History WesternAnimation / TheItchyAndScratchyShow

[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Itchy_and_Scratchy_Show_713.png]]

->''"They fight! They bite!''\\
''They bite and fight and bite!''\\
''Fight, fight, fight! Bite, bite, bite!''\\
''The Itchy & Scratchy Show!"''

''The Itchy and Scratchy Show'' is a ShowWithinAShow on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''[[note]]which itself was a Show Within a Show, from ''Series/TheTraceyUllmanShow''[[/note]]. It passes itself off as a cat and mouse chase, based on the old cartoon shorts of ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' and ''WesternAnimation/HermanAndKatnip'' (mostly the latter). The cartoons are usually aired during ''The Krusty the Klown Show''.

The show was part of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' since the first season, and since Season 2 there have been episodes directly involving the company that makes the cartoons, establishing a rich history/backstory that starts in UsefulNotes/TheSilentAgeOfAnimation and hits many of the medium's high and low points in the West. They even got their own VideoGame or two as well as a short comic book series (which crossed over with ''[=BartMan=]'' in the ''[[CrisisCrossover When Bongos Collide]]'' story).
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!!This Show in a Show provides examples of:
* AchievementsInIgnorance: In a Valentines' Day episode, Itchy rips Scratchy's heart out but the latter remains alive until he reads a newspaper headline saying he needs a heart to live.
* AmusingInjuries: Especially to the people in "The Simpsons" universe. For us as viewers, the violence is horribly over-the-top and especially unfit for a children's audience.
* AndIMustScream: If Scratchy isn't killed by Itchy, then he'll wish he had been. For example, in "The Glass Moan-agery," Scratchy is turned into a neon sign that moans in pain every time it lights up.
* AnimatedActors: Except for "It's a Wonderful Knife", all stories in the short-lived comic book series portray Itchy and Scratchy as these.
* ArtShift:
** The ''Itchy and Scratchy'' cartoon "Spherical on 34th Street" is animated differently.
** The "Marge-approved" shorts aired during "Itchy & Scratchy & Marge" had a subtle art shift. Itchy and Scratchy's eyes are drawn with a noticeably "softer" feel.
** The aforementioned wartime cartoon is animated in a style reminiscent of 1940s cartoons. (It also has the closest visual resemblance to classic ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' in the show's history.)
** ''Itchy & Scratchy Meet Fritz the Cat'' has an R. Crumb-inspired look.
** Scratchy's debut cartoon "That Happy Cat" and Itchy's debut "Manhattan Madness" have an art style reminiscent of Disney's early work, especially since the first cartoon in which they're paired together, "Steamboat Itchy", is an obvious parody of "Steamboat Willie".
* {{Autocannibalism}}: In one short, Itchy (disguised as a restaurant employee) serves Scratchy his own belly. The unknowing Scratchy's attempt at eating it only results in the bits of it he swallows popping back out of a hole cut in it.
* AssPull: PlayedForLaughs. Poochie is [[ShooOutTheNewGuy sloppily killed off]] in one cartoon, with a crude movement of cels and stuck on note saying he died on the way to his home planet. Everyone hated Poochie so much they didn't care, ''erupting into applause''. [[invoked]]
* AuthorTract: Creator/QuentinTarantino shows up in the episode he guest directed to go on a tirade about how HumansAreBastards and society's complacency with violence. Itchy and Scratchy promptly kill him to shut him up.
* AxCrazy: Itchy takes sadistic pleasure in killing Scratchy in various creative ways.
* BarbershopEpisode: In "Little Barbershop of Horrors", Itchy runs a barbershop, where Scratchy is his customer. Itchy pours barbecue sauce on Scratchy's head instead of shampoo, then opens a box of [[AntAssault flesh-eating ants, which reduce Scratchy's head to a skull]].
* BigNo: In TheFifties-themed "Bleeder of the Pack," Scratchy (sans his skin) is loaded onto an airplane. But once it takes off, Scratchy is greeted by Music/TheBigBopper, Music/RitchieValens and Music/BuddyHolly. Among realizing who they are, Scratchy cries out "NOOOOOOOOOO!" [[BaitAndSwitch not because of what happened to the three musicians, but because they are actually vampires that attack him]]. And then [[FromBadToWorse their plane crashes anyways.]]
