Why you little!

"Why you little!" is one of Homer Simpson's catchphrases almost always followed by Homer furiously strangling his son Bart Simpson for whatever reason he was provoked, usually Bart verbally insulting Homer or when he gets in trouble. In some episodes Homer doesn't say it before furiously strangling Bart but instead says something different (i.e. in "Blood Feud" when Homer learns Bart already mailed his letter to Charles Montgomery Burns, he angrily says I'll show you mad in the morning!). In some cases, even though he yells the catchphrase or a similar wording thereof his target is actually someone else and other characters have said this on the show before. In other cases, he directed the phrase or variants thereof to someone other than Bart.
==Variations==
A count of 23 variations were heard on TV and mentioned in comics. These uses often differed because the phrase would change to suit the current situation.
*"Why, you little... I'll teach you to laugh... at something that's funny!"/"Why, you little! I'll strangle-angle you!" (The Simpsons Movie)
* "Don't tell me I'm not capable of good behavior!" ("Donnie Fatso")
* "Why, you metal...!" (Used for Bart's robotic replacement David in "Treehouse of Horror XVI")
* "Why you little... Hmm, free wig, eh?" (Homer angrily says this after Bart foolishly tricked him into getting a coupon for a free wig under the pretense of getting tickets for a game, being about to strangle Bart for the prank, but then gets the idea to actually get a wig modeled after his wife Marge Simpson as a means to mimic her enough to not need her anymore and ignoring Bart afterwards in "Homer Loves Flanders")
* "Why, you little borderline psycho-" (Said by B.F. Sherwood in "Family Therapy")
* "Why, you COTTON-PICKIN'...!" (Said to Cletus Spuckler in "Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily")
* "Choke on your candor!" (Used on Bart for making fun of him in "The Fat and the Furriest")
* "Well, take note of THIS!!" (Used before angrily strangling Bart, believing he foolishly cheated on a geography test in "Sleeping with the Enemy")
* "Why, thee little...!" (The pilgrim portrayals of Homer and Bart employed this in "The Wettest Stories Ever Told")
* "Why, you little...! Need a reason for strangling you... I'll fix your wagon!" (When Bart asks what he did that caused Homer to angrily strangle him in "She Used To Be My Girl")
* "Pretend to care!" (The second time he strangles Bart in "She Used to Be My Girl")
* "Why you little bastard!" (after Bart makes a smart remark at Homer's expense in "Wedding for Disaster")
*"You call that saying Grace?!" (Used on Bart after he allegedly did the Grace prayer wrong or rudely in "Lisa the Tree Hugger")
* "WHY.. YOU.. LITTLE! Burn, Barty burn! (roar)!" (After Bart foolishly pranked Homer, after the latter stupidly ingested a flaming fire-breathing torch thinking it was a "fire kabob", by tricking him into ingesting lighter fluid when he needed water, proceeded to shout his catchphrase while consequently breathing fire while trying to pursue Bart, and upon getting him into a stranglehold, proceeds to spray fire at his face in "Father Knows Worst")
* "Why, you big...!" (Marge furiously says this as she enters a two-way "why you little!" by angrily strangling Homer who was himself about to do so with Bart in "Homer's Night Out")
* "You stole my money!" (Bart angrily says this as he attempts to reverse roles in "Barting Over")
* "I paid for your splendor!" (Homer to Bart in "Barting Over" after seeing Bart's new home and that half of his paycheck went to Bart settling in on his new luxuries.)
* "I'll Kwanzaa you!" (Homer after Bart foolishly demands Homer's mother Mona Simpson to give him several years worth of holiday money in "Mother Simpson")
* "Grr!! You broke our deal! We had an oral contract!" (Used on Santa's Little Helper upon learning he impregnated Rosa Barks in "Today, I Am a Clown")
* "I'll audience you!" (Used after Bart foolishly tells him he lost his stranglehold on the audience in "Today, I Am a Clown")
* "Choke on your LIES!!!!!" (when Bart foolishly tells Homer he did not make a prank call to Brazil in "Blame It on Lisa")
* "Why that little..." (when realizing Bart made the Angry Dad cartoons and humiliated him in "I Am Furious (Yellow)")
** "DIE, MONSTEEEERRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" (upon angrily arriving back at home and furiously finding Bart at the computer evidently watching and uploading a new Angry Dad short after the scene listed above in the aforementioned episode)
** "That's so obvious! It...should...be...Gary Oldman!" (Homer in response to Bart suggesting that John Goodman play the role of Angry Dad when Homer, in an attempt at covering his furious behavior to Bart, claimed he was rehearsing for the Angry Dad motion picture)
* "Just run the the camera, you little--!" (when Bart is filming Homer's speech to Marge that he is leaving her because she is going out with Artie Ziff and says "Patty and Selma?! Screw that!" in "Half-Decent Proposal")
* "Bart, you promised you'd stop making that comparison! Per...our...agreement!" (when Bart compares Homer to a monkey due to him eating a banana in "Fraudcast News")
* "Why, you very little--!" (furiously strangling a younger Bart in a video on "The Girl Who Slept Too Little")
* "Boy - must - die!" (when Bart spills the lotion that makes hair grow in "Simpson and Delilah")
* "I'll show you mad in the morning!" (When Homer realizes that Bart mailed an angry letter but Marge scolds him with "Homer, you encouraged him. You should be strangling yourself!" in "Blood Feud")
* "Why, you little! I'll teach you to have a libido!" (Strangling Bart as Homer catches him and Milhouse Van Houten supposedly watching softer-than-soft-Internet porn which is actually Ned Flanders's female tenants transmitting slightly naughty live webcam shows from Flanders' house in "Home Away from Homer")
* "YOU!! You did this to me!" (Homer realizes that Bart turned his shirts pink with his lucky red cap in "Stark Raving Dad")
* "Why you monster! And you took my daughter's saxophone, too!" (Homer's rage at the cat burglar directed at the Channel six stage manager in "Homer the Vigilante")
