TV Debate: The Simpsons Finally Responded to the Problem With Apu UPDATE: Apu is GONE! Hank Azaria BIG APOLOGY
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In the 2017 documentary The Problem With Apu, comedian Hari Kondabolu likened The Simpsons’ Apu Nahasapeemapetilon to a minstrel, and examined how the caricature of an Indian man voiced by Hank Azaria impacts South Asian representation on television. Now, The Simpsons has responded to the doc, showing Marge and Lisa Simpson in conversation about an old children’s book Marge has edited to be less offensive — and, it turns out, less good. “Well, what am I supposed to do?” Marge asks. “It’s hard to say. Something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive is now politically incorrect,” Lisa answers. “What can you do?” To underline the point, the show pans to a bedside photo of Apu,
Kondabolu replied to The Simpsons’ clip via his Twitter: “In The Problem with Apu, I used Apu & The Simpsons as an entry point into a larger conversation about the representation of marginalized groups & why this is important,” he wrote. “The Simpsons response tonight is not a jab at me, but at what many of us consider progress.”
Hank Azaria, who declined to be interviewed for Kondabolu’s documentary, previously said thatThe Problem With Apu “made some really interesting points and gave us a lot to think about and we really are thinking about it.”
http://www.vulture.com/2018/04/the-simpsons-responds-to-problem-with-apu-criticism.html
Kondabolu replied to The Simpsons’ clip via his Twitter: “In The Problem with Apu, I used Apu & The Simpsons as an entry point into a larger conversation about the representation of marginalized groups & why this is important,” he wrote. “The Simpsons response tonight is not a jab at me, but at what many of us consider progress.”
Hank Azaria, who declined to be interviewed for Kondabolu’s documentary, previously said thatThe Problem With Apu “made some really interesting points and gave us a lot to think about and we really are thinking about it.”
http://www.vulture.com/2018/04/the-simpsons-responds-to-problem-with-apu-criticism.html
The Simpsons’ Apu Response Is What Happens When You’re on the Air for Too Long
In “No Good Read Goes Unpunished,” the 633rd episode of The Simpsons, the longest-running scripted series in TV history finally acknowledged that there is something problematic about the way it has portrayed Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, owner of the Kwik-E-Mart, for the past three decades. Yet at the same time, the show managed to continue taking no responsibility for its tone-deafness on the matter. If the episode didn’t quite do what Bart Simpson would have done in season five, episode 12 — i.e. say “I didn’t do it” — it certainly implied that nothing can be done to make Apu less of a stereotype now.
The SimpsonsFinally Responded to the Problem With Apu Criticism
The scene that addressed Apu prompted a lot of blowback online today, including some, not surprisingly, from Hari Kondabolu, the comedian and maker of the 2017 TruTV documentary The Problem With Apu, which thoughtfully considers the ramifications of Apu’s often one-dimensional depiction. But last night’s Simpsons installment doesn’t just underline the issues that still surround Apu. It magnifies the struggles that The Simpsonsfaces as it nears its fourth decade of existence on Fox.
For context, here’s what happened in the episode. While Marge attempts to introduce Lisa to one of her favorite books from childhood, The Princess in the Garden, she realizes that it is filled with racist and horribly regressive language. Embarrassed and guilt-ridden, she has a dream in which she speaks to the book’s author, Heloise Hodgson Burwell, and gets the green light to revise the text. Marge does a rewrite and turns the story into the tale of a “cisgender girl” who is fighting for wild-horse rescue and net neutrality. “It takes a lot of work to take the spirit and character out of a book, but now it’s as inoffensive as a Sunday in Cincinnati!” she says, while Lisa notes disapprovingly that in the new version, the protagonist can’t go on an emotional journey because she’s already “evolved” from the very beginning.
“Well, what am I supposed to do?” Marge asks. (Either don’t read Lisa the book, or read her the book as is and discuss why the problematic things in it are problematic? I don’t know, these are just ideas.)
That’s when the conversation turns to Apu. “Something that started decades ago, and was applauded and inoffensive is now politically incorrect. What can you do?” Lisa asks. Then she looks at a signed photo of Apu that’s sitting on her nightstand.
“Some things will be dealt with at a later date,” Marge responds cryptically.
“If at all,” adds Lisa. Then mother and daughter stare into the camera blankly as if they’re being held hostage by their own cartoon.
Soham@soham_burger
#TheSimpsons completely toothless response to @harikondabolu #TheProblemWithApu about the racist character Apu:
"Something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive is now politically incorrect... What can you do?"
12:31 AM - Apr 9, 2018
Twitter Ads info and privacy
Later in the episode, Marge visits Springfield University to speak to two English literature professors and Heloise Hodgson Burwell stans who argue that Burwell, who was a lesbian, used racism in the book as a “self-consciously ironic protest against her own oppression.”
“How much of that do you actually believe?” Marge asks skeptically. The professors indicate they buy into most of it, but when Marge asks them how they “deal with it all,” whatever that means, they respond simply by guzzling hard liquor. And that’s the end of that story line.
There are many disappointing things about the way this all plays out, many of which have been noted by NPR’s Linda Holmes in this smart piece, including the fact that equating The Simpsons with what is, in this episode, an extremely old piece of children’s literature by a dead British lady, is false on its face. As Holmes points out, the show also missed an opportunity to acknowledge, as Konodubolu’s documentary does, why the depiction of Apu and his portrayal by a white man, Hank Azaria, have been offensive to many members of the South Asian community, who had very little representation on prime-time television until quite recently.
For people like myself who adore The Simpsons — I still say it’s my favorite show ever even though it now has amassed more so-so seasons than ones that were consistently brilliant — this episode is frustrating because at one time, I do think it would have tried to wrestle with these issues in a far more astute, surprising, and funny way. Many parents in America have found themselves in the position Marge does in this episode: excited to share some once-beloved book, film, or TV show, only to discover that it looks very dodgy in the light of 2018. At first I was delighted to see The Simpsons offer a take on this, but as written by Jeff Westbrook, “No Good Read Goes Unpunished” — a title that has a defensive air about it from the get-go — just brings up a bunch of stuff and expects to win points for doing so without actually truly reckoning with any of it.
It also betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of its characters, at least as they were originally envisioned. When Marge reads a line in The Princess in the Garden that refers to South Americans as “naturally servile,” Lisa asks, “Mom, why’d you stop reading?” instead of doing what, in my mind, she would more likely do: balk at that choice of words and force her mother to question why she liked this book in the first place. This episode would have made a lot more sense as a Simpsons episode if Lisa had been the one trying to understand who Heloise Hodgson Burwell was and making her mother see why the book was problematic, the same way she once tried, to no avail, to open the eyes of her fellow Springfieldians to the troublesome overlooked history of Jebediah Springfield.
