Summary

  • Homer choking Bart has not been a core part of The Simpsons for the past four seasons, so the recent outrage is unfounded.
  • The show is not changing older classic episodes, with this change only impacting new episodes.
  • Many people who are upset about the lack of strangling in the show haven't actually watched it in years, while regular watchers hadn't noticed it was phased out.

The world has gone woke, the age of television as we know it is over. Homer will no longer choke Bart on The Simpsons. This drastic change, essential to the dysfunctional family dynamic, has been the talk of the internet this past weekend. But the internet, as usual, has gotten it wrong.

The crux of the situation is correct - Homer no longer chokes Bart. However, the last time he did this was in The Winter of Our Monetized Content, in season 31. This was four years ago, so it’s odd that people are only just caring now. True, a recent season 35 episode addressed the idea with Homer saying “times have changed”, but this has not been a core part of the show in four seasons. Scratch that, it has never been a core part of the show for 35 seasons - it’s just not that important.

Don’t get me wrong, I never had a problem with it. Homer was a cartoonishly abusive buffoon, and yet remained the patriarch and leader of his home - it was all part of the satire of the American family. Homer strangling Bart is no more outdated than the family having two cars and four bedrooms in a detached suburban house bought with a single income. I didn’t need the choking bit to change. But I also don’t care that it did.

The show has frequently toyed with giving Marge a job, notably making her mayor in season 29. It’s a regular irritation amongst fans that the show doesn’t let her keep these jobs to develop her character.

Maybe part of the reason I don’t care is because I actually watch the show. I keep up with new Simpsons episodes and I’m used to everyone telling me the show is no good anymore. I don’t know how or why a bunch of people who don’t watch the show and loudly profess to hate it (sight unseen) these days care about a minor change that happened four years ago.

The gag used to be funny. I get it, a lot of people grew up watching The Simpsons, and some of the jokes they remember include Homer choking Bart. It’s an iconic image from the show, a point the show itself even mocks in season 11’s Behind the Laughter - the 2000 episode is a meta pseudo-documentary that details the behind the scenes origins of the show, and depicts Homer choking Bart out of real anger (with his classic "why you litte?!"), which gets laughs from the crew, and as Homer puts it, “the horrible act of child abuse” becomes a defining image of the show.

Here's a round-up of some crucial epsiodes of The Simpsons you might have missed in your years away

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Of course, you all knew that, right? You all kept watching the show up to season 11? Sure you did. No sticking to the Golden Age of seasons 3-9 for you, no sir. You’re a die hard Simpsons fan, you fondly remember the last time Homer choked Bart in season 31, and you’ve been eagerly awaiting its return ever since. You watched as the episodes where Lisa did jury duty, Marge runs away with a lesbian lumberjack, Grandpa stars in a true crime podcast, Homer goes back to space, and Bart falls in love with his teacher, all went by and Bart’s neck remained unstrangled, and lamented that you’d need to wait another week for a chance to see it again.

I made one of those up, and if you don’t know which one, you don’t get to be mad about this.

Most people engage with The Simpsons by rewatching old episodes over and over. It was the most watched show on Disney Plus in 2021, and that had little to do with a new season dropping. Its rewatchability is what makes the show a classic - even as I keep up with new episodes, I watch the old ones over far more. But these old episodes are untouched.

It would be a very different story - and I would feel very differently about it - if Disney or The Simpsons showrunners were going back to episodes from 20 years ago and taking out the gags that hadn’t aged well. In the Jerkass Homer/Zombie Simpsons years, there’s a lot more homophobia and transphobia than you remember, and I’m not in favour of cutting that, so there’s no chance I’d be looking for Golden Age episodes to have some fairly harmless strangling gags cut.

But these episodes are not impacted by this. All that has happened is Homer hasn’t strangled Bart since season 31, and he mentioned that he doesn’t do it anymore in season 35. How many of you even knew The Simpsons made it past 30 seasons? This is a manufactured outrage about a non-issue in a show you don’t watch. I watch new episodes as they release, and I hadn’t even realised Homer had stopped as it was naturally aged out as a gag.

Modern Simpsons has some flaws, and some of that is from the show trying to appeal to new audiences and softening its edges. But this just isn’t one of those cases, and nobody who watches the show even cares. If you’re upset that a show you haven’t watched in two decades has made a minor change that regular watchers weren’t even aware of, you might need to get some perspective in life.

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