{{Short description|Nickname or pseudonym for the Devil}}{{redirect|Mr. Scratch|the film|The Devil and Daniel Webster (film)}} {{Wiktionary}} '''Old Scratch''' or '''Mr. Scratch''' is a nickname or pseudonym for the Devil. The name likely comes from Middle English ''scrat'', the name of a demon or goblin, derived from Old Norse ''skratte''.<ref>{{Citation | title = Old Scratch | journal = The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language | volume = Fifth Edition | year = 2011 | publisher = Houghton Mifflin Company | url = http://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=Old+Scratch}}</ref>
==Mentions== Examples of usage of the name "Old Scratch" are found in:
===Literature=== *"The Devil and Tom Walker" (1824) by Washington Irving *''A Christmas Carol'' (1843) by Charles Dickens *''The Three Clerks'' (1857) by Anthony Trollope *''The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'' (1876) by Mark Twain *''The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo'' (1900) by Rudyard Kipling *"The Devil and Daniel Webster" (1936) by Stephen Vincent Benét *"Prologue to an Adventure" (1938) by Dylan Thomas *"The Fair to Middling (1959) by Arthur Calder-Marshall *"The Last Rung on the Ladder" (1978) by Stephen King *''Miracle Monday'' (1981) by Elliot S. Maggin *''Windswept House'' (1996, pg 402) by Fr. Malachi Martin *''Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell'' (2004) by Susanna Clarke *''The Barn at the End of Our Term'' (2007) by Karen Russell *''Homestuck'' (2009) by Andrew Hussie *''I, Ripper'' (2015) by Stephen Hunter *''Chilling Adventures of Sabrina'' #6 (2016) by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa *"Disappearance At Devil's Rock" (2016) by Paul Tremblay *''Scratchman (2019)'' by Tom Baker
===Film=== *''The Devil and Daniel Webster'' (1941) *''The Story of Mankind'' (1957) *''Crossroads'' (1986) *''Prince of Darkness'' (1987) *''The Witches of Eastwick'' (1987) *Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare (1987) *Crazy as Hell (2002) *5ive Girls (2006) *''Mud'' (2012)
===Television=== *''Dimension 20'' *''Constantine'' *''American Dad!'' (Episode: "Permanent Record Wrecker") *''Lucifer'' (Episode: "Lucifer, Stay. Good Devil.") *''Quantum Leap'' (Episode: "The Boogieman") *''The Messengers'' (Episode: "Death Becomes Her") *''Billions'' (Episode: "The Wrong Maria Gonzalez")(2018) *American Horror Story (Episode: "Sojourn") *Criminal Minds *''Chilling Adventures of Sabrina'' Netflix TV Series (2018) by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa * ''Being Human'' *''Hap and Leonard (TV series)'' (Season 3, Episode 1) *The Cuphead Show (season 1, episode 1, Carn-Evil) *A Christmas Carol (FX, 2019) *Lawmen: Bass Reeves (Episode 7) *''Agatha All Along''
===Music=== *"Beelz" song written by Stephen Lynch *"Three Men Hanging" song by Murder by Death *"Tight Like That" by Clutch *"Un-Reborn Again" by Queens of the Stone Age *"Bewitched" by Beat Happening *”The Devil Lives in a Mason Jar” by John Driskell Hopkins *"Oldscratch" by The Distillers * "Old Scratch Blues" by Jack White
===Video games=== *Alan Wake *Alan Wake's American Nightmare *Alan Wake 2 * Descent 3 * Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag * Pirate101 *The Simpsons: Tapped Out
===Miscellaneous===
*Episode 12 of the podcast ''Welcome to Night Vale'' *Parts 31-38 of the ''[https://www.malevolent.ca/ Malevolent]'' podcast *A proposed Doctor Who feature film developed by Tom Baker and Ian Marter was given the working title ''Doctor Who Meets Scratchman''.
==References== <references/> {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}}
Category:American legendary creatures Category:The Devil in legend Category:Devils