Perhaps part of the problem is that The Simpsons has been on for such a long damn time, well past long enough to lose its own sense of identity. When it first dominated the pop-culture landscape in the early 1990s, a lot of the show’s appeal stemmed from its skillful and fearless tendency to jam its thumb in the eye of the American Establishment, by highlighting white male laziness via Homer, the crass privileged class via Mr. Burns, and a whole host of other marks of ignorance — from sexism to intolerance of vegetarians — via the crusading Lisa Simpson, the show’s perpetual 8-year-old voice of reason. For all of the stereotypes he has embodied, even some of the jokes generated by Apu actually pointed a finger at the abhorrent attitudes that Indian-Americans have to tolerate from their Caucasian counterparts. (“Please feel free to paw through my Playdudes and tell me to go back to some country I’m not actually from,” Apu tells Homer in season 16.)
Even though The Simpsons still makes a sport of mocking our culture, when you’ve been on the air for nearly 30 years, it’s hard to come across as the rebellious outsider sticking it to the man, especially on a show that has been largely written by white men, many of whom graduated from Harvard University. (Ironically, last night’s episode of The Simpsons was broadcast minutes after a 60 Minutes segment about the Harvard Lampoon, which featured longtime Simpsonsshowrunner Al Jean explaining that he tries not to specifically recruit Lampoon alumni because he wants more diversity in the writers room.) One could argue that The Simpsons is now the Establishment, and has been for a while. Once you become the Establishment, there is a tendency to become lazy and complacent, while also feeling fiercely defensive of one’s legacy. In my view, that combination of factors plays a key role in the show’s inability to fully own up to the Apu problem.
In The Problem With Apu, former Simpsons writer and producer Dana Gould admits to Kondabolu that, “I think if The Simpsons were being done today, I’m not sure that you could have Apu voiced by Hank.” But here’s the thing: The Simpsons is still being done today. Because other TV shows have not lasted this long, they have never been forced to course correct and deal with their own insensitivities in the same way that The Simpsons must. If, say, Seinfeld were still on TV, it would be struggling with the same issues. (Writes on chalkboard à la Bart Simpson: I will not go off on a tangent about Babu Bhatt. I will not go off on a tangent about Babu Bhatt.)
What can The Simpsons do about its Apu problem? Actually, a lot of things. For starters, it could hire more South Asian writers, or at the very least consistently consult with some on matters related to Apu if its staffers haven’t started doing that already. While Azaria is a great talent, if it’s true that The Simpsons wouldn’t enlist him as the voice of Apu today, then make a switch and hire an Indian-American actor to voice him. That sort of switch might breathe some fresh, unexpected air into a character that has been publicly shamed for not changing with the times.
In his interview with Kondabolu, Gould rejected the idea of getting rid of Apu entirely, but also of nixing his job at the Kwik-E-Mart. I’m not sure why the latter is such an unreasonable idea. Over the course of The Simpsons’ run, Homer has been a nuclear power plant employee, the Springfield Isotopes mascot, an astronaut, an adult-education instructor, a food critic, a blogger, the owner of his own snowplow business, and about 30 other jobs. Is it so crazy that Apu might decide to retire from the Kwik-E-Mart to pursue some other line of work and just stick with it for the rest of the show’s run?
The idea that anything should be perceived as out-of-bounds on an animated show that is known for its silliness and boundary-pushing seems like stubbornness more than anything else. I say that, too, because The Simpsons almost shut down the Kwik-E-Mart two seasons ago, in the episode “Much Apu About Something,” in which the convenience store was destroyed, rebuilt as a much healthier Quick & Fresh and co-run by Apu’s nephew Jay, voiced by Utkarsh Ambudkar, who discusses the episode in The Problem With Apu.
Not surprisingly, the Kwik-E-Mart goes back to being the Kwik-E-Mart by the end of that half-hour. Before that happens, and just after Apu is exposed to the sight of the Quick & Fresh, the Azaria-voiced clerk hugs a large printed replica of the Kwik-E-Mart as it used to be. “I will just live in the happy past one moment longer,” he says, clinging to the image, which has been re-created to scale, as it wheels him off a cliff. “Disco Stu is in denial with you,” shouts Disco Stu, who is also flailing in the air of nostalgia, getting ready to crash.
That scene is the perfect metaphor for The Simpsons today. It’s a show that, reputation wise, is still living in the happy past and clinging to its Kwik-E-Mart, not listening while others shout about being in denial.
http://www.vulture.com/2018/04/simpsons-apu-episode-is-what-happens-when-youre-on-air-too-long.html
In “No Good Read Goes Unpunished,” the 633rd episode of The Simpsons, the longest-running scripted series in TV history finally acknowledged that there is something problematic about the way it has portrayed Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, owner of the Kwik-E-Mart, for the past three decades. Yet at the same time, the show managed to continue taking no responsibility for its tone-deafness on the matter. If the episode didn’t quite do what Bart Simpson would have done in season five, episode 12 — i.e. say “I didn’t do it” — it certainly implied that nothing can be done to make Apu less of a stereotype now.
The SimpsonsFinally Responded to the Problem With Apu Criticism
The scene that addressed Apu prompted a lot of blowback online today, including some, not surprisingly, from Hari Kondabolu, the comedian and maker of the 2017 TruTV documentary The Problem With Apu, which thoughtfully considers the ramifications of Apu’s often one-dimensional depiction. But last night’s Simpsons installment doesn’t just underline the issues that still surround Apu. It magnifies the struggles that The Simpsonsfaces as it nears its fourth decade of existence on Fox.
For context, here’s what happened in the episode. While Marge attempts to introduce Lisa to one of her favorite books from childhood, The Princess in the Garden, she realizes that it is filled with racist and horribly regressive language. Embarrassed and guilt-ridden, she has a dream in which she speaks to the book’s author, Heloise Hodgson Burwell, and gets the green light to revise the text. Marge does a rewrite and turns the story into the tale of a “cisgender girl” who is fighting for wild-horse rescue and net neutrality. “It takes a lot of work to take the spirit and character out of a book, but now it’s as inoffensive as a Sunday in Cincinnati!” she says, while Lisa notes disapprovingly that in the new version, the protagonist can’t go on an emotional journey because she’s already “evolved” from the very beginning.
“Well, what am I supposed to do?” Marge asks. (Either don’t read Lisa the book, or read her the book as is and discuss why the problematic things in it are problematic? I don’t know, these are just ideas.)
That’s when the conversation turns to Apu. “Something that started decades ago, and was applauded and inoffensive is now politically incorrect. What can you do?” Lisa asks. Then she looks at a signed photo of Apu that’s sitting on her nightstand.
“Some things will be dealt with at a later date,” Marge responds cryptically.
