A Streetcar Named Marge

While Homer, Bart and Lisa are watching television, Marge announces that she is going to audition for a local musical production of A Streetcar Named Desire, and she wants to meet new people because she usually spends all day caring for Maggie. The rest of the family pay no attention and continue to watch television.

The musical is called "Oh, Streetcar!", which is directed by Llewellyn Sinclair. After Ned Flanders is cast as Stanley Kowalski, Marge auditions for Blanche DuBois. Llewellyn immediately rejects Marge, explaining that Blanche is supposed to be a "delicate flower being trampled by an uncouth lout". However, as a dejected Marge calls home and takes Homer's dinner order, Llewellyn realizes that she is perfect for the role.

The next day, Maggie causes distractions when Marge brings her to rehearsal, so Llewellyn tells Marge to enroll the baby at the daycare center called Ayn Rand School for Tots which is run by his sister Ms. Sinclair, who immediately confiscates Maggie's pacifier. Maggie and the other babies later engage in an attempt to retrieve their pacifiers, but Ms. Sinclair thwarts their efforts and sends Maggie to a playpen.

During rehearsal, Marge struggles with a scene in which Blanche is supposed to break a glass bottle and attack Stanley, but she cannot muster enough anger towards the Stanley character to break the bottle. After coming home, Marge asks Homer to help her learn her lines, but Homer is disinterested. The day before the performance, Marge and Ned are again practising the bottle scene as Homer arrives to drive Marge home. Homer repeatedly interrupts the rehearsal. Imagining that Stanley is Homer, Marge finally smashes the bottle and lunges at Ned.

The next day at the Ayn Rand School for Tots, Maggie again attempts to regain the pacifiers and this time succeeds. Homer arrives to pick her up and he and his children go to watch the musical. Homer immediately falls into boredom, but he perks up when Marge appears on stage and becomes saddened over the way Stanley treats Blanche. All the while Homer slowly picks up the plot and Marge's feelings along with it. At the end of the musical, Marge receives a warm reaction from the crowd, but she misinterprets Homer's sadness for boredom. Afterwards, she confronts him with hostility, but Homer is able to explain that he was genuinely moved by Blanche's situation. Thus, he reacted with sadness because he wanted to be the husband that she deserves to have in her life who loved her, not like Stanley who neglects and mistreats her. Marge realizes that Homer really did watch the musical, and the two happily leave the theater.

Itchy and Scratchy and Marge

Homer clumsily attempts to build Marge a spice rack. While he is doing so, Maggie sneaks up behind Homer and hits him on the head with a mallet, similar to the famed stabbing scene in the movie Psycho. Marge is initially clueless as to what would motivate Maggie to do such a deed, but then notices that, when Maggie sees an episode of The Itchy & Scratchy Show, a cartoon which is known for its violence, she mimics its content. As a result, Marge immediately blames the makers of the show for Maggie's actions and bans Bart and Lisa from watching the show, but the two still manage to watch Itchy & Scratchy at their friends' houses. Marge writes a letter to the producers of the show asking them to tone down their violence, but in response, Roger Meyers, Jr.—the chairman of Itchy & Scratchy International—writes a letter to Marge, telling her one-person can not make a difference and calls her a "screwball". In response, Marge decides to "show what one screwball can do".

Marge forms "Springfieldians for Nonviolence, Understanding, and Helping" (SNUH as acronym), and forces the family to picket outside the Itchy & Scratchy Studios. Marge's protest gains momentum and soon more people join the group and even start to picket The Krusty the Klown Show, on which Itchy & Scratchy is shown. Marge appears on Kent Brockman's show, Smartline where she confronts Roger Meyers over the violence and suggests that concerned parents send letters to Meyers. Many angry letters are sent to the Studio and Roger Meyers concedes defeat, and agrees to eliminate violence in Itchy & Scratchy. Eventually, a new short in which Itchy & Scratchy sit on a porch drinking lemonade airs, but Bart, Lisa, and other kids across Springfield reject the cleaned-up show. A lengthy montage follows, in which the children of Springfield go outside and engage in various wholesome activities and that night Bart and Lisa brag about their various outdoor activities while Marge listens happily.

Meanwhile, Michelangelo's David goes on a coast-to-coast tour of the United States, and Springfield is one of its scheduled destinations. The members of SNUH try to urge Marge to protest the sculpture, insisting that it is offensive and unsuitable. However, Marge, being an artist herself, reveals that she believes that the sculpture is a masterpiece. While appearing on Smartline, Marge admits that it is wrong to censor one form of art but not another, and sadly concludes that while one person can make a difference, at the end of the day they probably should not. Freed from public protest, Itchy & Scratchy immediately returns to its old form and Springfield's children abandon their wholesome activities and return to spending every day indoors watching the violent Itchy & Scratchy cartoons. Homer and Marge go to see David and Marge expresses her disappointment that the kids are at home watching "a cat and mouse disembowel each other" rather than seeing the sculpture. She cheers up when Homer tells her that the school will be forcing them to see the sculpture on a school trip