TVSquad

(S06E04)

Homer: But Marge, I was a political prisoner.

Marge: How were you a political prisoner?

Homer: I kicked a giant mouse in the butt. Do I have to draw you a diagram?

In this episode, the family travels to Itchy and Scratchy Land, which is what Disney World would be if instead of "happiness" the motif was "unmitigated violence." The episode, especially when everything goes haywire and the Itchy and Scratchy robots begin attacking tourists, spoofs both West World and Jurassic Park (which makes sense, considering Jurassic Park is essentially West World with dinosaurs). The final battle between the Simpsons and the robot army, which they must battle alone after being left behind on the island due to Homer and Bart's proclivity for kicking costumed park personnel in the butt, is priceless. Before they realize that camera flashes cause the robots to short circuit, Homer improvises by throwing random objects from his pockets, and eventual, tearing his own underwear out of his pants and throwing that, too.

Revisiting this episode, I had forgotten how many great  moments it had. I loved that the gift shop had no bicycle license plates with the name "Bart" on them, but plenty with "Bort." Apparently it's a very popular name. The episode also nicely satirizes the older polemical cartoons that were churned out and banned in subsequent years by studios like Disney and Warner Bros. when it alludes to a 1938 feature by Itchy and Scratchy creator Roger Meyers called "Nazi Supermen Are Our Superiors."

The episode also contains one of my favorite Itchy and Scratchy moments, a take off on Fantasia called Scratchtasia. More than just Looney Tunes-inspired violence amplified by a million, the Itchy and Scratchy segments are usually more clever than they appear on the surface. I love how Scratchy chops an army of tiny Itchys into dust, and then inhales the dust, only to have millions of the microscopic masochists chop him into cat liver from the inside out.