Line #10 Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E6ItchyAndScratchyTheMovie


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screen_shot_2011_09_06_at_10_13_11_pm.png]]
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3	'''Original air date:''' 11/3/1992
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5	'''Production code:''' 9F03
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7	During Parent/Teacher conference night at Springfield Elementary, Mrs. Krabappel lets Homer and Marge in on the destructive and dangerous pranks Bart has been playing (synthesizing a laxative from peas and carrots, replacing the teacher's birth control pills with Tic-Tacs, bringing in a Krusty doll with a switchblade head, and [[GroinAttack sticking lit fireworks down a boy's pants]]) and recommends that Homer and Marge be stricter in their parenting[[note]]because with enough discipline, even a hellion like Bart can be Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. If they fail, the best he can be in life is an overweight stripper whose adoring fans boo and throw things at him every night[[/note]], but it proves too much with Bart manipulating Homer...until Homer decides to take the one thing away from Bart that he loves most: seeing the upcoming movie version of ''The Itchy and Scratchy Show''.
8	----
9	!!Tropes:
10	* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: Where the epilogue takes place. Besides a futuristic Springfield, we see that Bart has become Chief Justice of Supreme Court and finally gets to see the movie with an older Homer, as the Itchy and Scratchy film has become an icon of animated film history. Also in the future: movie ticket prices are ridiculously high ($650 for a senior citizen and Chief Justice admission) and Soylent Green is a popular movie theater concession snack.
11	* ActuallyPrettyFunny:
12	** Lisa is disgusted by Bart putting Grampa's dentures into his own mouth right after removing them from Grampa's mouth, but laughed when Bart makes a face with it.
13	** In the future, Bart openly chuckles at Homer calling Itchy a jerk.
14	* AdolfHitlarious: A cartoon from the 1940s is shown where Itchy and Scratchy beat, kick and decapitate Hitler. Then Itchy chops off Scratchy's head and Franklin D. Roosevelt appears, kicking both Hitler and Scratchy in the butt.
15	* AnalogyBackfire: While trying to convince Homer to allow Bart to watch the movie, Lisa asks how he'd feel if he wasn't allowed to watch the first flight to the moon. A flashback reveals he didn't care about the event.
16	* AnimationBump: The WWII-era Itchy and Scratchy short (animated by Gregg Vanzo) is appropriately fluid and cartoony, to match the style of animation from that time period.
17	* ArtisticLicenseAwards: The movie manages to win nine Academy Awards despite being almost half recycled footage. In reality it would be rejected for nomination.
18	* AssShove: Implied when Mrs Krabappel asks a boy where Bart stuck fireworks on him.
19	* AttentionDeficitOohShiny: When Homer sees Bart smashing mustard packages with a hammer on the carpet while singing Jingle Bells, he tries to assert punishment when the ice cream truck appeared. Later, as they're enjoying their ice cream, Homer asked Bart what he was talking about. Bart lied that Homer was talking about the time he avoided jury duty. Naturally, Homer rolls along with it and tells Bart how he beat jury duty ("The trick is to say you're [[HatesEveryoneEqually prejudiced against all races]].")
20	* BadFuture: Homer is convinced that not letting Bart see the movie as punishment is the only way to prevent this trope from happening (which, according to Marge's vision, would have Bart as a fat, sleazy male stripper whose "adoring" female fans boo him and chuck trash at him every night). He's right.
21	* BaitAndSwitch: During the Parent/Teacher conference for Miss Hoover's class, Hoover praises Lisa's performance and suggests that Homer probably read to her at a young age. Homer happily tells her that he did do that. Cut to a flashback of Homer reading ''TV Guide'''s program descriptions to Lisa when she was a baby rather than books.
22	* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Marge wants Homer to be more firm with Bart. Eventually Homer finally wises up by forbidding Bart to ever watch the movie as punishment for neglecting Maggie, but after two months, Marge notices how extremely depressed Bart is and realizes that Homer has gone a little too far on the punishment, [[ProperlyParanoid though Homer refuses to uplift it for certain good reasons]].
23	* BerserkButton: Homer [[TranquilFury visibly hides his fury]] when Bart declares "TV sucks".
