I also tried to provide a certain moment of pathos with the death. I mean, Joffrey, as monstrous as he is — and certainly he’s just as monstrous in the books as he is in the TV show, and Jack has brought some incredible acting chops to the role that somehow makes him even more loathsome than he is on the page — but Joffrey in the books is still a 13-year-old kid. And there’s kind of a moment there where he knows that he’s dying and he can’t get a breath and he’s kind of looking at Tyrion and at his mother and at the other people in the hall with just terror and appeal in his eyes—you know, “Help me mommy, I’m dying.” And in that moment, I think even Tyrion sees a 13-year-old boy dying before him. So I didn’t want it to be entirely, “Hey-ho, the witch is dead.” I wanted the impact of the death to still strike home on to perhaps more complex feelings on the part of the audience, not necessarily just cheering.

Don't get me wrong:  Joffrey has done the most hateful things imaginable during the course of the series.  At some point it may come to light that he was responsible for something VERY big, but I don't know when or how that might get revealed.  Karma is a bitch, and the horrific nature of his death was well deserved.  He's been a sadistic little bastard ever since we saw the incident at the Inn at the Crossroads where Arya threw his sword into the river.  And his tormenting of Tyrion during this episode alone was unforgiveable.  But for me, it's tough to watch ANYONE choke and die like that, even if it is a television show.