YMMV / The Simpsons S7 E18 "The Day the Violence Died"

• Aluminum Christmas Trees: Hearsay and conjecture are in fact kinds of evidence. Not particularly strong on their own, but can be used in conjunction with stronger pieces of evidence to build a case in situations where fact cannot be found so much as inferred.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Milhouse saying "Look out, Itchy! He's Irish!" It's funny because Milhouse has no idea that making fun of Irish is (for the most part) no longer acceptable.
• Genius Bonus: The first Itchy and Scratchy cartoon, made in 1919, featured Itchy killing Teddy Roosevelt. The real Roosevelt died in 1919, albeit from natural causes.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Bart saying about Gen Xers, "We need another Vietnam to thin out their ranks," became this when The War on Terror happened which often got compared to Vietnam in regards to being considered by many to be a needless war started on flimsy pretenses that caused the deaths of far too many soldiers and civilians alike and dragged on for twenty years — twice as long as Vietnam (2001-2021).
  • The "Amendment to Be" segment is a cartoon with heavy conservative bias which ends with a mob of thuggish anthropomorphised bills storming the Capitol with guns. Now it's eerily reminiscent of the January 2021 riots, where a right-wing mob did storm the Capitol.
  • Chester names his health as the first thing he's happy to have. The same year the episode aired, Kirk Douglas suffered a stroke that permanently affected his speech and largely ended his acting career, though he did recover enough to live to be 103 years old.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Krusty's reaction to showing the Schoolhouse Rock! parody ("Sorry about this, kids, but stay tuned! We got some real good toy commercials coming up, I promise!") can be this after the Toonami intro to Hamtaro, in which TOM looks at the show with not-so-subtle disdain (and we later learn that Jason De Marco, the head of Toonami, never wanted it to be a part of the block because it stuck out like a sore thumb, hence the creation of that intro).
  • The Itchy & Scratchy cartoon in the beginning of the episode shows Itchy sucking up Scratchy's ghost with a vacuum cleaner.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • The scene where Lionel Hutz adds punctuation to his newspaper ad to reverse what it promises ("Works on contingency? No, money down!") is used frequently in response to politicians who have been accused of backflipping on previously stated policies.
  • Lionel Hutz again, the line "Well, Your Honor. We have plenty of hearsay and conjecture. Those are kinds of evidence." has been endlessly quoted during the aftermath of the 2020 election, where Donald Trump's campaign attempted to overturn the results of the election by attempting to claim fraud in enough states to reverse his electoral defeat. Needless to say, judges have been less than impressed by his campaign's attempts as all failed, some of them were thrown out due to not even having any evidence.
  • The liver and onions line said by Chester has become pretty memetic during these latest years, with picture edits of Simpsons characters replacing something with liver and onions and licking their tongues.
• Mexicans Love Speedy Gonzales:
  • This episode is a favorite among lawyers. According to LegalEagle, lawyers cite the "hearsay and conjecture are kinds of evidence" line and the bit about "NO! MONEY DOWN!" all the time.
  • Despite the segment being used to mock them, conservatives have adapted the "Amendment to Be" segment in their arguments about the constitution.
• One-Scene Wonder: Lester and Eliza only appear during the ending of the episode, but are very memorable for the Nightmare Fuel they bring up just by existing.
• Parody Displacement: Because the show in question never made it outside of North America until the release of Disney+, many fans who live outside of that region believe that the Schoolhouse Rock! segment in the episode was entirely original.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: The music that plays during Itchy and Scratchy Meets Fritz the Cat is very similar to Earth, Wind & Fire's "Shining Star", particularly the moment when Itchy smokes a cigarette and lights Scratchy on fire.

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