“If at all,” adds Lisa. Then mother and daughter stare into the camera blankly as if they’re being held hostage by their own cartoon.
Soham@soham_burger
#TheSimpsons completely toothless response to @harikondabolu #TheProblemWithApu about the racist character Apu:
"Something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive is now politically incorrect... What can you do?"
12:31 AM - Apr 9, 2018
Twitter Ads info and privacy
Later in the episode, Marge visits Springfield University to speak to two English literature professors and Heloise Hodgson Burwell stans who argue that Burwell, who was a lesbian, used racism in the book as a “self-consciously ironic protest against her own oppression.”
“How much of that do you actually believe?” Marge asks skeptically. The professors indicate they buy into most of it, but when Marge asks them how they “deal with it all,” whatever that means, they respond simply by guzzling hard liquor. And that’s the end of that story line.
There are many disappointing things about the way this all plays out, many of which have been noted by NPR’s Linda Holmes in this smart piece, including the fact that equating The Simpsons with what is, in this episode, an extremely old piece of children’s literature by a dead British lady, is false on its face. As Holmes points out, the show also missed an opportunity to acknowledge, as Konodubolu’s documentary does, why the depiction of Apu and his portrayal by a white man, Hank Azaria, have been offensive to many members of the South Asian community, who had very little representation on prime-time television until quite recently.
For people like myself who adore The Simpsons — I still say it’s my favorite show ever even though it now has amassed more so-so seasons than ones that were consistently brilliant — this episode is frustrating because at one time, I do think it would have tried to wrestle with these issues in a far more astute, surprising, and funny way. Many parents in America have found themselves in the position Marge does in this episode: excited to share some once-beloved book, film, or TV show, only to discover that it looks very dodgy in the light of 2018. At first I was delighted to see The Simpsons offer a take on this, but as written by Jeff Westbrook, “No Good Read Goes Unpunished” — a title that has a defensive air about it from the get-go — just brings up a bunch of stuff and expects to win points for doing so without actually truly reckoning with any of it.
It also betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of its characters, at least as they were originally envisioned. When Marge reads a line in The Princess in the Garden that refers to South Americans as “naturally servile,” Lisa asks, “Mom, why’d you stop reading?” instead of doing what, in my mind, she would more likely do: balk at that choice of words and force her mother to question why she liked this book in the first place. This episode would have made a lot more sense as a Simpsons episode if Lisa had been the one trying to understand who Heloise Hodgson Burwell was and making her mother see why the book was problematic, the same way she once tried, to no avail, to open the eyes of her fellow Springfieldians to the troublesome overlooked history of Jebediah Springfield.
Perhaps part of the problem is that The Simpsons has been on for such a long damn time, well past long enough to lose its own sense of identity. When it first dominated the pop-culture landscape in the early 1990s, a lot of the show’s appeal stemmed from its skillful and fearless tendency to jam its thumb in the eye of the American Establishment, by highlighting white male laziness via Homer, the crass privileged class via Mr. Burns, and a whole host of other marks of ignorance — from sexism to intolerance of vegetarians — via the crusading Lisa Simpson, the show’s perpetual 8-year-old voice of reason. For all of the stereotypes he has embodied, even some of the jokes generated by Apu actually pointed a finger at the abhorrent attitudes that Indian-Americans have to tolerate from their Caucasian counterparts. (“Please feel free to paw through my Playdudes and tell me to go back to some country I’m not actually from,” Apu tells Homer in season 16.)
Even though The Simpsons still makes a sport of mocking our culture, when you’ve been on the air for nearly 30 years, it’s hard to come across as the rebellious outsider sticking it to the man, especially on a show that has been largely written by white men, many of whom graduated from Harvard University. (Ironically, last night’s episode of The Simpsons was broadcast minutes after a 60 Minutes segment about the Harvard Lampoon, which featured longtime Simpsonsshowrunner Al Jean explaining that he tries not to specifically recruit Lampoon alumni because he wants more diversity in the writers room.) One could argue that The Simpsons is now the Establishment, and has been for a while. Once you become the Establishment, there is a tendency to become lazy and complacent, while also feeling fiercely defensive of one’s legacy. In my view, that combination of factors plays a key role in the show’s inability to fully own up to the Apu problem.
In The Problem With Apu, former Simpsons writer and producer Dana Gould admits to Kondabolu that, “I think if The Simpsons were being done today, I’m not sure that you could have Apu voiced by Hank.” But here’s the thing: The Simpsons is still being done today. Because other TV shows have not lasted this long, they have never been forced to course correct and deal with their own insensitivities in the same way that The Simpsons must. If, say, Seinfeld were still on TV, it would be struggling with the same issues. (Writes on chalkboard à la Bart Simpson: I will not go off on a tangent about Babu Bhatt. I will not go off on a tangent about Babu Bhatt.)
What can The Simpsons do about its Apu problem? Actually, a lot of things. For starters, it could hire more South Asian writers, or at the very least consistently consult with some on matters related to Apu if its staffers haven’t started doing that already. While Azaria is a great talent, if it’s true that The Simpsons wouldn’t enlist him as the voice of Apu today, then make a switch and hire an Indian-American actor to voice him. That sort of switch might breathe some fresh, unexpected air into a character that has been publicly shamed for not changing with the times.
In his interview with Kondabolu, Gould rejected the idea of getting rid of Apu entirely, but also of nixing his job at the Kwik-E-Mart. I’m not sure why the latter is such an unreasonable idea. Over the course of The Simpsons’ run, Homer has been a nuclear power plant employee, the Springfield Isotopes mascot, an astronaut, an adult-education instructor, a food critic, a blogger, the owner of his own snowplow business, and about 30 other jobs. Is it so crazy that Apu might decide to retire from the Kwik-E-Mart to pursue some other line of work and just stick with it for the rest of the show’s run?
The idea that anything should be perceived as out-of-bounds on an animated show that is known for its silliness and boundary-pushing seems like stubbornness more than anything else. I say that, too, because The Simpsons almost shut down the Kwik-E-Mart two seasons ago, in the episode “Much Apu About Something,” in which the convenience store was destroyed, rebuilt as a much healthier Quick & Fresh and co-run by Apu’s nephew Jay, voiced by Utkarsh Ambudkar, who discusses the episode in The Problem With Apu.
Not surprisingly, the Kwik-E-Mart goes back to being the Kwik-E-Mart by the end of that half-hour. Before that happens, and just after Apu is exposed to the sight of the Quick & Fresh, the Azaria-voiced clerk hugs a large printed replica of the Kwik-E-Mart as it used to be. “I will just live in the happy past one moment longer,” he says, clinging to the image, which has been re-created to scale, as it wheels him off a cliff. “Disco Stu is in denial with you,” shouts Disco Stu, who is also flailing in the air of nostalgia, getting ready to crash.
