The Itchy & Scratchy Show

The Itchy & Scratchy Show is a show within a show in the animated television series The Simpsons. It usually appears as a part of The Krusty the Clown Show, watched regularly by Bart and Lisa Simpson. Itself an animated cartoon, The Itchy & Scratchy Show depicts an anthropomorphic blue mouse, Itchy (voiced by Dan Castellaneta), who repeatedly kills an anthropomorphic black cat, Scratchy (voiced by Harry Shearer). The cartoon first appeared in the Tracey Ullman Show short "The Bart Simpson Show", which originally aired November 20, 1988. The cartoon's first appearance in The Simpsons was in the 1990 episode "There's No Disgrace Like Home". Typically presented as 15-to-60-second-long cartoons, the show is filled with over-the-top violence. The Simpsons also occasionally features characters who are involved with the production of The Itchy & Scratchy Show, including Roger Meyers, Jr. (voiced by Alex Rocco and Hank Azaria), who runs the studio and produces the show.

Itchy and Scratchy are based on the cartoons Tom and Jerry and Herman and Katnip, and their names were inspired by "Pixie and Dixie", who were mice on the cartoon show Pixie and Dixie and Mr. Jinks. The cartoons have since become popular among the show's writers and animators and are often added when an episode needs expanding. As the shorts became popular with fans, the writers decided to have full episodes that centered around the production of The Itchy & Scratchy Show and featured multiple shorts. The first was "Itchy & Scratchy & Marge" (season two, 1990), which was a commentary on censorship. Other episodes to feature the show include "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie" (season four, 1992), "The Front" (season four, 1993), "Itchy & Scratchy Land" (season six, 1994), "The Day the Violence Died" (season seven, 1996) and "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show" (season eight, 1997).