"I have beaten at least one woman until her face was nigh unrecognizable, and am a loathsome human being for unrelated reasons!"

Hey, I don't disagree. It's a nasty way to exist. Best case scenario, you feel nothing, and are just a vegetable. Worst case scenario… Ugh.

Now, I'm not a doctor, and I'm not a Funicello family member. So I have no horse in this race either way. I don't know if Annette ever would have recovered (I'd guess probably not), and I don't have a grieving relative who is now cursing at my computer screen because you have judged them harshly.

Absolutely. Not only does it convey the horror and dread that Bruce is feeling, it gets across that he's actually feeling in the first place. Especially hearing that in the social context it was in, the neutered 90's. Hell, you don't even hear that regularly in cartoons these days.