That scene is the perfect metaphor for The Simpsons today. It’s a show that, reputation wise, is still living in the happy past and clinging to its Kwik-E-Mart, not listening while others shout about being in denial.
http://www.vulture.com/2018/04/simpsons-apu-episode-is-what-happens-when-youre-on-air-too-long.html
https://www.npr.org/sections/monkey...he-simpsons-to-the-problem-with-apu-drop-dead
'The Simpsons' To 'The Problem With Apu': Drop Dead
April 9, 201810:38 AM ET
LINDA HOLMES
Twitter
Apu is a supporting character on The Simpsons drawn in broad caricature, and Sunday's episode addressed — sort of — criticisms about the portrayal.
Fox
Comedian Hari Kondabolu made a documentary in 2017 called The Problem With Apu. It's not very long — less than an hour. In it, he interrogates the legacy of Apu, the convenience store owner on The Simpsons voiced by Hank Azaria. Kondabolu talked to other actors and comics who longed for more South Asian representation, only to find that at the time, Apu was just about all there was. And Apu was not only voiced by a white actor, but he was doing what Azaria has acknowledged is a take on Peter Sellers doing an Indian accent in the movie The Party. In other words, he based his caricature of an accent on someone else's caricature of an accent. Or, as Kondabolu said on W. Kamau Bell's show Totally Biased, "a white guy doing an impression of a white guy making fun of my father."
Sunday night, The Simpsons offered what is apparently its best effort at a response. In one of the plotlines, Marge tries to read Lisa a book she loved as a little girl and realizes it's full of racist stereotypes. In an effort to share the book with Lisa without passing along the things she finds offensive, Marge revises the book and brings it back to Lisa.
CODE SWITCH
A New Documentary Calls Into Question The Simpson's 'Apu'
This comparison is utterly dishonest, of course, for a multitude of reasons. Apu is not the central character of The Simpsons, and it's absurd to suggest that the fabric of the show will be unwound if he doesn't continue to be the same caricature he is. His existence at the periphery — his very flatness, and his definition as a bag of signifiers meant to scream "INDIAN!" is integral to what it means to write a racist stereotype. It's galling that writers will force a character to exist as funny scenery and then complain that they cannot change him without upsetting the emotional arc of the series.
Furthermore, Apu is not appearing in a 50-year-old book by a now-dead author. Apu is a going concern. Someone draws him, over and over again. Azaria makes money to keep imitating Peter Sellers imitating an Indian man. Scripts are still being written. What if Marge were confronted not with reading Lisa an old book, but with reading a new book in the same series that continued to embrace the same racist portrayals it did 50 years ago? Is Marge really supposed to relax and read Lisa a new racist book because she loved an old racist book?
The idea of processing art in its own context while still recognizing its flaws is a delicate act. Consider Molly Ringwald's recent essay about the early John Hughes movies in which she appeared. She has affection for them, and for Hughes, but she knows what realities they reflect. Movies exist; they are fixed pieces, and you can approach them from a lot of angles. But there's no grandfathering in of a character or a franchise, as The Simpsons seems to suggest, such that you can't complain about new material written for a stereotyped character because he's been a stereotyped character for almost 30 years.
TELEVISION
30 Years Later, 'The Simpsons' Are A Part Of The American Family
It gets worse. After Marge asks what she's supposed to do, Lisa — Lisa! — looks directly at the camera. "It's hard to say," she says. "Something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive is now politically incorrect. What can you do?" And she looks at a framed photo next to her bed of Apu, which is signed, "Don't have a cow. Apu." Marge puts a hand on her shoulder. "Some things will be dealt with at a later date." "If at all," Lisa responds. Both look blankly at the audience.
So Lisa, the show's unshakable crusader for justice, including in matters of popular culture, has been reduced to a mouthpiece for the lazy idea that asking for better representation is an unfair burden on creators; an unreasonable demand that things be "politically correct." That is regrettable, to say the least.
But what really reveals the blind spot at issue here is the idea that Apu was once "applauded and inoffensive." The writers equate what they have heard with what has been said, and they equate what has been said with what has been felt. The fact that they have managed to ignore the criticism of Apu until recently doesn't mean that Apu was inoffensive and is now offensive — or, as they prefer to say, "politically incorrect." It means that they were doing exactly what they've been accused of doing: They were stereotyping people who had very little access to opportunities to loudly object.
What is entirely missing from this response is any recognition of the effects on the people who find themselves not represented, or represented poorly — and they were at the center of Kondabolu's documentary. He went out specifically to speak to South Asian performers about how they felt about representation in American television, and specifically about Apu. Kal Penn tells Kondabolu that he hates Apu, and for that reason, doesn't like The Simpsons. A room full of comics says that Apu was referenced as part of their school bullying. Aziz Ansari says he was taunted about Apu while driving with his father. Actor Maulik Pancholy feared encountering an Indian person in a convenience store for fear his friends would launch into their Apu impressions. Even the former surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy, talks about his experiences with stereotypes.
The entire focus of the story of Marge is what a reader with nothing at stake should do about the social obligation they feel to look like they're not racist. It's how to balance their affection for art with their own principles — undertaken entirely from a position of great privilege. There is no attempt to reckon with what the book Marge loved might have meant to girls who found themselves taunted with imagery from it.
It's as if the show can only process complaints about Apu as nicks on the finish of its legacy. The human beings at issue go largely ignored.
I know: It's a cartoon. That is the easiest, silliest response to this debate. It's just a cartoon. It's just a comedy. Or, as the photo of Apu pointedly says, don't have a cow. But the show doesn't have this defense to call on, because it has accepted accolades for decades as a thoughtful, intelligent, satirical work that deserves to be taken seriously. It has accepted a Peabody Award, and a GLAAD Media Award. It has been praised and slobbered over and quoted and praised again, and to plead insignificance at this point is unavailing.
"Dealt with at a later date. If at all." In other words: We have heard how we have hurt people, and we honestly don't care.
'The Simpsons' To 'The Problem With Apu': Drop Dead
April 9, 201810:38 AM ET
LINDA HOLMES
Apu is a supporting character on The Simpsons drawn in broad caricature, and Sunday's episode addressed — sort of — criticisms about the portrayal.
Fox
Comedian Hari Kondabolu made a documentary in 2017 called The Problem With Apu. It's not very long — less than an hour. In it, he interrogates the legacy of Apu, the convenience store owner on The Simpsons voiced by Hank Azaria. Kondabolu talked to other actors and comics who longed for more South Asian representation, only to find that at the time, Apu was just about all there was. And Apu was not only voiced by a white actor, but he was doing what Azaria has acknowledged is a take on Peter Sellers doing an Indian accent in the movie The Party. In other words, he based his caricature of an accent on someone else's caricature of an accent. Or, as Kondabolu said on W. Kamau Bell's show Totally Biased, "a white guy doing an impression of a white guy making fun of my father."