* BloodierAndGorier: Compared to ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry''.
* BloodyHilarious: That cat sure can bleed.
* BodyHorror: "Ain't I a Stinger?" has Scratchy being filled with [[BeeAfraid honeybees]] to the point where he swells and oozes honey from his mouth, eyes and ears, as the bees colonize his entrails and turn them into a hive. Later on a bear tears him in half and his insides are all honey.
* BowlingForRatings: "Kitty-Kitty Bang-Bang" involves Itchy and Scratchy at the bowling alley. Itchy jams Scratchy's tongue in the ball return, then lights a bomb and bowls with it, making a strike. Scratchy tries desperately to saw off his tongue before the bomb can get to him, but the bomb makes it to him and explodes, leaving only his internal organs, which Itchy sells to hungry dogs at the snack bar.
* BuffoonishTomCat: The titular Scratchy, whether he is unlucky in his ButtMonkey status, [[PluckyComicRelief goofy-looking]], [[SuperGullible gullible]] or [[TooDumbToLive lacking a ton of common sense]] in some of his losses.
%%* ButtMonkey: Also Scratchy.
* CatStereotype: Scratchy plays the unlucky part of the black cat stereotype.
* TheChewToy: Scratchy lives through this, sometimes [[IronButtMonkey surviving]] [[NoOneCouldSurviveThat his kills while harmed]].
* CoincidentalBroadcast: A lot of the time, the subject of the "Itchy and Scratchy" cartoon will be related to the plot of the accompanying ''Simpsons'' episode. Examples include Itchy tricking Scratchy into eating himself in "Lisa the Vegetarian," or the duo engaging in some violent hijinks in outer space in "Deep Space Homer."
* ComedicSociopathy: In every episode, Itchy murders Scratchy in some horrible manner just for fun. Viewers in-story invariably find it hilarious.
* ConstantlyLactatingCow: In the episode "Butter Off Dead", Itchy shoves Scratchy into a cow's mouth, and after Scratchy is digested, Itchy is somehow able milk him out through the cow as butter. Not only does the cow not appear to be nursing, but cows don't milk out what they digest in real life.
* CorruptedCharacterCopy: Itchy is basically [[WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry Jerry]] if he were a violent sociopath.
* CosmicPlaything: Scratchy. Even the show's incarnation of ''God himself'' sides with Itchy killing him (and even sends him to Hell for the icing on the cake).
* CreatorsPet: Poochie, InUniverse. After mountains of hype, his premiere episode is little more than a giant shill of why kids should like him.
* CrossDressingVoices: InUniverse, both Itchy & Scratchy are voiced by a woman named June Bellamy. In real life, they're voiced by Creator/DanCastellaneta and Creator/HarryShearer, respectively, which makes this an odd double example. %%invoked
%%* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Scratchy suffers one OncePerEpisode.
* DarkerAndEdgier: In UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfAnimation, I&S appeared in the adults-only animated feature ''Itchy & Scratchy Meet Fritz the Cat''.
* DeaderThanDead: After Poochie is [[DroppedABridgeOnHim unceremoniously killed off]], Krusty gleefully presents a legal affidavit that absolutely prohibits the character from ever appearing on ''The Itchy & Scratchy Show'' again.
-->'''Blue-Haired Lawyer:''' This document conforms to all applicable laws and statutes.
* DeathOfAThousandCuts: Taken UpToEleven in ''Scratchtasia'', where after breathing in the powdered remains of Itchies, thousands of microscopic copies of the axe-wielding mouse take form in Scratchy's arteries and hack up his insides ''en masse''. The cat disintegrates in seconds.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: There's often a ShoutOut to another film or cartoon series.
* DoorstopBaby: In "Foster Pussycat. Kill! Kill!", Itchy is left at Scratchy's door. Scratchy adopts Itchy, who [[UngratefulBastard kills and robs Scratchy]].
** Similarly, in "Cat's In The Cradle" Scratchy is left on Itchy's doorstep. [[PetTheDog Itchy raises Scratchy until he graduates college.]] [[SubvertedTrope Then blows him up.]]
* DroppedABridgeOnHim: Poochie is literally ''yanked out of the frame'' under the flimsy pretext that his planet needs him. This is immediately followed by a crudely thrown together screen of text:
-->'''[[BusCrash Note: Poochie died on the way to his home planet.]]'''
