Bart vs. Itchy & Scratchy
"Bart vs. Itchy & Scratchy" is the eighteenth episode of the thirtieth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons, and the 657th episode overall. The episode was directed by Chris Clements and written by Megan Amram. It aired in the United States on Fox on March 24, 2019. In the episode, The Itchy & Scratchy Show is rebooted with female versions of the characters. Milhouse leads a group of boys to protest against the new show while Bart secretly joins a feminist protest group who perform acts of vandalism to protest against male-female inequality and the backlash the new Itchy & Scratchy show receives. Plot The Simpsons attend a convention where Krusty the Clown hosts a panel discussion about his show. After expressing frustration at fans who ask repetitive questions, he announces that "Itchy & Scratchy" will be rebooted with the characters as females. While Lisa is excited by the changes, Bart, Milhouse, Nelson, and Martin all express outrage and swear that they will never watch the show again in protest. Bart hosts a party where the boys make a point of not watching the show. However, he overhears Lisa recording a reaction video onto her phone as she watches the episode and decides to investigate. He laughs despite himself and is confronted by Lisa. When he lies to his friends about watching the episode, Lisa, having recorded his laugh, uploads the video online from her phone in revenge. Lisa's video goes viral and Bart is confronted by his friends at school, who rebuke him for betraying his gender. They try to beat him up, but he takes shelter in the girls' bathroom where he meets Carmen, Erica and Piper; three sixth-grade girls. The girls call themselves "Bossy Riot" and carry out pranks in the name of feminism. Bart reveals himself to be El Barto and persuades them to let him join Bossy Riot by improving one of their pranks. In Bart's absence, the boys turn to Milhouse as their new leader. He forms the "Boys' Rights Association", or BRA, and they begin pressuring Krusty into reverting the changes to Itchy & Scratchy. Bart and Bossy Riot carry out a series of pranks aimed at male authority figures around Springfield, with the girls giving him a purple mask allowing him to partake in the pranks with them undetected. The townspeople are afraid and their antics make the evening news. Lisa realizes that Bart is part of Bossy Riot when she sees a loose purple yarn string from his shorts and confronts him in his room. He initially denies it but immediately admits it when she says it destroys her vision of the entire universe. She accuses him of hiding behind causes he does not believe in to carry out pranks; Bart counters that while Lisa advocates causes, she has never had the courage to take action. At Bossy Riot's meeting, they learn that Krusty has relented to BRA and will restore the male version of Itchy & Scratchy.