The Itchy & Scratchy & Palm Treat Show

Meta on top of meta: Breaking the 4th wall

Everyone's Favorite Show Within a Show Within a Show

According to Matt Groening, the inspiration for the Itchy & Scratchy Show was Tom & Jerry. He has said that in his youth he and his friends would excitedly talk about if Tom & Jerry featured ultra-violence instead of cartoon violence, and would invent gruesome alternate senarios. This childhood banter stuck in his mind and years later when he created The Itchy & Scratchy Show as a clip show within the Krusty the Klown Show and he was finally able to bring this concept to life.

As a child I watched The Tom & Jerry Show and it also occurred to my childhood self that the injuries they inflicted on one another ought to be much more severe than they were depicted on the show. I never made the connection between Tom & Jerry and Itchy & Scratchy until I read about the connection.

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