Bart vs. Itchy & Scratchy

"Bart vs. Itchy & Scratchy" is the eighteenth episode of Season 30.
==Synopsis==
Krusty releases an all-female reboot of Itchy & Scratchy, with Bart and his male friends boycotting the show. Bart joins an all-woman protest group at school after getting caught liking the show.
==Plot==
At Krusty Kon, Krusty the Clown reveals in a live interview that he's going to be rebooting The Itchy & Scratchy Show with an all-female cast, much to the joy of Lisa and the dismay of Bart, who plans to hate-not-watch the show with his male friends, Milhouse, Nelson, Martin, Dolph, Jimbo, and Kearney. On the night of the new show's premiere, Bart holds a block party at his house, wherein he and his friends turn off the TV and blindfold themselves, to avoid having to watch the show. Meanwhile, upstairs, Lisa watches the show on her TV and livestreams her reaction to it on YouTube, claiming that this will be a historical moment in Cartoon Women's History. Bart sneaks into her room while this is happening and catches some of the show. After seeing one gag, he laughs even harder than Lisa. Lisa notices him and teases him for the fact that he likes the female Itchy & Scratchy reboot, but Bart gets mad at her and says that only she saw him, so if she tells anyone, nobody will believe her. Bart leaves the room and slips back into the living room, where he pretends to have been there the entire time. He thinks he has gotten off scot-free; in actuality, his reaction to the show was caught on Lisa's livestream, and Lisa makes sure she posts this video all over the internet. Overnight, this goes completely viral, and Bart is exposed as a hypocrite.
Not much later, Homer is watching Josh.0, where Bart's exposure video gets publicized. The next day at school, Milhouse, Nelson, Ralph, Dolph, Jimbo, and Kearney know about this and they are extremely angry at him. The boys team up against Bart and chase him down the halls, using Ralph as a medieval flail. Bart gets cornered right in front of the girls' bathroom and goes in there to hide, knowing that his enemies won't be able to enter without hurting themselves with the room's air of femininity. In the bathroom, Bart meets three radical feminist girls, who are badass pranksters just like him. The girls claim to be part of an organized feminist crime group called Bossy Riot, which fights back against societally systematic misogyny. Bart wants to join their group. At first, Bossy Riot doesn't want a male member, so Bart proves his worthiness by stealing Principal Skinner's phone. The girls decide that if they are really serious about gender equality, they would let a male join, so Bart becomes a member.
In response, Milhouse forms an anti-feminist movement with his friends called the Boys Right Association, or BRA. This organization includes all the boys mentioned before (even Ralph), as well as the inclusion of Lewis, Wendell, Hubert, and Database. When Luann hears about what Milhouse is doing, she is happy with the fact that Milhouse finally has friends and she goes completely horny on Kirk, making love to her husband one night. Bossy Riot goes around town and vandalizes stuff, steals things, pranks men and boys, and pretty much act like a bunch of hooligans. Their actions become so big and well-known, that they get publicity on the news from Kent Brockman. Lisa notices that Bart has a string coming out of his back pocket and suspects that he's a member of Bossy Riot. When she interrogates him about this, she says that her entire world view would be thrown into a vindaloo if he was really a feminist, prompting Bart to instantly reveal to her that he is; she subsequently wants to join. But when the Boys Rights Association burn the new Itchy and Scratchy toys in protest, the girls of Bossy Riot want to retaliate by burning all masters of Itchy and Scratchy. A horrified Bart tries to stop them, just to be tied to a mannequin, and is saved by Lisa. Arriving at Krustylu Studios, they find out that Bossy Riot are close to doing the dirty on live TV, but the recordings are saved (save for three videocassettes) by Lisa, spewing the fumes of the nail polish remover on the boys, which they blame Milhouse for; he is subsequently ousted as their leader. Chief Wiggum tries to follow the girls but fails to catch them due to their smartness and dressing up.
Outside the studios, the girls tell Bart he was never in the group properly and was in just for fingerprints and DNA (basically a scapegoat), and invite Lisa into the group, before driving off on their bikes. In the end Lisa joins them, and Bart happily writes "The patriarchy is a wiener" on the wall with a paint can. During the credits, the boys group again together, with Bart telling them how it was being with them but making them depressed by saying the girls don't envy the boys. Bart is officially welcomed back into the group.
==Broadcast History==
===United Kingdom===
Broadcast date(s)	Channel aired
*November, 23rd, 2022	
==Behind The Laughter==
===Production===
Bart vs. Itchy & Scratchy is the 18th episode of the thirtieth season of The Simpsons, and the 657th episode overall. It aired in the United States on Fox. This is the first episode actually owned by the Walt Disney Company as Disney bought 20th Century Fox 4 days prior to this episode's airdate.
===Reception===
This episode got a 4.6/10 on IMDb due to the heavy political nature of it for a Krusty related episode, its exaggeratedly bad depiction of feminism and its misleading and unrealistic reception of gender-swapped established legacy characters and stories that tend to be generally much more badly received by fans and audiences of each gender. Before IMDb shut down the full series ratings, it became the second lowest episode besides "Lisa Goes Gaga" (Now third, behind the aforementioned "Lisa Goes Gaga" and "The Star of the Backstage").
==Citations==
fr:Bart contre Itchy et Scratchy
pl:Bart vs. Itchy & Scratchy
pt:Bart vs. Comichão e Coçadinha
Category:Episodes named after a character
Category:Episodes named after Bart
Category:Episodes named after Itchy & Scratchy
Category:Sequels
Category:TV-14 Episodes
Category:Directed by Chris Clements
Category:Episodes without Maggie
Category:Episodes featuring guest stars
Category:Episodes with alternate end credits
Category:Krusty the Clown Episodes
Category:Bart episodes
Category:Poorly-received episodes
Category:Written by Megan Amram
Category:Bart vs. Lisa episodes
Category:'Vs.' Episodes
Category:Episodes with mixed reviews
Category:Controversial episodes
Category:Episodes with no Opening Sequence
Category:Episodes with Different Ratings
Category:History
Category:Disney