The actor who does the voice of Apu on The Simpsons says he understands the
criticism facing the show's representation of the character and
would be willing to stop voicing him. Welcome back! You're watching What's
Trending, I'm Martine Beerman. Make sure to subscribe for more social media and
awesome news stories every day. Hank Azaria has voiced Apu since his first
appearance in Season 1 of The Simpsons in 1990. He appeared on The Late Show
with Stephen Colbert to discuss the return of his IFC show Brockmire, and
addressed how he believes South Asian and Indian-American writers should be
included in The Simpsons writers room to inform what happens with Apu.
Genuinely informing whatever new direction this character may take,
including how it is voiced, or not voiced, you know. 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 and it just it not only makes sense but it just feels like
the right thing to do to me. Now, Apu has been offensive as a stereotype to many
Indian-Americans since his character first began in 1990. It's just that the
world was a different place back then and we didn't have these frequent
discussions about race and representation, so it was pretty easy for
the mostly white male Simpsons writers room to ignore. The issue was made much
more pressing with the release of Hari Kondabolu's documentary "The Problem With
Apu", which used the character to start a discussion about the lack of
representation of South Asian characters in film and television.
Right away they were like can you do an Indian voice and how offensive can you
make it? I immediately began to talk this way. It's not
tremendously accurate, it's a little sterotype. Like, nah. It's all right. They want the accent to sound like this and
they want your tongue to be really pulled back. The Simpsons itself eventually addressed the
controversy in a recent episode. What am I supposed to do? It's hard to say.
Something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive is now
politically incorrect. What can you do? Some things will be dealt with at a
later date. If at all. And if you didn't catch it, Lisa looks at a picture of Apu
on her bedside table which says, "Don't Have A Cow" on it. Kondabolu was not
pleased with that response. He tweeted: "Wow. Politically Incorrect? That's the
takeaway from my movie & the discussion it sparked? Man, I really loved
this show. This is sad." And: "In 'The Problem with Apu,' I used Apu and The
Simpsons as an entry point into a larger conversation about the representation of
marginalized groups and why this is important.
The Simpsons response tonight is not a jab at me, but at what many of us
consider progress." But others including comedian Bill Maher, says there's no use
getting offended by things from 30 years ago that the creators didn't know would
be offensive. But aren't we adult enough to separate what we like about an old
movie from what we don't? We can watch Big as a movie about a kid who becomes
an adult and not as a movie about a grown woman who f*cked a12-year-old. But Azaria
now seems to be on Kondabolu's side. He said he's opened his eyes to the
matter and doesn't seem to be thrilled with how The Simpsons responded. I think
that if anybody came away from that segment feeling that they should lighten
up or take a joke better or grow a thicker skin or... that's what people said
like like we'd like we've heard what you said and we were not going to respond.
Yeah, that's certainly not the way I feel about it and that's definitely not the
message that I want to want to send. Current showrunner of The Simpsons
Al Jean hasn't responded to his Azaria's appearance on Colbert yet, though he has
previously retweeted those who've defended their response to the Apu
controversy, including those who've insulted Kondabolu by name. He also
tweeted on April 13th: "I truly appreciate all responses pro and con. Will continue
to try to find an answer that is popular & more important right." After
Azaria's interview on The Late Show, Kondabolu tweeted: "Thank you, @HankAzaria.
I appreciate what you said & how you said it."
Radio host Chris Stigall commented: "Krusty is Jewish, Groundskeeper Willie is
Scottish, Reverend Lovejoy and Ned Flanders are Christians,
Cletus is a hick...could go on and on. All stereotypes, just like Apu. This is so
stupid." And @vasectomysaurus tweeted: "love how the Apu Defense Squad
can simultaneously be like 'it's just a show, find something important to be mad
about' and also 'I'll be so fucking mad if you change this show
even a little." I don't know. I think that it's a very interesting conversation to
be had, it needs to be had, and I do think that if the writers room is not fully
represented, then that is something that has to happen, but I'm not sure where we
draw the line with comedy. Obviously in comedy there's so much more
to it than just making jokes at the expense of other people. That doesn't
always have to happen, but on some level is there a way to kind of make fun of
how we are without being offensive? What do you guys think the Simpsons should do
with Apu? Let us know in the comments and for more trends head to
whatstrending.com.