Nothing lasts forever. In time, the continents will crash into each other once more, the sun will swallow the planet and, at some point long after that, The Simpsons will end. But that isn’t to say that it’s incapable of moving with the times before then. Because, in yet another nod to shifting tastes, Homer Simpson has revealed that he will no longer attempt to strangle his son to death.
In the third episode of the current 35th season, Homer greets his new neighbour by shaking his hand. When the neighbour comments that he wasn’t expecting such a firm grip, Homer replies: “See Marge, strangling the boy paid off,” before acknowledging that he doesn’t actually do that any more. “Times have changed,” he adds.
Good for the 6 people still watching
Lol there’s still a shit ton of people who watch the Simpsons.
That’s honestly fair. Times do, indeed, change.
Older episodes can easily be written off as the violent-humor cartoons of the day were known for. Newer episodes don’t have an excuse to making fun of child abuse.
That said, I do wonder if the satirical nature of the Simpsons was supposed to be evident in Homer strangling Bart. It always struck me as something he just ‘did.’ Not really funny or unfunny, just a facet of the show. It’s possible the writers were originally trying to highlight how a dad like Homer might physically discipline his children out of rage while Marge just lets it happen.
Remember, the Simpsons are supposed to be satire.
When the Simpsons first came on it was deeply subversive and that era of TV, where things were really opening up beyond the big three networks for the first time, has so fundamentally changed TV programming that people can forget (or younger people can just not understand) what TV was like in the 1980s before insurgents like Fox and MTV changed the landscape.
By the late 1980s the formula, form, and what was socially permitted on TV sitcoms hadn’t changed much in 40 years. The Simpsons was a purposeful rejection of all of the ‘rules’ that sitcoms had followed to that point. A big part of that was the classic TV ‘authority figures’ who are always right, just, and caring were purposely subverted: the dad is a dumb, self-centered, abusive, alcoholic jerk, the cops are all corrupt and stupid, the teachers hate the children and don’t care about their education, the principal is a pathetic loser with delusions of relevance, the mayor is corrupt and womanizing, the preacher just doesn’t care at all and wants to be left alone; hell, the children’s clown on TV is arguably the most immoral scumbag on the show.
Similarly, Homer strangling Bart was meant as a subversion of the “patient father sits the misbehaving child down for a heart-to-heart where things get resolved” trope of sitcoms of the previous half century; instead dad physically abuses the misbehaving child and nothing is ever resolved. Where TV sitcoms to that point were fantasies about what the best versions of American culture could be, the Simpsons was an over-the-top take down of what our culture actually was.
But, obviously, as the TV culture they were satirizing went away (in no small part because of their show’s success) the show needed to change too. In 1989, Homer strangling Bart rather than having a soft-focused heart-to-heart with music rising in the background was unexpected, subversive satire. In 2023 it’s just a depiction of child abuse whose original context is long gone. The same show just doesn’t work without the cultural context it was created in and meant to lampoon.
While I agree with you and also agree with the decision to not show it anymore, I do want to highlight this bit that you wrote:
instead dad physically abuses the misbehaving child and nothing is ever resolved
The positive thing is that it never (or so raraly that I wouldn’t remember) presented the strangling as anything good or helpful. Instead it was always presented as a shortcoming of his personality. Homer is mentally ill equipped to solve conflicts with Bart non-violently. Strangling him was his only outlet and (at least to attentive viewers) it was clearly and evidently damaging Bart’s development. This is for example demonstrated in a scene where Bart has such a trauma that he’s getting “strangled” by thin air when he thinks his dad would go for it.
Also, with the knowledge that Bart is, to some extent, Matt Groening’s self-insert, that does raise some rather unpleasant questions.
Who knew that we lived this long - not as a warning to others, but to explain why the Simpsons used to be funny!
The comically exaggerated struggling of Bart is obvious physical comedy.
Not doing it anymore is a good choice though.
I think satire is possibly too much for the average viewers, especially from the viewpoint of the channel execs.
No more strangling Bart?! Is nothing sacred!?!
Did they kill off Apu or did they just stop visiting the Kwik-e Mart?
They’re not sure what they’re going to do. They took away his voice for now, so they’re largely avoiding showing him.
Who needs the Kwik-E-Mart?
I… doooooooooooo
Hey, he’s not happy at all. He lied to us through song! I hate when people do that!
The Kwik-E-Mart is…d’oh!
They’re probably going with home deliveries now.
This is just one of the Simpsons tropes to me. Obviously it shouldn’t be done in real life, but pretty much nothing they do should be done in real life. IT’S A FUCKING CARTOON PEOPLE!!!
Wait, are you telling me I shouldn’t keep throwing these anvils to that damned roadrunner? Because I frigging despise him.
We can solve even more problems by canceling the show, as should have happened about 26 seasons ago.
They should change it up ina year or two and have Bart strangle homer all the time.
WHY YOU LI…D’OH!
I didn’t notice either but I don’t really watch it anymore
More people talk about not watching the show vs. people that actually do.
There are dozens of us! DOZENS!
Haha yeah. I watched through season 25 or so. Still watch the re-runs a lot though.
I went back a year or so ago and rewatched the first season. It’s like an entirely different show; it had emotion and I actually cried during the Marge bowling affair episode.
I stopped watching new Simpsons a long time ago.
A few years I tried again, but the episode opened with a bunch of NBA jokes that the audience was just… supposed to get? What if you’re not into basketball? Lol.
The Simpsons has done a ton of sports jokes in the past, that’s definitely not unique to recent Simpsons.
Such as?
Just from memory there’s one of the most highly regarded golden era episodes, Homer at the Bat which heavily features MLB players from the time and makes jokes assuming knowledge of the league. You Only Move Twice has the joke about the Denver Broncos. The entire characters of Drederick Tatum and Lucius Sweet are based on Mike Tyson and Don King respectively.
Literally entire super bowl episode? Gags about 10 billion hours of pre-game? Small bits where Homer chuckles at sports commentators? Homer taking over running the kids football team? Mark McGuire distracting everyone from a surveillance conspiracy? Homer literally chained himself to a post to protest losing the Isotopes?
There were tons back in the day.
Those sound like pretty big events that even non-sports fans might know about.
“You stink Strawberry, we want home run Homer!”
I’m having a real Mandela Effect moment when I see this story. I swear the Simpson’s announced this years ago. I think around the time that The Problem with Apu came out.
Same, I know for a fact they said this once before years ago, but it didn’t last very long
The Simpsons is still being made
