The Simpsons is not a documentary, it’s a satirical cartoon. That discomfort you feel (and others feel) about Apu is evidence that precisely the part you didn’t like was well written and well done.
The parts of The Simpsons that need fixing (if any) are mainly parts you’re comfortable with, and your comfort is mostly what’s wrong.
Ironically enough the person whom many people say is the best Simpsons writer also happened to be a pretty big conservative.
Count me in. Nothing needs fixing, excepts some people’s sense of humor.
Oh, Heavens! What has been implied here?
Have an episode where Apu starts speaking with an American accent. Everybody in
Springfield notices that something is different about him but can’t figure out what it is.
Toward the end of the episode Lisa figures it out and points out that Apu is no longer
speaking with an Indian accent. When asked why, Apu says that he spoke with an
accent because he thought the people of Springfield would expect him to speak that
way. Then in all future episodes Apu speaks with an American accent.
And if that doesn’t work they can make him the mascot for the
Azusa Pacific University (website located at: https://www.apu.edu).
Apu has led to bigotry against South Asian people. They’ve even written a book about it. Stop trying to frame this as people who don’t have a sense of humor or not a problem.
Just because someone has a different skin color than yours doesn’t mean they don’t matter. You do not have a right to tell people that they are required to face racism.
I’ll at least allow the guy who says the problem is with the culture, not the show. Though, honestly, that’s still a cop out, because the show is part of the culture, and there are other shows that don’t have the same problems.
But pretending it’s not a problem is like when white people tell black people there is no problem with racism, or when men tell women that sexism is over. Just because it doesn’t affect you doesn’t mean it’s not a problem.
Apu is a cartoon character. Not real. Get over it.
Scooby Doo doesn’t really talk, either. Sorry.
Nothing wrong with Apu. Leave it as it is.
That he could be used as a vector for people’s racism is not an indication that there are any problems with the character (only that he was high profile in a time of very few other asian characters) and “fixing” the character will not fix people’s racism. As someone said upthread, introduce other south-asian characters as well. Of course seeing as Apu is one of the most stable and well-balanced characters in the show, in order to reflect the full gamut of american-asians you’ll have to make them stupid, lazy and venal…happy now?
Don’t fix him. But maybe have an episode where Apu is faced with deportation and in a show of love, the town rallies behind him to save him from his fate.
And from that point on, lay off the religious and “funny brown guy working in a Qwicky-Mart” jokes.
I’m not framing anything as anything. Apu is fine just the way he is. Others are trying to frame the character as some kind of insult when it clearly is not.
And don’t be so careless when you say “they”. Certainly “South Asian people” have not written a book about this. A small number of individual South Asians have.
Of course I do, if that’s what I was doing and it isn’t.
Do you think Speedy Gonzalez is a offensive stereotype as well then?
I don’t watch the show, so I don’t know how bad a person Apu is. But unless he’s doing something evil like swindling or poisoning his customers, is he really that culturally counter-productive?
Without the show, the bigotry was going to happen anyway, and possibly in a nastier way. Would you rather be thought of as a goofy minority or as a Taliban?
Early on he was an established price-gouger, but that wasn’t about him being Indian, it was about him owning a convenience store.
…the writing on the Simpsons is entirely representative of the predominately white male writers and producers that make the show. So it is entirely possible to change the nature of the Apu’s character simply by either changing how the character is written or by changing the voice. And by doing that you will stop alienating an entire section of the community that is crying out for better representation on TV and film.
And if that upsets you: well, its only a cartoon character. And regardless of what they do with the character, it is going to have zero effect on you. So get over it.
It should be irrelevant who does the voice.
…thanks for sharing your opinion. It is shared by many, but not by all.
I don’t think an all-white writing team is is a problem, the colour of a person’s skin has no bearing on whether it is any good.
I’ve yet to hear a coherent argument for why the character is particularly problematic in the first place, is he a bad person? a poor role model?
that’s a big claim, who is being alienated and how?
if it is only a cartoon character then not changing it is hardly likely to matter either is it?
Soory, I think it is a storm in a tea-cup, as seems tiresomely common these days. There are far bigger issues regarding equality and bigotry that are cheapened and diminished by paying such attention to these non-stories.
Apu, along with itchy and scratch are at a baseball diamond hitting each other with baseball bats. A cartoon squirrel who resembles this guy comes along and says ‘don’t do that, don’t do that, hey don’t do that’. So Apu, itchy and scratchy all join teams to beat up the squirrel.
Can someone explain to me why Apu is offensive but Chef from South Park was not?
Because Hank Azaria is culturally appropriating an offensive stereotype that a few Americans of South Asian descent both want for themselves and don’t want for themselves; and apparently this is what Google’s algorithm is feeding the suckers this week, along with the Twitter troll complaining about a Utahn in a qipao. :rolleyes:
Funny thing about the Simpsons, there are a lot of characters people could take offense to.
Italians have Fat Tony and his men and Luigi Risotto.
For the Scottish we of course have Willy.
Comic Book Guy for comic Book fans.
Cookie Kwan must be offensive to some people.
Smithers for gay people.
Herschel Shmoikel Pinchas Yerucham Krustofski may offends some Jewish people.
And of all of these character Apu seems like the least offensive and much smarter than most of the main characters.
The residents of Springfield are not a great group of people collectively. If you want to be offended, it is probably very easy.
I think the Italian-Americans actually get it the worse, but I don’t really let such silliness bother me.
