November 15th 2023.
Contrary to recent talks, The Simpsons will not be retiring the act of Homer Simpson strangling Bart. According to James L. Brooks, the founder of Gracie Films, the company that produces the animated sitcom, the gag is going nowhere.
Speaking to People, Brooks addressed the episode which had generated a lot of online conversation, “McMansion and Wife.” He reassured viewers that “Don’t think for a second we’re changing anything.” To back up his statement, Brooks then produced an animated panel showing Homer strangling Bart who was holding a smartphone with a headline that read “Simpsons: No More Strangling” A word bubble above Homer’s head read “Why you little clickbaiting-!!”
Brooks further asserted that Homer was not going to stop throttling his son’s neck, saying “He’ll continue to be strangled—[if] you want to use that awful term for it. He’ll continue to be loved by his father in a specific way.”
Though the show has been slow to react to cultural shifts, The Simpsons has made some progress. Henry Shearer, a white man, voiced the Black character Dr. Hibbert until 2021 when he was replaced by Kevin Michael Richardson. Similarly, Matt Azaria, a white man, voiced the controversial Apu character, which had been under fire for a portrayal of negative stereotypes about Indian-Americans, up until 2022. Azaria said on an episode of The Armchair Podcast in 2021 that his white privilege blinded him from seeing the harm, saying “I really didn’t know any better.”
He went on to explain, “I didn’t think about it. I was unaware how much relative advantage I had received in this country as a white kid from Queens. Just because there were good intentions it doesn’t mean there weren’t real negative consequences to the thing that I am accountable for.”
In conclusion, it looks like Homer will continue to be strangling Bart despite the controversy surrounding the gag. The Simpsons has made some progress in adapting to changing cultural sensitivities, but there's still a long way to go.
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