* "Choke on my numb, blue hands!" (Homer attempting to strangle Bart with frozen hands in "A Totally Fun Thing That Bart Will Never Do Again")
* "Why, you slimy little!" (Homer on snail Bart in "Married to the Blob")
* "Why, you little! Just see if I die!" (Homer after Bart says that Marge would remarry in about two seconds in "The Wife Aquatic")
* "Why, you little! I'll teach you to make fun of my socks!" (Homer after Bart ridicules him about the smell of his gym socks while the therapy room gets flooded with fish in "How I Wet Your Mother")
* "Why, you little! There's nothing in this dreamworld that can't strangle you!" (Homer angrily strangles Bart through the chair he's sitting on after Bart ridicules him again for ingesting a fishing hook in his childhood while watching Homer's childhood memories in "How I Wet Your Mother")
* "Why, you little! I'll show you who's a flabby!" (Homer angrily rolls Bart's face on his big stomach in "Clown in the Dumps")
* "He what?! You monster!" (Homer says this in "Angry Dad: The Movie" after Marge whispered into Homer's ear when explaining why Bart being compared to Roman Polanski was offensive. However, it's implied he was more venting his indignant fury over Polanski's crimes than actually angry at Bart.)
* "Why, you little! I'll give you a good night kiss you won't soon forget! Grr! Come here, you!" (Rubs Bart's face with his facial hair angrily in "Labor Pains")
* "Oh, my God! He's stealing all the burgers! Why you LITTLE! I've...got...you!" (Homer angrily says this to the Estonian Dwarf playing the role of The Krusty Burglar when furiously tackling him, angrily throttling him and then proceeding to do a massive beatdown within an inch of his life under the belief the latter was actually trying to steal all the burgers, traumatizing the present children while subbing for Krusty the Clown as part of a promotional gig at Krusty Burger in "Homie the Clown")
* "I'll mace you good!" (Homer in a videotape exposing his less-than-stellar parenting methods which showed an incriminating clip of Homer chasing Bart with a swinging mace or medieval flail in "Children of a Lesser Clod")
** "That was completely taken out of context! Why you little! (roars)" (Homer says this in response to the above clip only to further prove the film's veracity regarding its claims that Homer was a horrible parent to his own children by climbing up onto the stage and proceeds to strangle Bart in anger)
* "P, Q, R, S, T, U, W, X, Why, you little!" (Homer trying to teach Maggie the alphabet while at the same time implicitly begging Bart into giving him some Butterfinger BBS that he and Lisa were eating; Bart, in the style of the alphabet refuses, so Homer proceeds to rush through the rest of the alphabet before reaching "Y" and attempts to attack Bart in retribution upon reaching the letter while yelling his catchphrase in the Butterfinger BB's "A to Z" commercial)
* "Huh? Why you little...!" (Moe Szyslak says this after being on the receiving end of a prank call in "Bart vs. the Space Mutants")
* "I'll teach you to beat up yester-me!" (Present-day Homer says this to Bart when the latter beats up 20-year-old Homer in "Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind")
* "Why you little! I'll teach you to mess with your sister!" (Homer angrily says this in "Stop or My Dog Will Shoot!" when Bart foolishly tricked Lisa into touching his python Strangles after soaking him in slime which ironically resulted in Strangles proceeding to strangle Homer in turn)
* "Why you millennial!" (Homer angrily yelling at Jay Nahasapeemapetilon for telling him they don't sell hot dogs anymore in "Much Apu About Something")
* "Yeah, now that I look closer, that guy couldn't fool anybody... Why you little...!" (Homer angrily says this in "Stealing First Base" when Seymour Skinner portrayed Bart in the re-enactment of a recent incident and said casually "Shut up, Fatso" before he proceeded to strangle the principal)
* "Why you little...! [...] Worse! [...] Much better!" (Homer angrily says this after Bart foolishly tricked him into reading "I ate pee-pee" during an eye exam with the proctor proceeding to ask him if his current eyesight is improving or worsening by switching between lenses while he is strangling Bart in "Last Tap Dance in Springfield")
* "Why you little...!" (Abraham Simpson angrily delivers this variation on Homer when the latter snapped at him that the former was the screw-up while arguing about Abe's tendency to put down Homer during his youth in "Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy". Bart also delivers this variation when doing this to himself in an attempt at making Homer feel better when the latter was forced to spend a decade in prison for "cheating" ZiffCorp's shareholders om "The Ziff Who Came to Dinner")
* "Idiot?! Why you little...!" (Homer angrily delivers this variation when he, in an attempt to force the Killer Toupée off Bart's face by punching it, was insulted by Bart via denouncing Homer as an idiot due to his face evidently being affected by Homer's punches in "Treehouse of Horror IX")
** "You lousy two-timing [bleep bleep]! I'm gonna [bleep]!" (Homer angrily delivers this variation after not only learning that Kang, who had been responsible for impregnating his wife Marge Simpson is also on the Jerry Springer show but also supplied flowers to and blatantly kissed Marge's hand in front of him, prompting him to repeatedly punch Kang before being restrained in the Starship Poopers segment of "Treehouse of Horror IX")
* "No need to apologize, Apu. It was as much my fault as it was yours. [...] Okay, Apu! I accept your apology!" (Homer says this to Apu when the latter is about to strangle him in fury after Homer obliviously ended up blowing Apu's chance at being hired back into the Kwik-E-Mart when talking with the Kwik-E-Mart President in "Homer and Apu", believing Apu's threatening gesture to be Apu apologizing due to Apu earlier adopting a similar gesture when apologizing to Homer for giving him food poisoning via rotted meat. Also one of the few instances where Homer makes a remark when a victim to the gag rather than delivering it.)
