It has been 34 years and well over 750 episodes… but The Simpsons are turning over a new leaf.
According to The Independent the much-loved cartoon has shown its willingness to keep moving with the culture that surrounds it, as patriarch Homer Simpson has revealed he no longer strangles his son, Bart.
A running joke in the animated series has involved Homer reprimanding his mischievous eldest child by squeezing his neck tightly, to the extent that Bart’s eyes bulge and his tongue sticks out.
Despite being one of the most recognizable features of Homer and Bart’s father-son dynamic, the action has been frequently criticized for its brutality.
But in the third episode of season 35, titled “McMansion & Wife”, Homer declares that he’s changed his ways when he and his wife Marge pay a visit to their new neighbor, Thayer.
When Homer introduces himself with a handshake, the new character remarks how firm Homer’s grip is.
“See, Marge, strangling the boy paid off,” Homer remarks, before adding: “Just kidding, I don’t do that anymore. Times have changed.”
The episode first aired late last month (22 October), but the remark from Homer generated online conversation when the scene was posted by a viewer on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday (2 November).
“Took them long enough lmao,” the user, BabyLamb5, added as a caption.
In response, other fans of the show commended Homer acknowledging his disturbing actions towards Bart. One comment reads:
“I knew my man Homer was gonna learn.”
I just found out that, after over 30 years, The Simpsons has finally retired their long-running gag of Homer strangling Bart.
Took them long enough lmao pic.twitter.com/JuHyNu1eiK
— Simon A. (Baby Lamb Creations) (@BabyLamb5) November 2, 2023
The last time Homer was depicted strangling Bart was in season 31 (2019-2020). However, the topic of parent-child violence had been covered on several occasions before that.
In the season 22 episode “Love is a Many Strangled Thing”, Homer attends a “fathering enrichment class” after encouragement from Marge.
During the class, a towering basketball player (played by real-life former NBA star Kareem Abdul Jabbar) teaches Homer what it feels like “to be young, small, and terrified” by strangling him, and inviting others to do the same.
Traumatised by his experience, Homer later finds that he is unable to strangle Bart.
Me watching cynical neckbeards in the comments getting butthurt that their precious cartoon child abuse gag isn’t continuing anymore and The Simpsons should end.
Y’all call it “woke”, I call it good character development for Homer.
Times have changed. Get over it. pic.twitter.com/XovQqTqhNi
— Simon A. (Baby Lamb Creations) (@BabyLamb5) November 4, 2023
and
It’s always been considered child abuse, even before the show began.
— Simon A. (Baby Lamb Creations) (@BabyLamb5) November 2, 2023
and
It makes sense that they would change it and I appreciate that they did. There are just some jokes that started out funny but needed to stop. Remember the Honeymooners how the husband always "joked" about punching his wife straight to the moon?
— WLT-GRDN756 (@EddyA756) November 3, 2023