Sunday night, The Simpsons offered what is apparently its best effort at a response. In one of the plotlines, Marge tries to read Lisa a book she loved as a little girl and realizes it's full of racist stereotypes. In an effort to share the book with Lisa without passing along the things she finds offensive, Marge revises the book and brings it back to Lisa.
CODE SWITCH
A New Documentary Calls Into Question The Simpson's 'Apu'
This comparison is utterly dishonest, of course, for a multitude of reasons. Apu is not the central character of The Simpsons, and it's absurd to suggest that the fabric of the show will be unwound if he doesn't continue to be the same caricature he is. His existence at the periphery — his very flatness, and his definition as a bag of signifiers meant to scream "INDIAN!" is integral to what it means to write a racist stereotype. It's galling that writers will force a character to exist as funny scenery and then complain that they cannot change him without upsetting the emotional arc of the series.
Furthermore, Apu is not appearing in a 50-year-old book by a now-dead author. Apu is a going concern. Someone draws him, over and over again. Azaria makes money to keep imitating Peter Sellers imitating an Indian man. Scripts are still being written. What if Marge were confronted not with reading Lisa an old book, but with reading a new book in the same series that continued to embrace the same racist portrayals it did 50 years ago? Is Marge really supposed to relax and read Lisa a new racist book because she loved an old racist book?
The idea of processing art in its own context while still recognizing its flaws is a delicate act. Consider Molly Ringwald's recent essay about the early John Hughes movies in which she appeared. She has affection for them, and for Hughes, but she knows what realities they reflect. Movies exist; they are fixed pieces, and you can approach them from a lot of angles. But there's no grandfathering in of a character or a franchise, as The Simpsons seems to suggest, such that you can't complain about new material written for a stereotyped character because he's been a stereotyped character for almost 30 years.
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30 Years Later, 'The Simpsons' Are A Part Of The American Family
It gets worse. After Marge asks what she's supposed to do, Lisa — Lisa! — looks directly at the camera. "It's hard to say," she says. "Something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive is now politically incorrect. What can you do?" And she looks at a framed photo next to her bed of Apu, which is signed, "Don't have a cow. Apu." Marge puts a hand on her shoulder. "Some things will be dealt with at a later date." "If at all," Lisa responds. Both look blankly at the audience.
So Lisa, the show's unshakable crusader for justice, including in matters of popular culture, has been reduced to a mouthpiece for the lazy idea that asking for better representation is an unfair burden on creators; an unreasonable demand that things be "politically correct." That is regrettable, to say the least.
But what really reveals the blind spot at issue here is the idea that Apu was once "applauded and inoffensive." The writers equate what they have heard with what has been said, and they equate what has been said with what has been felt. The fact that they have managed to ignore the criticism of Apu until recently doesn't mean that Apu was inoffensive and is now offensive — or, as they prefer to say, "politically incorrect." It means that they were doing exactly what they've been accused of doing: They were stereotyping people who had very little access to opportunities to loudly object.
What is entirely missing from this response is any recognition of the effects on the people who find themselves not represented, or represented poorly — and they were at the center of Kondabolu's documentary. He went out specifically to speak to South Asian performers about how they felt about representation in American television, and specifically about Apu. Kal Penn tells Kondabolu that he hates Apu, and for that reason, doesn't like The Simpsons. A room full of comics says that Apu was referenced as part of their school bullying. Aziz Ansari says he was taunted about Apu while driving with his father. Actor Maulik Pancholy feared encountering an Indian person in a convenience store for fear his friends would launch into their Apu impressions. Even the former surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy, talks about his experiences with stereotypes.
The entire focus of the story of Marge is what a reader with nothing at stake should do about the social obligation they feel to look like they're not racist. It's how to balance their affection for art with their own principles — undertaken entirely from a position of great privilege. There is no attempt to reckon with what the book Marge loved might have meant to girls who found themselves taunted with imagery from it.
It's as if the show can only process complaints about Apu as nicks on the finish of its legacy. The human beings at issue go largely ignored.
I know: It's a cartoon. That is the easiest, silliest response to this debate. It's just a cartoon. It's just a comedy. Or, as the photo of Apu pointedly says, don't have a cow. But the show doesn't have this defense to call on, because it has accepted accolades for decades as a thoughtful, intelligent, satirical work that deserves to be taken seriously. It has accepted a Peabody Award, and a GLAAD Media Award. It has been praised and slobbered over and quoted and praised again, and to plead insignificance at this point is unavailing.
"Dealt with at a later date. If at all." In other words: We have heard how we have hurt people, and we honestly don't care.
Yo Kamau Bell has a great series of tweets in defense of Kondabolu but I still ain't learned how to post screenshots
I can't believe this is a thing.....I can't get up in arms about this shit because when we had all of these outdated stereotypes about us I didn't see not one of them come to our defense or give a fuck.
Why the fuck don't they just have an Indian actor voice Apu and not make him so stereotypical??? Their mighty whiteness is making this harder than it has to be.
Why? Why hire another person to do a voice?
^^^^^
South Park Slams Simpsons Over Apu Response & Calls for Cancellation
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South Park's latest episode took a shot at The Simpsons over its response to the Apu controversy, and suggested the long-running show's cancellation. As society marches on, what's considered acceptable fodder for comedy often changes, much to the consternation of those who think nothing should be off limits. This leads to many situations in which beloved shows from the past now contain jokes that nobody really thought much of at the time, but are now perceived as being racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise uncomfortable in the current social climate.
Of course, most of these revelations happen after the fact, when a classic show has long since been canceled or ended its run. In the case of The Simpsons, the FOX animated institution just recently began its 30th season, but is in some ways still reeling from last year's documentary The Problem with Apu. Written by and starring Indian-American comedian Hari Kondabolu, The Problem with Apu focused on how the titular Simpsons character is essentially a collection of stereotypes about Indian people, made all the more problematic by the fact that Apu is voiced by white actor Hank Azaria.
Related: 20 Stars You Forgot 'Appeared' In South Park
While Azaria has said publicly that he's willing to step aside and let an actor of South Asian descent take over the Apu role - or just retire the character entirely - The Simpsons' producers don't seem to share his sentiment, as evidenced by their widely-panned attempt to address the controversy with season 29 episode "No Good Read Goes Unpunished." In last night's episode of South Park season 22, the Comedy Central comedy came out swinging on the subject. When sentient piece of excrement Mr. Hankey is exiled from town for being offensive, he's shipped off to a place “that accepts racist, awful beings like him,” where people “don’t care about bigotry and hate." That place being Springfield. A screen then displays #cancelthesimpsons. Ouch.
