How Munched Is That Birdie in the Window? the fact that he still had not forgiven Milhouse for breaking his toy car, believing it to be a Transformer). When they take him to a therapy session with Dr. Thurmond (voiced by guest star Rachel Weisz), she tries to convince Bart that Santa's Little Helper is an innocent creature who never had the intention to hurt him and that Bart should forgive him. When this fails (thanks in no small part to Helper's taste for birds) she advises the Simpsons that the only cure for Bart’s blues is to give away the family dog, leaving Lisa mad at Bart
Brother's Little Helper Mental Health. Scripps Howard News Service columnist Deroy Murdock mentioned the timeliness of the conference in connection with the episode as being an instance of "The Simpsons" "clairvoyantly predict[ing] the news". In 2007, the fictional word "exorcism tongs" appeared in Cracked.com's list "From Cromulent to Craptacular: The Top 12 Simpsons Created Words", ranking in at number 10. The word is used in a scene in which Homer eats a mixture of taffy and Focusyn, which puts him in a "mildly hallucinogenic state". Seeing this, Todd Flanders asks his father, Ned, "Does Mr. Simpson have a demon, daddy?" To which Ned