The Simpsons‘ have copped a lot of flack lately, and the flack is justified: comedian Hari Kondabolu released doco The Problem of Apu last year, highlighting the cringy-at-best, racist-as-fuck-at-worst racial stereotypes that underpin/overpin/pin the character of Apu, one of the show’s few people of colour.
So the show came back with a frankly piss-poor response to the controversy in a new ep earlier this month.’No Good Read Goes Unpunished‘ alludes to the issue in a short scene where Marge reads a fairy tale with all the offensive elements removed to Lisa, who is not into it.
“Well what am I supposed to do?” Marge laments.
Lisa to camera: “It’s hard to say. Something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive, is now politically incorrect. What can you do?”
#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?” pic.twitter.com/Bj7qE2FXWN
— soham (@sohamberlamps) April 9, 2018
Well, Hank Azaria, the voice of Apu, appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert overnight to promote the second season of his series Brockmire, and directly addressed the controversy in a really nuanced and empathetic way: “The idea that anyone young or old, past or present, being bullied based on Apu really makes me sad. It certainly was not my intention. I wanted to bring joy and laughter to people.”
When asked what he thought “should happen to the character going forward“, Azaria thinks the “right thing to do” is to “step aside or help transition it into something new“.
I’ve given this a lot of thought, and as I say my eyes have been opened.
I think the most important thing is we have to listen to South Asian people, Indian people in this country, when they talk about what they feel and how they think about this character and what their American experience of it has been.
And as you know in television terms, listening to voices means inclusion in the writers’ room. I really wanna see Indian, South Asian writers in the writers room, not in a token way, but genuinely informing whatever new direction this character may take, including how [Apu] is voiced or not voiced.
I’m perfectly willing and happy to step aside or help transition it into something new. I really hope that’s what The Simpsons does. It not only makes sense but it just feels like the right thing to do to me.
.@HankAzaria addresses the controversy surrounding the character ‘Apu’ from @TheSimpsons. #LSSC #Apu #TheSimpsons pic.twitter.com/pkmYgcX4Il
— The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) April 25, 2018
It’s not the first time Azaria’s spoken about the issue since it broke, telling TMZ in December that it’s “an important conversation worth having“:
I think the documentary made some really interesting points and gave us a lot to think about and we really are thinking about it.
Definitely anybody that was hurt or offended by it, or by any character or vocal performance, it’s really upsetting that it was offensive or hurtful to anybody.
The doco’s director Kondabolu was one of many who were impressed with Azaria’s comments on The Late Show:
Thank you, @HankAzaria. I appreciate what you said & how you said it. https://t.co/Otmxygf3DP
— Hari Kondabolu (@harikondabolu) April 25, 2018
Wow. Hank Azaria just said on @StephenAtHome’s Late Show that The Simpsons should hire South Asian writers and perhaps a South Asian voice talent to plot new path for Apu. He’s willing to step aside from voicing the character.
— Eric Deggans at NPR (@Deggans) April 25, 2018
https://twitter.com/ira/status/989025252163256320
Now let’s see if the showrunners do literally anything to prove the show is still relevant in 2018.
