YMMV / The Simpsons S4 E6 "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie"

• Alternate Aesop Interpretation: While in theory the episode is a somewhat deliberately silly take on the importance of parental discipline, another takeaway is that Pushover Parents won't harden up until their kids' problematic behavior affects them. For most of the episode Bart's flagrant misdeeds (switching out Edna's birth control, putting fireworks down a kid's pants, breaking Abe's dentures) harm other people, but it's not until his comparatively innocent negligence puts Maggie in danger and busts up the family car to boot that Homer gets serious.
• Broken Aesop: The message of this episode is that parents need to discipline their children for them to behave. This is presented with Homer being too lenient with Bart, resulting in him getting into trouble until he stops him from watching the Itchy and Scratchy movie. However, this makes no sense considering that Homer strangles Bart in many episodes; if anything, it seems like Homer needs to be more lenient for Bart to behave.
• Critical Dissonance: This episode is notable for being the first Simpsons episode to be called the "worst episode ever" (by a poster on alt.tv.simpsons two days after its first airing), inspiring Comic Book Guy's future Character Catchphrase. However, said poster seems to have been a distinct minority, with appraisals of the episode by other fans in the same thread being very positive, and this episode being part of Season 4 (making it one of the "Golden Age" episodes).
• Fanon: Many fans prefer this episode's 20 Minutes into the Future segment in the ending because it has Bart grow into an intelligent and mature person while remaining on good terms with his father, meaning that all the other 20 Minutes into the Future episodes that don't have Bart as this (not including "Lisa's Wedding", where Bart, while currently working a demolitions job, is noted to be saving money for law school in a Continuity Nod) may as well be Fanon Discontinuity.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: Bart's Ridiculously Successful Future Self as depicted in this episode is comforting to have in mind when watching "Lisa the Simpson," which has a Bittersweet Ending showing that while Simpson women like Lisa tend to be smart and successful, the men peak around 8 and lose their intelligence as they age, leading the whole family to conclude that Bart is doomed to be a failure in life.
• Informed Wrongness: Considering that Homer likely left his keys in the ignition of his parked car, and definitely left a Straying Baby in care of a particularly unreliable ten-year-old, he probably deserves at least a share of the blame with Bart.
• Jerkass Woobie: While Bart caused a lot of trouble, destroyed Grandpa's teeth and allowed Maggie to escape the house, it's hard not to feel bad for him with how sad he is over not being able to see the titular movie. Lisa even says that she's never seen Bart like this before.
• Unintentional Period Piece:
  • Snake – during his crime spree after breaking out of prison – is disappointed that the VCR he stole plays only Beta (rather than the then prevalent VHS); Beta-formatted VCRs had been retired from the United States' market in 1988 (though movies were released on the Beta format until 1996).
  • Even when this episode first aired, the notion that Homer would be able to completely prevent Bart from watching the movie (and Bart conceding defeat when the movie leaves theaters) was quite farfetched; it's conceivable that he could've stopped him from buying the film when it was released on VHS, but less so that he could’ve stopped him from watching it on video or on cable at a friend's house. With the advent of streaming services and the "films on demand" option on many modern cable packages, Bart would nowadays be perfectly able to watch the movie without having to go to the movie theater and Homer would have to use parental controls to keep Bart from seeing the movie online and on-demand, but then again, Bart is tech-savvy enough to be able to watch it via piracy as shown in "Steal This Episode", in which case, Homer forbidding Bart from watching the movie so that he can be taught discipline and become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court when he's older would've been All for Nothing in the long run.
    • Granted, the episode can be read as Bart specifically wanting to see the film for the first time in a theater, but even then, it's still hard to believe he wouldn't have tried any of the alternatives at any point, especially once he's an adult.
  • The sequence parodying the at-the-time current Star Trek films, which all featured the increasingly aging original cast, became dated with Star Trek: Generations two years later, which switched over to the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation. This also became Hilarious in Hindsight when a twelfth film actually did come out.
• Values Dissonance: Bart being sent to bed without any supper is considered a fair and effective punishment, with Homer bringing him pizza being framed negatively as it enables him to backslide into his old ways. Nowadays, sending a child to bed hungry as a punishment is much more controversial and often considered abusive, especially with the increased awareness of juvenile eating disorders (children seeing food as something to "earn" can feed into unhealthy relationships with food).

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