24	-->'''Homer:''' I know you're upset right now, so I'll ''pretend you didn't say that''!
25	* BigOMG: Marge when she sees Maggie driving Homer's car.
26	* BloodyHilarious: A billboard for the Itchy and Scratchy Movie is designed to shoot fake blood over anyone passing by. A newly-wed couple are soaked in blood by it, and are horrified... until they see the billboard, and laugh.
27	* BluntYes: "Bart! Are you pulling up the carpet?" "Yuh-huh."
28	* BreadEggsBreadedEggs:
29	-->'''Marge:''' We'll bring back dinner.\
30	'''Lisa:''' What are we gonna have?\
31	'''Homer:''' Well, that depends on what the teachers say, if you've been good, pizza. If you've been bad... uh, let's see... poison.\
32	'''Lisa:''' What if one of us has been good and one of us has been bad?\
33	'''Bart:''' Poison pizza.\
34	'''Homer:''' Oh no, I'm not making two stops!
35	* BreathHoldingBrat: Homer mentions to Bart he once, unsuccessfully, tried this technique to get a catcher's mitt.
36	-->'''Homer''': You know, when I was a boy, I really wanted a catcher's mitt, but my dad wouldn't get it for me. So I held my breath until I passed out and banged my head on the coffee table. The doctor thought I might have brain damage.\
37	'''Bart''': Dad, what's the point of this story?\
38	'''Homer''': [[ComicallyMissingThePoint I like stories.]]
39	* BrickJoke: A billboard for the Itchy and Scratchy Movie is designed to shoot blood over anyone passing by. After the last time the movie is shown at theaters, the billboard is changed into one for a barber college. It still shoots blood.
40	* CardCarryingVillain: When Maggie smashes the prison wall, Snake is one of the escapees, and he happily declares "All right! Time for a crime spree!"
41	* CelebrityCameo: The ''Itchy & Scratchy Movie'' also featured several celebrities (who don't use their real names, but viewers can tell).
42	* ChandelierSwing: Bart puts in Grandpa's false teeth, bites the ceiling fan and spins around with it.
43	* CharacterizationMarchesOn: ''[[MoralGuardians Ned]]'' and his kids are the first ones in line for the movie!
44	* CompilationMovie: The movie is only 53% new footage.
45	* ConflictBall: The conflict hinges on Marge insisting Homer act more strict when disciplining Bart. While there is truth to Homer's discipline being ineffective (and him often not following up on the threats he puts out), he's usually not ''gentle'' towards Bart -- one of the show's most famous {{Running Gag}}s has him strangle the boy, after all. If anybody tends to baby Bart and downplay the dysfunction in the family, it's usually Marge, yet this episode has ''her'' be the one to insist ''Homer'' toughen up on their son.
46	* CoolAndUnusualPunishment:
47	-->'''Homer:''' Young man, since you broke Grampa's teeth, he gets to break yours!\
48	'''Grampa:''' Oh, this is gonna be ''sweet!''\
49	'''Marge:''' No, no, ''no!''\
50	'''Grampa:''' Aww!
51	* CouchGag: The family sits on the couch, which deflates like a balloon.
52	* CrazyPrepared: Homer anticipates that Bart might try to see the movie without his permission. He goes to all of Springfield's movie theaters ahead of time and demanded them never to sell any tickets to Bart.
53	-->'''Bart:''' One for Itchy and Scratchy?\
54	'''Ticket Vendor:''' Uh, we promised your dad we wouldn't.
55	* TheCuckoolanderWasRight: Homer and Marge's rather LiteralMinded interpretation of Edna Krabappel's suggestion that "with persistent discipline, even the poorest student can end up becoming, oh, say, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court" winds up holding [[RidiculouslySuccessfulFutureSelf exactly true in Bart's case]].
56	* CutawayGag: "But first, let's take a look back at [[TheRoaringTwenties the year 1928]], the year when you might've seen UsefulNotes/AlCapone [[https://youtu.be/Zf70ihqbDdw?t=9 dancing the Charleston]] [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext on top of a flagpole]]."
57	* DeathGlare: One of the goats Bart had to eat the garbage sneers at Homer.
