One problem is that the Simpsons has dealt with the issue in a more nuanced and self-aware manner in the past. On several occasions in fact.
The show has gone on long enough that several secondary or tertiary characters have gotten the chance to be fleshed out.
And, in fact, the show has on several occasions in the past (not that I’m purely pulling “the Simpsons was better X years ago” argument though that’s a large part of it) used extreme stereotypes to come back around to poke fun at the very people who don’t see past those stereotypes.
Examples: the Bumblebee man taking over the evening news in a cultured voice. Or any number of times with that awful Italian chef (“that’s-a spicy-a meatball-a”). Or John Waters somehow playing THE stereotypical gay man by simultaneously making it work. Or Apu himself, who has episodes showing he was a brilliant computer scientist forced in large part to ingrained racism to take work as a convenience store clerk and that he’s inarguably smarter and harder working than the slobs around him (“Well, the Civil War has several causes, including…” “just say slavery”).
So, instead of doing exactly what the show already did 20 years ago, which is poke fun at its own terrible stereotyping by simultaneously pushing the stereotype AND showing the character has more than 2 dimensions, they pull the “political correctness” card in one of the laziest ways possible.
The show has gone on long enough that episodes from 20 years ago indict their rather stupid current take on the whole thing.
I find that Kondabolu so obnoxious, that I’m glad he is unhappy about Apu. The simpsons is full of absurd stereotypes. The only italians are mobsters and a pizzaria owner. Bumblebeeman is a stereotype. Cletus is a stereotype. Comic book guy is a stereotype. Who cares.
This wouldn’t be an issue if the Simpsons wasn’t considered a cultural landmark. In a lot of ways, they painted themselves into a corner.
They have a history of being clever and socially insightful (while simultaneously being lowbrow). But now they want to still get credit for that earlier insight/cleverness without being questioned about it. Those stereotypes are ridiculous but one (of many) part of that is those stereotypes were quite deliberate and rather than poke fun at the targets of those stereotypes, they often poked fun at the people who didn’t see anything wrong with those stereotypes. That’s flipped now. They’ve come back around to defending the sorts of ideas they were mocking in the first place.
More than the stereotypes themselves, that’s probably the part that gets people more (or at least me). In earlier seasons, this is the sort of thing they might have written a clever episode about. Nowadays, they want to get away with a smirk and a lazy throwaway line but still rest on their laurels. They don’t get to have it both ways.
“But you’re just perpetuating a negative Italian-American stereotype. I mean, you could be a pizza man, organ grinder, a leaning tower maker, and uh… did I say pizza man?”
-Marge, to Fat Tony
I’m impressed by the dedication that so many defenders of the show and ‘satire’ are showing towards their conviction that they will never consider anybody’s life experience or point of view that is not exactly the same as theirs.
The earliest seasons were full of cultural “leaders” being offended by the show condemning them for hosts of reasons and them ignoring it or smirking while they thumb their noses at it.
Of all the stereotypes used as tropes to mock in the show, Apu is possibly the least superficial or offensive. Again, even a very casual occasional viewer like me has seen him as a character treated with great respect and depth, given that this is cartoon comedy.
Now you want a discussion about how East Asians had not until fairly recently been well represented in American media? Or how the representations there were were either of first generation immigrants with an accent (omigosh) becoming small business owners (like convenience stores, dry cleaners, cab drivers, etc.) and working hard so that their kids could move up the ladder, or the kids experiences acculturating with sometimes parental conflict or in the case of Indians some who come in as highly educated professionals? How ignorant people tease those who are “different” using whatever material they can come up with? A fair discussion to have. Demanding that The Simpsons takes on being the flashpoint of that discussion and that they don’t mock being put out as the problem … sorry. That demand is very mockable.
Why do you assume that considering someone else’s life experience or point of view will automatically convert them to that point of view?
It is very possible that they have considered other people’s points of view and still rejected the conclusion.
I don’t recall that having been the situation - he took the job to pay for grad school because it had shifts that didn’t interfere with his schooling, and he stuck with it because he was comfortable. I don’t recall anything ever saying or implying that he was unable to get a computer job due to racism.
I thought he stayed with the job because after schooling he was in the States illegally having overstayed his student visa.
On reflection, the Simpson’s response was a little tone deaf because it’s not just the little bit quoted in the OP, the entire B plot about Marge’s beloved but shockingly racist childhood book can be considered a reply. That’s kind of off target. I have trouble saying it was “lashing back” at the criticism but it does seem a misunderstanding of it.
The OP made no such demands. It in fact says the opposite, that they should have just remained quiet about it. The Simpson writers are the ones who decided to take on the discussion, because they decided to weigh in on it.
If they’d just kept out of it, no one would be freaking out. But since they decided to make a joke condemning people for being upset about it, now the people they decided to attack are fighting back.
And surely you understand the difference between punching up and punching down. So what relevance is there in examples of them punching up at the people in charge? What do they have to do with punching down on the South Asians who experience racism?
If you punch down on someone, they and their allies will often punch back up.
Given the intelligence of the people involved, I still think that was intentional. The show isn’t what it used to be, so they are hoping for ratings by pissing people off.
While still a tiny minority, I am aware of at least one other portrayal of a south Asian (Indian or Pakistani - I don’t think it was ever mentioned) and he was never played to a stereotype that I recall, even though the show used jokes of that sort in a few cases (I Zombie - a zombie named Liv Moore, and her boyfriend Major Lilywhite, and several others). If his name, Dr. Ravi Chakrabarti, has a similar joke it went over my head. The character had a detectable accent, but not to excess, and was portrayed by an actor of that ethnicity.
Well, I guess I can see it. I watched “Raising Hope”, which portrayed poor white people as kind of stupid (MANY shows do that), and it made me a little uncomfortable, since I have been poor and white. The implication being that if you’re white and still manage to be poor, you must be kind of dumb (too dumb to overcome your “white privilege” perhaps?). That, and the fact that I DO know poor white people that are kind of stupid (my sister-in-laws family and others), so the stereotype doesn’t exactly come from nowhere. However, it wasn’t enough to make me quit the show, I still found it funny, and I certainly didn’t feel the need for the show to change.