Love Is a Many Strangled Thing

Paul Rudd as Dr. Zander
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as himself
Kevin Michael Richardson as masseuse

"Love is a Many Strangled Thing" is the seventeenth episode of The Simpsons' twenty-second season. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 27, 2011.

After saving Mr. Burns' life, Homer wins tickets to a NFL game between the Springfield Atoms and the Miami Dolphins, and takes the whole family. During the game, everybody starts to dance in front of the screen, but Bart does not want to dance, saying "Everybody Dance Now" is 'a little bossy' for his liking. Homer tries to make him dance by tickling him, but he inadvertently humiliates Bart in front of the stadium crowd when he tickles Bart until he wets himself. To make matters worse, the stadium owners take pity on Bart and try to dry his shorts off by opening the roof, but Russian spy satellites capture the image of Bart with wet shorts, leading to widespread humiliation on the Internet, and an invasion by Russia, who see his urine-soaked shorts as a sign of American weakness.

Later that night, Marge scolds Homer for hurting Bart's feelings, and encourages him to enroll in a fathering enrichment class taught by therapist Dr. Zander. During the class, Homer casually mentions that he often strangles Bart for his mischievous behaviour. Shocked to learn of Homer's violence towards Bart, Dr. Zander conducts a series of treatments in the next session. Dr. Zander's friend, the towering basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, teaches Homer what it feels like to be young, small, and helpless by strangling him mercilessly all the time, even going as far as letting his friends strangle Homer as well.