Monkey See : NPR: 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."
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I thought NPR's synthesis of this social quarrel was poignant and honest. The new special 'The Problem With Apu' brings up issues not only specifically with South Asian representation, but, or at least I believe, will act as a precedent for many other groups of people as we revisit old and current representation in our media. Needless to say, The Simpsons' response to the specials will also be treated as a precedent, especially because it's the Simpsons- one of the most iconic television programs in our modern age. The response to The Problem with Apu was outrageously inappropriate and disappointing. As NPR mentioned, perhaps The Simpsons thought that it was not their fault, they are simply a cartoon. However, that is is the problem. News nowadays is so painful and immediate that I think we all are dulled to it. I know, at least for me, I get most of my news through programs that offer news with satire or comedy show. Although this is clearly not the best way to receive information and social cues, it is how a lot of people do. By not acknowledging the pain, harmful stereotypes and disrespect that The Simpsons, and other mediums that lack accurate and respectful representation of people, they've instead made a public statement that it is okay because it is funny or perhaps because it's not like they're problem. And that is not right. I hope the network releases a different response giving proper respect and acknowledgement to their actions.
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