Itchy and Scratchy n nem

Today's t-shirt is brought to you by The Simpsons. Some of you guys may not be old enough to remember the phenomenon that was The Simpsons. Sure, everyone knows OF The Simpsons in the same way that kids know about Jordan maybe because of his shoes but can't really connect to why he's regarded as the G.O.A.T. Yes you can watch clips or maybe episodes on YouTube but it's one of those things in life that you had to actually be there and experience to fully understand. I'm talking about one of the most controversial cartoons of the 90's. I was a 4th grader in 1990 (I remember that without even thinking because my family had a house fire that left us displaced that school year) and The Simpsons was a fresh and edgy cartoon on Fox that people weren't sure if kids should be watching because of the "wild"content. It was the "Family Guy" of its day... even typing that felt a little disrespectful lol. I mean it's one of the longest running shows EVER and it paved the way for everything that came after as far as animated programming. South Park, Beavis and Butt Head, King of the Hill, Family Guy, you name it.

That year in 4th grade, I talked about it so much in school to my friends that my teacher (who was adamant that it was inappropriate for kids) told my parents during a parent/teacher conference that I shouldn't be watching it. My Dad was an old soul so even though he wasn't even 30 yet in 1990, he raised us with the ferver of a parent in the 70s so it wouldn't have mattered if it wasn't as bad as she described (kids didn't get a say in how they were raised back then lol). Because she said I shouldn't be watching it, I couldn't watch it nomo...or rather, I couldn't get CAUGHT watching it hahaha smh. Of course like any other church kid worth their salt, I learned to master the art of the loophole and watched it anyway lol but the point is, you would've thought that The Simpsons was an R rated movie every week from the way people reacted to it.

Depending on what side of the "decline of morality on tv" argument you're on, it wouldn't be counted as robbery to consider The Simpsons the greatest animated series of all time. One reason for that was because of the cartoon within the cartoon. Bart Simpson watched the Krusty the Clown show which aired a cartoon called The Itchy and Scratchy Show...so I guess it was actually a show within a show, within a show. The kids like that type of irony nowadays lol. Itchy and Scratchy was one of the most violent cartoons we'd ever seen at that point. Before that, it was all Coyote and Road Runner and Bugs Bunny outsmarting Elmer Fudd during hunting season. I guess because they didn't show blood or something, it was ok to fall off cliffs and blow each other up with dynamite...during the time of the gulf war which they covered everyday on the news...selah lol. The Simpsons was a progressive show so everything they were doing at the time was next level. It was like The Flintstones on steroids so the same had to go for Itchy and Scratchy. I always felt like it was an updated version and Tom and Jerry. Some would say that Tom and Jerry was clean comedy but fam... first of all it came out in 1940 and featured episodes where Tom the Cat got burned, stabbed and even died and sent to heaven. Itchy and Scratchy leveled up and displayed some blood and bone but still in a cartoony way if you get where I'm coming from lol but it was a continuation or a progression of what cartoons already were. Cartoon violence was literally always in front of our faces. Everything evolves in life even if it goes in a direction we didn't want it to so I always felt as if they could argue against what it had become but it was only able to become that because of the seeds they'd already planted over decades. You don't get to laud Warner Bros for Looney Toons and then scathe Matt Groening for The Simpsons. Sure we've become desensitized to lots of things on tv but the people who started it can't be absolved and neither can we. If cancel culture has taught us anything it's that our own self censorship can ultimately control what these networks put on because if we don't watch it, they lose viewership which affects advertising dollars which (usually) affects what stays on the air and what doesn't. So when we start having those "it's a shame what they got on tv now" conversations, we have to remember to grab a plate and take our slice of the blame for it. Peace one time for Itchy and Scratchy, probably the most deserving characters in a show to never get a solo spin off.