58	* DeniedFoodAsPunishment: Marge tries this on Bart when she finds out that he broke Grandpa's teeth. Bart tries to call her bluff, but she tells him she's being serious, even stopping Homer the first time he caves. Just as the lesson is about to sink in, Homer sneaks Bart some pizza and tells him not to tell Marge and to try to behave. Bart calls Homer a sucker after he leaves.
59	* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: "I can't let that happen! I won't let that happen! And I ''can't'' let that happen!"
60	* DescriptionCut: At the parent's night, Mrs. Krabappel tells Marge about Bart's behavior, which she apologises for, stating he doesn't mean to be bad. Then it cuts to Bart and Lisa looking at the sleeping Abe, and Bart immediately declares that this is their chance to be bad.
61	* {{Determinator}}: Homer takes every step necessary to prevent Bart from watching the movie, including contacting the movie theaters not to sell any tickets to him. For extra points, he finally decides to let Bart see the film ''decades'' later.
62	** In the one part of the Itchy And Scratchy Movie that we actually see, the train engineer refuses to let Itchy run over Scratchy after he's [[ChainedToARailway tied Scratchy to some railroad tracks]]. Itchy is so determined to run Scratchy over with a train that he puts himself through school and becomes an official engineer. He finally gets to run Scratchy over just as the cat is untying himself.
63	* DidIMentionItsChristmas: The ad announcing the Itchy and Scratchy Movie mentions it's coming for Christmas. Despite showing its release in detail, the C word never comes up again.
64	* DisproportionateRetribution: When Homer and Marge are about to go to a parent-teacher meeting, Homer tells Bart and Lisa he'll bring them poison if they've been bad.
65	** As a punishment for Bart's brief neglect of Maggie, Homer's 50-year moratorium on the ''Itchy and Scratchy'' movie seems a bit much. As a consequence for years of unpunished wrongdoing, however, [[KarmaHoudiniWarranty it seems about right]].
66	* DistantFinale: The end cuts to an adult Bart and an elderly Homer finally going to see the movie.
67	* DoorStopper: The novelization to The Itchy and Scratchy Movie is huge and heavy enough to crush garbage.
68	* EarnYourHappyEnding: Homer prevents Bart from seeing the movie, BUT his harsh tactic somehow leads Bart to become the Chief Justice of the United States and as a reward, an older Bart and Homer see the film together at last.
69	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
70	** If you notice, in this episode, Ralph's father isn't Chief Wiggum, but rather someone who looks like a bigger version of himself wearing near-identical clothing.
71	** In addition, Ned and his sons are among the first people waiting to see the movie. "Homer Loves Flanders" reveals that the only thing Rod and Todd watch are religious cartoons (because Flanders locked out every other channel) and in "Home Sweet Home-Diddly-Dum-Doodly", when they did watch their first episode of ''Itchy & Scratchy'', they were traumatized over it.
72	** An InUniverse variation occurs with the ''Itchy and Scratchy'' show itself; the series' first cartoon, "That Happy Cat", only featured Scratchy walking across the street and whistling and stretching happily, lacking Itchy and any of the comic violence the series was known for. [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E18TheDayTheViolenceDied A later episode]] directly elaborates on this point.
73	* EnemyMine: Itchy and Scratchy once set their differences aside to beat up Hitler together. After Hitler is dealt with and they shake hands over their victory, Itchy turns on Scratchy and decapitates him.
74	* FalseTeethTomfoolery: When Grampa babysits Bart, Lisa, and Maggie, Bart pulls his dentures out of his mouth while he's sleeping, puts them in his own mouth, then takes a ride on the ceiling fan with them. When Homer and Marge return, Bart accidentally breaks them, then tapes them up real quick and shoves them back into Grampa's mouth.
75	* {{Foreshadowing}}: While the Simpson kids are watching the older cartoons of Itchy and Scratchy, Maggie can be seen getting off the couch and walking away.
76	* FreezeFrameBonus:
77	** In Marge's BadFuture ImagineSpot for Bart, adult versions of Sherri and Terri are seen at the strip club.
78	** As Marge has a horrified reaction to Maggie driving a car, Maggie is actually waving at her.
79	* GilliganCut: Marge reassures Edna that Bart doesn't mean to be bad. Cut to him at home with a sleeping Grampa saying "It's time to be bad".