* DubNameChange: In Brazil, Itchy and Scratchy are known as Comichão e Coçadinha. The translators weren't always consistent on who is who.
* DudeNotFunny: Often from Marge, though there are episodes that touch a nerve with even Bart, Lisa, and Homer, albeit usually connected with some dilemma they are undergoing at the time. An example is the episode "Lisa the Vegetarian" where Lisa doesn't laugh along with Bart (as she usually does) because "violence against animals is not funny".
* EarAche: one short (''Reservoir Cats'') parodies the scene of ''Film/ReservoirDogs'' in which Mr. Blonde (Itchy) tortures the cop (Scratchy) at the rhythm of ''Stuck in the Middle with You'', including to soak Scratchy with gasoline and the GoryDiscretionShot when the former cuts one of the ears of the latter [[spoiler: after cutting Scratchy's ear, Creator/QuentinTarantino appears complaining about violence being in everything and gets [[OffWithHisHead its head cut]] by Itchy. The short ends with Itchy and Scratchy parodying one scene of ''Film/PulpFiction'', dancing as the protagonists of that movie while one song of its OST plays]].
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
** In the show's history, early cartoons were fairly routine. In their first appearance – in a Tracey Ullman-era short called "The Bart Simpson Show" – Itchy places a firecracker in Scratchy's mouth; in their first series' appearance (Season 1's "There's No Disgrace Like Home"), the show is simply another "place a bomb in Scratchy's mouth and watch the explosion" cartoon. Future cartoons would be more detailed.
** Add to that in both cartoons, Scratchy actually started the feud chasing Itchy like a traditional cat and mouse cartoon. Episodes afterwards skipped the formalities and just started with Itchy brutalizing Scratchy for kicks.
** In-universe, "Manhattan Madness", a cartoon created entirely by Chester J. Lampwick, only features Itchy and had him visiting Manhattan to attack people. "That Happy Cat", meanwhile, is a solo Scratchy effort by Roger Myers Sr. with {{no plot|NoProblem}} whatsoever. Then Myers stole Itchy and his formula and used them in "Steamboat Itchy", and the rest is history.
* EitherOrTitle: One episode where Itchy hangs up a picture of him and Scratchy in his house (with Scratchy tied to a pole) is entitled "House of Pain, or This Old Mouse".
* EnemyMine: The duo brutalized Hitler in one war time cartoon (before Itchy double crossed Scratchy and decapitated him too). Another has them team up against an annoying blue haired squirrel berating their antics (see TakeThat).
* ExposedAnimalBellybutton: Another standard design for Itchy and Scratchy.
* ExpyCoexistence: Itchy and Scratchy Studios is a clear expy for Creator/{{Disney}}, bearing a lot of similarities with both its founder and its theme parks. However, Disney has also been alluded to in ''The Simpsons'', meaning both companies exist in the same universe.
* EyeScream: Scratchy's eyeballs have been cracked open like eggs and used as ice for a drink.
* FlayedAlive: Happens frequently to Scratchy. Most notable in "Screams from a Mall," where he loses his skin after getting dragged under an escalator and has to take it back from a wealthy woman wearing it as a fur coat.
* FriendlyEnemy: They seem to be friends whenever the brutality is at a brief halt. ''The Terror of Tiny Toon'' even revealed that Itchy's brutality is of the PunchClockVillain variety, and Scratchy not even holding it against Itchy because it's their job.
* FurAndLoathing: Parodied. Itchy steals Scratchy's skin, fur and all. When Scratchy gets it back, and tries to put it back on, fur protesters beat him up for wearing his own fur.
* FurryFemaleMane: Many of the female InexplicablyIdenticalIndividuals Itchies and Scratchies have this trait. All of the female Itchies ad Scratchies in "Downton Tabby" have human-style hair, but so do some of the male ones.
* GameShowAppearance: Itchy and Scratchy appeared on an episode of ''[[Series/TheHollywoodSquares The Springfield Squares]]''.
* GenderFlip: Happens to the titular duo in the Season 30 episode "Bart Vs. Itchy & Scratchy", where they're rebooted as females
* AGoodWayToDie: Itchy's scheme in "Four Funerals And A Wedding" has Scratchy live a full and happy romantic life up until he explodes. For an extra insult, the prank also kills Itchy for once.
* {{Gorn}}: Happens in nearly every episode.