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While South Park's shot at The Simpsons isn't at all subtle - Mr. Hankey is quickly greeted by Apu, and the episode itself is titled "The Problem with a Poo" - it's important to note that it's likely not meant to be taken that seriously. For one, it's South Park, a show that basically runs on taking refuge in audacity. For two, South Park has its own long history of making jokes many would deem wildly offensive,and it's hard to imagine Trey Parker and Matt Stone being genuinely bothered much by Apu. Finally, the #cancelthesimpsons bit calls back to a teaser for season 22's premiere - which involved characters reacting casually to school shootings - that included #cancelsouthpark.
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Serious jab or not though, what South Park's scene definitely does is serve as a reminder that not only has The Simpsons not corrected The Problem with Apu, it shows no signs of even attempting to do so. In addition to the tone-deaf response offered in "No Good Read Goes Unpunished," Simpsons creator Matt Groening and showrunner Al Jean have both made public statements this year that basically serve to brush the controversy off, with Groening even chalking it up to people who "love to pretend they're offended." That dismissal clearly hasn't killed the issue.
- BY MICHAEL KENNEDY
- – ON OCT 11, 2018
- IN TV NEWS
ADVERTISING
South Park's latest episode took a shot at The Simpsons over its response to the Apu controversy, and suggested the long-running show's cancellation. As society marches on, what's considered acceptable fodder for comedy often changes, much to the consternation of those who think nothing should be off limits. This leads to many situations in which beloved shows from the past now contain jokes that nobody really thought much of at the time, but are now perceived as being racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise uncomfortable in the current social climate.
Of course, most of these revelations happen after the fact, when a classic show has long since been canceled or ended its run. In the case of The Simpsons, the FOX animated institution just recently began its 30th season, but is in some ways still reeling from last year's documentary The Problem with Apu. Written by and starring Indian-American comedian Hari Kondabolu, The Problem with Apu focused on how the titular Simpsons character is essentially a collection of stereotypes about Indian people, made all the more problematic by the fact that Apu is voiced by white actor Hank Azaria.
Related: 20 Stars You Forgot 'Appeared' In South Park
While Azaria has said publicly that he's willing to step aside and let an actor of South Asian descent take over the Apu role - or just retire the character entirely - The Simpsons' producers don't seem to share his sentiment, as evidenced by their widely-panned attempt to address the controversy with season 29 episode "No Good Read Goes Unpunished." In last night's episode of South Park season 22, the Comedy Central comedy came out swinging on the subject. When sentient piece of excrement Mr. Hankey is exiled from town for being offensive, he's shipped off to a place “that accepts racist, awful beings like him,” where people “don’t care about bigotry and hate." That place being Springfield. A screen then displays #cancelthesimpsons. Ouch.
ADVERTISING
While South Park's shot at The Simpsons isn't at all subtle - Mr. Hankey is quickly greeted by Apu, and the episode itself is titled "The Problem with a Poo" - it's important to note that it's likely not meant to be taken that seriously. For one, it's South Park, a show that basically runs on taking refuge in audacity. For two, South Park has its own long history of making jokes many would deem wildly offensive,and it's hard to imagine Trey Parker and Matt Stone being genuinely bothered much by Apu. Finally, the #cancelthesimpsons bit calls back to a teaser for season 22's premiere - which involved characters reacting casually to school shootings - that included #cancelsouthpark.
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Serious jab or not though, what South Park's scene definitely does is serve as a reminder that not only has The Simpsons not corrected The Problem with Apu, it shows no signs of even attempting to do so. In addition to the tone-deaf response offered in "No Good Read Goes Unpunished," Simpsons creator Matt Groening and showrunner Al Jean have both made public statements this year that basically serve to brush the controversy off, with Groening even chalking it up to people who "love to pretend they're offended." That dismissal clearly hasn't killed the issue.
https://www.seattletimes.com/entert...ded-simpsons-creator-reacts-to-apu-criticism/
‘People love to pretend they’re offended’: ‘Simpsons’ creator reacts to Apu criticism
Originally published May 6, 2018 at 6:00 am
Groening and others have been called on in recent months to defend the character, a thickly accented Kwik-E-Mart owner who has been criticized as racist.
Share story
DANIEL VICTOR
The New York Times
Matt Groening, the creator of “The Simpsons,” has weighed in at last on the Apu controversy, and Indian-American critics are not happy about it.
Groening and others have been called on in recent months to defend the character, Apu, a thickly accented Kwik-E-Mart owner who has been criticized as racist.
While speaking last month to USA Today, Groening was asked if he had “any thoughts on the criticism of Apu as a stereotype.”
“Not really,” Groening responded. “I’m proud of what we do on the show. And I think it’s a time in our culture where people love to pretend they’re offended.”
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Groening declined through a Fox spokeswoman to comment further.
Hari Kondabolu, a comedian and the creator of “The Problem With Apu,” a documentary released in November that described the way Apu had shaped widespread perceptions of South Asians, said on Twitter that Groening sounded “like every other troll on the internet who didn’t see the documentary.”
Groening’s comments aligned with the way the show coyly addressed the uproar, in an episode last month that attracted renewed criticism.
“Something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive is now politically incorrect. What can you do?” Lisa said to her mother, Marge, before looking at a bedside photo of Apu.
Marge responded: “Some things will be dealt with at a later date.”
Lisa added, “If at all.”
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Groening — whose name rhymes with “raining” — was one of the writers on the episode. After it aired, Al Jean, the showrunner since 1998, retweeted posts decrying political correctness.
But Hank Azaria, the Emmy-winning actor who voices Apu, told Stephen Colbert on “The Late Show” recently that he would be “perfectly willing and happy to step aside, or help transition it into something new.”
“The idea that anyone, young or old, past or present, was bullied or teased based on the character of Apu, it just really makes me sad,” he said. “It was certainly not my intention. I wanted to spread laughter and joy.”
Hoping to find a new storyline for Apu, Adi Shankar, a producer and showrunner, announced a screenwriting contest on Monday. Shankar, who does not work for “The Simpsons,” asked for a script that takes Apu “and in a clever way subverts him, pivots him, intelligently writes him out, or evolves him in a way that takes a mean-spirited mockery and transforms him into a kernel of truth wrapped in funny insight, aka actual satire.”
He pledged to deliver the winning script to the writers of “The Simpsons.” If they’re not interested, he would produce the script as “an unofficial fan film,” he said.
In an interview, Shankar said Apu was a “fabricated archetype, and it’s been carved into the American, and really the global, consciousness with blunt force.” The contest is intended to give “Simpsons” writers access to new perspectives in a way that would be a win-win, he said.
