by On Sunday night’s episode of The Simpsons, the writers had little Lisa give advice to her mom about something or other, using it instead as an opportunity to defend themselves against charges of racism for having a white actor voice an Indian character with a heavily stereotyped accent.
“It’s hard to say,” Lisa bemoans. “Something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive is now politically incorrect… What can you do?” Posing the question, she turns to face a framed photograph of Apu, signed, “Don’t have a cow.”
D’oh.
#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
Hari Kondabolu, the comedian who brought his longstanding grudge against Apu to light, along with the hard feelings about Apu from several other Indian-American actors, in the truTV documentary, The Problem With Apu, responded overnight.
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. The Simpsons response tonight is not a jab at me, but at what many of us consider progress.
— Hari Kondabolu (@harikondabolu) April 9, 2018
It’s almost as crazy as a multi-millionaire motivational speaker not only denying the legitimacy of the #MeToo movement, but also physically pushing a woman in front of thousands at one of his events to try to prove his dumb point. Oh, wait. That also happened?!?!
I wrote about The Problem With Apu when it came out back in November.
