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Analysis on ‘Itchy and Scratchy’ short video

By Abdul Rehman

Before ‘The Simpson Movie’ intro, the directors cleverly displayed a short video known as ‘Itchy and Scratchy’. This short animated video lasting approximately 15 minutes brings up many moral and ethical implications.

At the start of the video, a bird’s eye shot zooms onto a ‘planet-like’ location where a seemingly normal space shuttle lands. Judging by the white cratered surface of the landing location and non-diagetic soundtrack from ‘Apollo 13’, most audiences wouldn’t argue it is meant to be the moon. However, as the shuttle door opens and the figure in the space shuttle turns out to be an odd looking cat with a sticking out tongue. Clearly this is mocking Neil Armstrong, first man on the moon. Then, the cat meets up in the middle with a mouse holding the American flag up. This clever representation brings up the race between the Russians and Americans to the moon, and how the Americans ‘won’ on July 20, 1969 which was broadcasted on TV to over 500 million viewers. However, looking at the waving flag, the moon hoax conspiracy is brought to the audience’s attention. This is only the first governmental masking made aware to the audience in the short video. In this clip the flag plays three roles, waving to bring up the moon hoax due to no atmosphere on the moon, secondly to signify the United States won the race to the moon, and lastly as a spear which is used in the next scene. The historical content allows the creators to create both a serious and humorous mood for the audience. I think the use of the American flag is the key to symbolization in this short clip.

Then, a twist occurs in the storyline where the mouse attacks the even after the cat proposed peace.

“We come in peace for all mankind”

Quoted from Neil Armstrong after putting down American flag on moon

“We come in peace for cats and mice everywhere”

Quoted from Scratchy the cat in “Itchy and Scratchy” short video

As seen above, the words spoken were cleverly tweaked to suggest cats and mice are the main characters in the short-video.

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After the short speech, the mouse stabs and beats the cat several times, leaving the cat on the moon with a broken oxygen tank suit, thus making it impossible to live, however, later on in the clip, the audience finds out the cat doesn’t die. This clip is humorous due to the ‘reverse stereotype’ of cats usually being stronger. This brings up a strong contextual issue of animals being misjudged. This cleverly made scene makes the audience subconsciously change views of animals, making the audience think twice before petting cats and mice, Personally, I think the director constructed this ...

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