plans to destroy the Itchy and Scratchy master tapes, which is completely against their idea of gender diversity. After that, Bart makes peace with his friends and tells them that girls "don't envy them", which turns out to be a very sexist phrase (taking into account that the episode is about feminism) and the context of the phrase feels out of place.
- Lisa's line "Well, Bart, how does it feel to be trolled, memed, gif’d, and dare I say... pwned?" is one of the worst lines in the episode and it is also extremely cringe-worthy.
- The episode is generally uncomfortable and offensive to men and women. Not even some of the left-wing people like this.
- While okay for the most part, the voice acting of the series' actors as well as the guest stars feels lazy or half-hearted (particularly Dan Castellaneta, Nicole Byer, and Hank Azaria).
- The episode contains several holes in the plot with the classic Simpsons as from the current stage of The Simpsons:
- Krusty announces that it is the first project focused on the female public, when in fact Krusty has made different products for women.
- Lisa supports the vandalism of Bossy Riot when she is against the attack on the city.
- Lisa stated that Bossy Riot is the only group that has inspired her, which is wrong when multiple people, like Mr. Bergstrom and Bleeding Gums Murphy, have inspired her throughout her life.
- Marge doesn't seem to care what her children do, taking into account that when they both get into trouble she will help them.
- The bullies helping Milhouse go against the Itchy and Scratchy reboot when they have never cared about the cartoon or helping Milhouse.
- Why does Krusty have the master tapes to the Itchy and Scratchy show and not the Itchy and Scratchy Studios?
- The episode is obviously based around the controversy caused by the Ghostbusters reboot, but completely misrepresents the reason why that movie got such an overwhelmingly negative reaction. Aside from a very small minority of far right-wingers, people didn't hate that movie because it had an all-female cast, they hated it because it was an awful movie, which disrespected the memory of a beloved franchise.
- It also conveniently ignores that another all-female reboot of a movie franchise, Ocean's 8 had been released the previous year, received an overall decent reception, and was a success at the box office, further disproving what the episode claims.
- Overall, it's a terrible way to start the Disney-era of The Simpsons.
Redeeming Qualities
- Homer’s line "Listen, son, I'm proud that you're starting to hate things, but take it slow. If you use up all your hate when you're young, one day you'll be an old man who likes things that suck." is pretty funny. But even that joke has a flaw. It's used to describe Abe Simpson, who is shown to hate things that are even the littlest bit bad.
- To be fair, Krusty is depicted in this episode as doing the reboot for profit, which is consistent with his portrayal as a sleazy businessman.
- Bart is the only tolerable character in the episode.
- Bart does reconcile with his friends at the end.
- Milhouse and the boys who formed a group did get their comeuppance when they ended up getting blinded by the nail polish.
- While she didn't receive one in this episode, Lisa does get her comeuppance in "Woo-hoo Dunnit" when she lost her college money.
Reception
"Bart vs. Itchy & Scratchy" received a negative reception from fans and critics. It currently has a 5.0/10 on IMDb.[1]
Videos
References
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