80	* GracefulLoser: When the film finally leaves theaters, Bart gracefully concedes that Homer won to which Homer simply relies that they both did as Bart will benefit from the experience.
81	* GroinAttack: The other implied place where Bart stuck fireworks down that kid's pants. Considering that Mrs. Krabappel didn't turn the doll over, that's a more likely place than an AssShove.
82	* GroundedForever: Homer doesn't just stop Bart from seeing the movie on the first day, or even for a few weeks, or even for two months. He forbids Bart from ever, ''ever'' seeing the movie for his whole life. [[SubvertedTrope He finally lets Bart see the movie when his son has grown up]] and become a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, considering the lesson learned.
83	* HiddenDepths: Homer knows the names of at least four Chief Justices of the Supreme Court (John Marshall, Charles Evans Hughes, Warren Burger (Mmm.. burger...), and Earl Warren, whom he thinks was also a male stripper).
84	* HoldTheUnsolicitedIngredient: A man in the cinema in the DistantFinale orders a ''Film/SoylentGreen'' and asks to hold the butter.
85	* IgnoredEpiphany: The first attempt to be firm with Bart almost works, just as he considers changing his behaviour however, Homer gives him a slice of pizza out of sympathy, so long as he promises to behave from now on.
86	-->'''Bart:''' ''(cackles after Homer leaves)'' Sucker...
87	* IllPretendIDidntHearThat: Despite being forbidden to see the movie, Bart is told by Homer that he's free to watch anything he wants on TV. However, Bart bitterly replies "TV sucks!", and being an avid TV fan (but sympathizing with Bart's plight), Homer responds: "I know you're upset right now, so I'll ''pretend you didn't say that''!"
88	* ItAmusedMe: Most of Bart's behavior up until Homer forbids him from seeing the ''Itchy And Scratchy'' movie is out of sick joy. This includes the punishments Mrs. Krabappel mentions[[note]]synthesizing a laxative from peas and carrots, replacing her birth control pills with Tic-Tacs, bringing a switchblade hidden in a Krusty the Clown doll to school, and sticking fireworks down the pants of an unnamed boy[[/note]], tearing up the carpets, hitting mustard packets with a hammer, and stealing Abe's teeth.
89	* ItsPersonal: Marge's parent's conference with Mrs. Krabappel slowly devolves into the latter giving Marge a thinly veiled comeuppance for birthing the bane of her existence, right down to outright giving her a detention:
90	-->''(Marge writes "I WILL TRY TO RAISE A BETTER CHILD." on the classroom chalkboard)''\
91	'''Marge:''' I really don't see how this is helping Bart.\
92	'''Mrs. Krabappel:''' ''(firmly)'' Just do it.
93	* JerkassBall: Milhouse, who is typically as timid and non-threatening as you can get, gleefully joins Nelson in attacking Bart for suggesting that the Itchy and Scratchy movie would get old on repeated viewings.
94	* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: Bart has been ducking well-deserved punishment for an impressive tally of crimes thanks to Homer's [[PushoverParents lax parenting style]], but when Homer finally puts his foot down, he puts it down so hard that [[{{Determinator}} Bart doesn't get to see the Itchy and Scratchy movie for forty years]].
95	* KidsDrivingCars: [[CantGetAwayWithNothing You can't take your eyes off]] [[StrayingBaby Maggie]] for two seconds.
96	* KnowWhenToFoldEm: Bart gives up on any chance in seeing the movie once he learns Homer had the local theater ban him from seeing it.
97	* LaserGuidedKarma: Snake, who after Maggie crashed the car into the prison and escaped as he was now determined to go on a crime spree, has his efforts only net him a Beta Max VCR (to his absolute chagrin).
98	* LikeFatherLikeSon: Homer sits at an elementary school desk, and -- the ''second'' the teacher's back is turned -- makes an armpit fart and then pretends it wasn't him.
99	* LostAesop: Deliberately invoked:
100	-->'''Homer:''' You know, when I was a boy I really wanted a catcher's mitt, but my dad wouldn't get it for me. So I held my breath until I passed out and banged my head on the coffee table. The doctor thought I might have brain damage.\
101	'''Bart:''' Dad, what's the point of this story?\
102	'''Homer:''' I like stories.
