For some time, it's felt like the team behind The Simpsons has sloppily tried to straddle the line between keeping up with the times and becoming the old man who yells at cloud. This has become even more apparent, as the producers of the show are confused as to why publications are reporting that Homer has stopped strangling Bart.
You can see why we — alongside many other online magazines — were convinced that the long-running gag had been retired. Homer explicitly said he doesn't strangle Bart anymore in the show's latest episode, which means he doesn't strangle Bart anymore, right? Apparently not.
In an exclusive response to Variety, the executive producers of The Simpsons sent a comic of Homer's hands wrapped around Bart's throat. Bart is pictured holding a phone with a screen that reads, "Simpsons: no more strangling," and Homer's catchphrase becomes "Why you little clickbaiting—!"
Other than the drawing, the only other comment they had to add was, "Homer Simpson was unavailable for comment as he was busy strangling Bart."
It feels like the show's producers don't know who they want to cater to more: old-heads who think the gag is part of the show's core, or the youngins who (correctly) assume the show is now irrelevant. This is basically the opposite of when they doubled down on Apu still being in the show, only to phase him out later. Or, more recently, when Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer stepped down from playing Carl and Dr. Hibbert, respectively, and Matt Groening said he didn't have a problem with white people playing Black characters anyway.
Coming from a lifelong fan and the torch carrier of the Exclaim! Groening beat, all of this could be avoided if they finally just took The Simpsons to go live on a farm with all of the other shows that haven't been good in 25 seasons. Oh, wait.
You can see why we — alongside many other online magazines — were convinced that the long-running gag had been retired. Homer explicitly said he doesn't strangle Bart anymore in the show's latest episode, which means he doesn't strangle Bart anymore, right? Apparently not.
In an exclusive response to Variety, the executive producers of The Simpsons sent a comic of Homer's hands wrapped around Bart's throat. Bart is pictured holding a phone with a screen that reads, "Simpsons: no more strangling," and Homer's catchphrase becomes "Why you little clickbaiting—!"
Other than the drawing, the only other comment they had to add was, "Homer Simpson was unavailable for comment as he was busy strangling Bart."
It feels like the show's producers don't know who they want to cater to more: old-heads who think the gag is part of the show's core, or the youngins who (correctly) assume the show is now irrelevant. This is basically the opposite of when they doubled down on Apu still being in the show, only to phase him out later. Or, more recently, when Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer stepped down from playing Carl and Dr. Hibbert, respectively, and Matt Groening said he didn't have a problem with white people playing Black characters anyway.
Coming from a lifelong fan and the torch carrier of the Exclaim! Groening beat, all of this could be avoided if they finally just took The Simpsons to go live on a farm with all of the other shows that haven't been good in 25 seasons. Oh, wait.
