In the real world, if you saw a grown man choking a small child, you'd probably be horrified. But visualized in cartoon form, it looks comical. And The Simpsons shows something that news stories about child abuse always leave out-what the child (in this case Bart) did that led to the abuse.
Some people are disturbed by Homer choking Bart and have complained about it. I'm not. What does disturb me is that so many people see Bart as a hero. Bart isn't a hero. He doesn't care about anyone but himself. He has no respect for anyone or anything. He causes trouble just for the sake of causing trouble. He's the ten-year-old equivalent of The Joker in the Batman universe.