* "Why you little... Wait a minute, does this mean you like my present?" (Homer angrily says this after learning that the "martian invasion" broadcasted on the radio was actually a prank conducted by Bart causing him to initially try to strangle Bart for it in retribution only to realize that Bart pulled the prank via Homer's birthday present to him and asked if it was Bart's way of saying he liked it in "Radio Bart".)
* "Why ye little! (No, go easy on the wee one. His father's going to go crazy and chop them all into haggis.)" (Groundskeeper Willie attempts to attack Bart after the latter vandalized his hedge maze by "creating a shortcut" via a chainsaw, but then stops because he realizes Bart's most likely going to end up a victim to his father going mad, only for Bart to ask him what haggis is, revealing he reads minds in the Shinning segment of "Treehouse of Horror V").
* "Shower you with love, because this experience has taught me just how precious you are. I'LL KILL YOU!! I'LL KILL YOUR WHOLE FAMILY!! Kidding, I'm kidding! We can do that; we have a special friendship. I'M GONNA DOUBLE KILL YOU! Then I'm gonna bury in a shallow grave, then I'll dig you up and kill you again! That's the beauty of a shallow grave! You sweet little angel! Oh I'm GONNA RIP YOUR HEAD OFF AND SPIT down your adorable little neck, because I WANNA SMASH YOUR LITTLE STUPID HEAD!! Oh but I love you; we'll go on a fishing trip. BUT FIRST I'M GONNA PUT YOU ON A SAW MILL THEN PUNCH YOUR LITTLE FACE OUT!! THAT'S WHAT I'M GONNA DO!!" (Bart foolishly pushes Homer's car back and forth between the cliff in "We're on the Road to D'oh-where".)
* "Why you little..." (Homer angrily says this in response to his father Abraham Simpson II taking away his TV privileges after seeing his poor grades during a flashback in "Love is a Many Strangled Thing")
* "You choked?! You choked!?" (Krusty says this to his technician after a skit had a near-fatal outcome due to his spinning bowtie being prematurely set to 100 rpm instead of the agreed upon 60 rpm and the technician while apologizing to Krusty for the blunder utilized a poor choice of words regarding why it happened, with Krusty promptly throttling the technician in pure rage in response in "Brother's Little Helper")
* "Why you little unreliable narrator!" (Homer tries to strangle Bart, but grabs a sharpy piece of the windshield glass in "Homer's Adventures Through the Windshield Glass")
==Used or heard in other media==
*Dynasty Warriors 7 - While the players or allied NPCs are attacking Zhang Fei, he randomly said "Why, you little...!" during the battle.
*Red Alert 3 - In the final Soviet Mission after the Fort Bradley is been destroyed, President Howard Ackerman says it before kicking the Alert Level up.
*The Captain and The Kids - In the episode "What a Lion", The Captain says "Why you little, dumb smuggles!" as he tries to grab the kids for playing a dirty trick on him and The Inspector.
*Power Rangers: Turbo - In the episode "The Wheel of Fate" Elgar says it after he fell off the Lightning Cruiser as it drive off with Storm Blaster.
==Trivia/Notes==
* Despite reports in 2023 that the show's producers decided to retire the gag, Simpsons producers later denied it.https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/the-simpsons-homer-strangling-bart-producers-respond-1235781806/ Co-creator James L. Brooks later denied the speculation to be true in an in-person interview with People Magazine as well.https://people.com/homer-continue-strangle-bart-the-simpsons-says-co-creator-exclusive-8400789
* Characters from other series have used this catchphrase as well.
==References==
Category:Catchphrases
Category:Quotes
Category:Sayings
Category:Gags
Category:Running gags