"Love Is a Many Strangled Thing" is the 17th episode of Season 22 of The Simpsons. It was written by Bill Odenkirk, directed by Michael Polcino, and initially aired on March 27, 2011.
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 Because apparently, it's no big deal if your father puts his life in danger.
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Plot
When Homer realizes what Bart goes through when he strangles him, he tries to refrain from doing so, but this sprouts several new problems.
Why It Deserves to Be Strangled
- Bart is at his absolute worst, as his flanderization has gone too far. He is depicted as a complete sociopath in this episode, and even seems to be perfectly fine with the idea of Homer committing suicide (he takes out his phone but uses it to prank call Moe instead of helping him).
- At the beginning of the episode, Homer publicly humiliates Bart in public by tickling him until he urinates in his pants, which is extremely disgusting.
- Dr. Zander's way of making Homer stop strangling Bart is to call in Kareem Abdul-Jabaar to strangle him for a week straight.
- It is also implied that he would've continued to cure him this way if Homer didn't claim he lied about having health insurance.
- Dr. Zander convinces Homer to hang himself in the hopes that Bart will save him. This not only shows he is not only a terrible person who does not show to be a good role model to anyone (not even Homer), but it also shows he is a toxic individual and to make matters worse, and to make matters worse, he does not get his comeuppance at the end other than getting sued.
- With the revelation that Bart is a complete monster without Homer strangling him to keep him in check, the moral of this episode that child abuse is sometimes necessary.
- Dr. Zander strangling Bart at the end, while satisfying, shows that he is a hypocrite. Furthermore, he fully intends to kill him this way.
- Homer himself to some extent is a hypocrite in this scene, suing Dr. Zander for strangling Bart although he has been doing it for years.
- A few disturbing jokes such as Dr. Zander grabbing Homer's penis instead of the snake that Bart put in Homer's pants.
- Alongside the whole "Bart would allow Homer to die" bit, the final act is a mess, with Dr. Zander obviously not understanding the problems that going on after Homer stops strangling Bart, and the act having a scene with Marge and Lisa that is completely pointless.
- This episode was seemingly made in response to complaints and criticism from some fans towards the popular running gag where Homer strangles Bart whenever he misbehaves or says something that angers Homer, calling the gag disturbing and encouraging child abuse. This episode, however, proves that the show refuses to listen to said criticism and try to justify the gag by revealing that if Bart is not strangled often then he turns into a remorseless sociopath.
Redeeming Qualities
- The episode deconstructs one of the show's most famous running gags, which makes it somewhat interesting.
- The ASCII couch gag is great and considerably better than the actual episode.
- "No, no Star Wars parodies!"
- Bart does eventually get his comeuppance when Dr. Zander starts to strangle him.
- Bart and Homer make up in the end.
Reception
The episode was not well-received by fans, being a common sight on "worst episode" lists. NoHomers users ranked it as the 11th worst in 2011,[1] while LS Mark called it the worst of the entire series.[2]
Trivia
- Two of the most disturbing scenes (Homer being strangled by Kareem Abdul-Jabaar and Homer hanging himself) had to be edited when shown on Channel 4 in the UK. The first cut version (which only had the hanging removed) was accidentally aired ten months later and got complaints as a result.[3]
- The events of this episode are never mentioned again.
References
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