He said he was inspired to create the contest — which Kanye West promoted on Twitter — partly by Groening’s comments.
“What he’s missing is, it’s not like people are mad,” he said. “They’re hurt. They’re hurting.”
While “The Simpsons” has been criticized in the past for leaning too much on stereotypes, major controversies over diversity and representation have been rare for the show, a cultural powerhouse now in its 29th year.
The rest of the television world has pushed more boundaries and grown far raunchier, leaving the cartoon a remnant of an era in which its unsentimental view of the American family, along with language like “Eat my shorts,” sparked a rebuke from President George Bush in 1992.
Groening came to prominence with a weekly comic strip, “Life in Hell,” that was popular among alternative newspapers and ran from 1978 to 2012. The characters on “The Simpsons” are named after his real-life family: His father, Homer; his mother, Margaret; and his sisters, Maggie and Lisa.
He was unsympathetic to early complaints that the show could have a negative effect on children. “If you don’t want your kids to be like Bart Simpson, don’t act like Homer Simpson,” he said in 1998.
‘People love to pretend they’re offended’: ‘Simpsons’ creator reacts to Apu criticism
Originally published May 6, 2018 at 6:00 am
Groening and others have been called on in recent months to defend the character, a thickly accented Kwik-E-Mart owner who has been criticized as racist.
Share story
DANIEL VICTOR
The New York Times
Matt Groening, the creator of “The Simpsons,” has weighed in at last on the Apu controversy, and Indian-American critics are not happy about it.
Groening and others have been called on in recent months to defend the character, Apu, a thickly accented Kwik-E-Mart owner who has been criticized as racist.
While speaking last month to USA Today, Groening was asked if he had “any thoughts on the criticism of Apu as a stereotype.”
“Not really,” Groening responded. “I’m proud of what we do on the show. And I think it’s a time in our culture where people love to pretend they’re offended.”
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Groening declined through a Fox spokeswoman to comment further.
Hari Kondabolu, a comedian and the creator of “The Problem With Apu,” a documentary released in November that described the way Apu had shaped widespread perceptions of South Asians, said on Twitter that Groening sounded “like every other troll on the internet who didn’t see the documentary.”
Groening’s comments aligned with the way the show coyly addressed the uproar, in an episode last month that attracted renewed criticism.
“Something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive is now politically incorrect. What can you do?” Lisa said to her mother, Marge, before looking at a bedside photo of Apu.
Marge responded: “Some things will be dealt with at a later date.”
Lisa added, “If at all.”
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Groening — whose name rhymes with “raining” — was one of the writers on the episode. After it aired, Al Jean, the showrunner since 1998, retweeted posts decrying political correctness.
But Hank Azaria, the Emmy-winning actor who voices Apu, told Stephen Colbert on “The Late Show” recently that he would be “perfectly willing and happy to step aside, or help transition it into something new.”
“The idea that anyone, young or old, past or present, was bullied or teased based on the character of Apu, it just really makes me sad,” he said. “It was certainly not my intention. I wanted to spread laughter and joy.”
Hoping to find a new storyline for Apu, Adi Shankar, a producer and showrunner, announced a screenwriting contest on Monday. Shankar, who does not work for “The Simpsons,” asked for a script that takes Apu “and in a clever way subverts him, pivots him, intelligently writes him out, or evolves him in a way that takes a mean-spirited mockery and transforms him into a kernel of truth wrapped in funny insight, aka actual satire.”
He pledged to deliver the winning script to the writers of “The Simpsons.” If they’re not interested, he would produce the script as “an unofficial fan film,” he said.
In an interview, Shankar said Apu was a “fabricated archetype, and it’s been carved into the American, and really the global, consciousness with blunt force.” The contest is intended to give “Simpsons” writers access to new perspectives in a way that would be a win-win, he said.
He said he was inspired to create the contest — which Kanye West promoted on Twitter — partly by Groening’s comments.
“What he’s missing is, it’s not like people are mad,” he said. “They’re hurt. They’re hurting.”
While “The Simpsons” has been criticized in the past for leaning too much on stereotypes, major controversies over diversity and representation have been rare for the show, a cultural powerhouse now in its 29th year.
The rest of the television world has pushed more boundaries and grown far raunchier, leaving the cartoon a remnant of an era in which its unsentimental view of the American family, along with language like “Eat my shorts,” sparked a rebuke from President George Bush in 1992.
Groening came to prominence with a weekly comic strip, “Life in Hell,” that was popular among alternative newspapers and ran from 1978 to 2012. The characters on “The Simpsons” are named after his real-life family: His father, Homer; his mother, Margaret; and his sisters, Maggie and Lisa.
He was unsympathetic to early complaints that the show could have a negative effect on children. “If you don’t want your kids to be like Bart Simpson, don’t act like Homer Simpson,” he said in 1998.
The Simpsons Reportedly Dropping Apu for Good
Prachi Gupta
Friday 4:40pm
Filed to: THE SIMPSONS
20.6K
624
Screenshot: Fox
The Simpsons may be dropping Apu Nahasapeemapetilon after outcry from the Indian American community that the character is a racist caricature.
In an interview with IndieWire published on Friday, producer Adi Shankar, who launched a competition to source a script that would write Apu in a way that “subverts him, pivots him, writes him out, or evolves him” beyond the racist trope envisioned, created, and voiced by white men, said he heard the Simpsons is ditching Apu altogether.
“I got some disheartening news back, that I’ve verified from multiple sources now: They’re going to drop the Apu character altogether,” Shankar told IndieWire. “They aren’t going to make a big deal out of it, or anything like that, but they’ll drop him altogether just to avoid the controversy.”
IndieWire reports:
Shankar clarified that he got this news from two people who work for “The Simpsons” and a third source who works directly with creator Matt Groening.
Reached for comment on Shankar’s allegations, a representative for “The Simpsons” at Fox provided a cryptic response: “Apu appeared in the 10/14/18 episode ‘My Way or the Highway to Heaven.’” In the episode, Apu only appears in a single wide shot (below) that showed dozens of characters gathered around God.
In 2017, comedian Hari Kondabolu explained why Apu’s character—which combines every stereotype white people have of Indians, including an outlandish accent, voiced by a white man—is racist in The Problem with Apu. The show has fielded criticism over Apu since then, defending the character at every opportunity. In April, the Simpsons ran a segment mocking the backlash, in which Marge tells Lisa that she can’t read an original version of a children’s book because it’s now deemed offensive. Lisa then says, as a photo of Apu sits on her nightstand (which is weird): “Something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive is now politically incorrect. What can you do?”