* HollywoodAcid: Often employed. Always used to reduce Scratchy to a skeleton. A glaring example of this for those who know chemicals is the one in which Itchy {{William Tell|ing}}s Scratchy, hits the apple, but the arrow punctures a hole into the large tank labeled "Carbolic Acid" that Scratchy was standing right next to, since carbolic acid is a) solid at room temperature and b) not really all that acidic (it's technically an alcohol).
* InexplicablyIdenticalIndividuals: Many of the cartoons do this with both Itchy and Scratchy, including "Downton Tabby". The InexplicablyIdenticalIndividuals of both can be either male or female.
* InflatingBodyGag: In "Spherical on 34th Street", Itchy inflates Scratchy with a tank of hydrogen. Then he shoots a flaming arrow at the ballooned cat, making him explode in a giant fireball.
* InvincibleVillain: No matter what, the cartoon's physics are set so Itchy will always get the upper hand.
* KarmaHoudini: Itchy, who never receives any punishment for his brutal and unprovoked attacks on Scratchy (except for in "Burning Down the Mouse" and "Four Funerals and a Wedding").
* LighterAndSofter: After Marge's crusade to tone down the show's violence succeeded, the show went through a phase invoking this trope.
* MadeOfBologna: Played with. The main characters are sometimes depicted made solely of red bologna, sometimes made of red bologna that can bleed, and sometimes actual organs are shown. This [[DependingOnTheWriter depends]] on how gruesome the scene was scripted.
* MoralMyopia: Itchy constantly abuses, torments, mutilates, and murders Scratchy and enjoys it all the while. But if someone else takes enjoyment out of watching Scratchy be in pain, he gets all up in arms.
* TheMovie: In-story, the show had a movie released in theaters and either had a sequel or re-release at the start of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsonsMovie''.
* MrAltDisney: Itchy and Scratchy's inventor[[note]] well, Scratchy's inventor at least[[/note]], Roger Myers Sr, is a thinly disguised spoof of Creator/WaltDisney with his theme park and the urban legends surrounding his antisemitism and being cryogenically frozen after his death.
* TheMusical: In-story, the cartoon received a stage adaptation in the form of ''Stab-A-Lot'', a parody of ''Theatre/TheLionKing''.
* MutualKill: In "Four Funerals and a Wedding", Itchy replaces Scratchy's wife with a fake one made of bombs. However, it takes a lifetime for it to explode and by the time it finally kills Scratchy, [[ATasteOfDefeat Itchy dies of a heart attack]].
* NegativeContinuity: With how often Scratchy is killed, sometimes in ways that involve fast-forwarding to the future, it's clear there is no real continuity between episodes.
* NiceMice: Averted with Itchy and in some episodes, his entire kind.
* OffWithHisHead: It might as well be Itchy's favorite method of taking out Scratchy. [[LosingYourHead Although, he sometimes survives it]].
* OhCrap: Several shorts have Scratchy seeing his impending doom coming, and screaming in terror as he hopelessly tries to avoid it.
* OverlyLongTongue: Scratchy's isn't so much long as stretchy; at one point it gets tied to a rocket which reaches the moon before Scratchy even notices. Though it's also prehensile, as he was also able to intentionally stretch it far enough to unplug a laser Itchy was trying to kill him with a la ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}''.
* PantslessMalesFullyDressedFemales: In "Downton Tabby", the female InexplicablyIdenticalIndividuals Scratchies are more fully dressed than the HalfDressedCartoonAnimal male Scratchies. Inverted slightly with the InexplicablyIdenticalIndividuals Itchies; both are fully dressed, but the female ones are barefoot while the male ones wear shoes.
* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: A vintage cartoon has Itchy "running afoul of an Irishman" and subsequently [[CruelAndUnusualDeath running him through a laundry wringer]]. (Chester J. Lampwick credits himself as the episode's "Ethnographer.")
* ThePrankster: Itchy is a parody of classic prankster cartoon characters - except his pranks are usually far more violent and gory than in those classic cartoons.
* PunchClockVillain: ''The Terror of Tiny Toon'' revealed that Itchy's brutality towards Scratchy is limited to on-duty moments. When off-duty, they seem to be FriendlyEnemies, with Scratchy not holding any grudge against Itchy for all he's done to him, thanks to ToonPhysics and all that. Woe to anyone the duo has decided to team up against.
