Characters
Aah! Hey, get off my sugar. Bad bees! Bad! Ow. Oww! Oh, they're defending themselves somehow!
— Homer • The Simpsons
Behind the line May contain spoilers.
Our reading
An editorial interpretation.
The speaker yelps in pain while scolding bees for crawling over the sugar, as though they were naughty pets. Only after several stings does it dawn on them that the insects are somehow defending themselves. The comedy lies in treating ordinary self-defence as a surprising, unfair development.
Context reviewed