103	* MeatOVision: A hungry Bart imagines Santa's Little Helper's head to be a pizza box and his tongue a slice of one.
104	* MisterSandmanSequence: Kent Brockman describes [[TheRoaringTwenties 1928]] as "the year when you might have seen UsefulNotes/AlCapone dancing the Charleston on top of a flagpole", leading to a black-and-white {{dramatization}} of Capone doing just that.
105	* MythologyGag: Lisa mentions that Creator/DustinHoffman and Music/MichaelJackson made cameos in the movie under different names, "but you could tell it was them". Both performers had previously appeared on ''The Simpsons'' under false names ("Sam Etic" for Dustin Hoffman and "John Jay Smith" for Michael Jackson), but audiences weren't fooled.
106	* NeverMyFault:
107	** Bart is pulling up the rug in front of Homer and (after Marge returns from grocery shopping) leaves the house when told to go to his room. Marge demands to know why Homer let this happen and his only retort is to ask how ''she'' could let this happen. When Marge replies she wasn't home, Homer chastises her "convenient" excuse.
108	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: After he has been [[DeniedFoodAsPunishment denied food all evening]] and unable to find food anywhere else, a defeated Bart is finally realizing that Homer and Marge are serious this time. Just as he's saying that he'd better straighten up and fly right, Homer comes in with dinner, albeit making Bart promise to try to be good. [[BlatantLies Bart agrees]], but sniggers and calls Homer a sucker after he leaves.
109	* NoodleIncident: "Oh dad, you and your stories: ''Bart broke my teeth. The nurses are stealing my money. This thing on my neck is getting bigger.''" While we did see Bart breaking Grampa's teeth, we don't see the other two events, which just adds more to just how horrible the Springfield Retirement Castle is (unless Grampa suffers from senility and thinks nurses are stealing his money and he has a growth on his neck that is getting bigger, since Homer calls him out on all this).
110	** Some of Bart's pranks (the "peas and carrots" laxative, the birth control pill/Tic-Tacs switch, bringing in a Krusty doll with a switchblade in it, and shoving fireworks down a child's pants).
111	** Chief Wiggum is distracted from the sight of Maggie driving a car by "a dog driving a bus" offscreen.
112	* NoPlotNoProblem: The short film "That Happy Cat" is based on old efforts along these lines, and consists of Scratchy walking around and whistling. Justified, as it's a parody of the older, black and white cartoons that had no plot, were only made as a backdrop for popular music at the time, and whose characters had little to no personality.
113	* NoYou: After Bart is sent to his room for pulling up the carpet.
114	-->'''Marge:''' How could you let this happen?\
115	'''Homer:''' How could ''you'' let this happen?\
116	'''Marge:''' I wasn't here!\
117	'''Homer:''' Oh, how ''convenient''.
118	* {{Novelization}}: Bart gives up on reading a {{Doorstopper}} by Creator/NormanMailer, claiming that reading the book version of the movie isn't the same as watching the movie.
119	* OhCrap: Scratchy has this reaction when Itchy is barreling towards him with a train.
120	* OpeningShoutOut:
121	** Marge WritingLines ("I will try to raise a better child") at Mrs. Krabappel's insistence.
122	** Unlike the BaitAndSwitch gag we see in the intro, Maggie ''actually'' winds up at the wheel.
123	* PetTheDog: To make his not seeing the film a bit easier, Homer says Bart is welcome to watch whatever he likes on TV, but Bart is less than pleased.
124	* PoliceAreUseless: Per usual, the police don't do anything about Maggie driving the Simpson family car, the dog driving a bus, or the criminals escaping after Maggie crashes the car into the prison wall.
125	* PushoverParents: During a parent-teacher conference, Marge explains to Mrs. Krabappel that she and Homer have a hard time disciplining Bart whenever he does something wrong and are encouraged by her to start being firm about it. Following her advice, they try to get better at disciplining him, such as when they [[DeniedFoodAsPunishment send him to bed without dinner]] for breaking Grandpa's teeth (although Homer caves and brings him a slice of pizza), and preventing him from seeing ''The Itchy and Scratchy Movie'' when he doesn't watch Maggie and she drives Homer's car.