-->'''Itchy, upon accidentally slashing Scratchy's arm with a chainsaw:''' Sorry!\\
'''Scratchy:''' *shrugs* It happens.
* PunnyName: ''Itchy'' and ''Scratchy''. The Latin American version of the series localizes their names to ''Tommy'' and ''Daley'', which aside from being a more direct ShoutOut to ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'', also showcases their pecking order ("Tome y dale" means "Take and Give" -- as in "take injuries and give injuries").
* ReTool: Into a LighterAndSofter show. It was changed back when Marge Simpson, who started the protests against the show's violence, had a wholly different opinion on Michelangelo's David (which was on a coast-to-coast tour of the United States at the time) from the rest of the protesters.
** The first cartoon in 1928, "That Happy Cat" only showed Scratchy walking down the street and whistling. Unsurprisingly, it wasn't a success, and the series only caught on when Itchy and violence were added (read: [[PlagiarismInFiction stolen from Chester J. Lampwick]]).
** At some point, the show was briefly expanded into ''The Itchy and Scratchy and Friends Hour'', which featured additional characters [[PunnyName Uncle Ant]], Disgruntled Goat and [[BreadEggsMilkSquick Ku Klux Klam]]. The characters were dropped after the show reverted to a series of shorts, but they were featured as toys in Itchy & Scratchy Land.
* {{Retraux}}: Itchy and Scratchy are obvious homages to the violent cartoons from UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation like ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' and ''WesternAnimation/HermanAndKatnip''.
* {{Sadist}}: Itchy literally can't go through life without killing Scratchy. He'll clone the cat just to kill him if he has to!
* SadistShow: It's a show about a mouse brutally massacring a cat and it's a really popular show at that.
* ShooOutTheNewGuy: A character named "Poochie", voiced by Homer, was introduced, gelled horribly with the show, and was dumped hastily.
* ShootTheTelevision: The short "Little Barbershop of Horrors", "[[PenName written]]" by Abraham Simpson, ends with Scratchy's head (now just a skull) going through a ceiling and into Music/ElvisPresley's television set. Elvis promptly produces a revolver and shoots Scratchy's skull through the TV.[[note]]Referring to an incident where Elvis shot a TV set in his hotel room, supposedly when Robert Goulet appeared on-screen. Depending on the teller, Elvis was mad at Goulet dating one of his backup singers, didn't like Goulet's singing, or just plain had an AxCrazy moment.[[/note]]
--> '''Elvis:''' Aww, this show ain't no good! ''*BANG!*''
* ShoutOut: Many, to various classic cartoons. A notable one is Itchy having the subtitle of "The Lucky Mouse" in his first, lost cartoon, referring of course to WesternAnimation/OswaldTheLuckyRabbit.
* TheSociopath: Itchy. He brutally tortures and murders his best friend repeatedly for no other reason than because it amuses him.
* SpiritualSuccessor: To ''Squeak the Mouse'' and ''WesternAnimation/HermanAndKatnip'', rather than ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry''.
* StockSoundEffects: At times during the early seasons, Scratchy's yells are ''very'' similar (if not outright exact) to Homer's.
* StrictlyFormula: Almost every episode involves Itchy killing Scratchy in some elaborate gruesome manner. Parodied several times, whenever the writers are forced to change the formula in any way, their cartoons plummet in quality, unable to utilise anything else competently.
* SubvertedKidsShow: It's a very violent take on cartoon violence, but still made for kids.
* SuicideAsComedy: In one episode, rather than Itchy killing Scratchy, we have Scratchy attend a presentation of ''Theatre/{{Cats}}'', where Itchy is an usher. But Scratchy finds it so boring that he ends up blowing his brains out.
* TakeThat: In response to Marge Simpson's protests on the show, there was an episode featuring a squirrel with Marge's [[YouGottaHaveBlueHair blue]] BeehiveHairdo trying to break off Itchy and Scratchy's fighting... only to get killed by them.
