| "Steamboat Itchy"
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| The Itchy & Scratchy Show Episode Information
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- "Scratchy was teamed up with a psychotic young mouse named Itchy, and cartoon history was made."
- ―Kent Brockman[src]
Steamboat Itchy is a cartoon that was made in 1929 (the year following That Happy Cat) and was the first cartoon to star Itchy and Scratchy together. It was shown during Eye on Springfield the same day that The Itchy & Scratchy Movie came out, as a look back at the history of Itchy & Scratchy.
Plot
Itchy is piloting a steamboat along a river. Scratchy appears on the bridge, whistles briefly, and adjusts his hat, apparently presenting himself as ready for duty. Itchy draws a Tommy gun and unleashes a hail of bullets at Scratchy's knees, stripping them down to the bone. Scratchy screams in pain, falls down, and starts to crawl away, leaving a bloody trail on the deck. As Scratchy crawls, Itchy opens the door to the steamboat's furnace. When Scratchy crawls near the door, Itchy kicks him in the behind, pushing him into the furnace. Itchy then slams the door on Scratchy's neck, leaving him to again scream in pain as his head catches fire. After a few seconds, Itchy opens the door and pulls Scratchy out of the furnace, revealing his head burnt to a crisp. The cartoon ends with Itchy saying, "Oh me, oh my!" as the camera irises onto Scratchy's burned head.
Behind the Laughter
- Steamboat Itchy is a parody of the classic Mickey Mouse animated short Steamboat Willie with Itchy cast as Mickey and Scratchy as Pete. As such, it is in black-and-white and animated in the style that was prevalent during the 1920s.
- While drawing the Steamboat Itchy sequence, the animators jokingly referred to it as "Steamboat Lawsuit". David Silverman explained that he did not know "why [they] weren't sued because there's a shot right out of Steamboat Willie in [the episode]."[1]
- Scratchy whistles the same tune and adjusts his hat when he finishes in the same way as he does in That Happy Cat.
Appearances
References
