Homer Simpson claims he doesn’t strangle Bart anymore
On a recent episode of The Simpsons, Homer publicly pledged he has stopped strangling his son Bart
You may not be able to teach an old dog new tricks, but ageless comedic cartoon characters can evolve even three decades into their existence. Homer Simpson hasn’t always been the world’s best dad, but you may have noticed that he’s trying to be better. And if you haven’t noticed, well, he recently publicly pledged that he would no longer strangle his son Bart.
Fans recently surfaced a clip from the third episode of the 35th season of The Simpsons, “McMansion & Wife,” which aired on October 22. In the episode, Homer meets his new neighbor Thayer who notes that he has “quite a grip” while they shake hands. “See, Marge, strangling the boy paid off,” Homer says to his wife. “Just kidding. I don’t do that anymore. Times have changed.”
Call it the official end of one of The Simpsons’ longest-running gags—although unofficially, strangulation hasn’t been part of the show’s schtick for a while now. Per IGN, the last time it happened was during the 31st season (which aired 2019-2020). Before that, Homer was largely shamed out of hurting his kid after getting strangled by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the 22nd season episode “Love Is A Many Strangled Thing.”
This is a new, more socially conscious era of The Simpsons, which may be due in part because the series is now part of the Disney family and streams on Disney+ right alongside episodes of Bluey. But even before that, The Simpsons was forced to reckon with problematic aspects of its canon, most significantly in the wake of the documentary The Problem With Apu in 2017. The documentary led to actor Hank Azaria’s eventual decision, in 2020, to officially stop voicing the controversial Indian character on the show.
Some fans likely saw the strangling as a goofy visual gag between cartoon characters not unlike the over-the-top injuries incurred on Looney Tunes, but the specter of child abuse clearly wasn’t worth invoking for a silly joke when there’s plenty of other comic ground to cover. “Something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive is now politically incorrect. What can you do?” Lisa Simpson herself mused in a 2018 episode (in reference to Apu). For Bart’s sake, let’s hope Homer keeps his promise!