The Simpsons soldiers on in its 35th season as a pale, tired imitation of its earlier self, one that no longer delights as much as it disappoints. It is almost certainly asking too much for The Simpsons or any other creative offering to keep a sharp edge for this long, but the show’s latest controversy provides an object lesson in how pedantic and tedious American culture can become.

In a recent episode, goofball patriarch Homer announces that he will no longer enact one of the show’s longest-running gags, which involved strangling his son Bart whenever the kid pisses him off (which is often). When meeting a new neighbor who remarks on his strong handshake, Homer says to his wife, “See, Marge, strangling the boy has paid off….Just kidding. I don’t do that anymore….Times have changed!” As the pop-culture site IGN notes, Homer hasn’t in fact strangled Bart onscreen since the 2019–2020 season. …

Thirty-three years later, the show that once challenged the censorial zeitgeist now seems all too much a part of it.

[What is really objectionable is the tiresome patronization of this censorship. No adult goes out and chokes someone because they saw Homer do it to Bart, for crying out loud. No one gouged out someone’s eyes because they watched The Three Stooges, either. The critics are infantilizing everyone, and now even Matt Groening is bending the knee to them. — Ed]