YMMV / The Simpsons S22 E17: "Love Is A Many Strangled Thing"

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Is Bart becoming much more of a Jerkass than usual here because Homer is being more permissive towards him now, or is he doing this as revenge for all the times Homer had assaulted and mistreated him?
• Broken Base:
  • Homer's treatment from the hands of Bart. To some, this makes him a Jerkass Woobie; to others, he's an Asshole Victim who deserves every second of it.
  • The episode in general, as some consider it one of the worst episodes of the series ^note  Next to "My Sister, My Sitter", "Miracle on Evergreen Terrace", "The Boys of Bummer". due to Bart's Jerkass Ball towards Homer, especially when he leaves him to get hanged. Others, however, find the episode funny regardless and think the concept of Homer not having to strangle Bart is rather innovative.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • Dr. Zander does get in trouble for it, but it's pretty satisfying to see him strangle Bart for his thoughtlessness towards Homer getting hanged.
  • For some, Homer getting harassed by Bart for the constant abuse he put him through for the past 22 seasons.
• Jerkass Woobie: It's difficult to say Homer didn't deserve the treatment as he'd been regularly strangling Bart for 22 seasons of the show, but it was still hard to watch Homer receive 2 weeks of concentrated abuse and humiliation, especially later in the episode when it's all but said Homer's questionable parenting methods were all that was keeping Bart from dangerously going off the deep end.

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