126	* {{Retraux}}: The early Itchy and Sratchy cartoons we see are clear homages to cartoons from the 1920s.
127	* RhetoricalQuestionBlunder: As Homer continues to not punish Bart, Marge asks if he would prefer the boy become Chief Justice or a sleazy male stripper. Homer suggests Bart could be both.
128	* RidiculousFutureInflation: At the end, Bart and Homer's tickets to the movie are ''six-hundred and fifty dollars!''
129	* RidiculouslySuccessfulFutureSelf: Bart ends up becoming chief justice of the supreme court.
130	* RushedInvertedReading: Bart does this as his parents return from Parent-Teacher Night to hide that he's destroyed Grandpa's dentures.
131	-->'''Bart:''' Boy, time sure flies when you're reading ''[looks at what he's holding]'' THE BIBLE?!! Eww! ''[puts the Bible down as though he has touched something poisonous]''
132	* SawStarWarsTwentySevenTimes: Milhouse boasts that he's seen the Itchy and Scratchy Movie thirteen times, while Nelson claims he saw it seventeen times.
133	-->'''Bart:''' You guys must be getting pretty tired of that movie by now.\
134	'''Milhouse:''' No one who saw the movie would say that.\
135	'''Nelson:''' Let's get him.
136	* SeniorSleepCycle: Grampa falls asleep while he babysits Bart, Lisa, and Maggie, allowing Bart to take his dentures from him.
137	* SeriousBusiness: The Itchy and Scratchy Movie seems to be just a regular Itchy and Scratchy episode padded out so it could be advertised as a movie (an ad claims that it's "53% new footage"), but it receives critical acclaim on par with Film/TheGodfather, people are lining up for miles to see it (including one guy who fell through an open drawbridge and [[IRegretNothing regretted nothing]]), children see it [[SawStarWarsTwentySevenTimes over and over again]] (with Nelson in particular having seen it ''17'' times) and call it the cultural event of their generation, it gets a novelization by Creator/NormanMailer [[DoorStopper that describes it in ridiculously vivid detail]], both it's release and final showing [[WorstNewsJudgmentEver make the news]], in the future it's considered a more important part of the history of animation than WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast, Bart being the only person in Springfield who hasn't seen it makes him a total outcast who gets his ass beat by ''Milhouse'' (of all people), and Lisa even compares it to the moon landing. [[OnlySaneMan Bart and Homer]] are the only ones to not see it this way (and this is only after 40 years). And, as mentioned before, just over half of the movie is comprised of new footage, if it was ''all'' new footage, [[YourHeadAsplode people's heads would have probably exploded]].
138	* ShoutOut:
139	** To the classic [[WesternAnimation/ClassicDisneyShorts Disney]] and [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Warner Bros.]] cartoons: Much of the backstory of Itchy and Scratchy dates back to the late 1920s, with the introduction of "Steamboat Itchy" (a parody of "WesternAnimation/SteamboatWillie", the first WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse cartoon). As the backstory moves to the World War II era, the anti-Axis cartoons are similar to those pitting the good guys of various Disney and Warner cartoons produced during that time against Nazis and the Japanese.
140	** ''Series/SixtyMinutes'': The TV newsmagazine and specifically, news stories from the early 1990s detailing abuse of elderly residents of nursing homes. Homer had threatened to send Grampa to the "the crooked home" he had seen on TV after Grampa mumbled incoherently (due to his broken-and-poorly taped-together dentures stuffed in his mouth).
141	** ''Franchise/StarTrek'': The opening gag is [[SequelSnark a parody of the then-ongoing series of movies]]. This installment: ''Star Trek XII: So Very Tired'', featuring a very elderly Captain Kirk complaining of health problems.
142	** On seeing Bart's depression, Lisa claims he has the "demented melancholy" of a Creator/TennesseeWilliams heroine.
143	** "Mmmm, Film/SoylentGreen."
144	** At the end of the episode, 40 years into the future, Bart is now Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and he and Homer go see ''The Itchy and Scratchy Movie''. The movie advertised to play after it is ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast''.
145	** During the final scene, Homer and Bart's silhouettes as they enter the theater are a reference to ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000''.