*** In the same episode, the LighterAndSofter version is a pointed jab at ''WesternAnimation/TheTomAndJerryShow'', which also removed all the violence and made the cat and mouse duo friends.
** Also, the ''I&S'' cartoon at the beginning of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsonsMovie'' has Itchy nuking the moon with missiles; the [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill most extreme]] option is listed as "accidental bombing", with "accidental" in quotation marks.
** Roger Myers Sr is a very unflattering portrayal of Creator/WaltDisney. The backstory of the I&S studio is a mishmash of conspiracy theories about the Disney Company.
* TeamRocketWins:
** The 'lost' episode where Scratchy finally gets revenge on Itchy by running him down with a combine harvester.
** A storyboarded episode had Itchy steal Scratchy's pie, so Scratchy threw him in a vat of acid. Unfortunately, this was during a massive censorship push, so if they went with Marge's suggestion, Itchy would have shared the pie. [[BrokenAesop Which he stole.]]
** "Burning Down The Mouse" (shown as part of "Homer Goes to College") is apparently the only aired episode where Scratchy wins, by blowing Itchy up with a large arsenal of explosives. Unfortunately, the viewers never get to see the end, [[MissingTheGoodStuff because one of Homer's college roommates who are crashing at his house unplugs the TV and doesn't plug it back in until it's over]], where the TV just turns back on in time to see a huge mushroom cloud and "The End" superimposed over the shot (followed by Krusty declaring that "They'll never let us air ''that'' again! Not in a million years!").
** ATasteOfDefeat: Another episode ("Four Funerals and a Wedding", shown as part of "A Star is Burns") still had Itchy kill Scratchy, but lost as well, having set up the prank for so long that when it's over the aged Itchy dies of a heart attack laughing too hard.
* ThanksgivingEpisode: "Spherical on 34th Street" (from "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS19E8FuneralForAFiend Funeral for a Fiend]]"), complete with a UsefulNotes/MacysThanksgivingDayParade fiasco.
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: Itchy tends to kill Scratchy in this fashion. One of the most outlandish, even for cartoon standards, is Scratchy getting his eye impaled with ''the tip of the Space Needle'' (yes, the restaurant tower in Seattle).
* TheyKilledKennyAgain: Itchy brutally kills Scratchy in most episodes, but he's always back for the next one.
** Averted in "Tears of a Clone" when Scratchy is seemingly KilledOffForReal. Itchy decides to clone him a bunch of times, just so he can kill them.
* TotallyRadical: Parodied with Poochie, who is instantly reviled by Itchy & Scratchy fans.
* VillainProtagonist: Itchy is not nice if that isn't obvious enough.
* VocalEvolution: In the "Marge Simpson approved" episodes, Itchy and Scratchy's goofy voices are converted to affable helium pitched ones.
* WartimeCartoon:
** In one episode, we see a clip of an untitled UsefulNotes/WorldWarII-era short, where a very WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry-esque Itchy and Scratchy team up to torment and kill UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler. Immediately afterwards, Itchy turns on Scratchy and cuts his head off, joined by UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt to kick the bodies.
** Roger Myers, Sr.'s other wartime contribution, "Nazi Supermen are Our Superiors", was not as well received.
* WereStillRelevantDammit: Poochie, a hipster with "attitude" who speaks almost completely in 90s slang, is parody of the trope, and failed miserably InUniverse.
* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: An in-universe example.
* WhiteGloves: Itchy and Scratchy (as well as any cartoon pedestrians) always wear these.
* WilliamTelling: Itchy does it to Scratchy once. He hits the apple, but the arrow punctures a hole into the large tank of acid that Scratchy was standing right next to.
* WithFriendsLikeThese: Scratchy seems to consider Itchy to be his friend, even though all Itchy ever does is torture, mutilate, and outright murder the cat for no reason outside of [[ForTheEvulz sadistic amusement]]. Upon being described in a comic book story as Scratchy's friend, Itchy even thinks to himself that, with friends like him, Scratchy doesn't need enemies.
* YourSizeMayVary: Itchy the mouse is normally half as tall as Scratchy the cat, but in some episodes, particularly in earlier seasons, Itchy is shown to be much smaller, like a typical cartoon mouse.
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* MalevolentMice: Just watch ''one'' cartoon and you'll immediately see just how unpleasant Itchy is.