While no Apu is perhaps better than a racist Apu, the news is disheartening because as a self-aware, satirical show, the Simpsons had a chance to educate itself and its audience by reshaping the character instead. “If you are a show about cultural commentary and you are too afraid to comment on the culture, especially when it’s a component of the culture you had a hand in creating, then you are a show about cowardice,” said Shankar. “It’s not a step forward, or step backwards, it’s just a massive step sideways. After having read all these wonderful scripts, I feel like sidestepping this issue doesn’t solve it when the whole purpose of art, I would argue, is to bring us together.”
On Twitter, Kondabolu expressed a similar sentiment. “There are so many ways to make Apu work without getting rid of him,” he wrote. “If true, this sucks.”
Prachi Gupta
Friday 4:40pm
Filed to: THE SIMPSONS
20.6K
624
Screenshot: Fox
The Simpsons may be dropping Apu Nahasapeemapetilon after outcry from the Indian American community that the character is a racist caricature.
In an interview with IndieWire published on Friday, producer Adi Shankar, who launched a competition to source a script that would write Apu in a way that “subverts him, pivots him, writes him out, or evolves him” beyond the racist trope envisioned, created, and voiced by white men, said he heard the Simpsons is ditching Apu altogether.
“I got some disheartening news back, that I’ve verified from multiple sources now: They’re going to drop the Apu character altogether,” Shankar told IndieWire. “They aren’t going to make a big deal out of it, or anything like that, but they’ll drop him altogether just to avoid the controversy.”
IndieWire reports:
Shankar clarified that he got this news from two people who work for “The Simpsons” and a third source who works directly with creator Matt Groening.
Reached for comment on Shankar’s allegations, a representative for “The Simpsons” at Fox provided a cryptic response: “Apu appeared in the 10/14/18 episode ‘My Way or the Highway to Heaven.’” In the episode, Apu only appears in a single wide shot (below) that showed dozens of characters gathered around God.
In 2017, comedian Hari Kondabolu explained why Apu’s character—which combines every stereotype white people have of Indians, including an outlandish accent, voiced by a white man—is racist in The Problem with Apu. The show has fielded criticism over Apu since then, defending the character at every opportunity. In April, the Simpsons ran a segment mocking the backlash, in which Marge tells Lisa that she can’t read an original version of a children’s book because it’s now deemed offensive. Lisa then says, as a photo of Apu sits on her nightstand (which is weird): “Something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive is now politically incorrect. What can you do?”
While no Apu is perhaps better than a racist Apu, the news is disheartening because as a self-aware, satirical show, the Simpsons had a chance to educate itself and its audience by reshaping the character instead. “If you are a show about cultural commentary and you are too afraid to comment on the culture, especially when it’s a component of the culture you had a hand in creating, then you are a show about cowardice,” said Shankar. “It’s not a step forward, or step backwards, it’s just a massive step sideways. After having read all these wonderful scripts, I feel like sidestepping this issue doesn’t solve it when the whole purpose of art, I would argue, is to bring us together.”
On Twitter, Kondabolu expressed a similar sentiment. “There are so many ways to make Apu work without getting rid of him,” he wrote. “If true, this sucks.”
So glad I grew up earlier then now, there were some things wrong, but now everything is wrong. The fake outrage is crazy.
Crazy. I wonder what people would say if they come to Ohio and go to Mr Heroes, some of our local motels, and these 7/11 - corner stores up here and run into folks just like Apu.
what did he REALLY expect though?
They bitched about the character and now the character is gone and they're still bitching. Those fucking two for one coolies are so fucking racist and prejudiced I'll never feel sorry for them. Fuckas come here and benefit from the struggles of Native Americans and slaves stolen from Africa. Yet they are racist to us and act like they are better than us.
They need to go to India and fight for the pure blooded Indians untainted by Aryan blood. They deem those people who are the Dravidians "the untouchables". Got their own people bleaching their skin and using all types of photo filters to make their pictures look lighter.
Nah man FOH. Go clean up India if you want to fight racism involving Indians. And use the fucking toilets in the house for fuck sakes.
They need to go to India and fight for the pure blooded Indians untainted by Aryan blood. They deem those people who are the Dravidians "the untouchables". Got their own people bleaching their skin and using all types of photo filters to make their pictures look lighter.
Nah man FOH. Go clean up India if you want to fight racism involving Indians. And use the fucking toilets in the house for fuck sakes.
I liked Apu. I watched the show growing up and never thought of anything racist. He was just another character
I hate this generation of soft ass mufuckas
I hate this generation of soft ass mufuckas
He was a working class man with a wife and 8 children.
Look he didn't REPRESENT ME
so I can't tell someone of Middle Eastern descent HOW to feel
but as a BLACK MAN who has seen my people depicted in EVERY F*CKING way?
I can say I never saw Apu as negative or represented a race or was negative
In fact, he was SMART and hard working to ME at least and sacrificed EVERYTHING for his family especially his children.
Who were all portrayed as smart and his wife was strong and not subservient in any way
which to me was good
considering the apparent TRUTH of how women are treated in those regions...
So hold on
since Homer and his family are supposed to be "white"?
Then they are shown as dumb as f*ck
Hell, EVEN Lisa was NOT perfect.
Last edited:
Man you hit the nail right on the head. Fucking clown ass idiots wanted to bitch just because they can. So the character got canned. Fuck em and their fake outrage. People get canned everyday.
But they BETTER understtnad THis,,
now watch
these media companies may NOT portray them at ALL
or go BACK to the all "Indians" are smart stereotype that they apparently HATE.
Outside of a white guy voicing the character I don't see a problem with the character or see the character as a negative stereotype.
This is tough. I can see both sides here. After viewing the entire context, I get where dude is coming from. This could've easily been the same for Black people, Hispanic people, East Asian people etc. I mean how long before Hispanics come for the Bee and Dr. Nick?
I digress.
Like I said, I get his point but there's something about this whole thing that rubs me the wrong way.
I never viewed Apu as a threat or a negative stereotype. In fact, actually being one of the only dark skinned characters on the show besides Carl and Dr. Hibbert, I kinda had a soft spot for him. There was some level of colorful representation even if he wasn't black.
Sucks it turned out this way but like many others have pointed out, the Simpsons aren't what they used to be so I won't lose sleep over this.
It just stings the 15 year old me a bit.
I digress.
Like I said, I get his point but there's something about this whole thing that rubs me the wrong way.
I never viewed Apu as a threat or a negative stereotype. In fact, actually being one of the only dark skinned characters on the show besides Carl and Dr. Hibbert, I kinda had a soft spot for him. There was some level of colorful representation even if he wasn't black.
Sucks it turned out this way but like many others have pointed out, the Simpsons aren't what they used to be so I won't lose sleep over this.
It just stings the 15 year old me a bit.