146	** Prior to learning about ''The Itchy and Scratchy Movie'', Bart ([[RightHandCat while stroking Snowball II]]), has a Film/JamesBond action figure in the microwave and says, "Stick around, Mr. Bond, things are really starting to... [[{{Pun}} cook]]" as he melts him.
147	* SmartBall: Homer is surprisingly thorough in ensuring Bart can't see the movie, ripping up the ticket and keeping a watchful eye on him throughout, even being savvy enough to request the theatre staff not to let him in. He even sticks to his approach long after even Marge, who chastised him for his lax parenting earlier, starts to crack.
148	* StrayingBaby: Maggie manages to start the car and drive around town.
149	* SuperReflexes: When Grampa sneaks in Jasper's bedroom in the middle of the night to steal his dentures as a replacement for the ones Bart broke, he wakes up, turns the lamp on and [[ClickHello points his gun at Abe]], all within a second.
150	-->'''Jasper''': [[SarcasmMode Well well, if it isn't the Tooth Fairy!]]
151	* TakeOurWordForIt: During the parent-teacher meeting, Mrs. Krabappel produces a doll and asks a boy to use it to show where Bart stuck the fireworks. The viewers don't see the spot and their only clue is Marge's reaction.
152	* TakeThat: The Korean animation studio where American cartoons are made is portrayed as a hellhole, with workers chained to their desks, watched over by armed guards akin to a prison camp.
153	* ToughLove: By the end of the episode Homer has gotten it into his head that preventing Bart from seeing the ''Itchy & Scratchy'' movie will make or break his future, and he holds out accordingly.
154	* TwoDecadesBehind: The episode was very out-dated, even when it first aired. Bart is not allowed to see the Itchy and Scratchy movie in the cinema and thus misses what seems to be the greatest movie in the world. After a while the movie theaters stop playing it and it disappears out of the public eye. Bart never manages to see the movie until Homer finally takes him to see it in the future when the local movie theater is playing it again. The phenomenon that you could only see films when they were playing in a local movie theatre and had no chance of ever seeing them again as soon as they were taken out of rotation was true in the decades before the introduction of home video... which was introduced near the end of the 1970s, while this episode debuted in 1992! Although Homer probably prevented Bart from buying it on video.
155	* UncreditedRole: InUniverse Lisa mentions she could tell Creator/DustinHoffman and Music/MichaelJackson voiced characters in the movie even though they weren't credited. This is a reference to Hoffman voicing Mr Bergstrom in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E19LisasSubstitute Lisa's Substitute]]" and Jackson appearing in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E1StarkRavingDad Stark Raving Dad]]", both uncredited.
156	* UnusuallyUninterestingSight:
157	-->'''[[PoliceAreUseless Chief Wiggum]]:''' [[ComicallyMissingThePoint Aww, isn't that cute? A baby driving a car!]] And look, [[NoodleIncident there's a dog driving a bus!]]
158	* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Bart's negligence while left in charge of Maggie results in her taking a car for a drive and helping people to escape prison. This event is what drove an enraged Homer to lay out down his rightful punishment on Bart by forbidding him to see the movie.
159	* WarTimeCartoon: Parodied with Kent Brockman showing an Itchy and Scratchy propaganda cartoon made during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, where the cat and mouse fight off UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler. In the end, Itchy kills off Scratchy too for the heck of it, while UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt appears to [[DatedHistory kick them]] both in the behind and Itchy holding up a sign with the text "Save Scrap Iron".
160	* WhatTheHellHero: At first, Marge is supportive of Homer's punishment of forbidding Bart from seeing the episode's titular movie--but when the punishment gets to the point where Homer convinced the movie theater employees to actually ban Bart from the theaters, she and Lisa call Homer out on this, feeling that he had taken the punishment too far at this point. Unlike most examples, it doesn't unfetter Homer.
161	* WritingLines: During the parent-teacher meeting, Mrs. Krabappel forces Marge to write "I will try to raise a better child".
162	-->'''Marge:''' I don't see how this is going to help Bart...\
163	'''Krabappel:''' Just do it!

Context Recap / TheSimpsonsS4E6ItchyAndScratchyTheMovie