* ButtMonkey: Also Scratchy.

* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Scratchy suffers one OncePerEpisode.

** The '[[MissingEpisode lost]]' episode where Scratchy finally gets revenge on Itchy by running him down with a combine harvester.

* AxCrazy: Itchy. In fact, Itchy is a mixture of Ax-Crazy and [[TheSociopath a sociopath]], sadistically killing Scratchy in various, painful ways.

''The Itchy and Scratchy Show'' is a [[ShowWithinAShow Show Within a Show WITHIN a Show]] on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''[[note]]which itself was a Show Within a Show, from ''Series/TheTraceyUllmanShow''[[/note]]. It passes itself off as a cat and mouse chase, based on the old cartoon shorts of ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' and ''WesternAnimation/HermanAndKatnip'' (mostly the latter). The cartoons are usually aired during ''The Krusty the Klown Show''.

* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: A vintage cartoon has Itchy "running afoul of an Irishman" and subsequently [[CruelAndUnusualDeath running him through a laundry wringer]].

** The aforementioned wartime cartoon is animated in a style reminiscent of 1940s cartoons.

* OverlyLongTongue: Scratchy's isn't so much long as stretchy; at one point it gets tied to a rocket which reaches the moon before Scratchy even notices.

* AxCrazy: Itchy. In fact, Itchy is a mixture of Ax-Crazy and [[TheSociopath sociopath]], sadistically killing Scratchy in various painful ways.

* ButtMonkey: Scratchy.

* TheChewToy: Scratchy

* AssholeVictim: One WartimeCartoon featuring them has them [[EnemyMine team up against]] UsefulNotes/NaziGermany.

* RememberTheNewGuy: Poochie. Didn't go without LampshadeHanging, of course.

* ShooOutTheNewGuy: A character named "Poochie", voiced by Homer, was introduced, gelled horribly with the show, and was dumped hastily out of the show.

* ShoutOut: Many, to various classic cartoons. A notable one is Itchy having the subtitle of The Lucky Mouse in his first, lost cartoon, referring of course to WesternAnimation/OswaldTheLuckyRabbit

* TheSociopath: Itchy.

* BloodierAndGorier: Of ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry''.

* ScrewySquirrel: Oh, Itchy...