If You Really Know The Simpsons, You Know Apu is Wrong.
For comedy nerds, there’s a specific euphoria over being the one who “gets” the reference. Growing up watching The Simpsons as a kid, there seemed to be two types of fan — the encyclopedic quote fan and the rest of us. Being honest, I fell into the latter. As the pretentious film nerd in my friends circle, I found watching the show at times frustrating. The same friends who would mock me for watching “old movies”, would the next second be laughing at an homage to One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest.
“But you don’t even get the joke.” I would argue.
It’s at this point in the story, that you’ll be shocked to learn, I grew up to be the type of person who writes medium articles.
But that’s the genius of The Simpsons — it’s a layered comedy that works on multiple levels. Some will get the satirical reference, while others will just laugh at what appears to be a non-sequitur. Either way, everyone is laughing.
But that layered enjoyment has helped justify a satirical defense of a cartoon stereotype when it should in face do the opposite. And there’s a new documentary out that is taking on that comedic reality head on.
One of my least favourite things these days is when folks defend something deemed ignorant with “it’s just a joke”. I’m not sure at what point in the 80’s, comedy writers agreed upon this “home base” in debate tag, but it’s run its course.
Because if it’s good joke, it can’t be “just a joke”. It should be something you wrote, maybe even re-wrote or at least thought about. Otherwise, we should just give every jackass who can throw away a sarcastic comment on twitter a sitcom.
Assuming you’re like me and don’t want to see that happen (again) — it’s time to do something nobody in comedy loves to do — treat comedy seriously.
And life long Simpsons fan and comedian Hari Kondabolu has set off a conversation that does just that with his new documentary for TruTv titled “The Problem with Apu”.
If you don’t know of his work, here’s a great example of why Hari is one of the most intelligent and hilarious comedy minds working today.
“The Problem With Apu” dares to touch two third rails of comedy. The first being, it treats comedy like an art form that actually has consequences to its actions. The second? Taking on The Simpsons. And that idea for a whole generation feels like flat out blasphemy.
Which is why it’s not surprising that some comedy fans online are just not ready for this conversation. When I began tweeting my excitement for this film, I got this typical style of response.
As Kondabolu’s press tour for the film rolls along, there’s been a choir of internet voices who wish to chalk Apu Nahasapeemapetilon up to “IT’S JUST A JOKE”. Kondabolu clearly saw this coming and wisely baked in a response to the expected trolling directly into his trailer.
Full disclosure — I have yet to see the film that premieres Sunday. So this isn’t going to be a defense of the film — as much as a defense of its premise.
And for me there’s no doubt that this conversation has been a long time coming for myself and the rest of the Caucasian viewership of Springfield’s favourite family.
In reality this piece could be six words long “Apu is sadly a racist stereotype”.
But I’m going to move beyond the fact that an Indian convenience store owner with an extra long last name, eight kids and a catchphrase like “thank you, come again” is a little Poochie meets racism.
Instead what we’re going to do is go full Simpsons meta and give my main critique of the main critique’s, main critique.
Meanwhile back on twitter.
The main critique from folks on social media around the interviews promoting “The Problem with Apu” boils down to this.
Err, I mean this.
“The Simpsons is an equal opportunity offender”.
And that’s why today, we’re going to talk about how not all satire is equal even within the Simpsons universe.
(If you don’t read everything I do already in the voice of the comic book guy — you can start now)
To understand Apu, it helps to understand Homer.
Folks love to point out online — that Homer is a satire of dumb, lazy, white Americans. Well, kinda.
While Homer’s origin is rooted in real life American dads (creator Matt Groening’s and that of actor Dan Castellaneta) It’s also based on the consumption of decades of television representation of white American men — created by white American men. When Jackie Gleason created one of the most famous and beloved sitcoms of the time — The Honeymooners, he helped to cement the archetypal husband trope that many successful sitcoms would continue to use for decades to come.
The “Ralph Kramden” model of tv husband has been done so many times it almost began to feel wrong, if a husband wasn’t a big dope.
But it’s important to note that this is self-representation. Decades of funny Caucasian men, brought ‘the lovable jerk complete with the smarter, beautiful wife’ into the living rooms of millions. Of course, the whole nature of that husband and wife relationship within that model is a whole other Medium essay.
But the difference between representation and self representation is important when we talk about The Simpsons, because satirizing North American pop culture isn’t directly satirizing the culture of “white American men”. Because at its core, the satire of Americana is itself drawing from decades of representation within pop culture. You can easily draw a direct line between Archie Bunker and the current President of United States — but either way it’s clear what the predominant culture is.
Quick Obvious Reminder: Homer Simpson is voiced by fellow Caucasian American man Dan Castellaneta.
And representation in pop culture is where the character of Apu has had such a negative impact — because it became American pop culture’s most known representation of Indian culture.
Kondabolu celebrated the 2012 launch of Mindy Kaling’s “The Mindy Project” on Fox with a rant about the lack of Indian representation in television. It was within this rant that Kondabolu described the voice of Apu as “a white guy doing an impression of a white guy making fun of my father.”
That white man is Hank Azaria. Not only does Azaria voice Apu (as well as Apu’s cousin Kavi) but he’s won an Emmy for the portrayal. That becomes an even harder pill to swallow, considering this is how Azaria has explained the origin of character.
“Right away they were like ‘Can you do an Indian accent and how offensive can you make it?’ basically. I was like, ‘It’s not tremendously accurate. It’s a little, uh, stereotype,’ and they were like, ‘Eh, that’s all right.’” — Hank Azaria in a 2007 Radio Interview
After Kondabolu’s rant on W. Kamau Bell’s brilliant series “Totally Biased” went viral in 2012, Azaria finally began to get questions about the issue.
“If the only representation of Jews in our culture was Robin Williams’ impression of a Yiddish guy, I guess I might be upset with that too” — Hank Azaria
In his film, Kondabolu ponders if Apu falls into the long American traditional of the minstrel show. And if your first reaction was to eye roll, you might want to watch the 2014 “Simpsons Take The Bowl” concert where Azaria throws on Apu’s famous Kwik-E-Mart garb and performs as his Emmy nominated song live.
Much Apu About Nothing?
Right from the beginning, the character of Apu was going to be controversial. In fact you can’t even get past the name without hitting a problem. Half of the name is a pop culture homage, while the other half is a stereotypical punchline. The extra long sounding Nahasapeemapetilon is due to it being a spoonerism of two real names. Pahasanee Mapetilon was a former classmate of then Simpsons writer Jeff Martin.
Matt Groening has said Apu’s first name is an homage to the series of three Indian films known as the “Apu Trilogy” directed by Satyajit Ray. (Pather Panchali (1955), Aparajito (1956) and The World of Apu (1959))
Of course the homage might feel a little less shallow, if it wasn’t for the drawing , occupation — and of course the voice.
Azaria has claimed two main inspirations for the voice over the years. The first being a particularly anal 7/11 clerk in Los Angeles that took issue with Azaria’s patronage habits. The actor claims part of the way he takes out frustration with folks, is to impersonate them.
The second is the character Hrundi V. Bakshi from the Blake Edwards film “The Party”. Bakshi was played by British actor Peter Sellers in brown-face.
And that’s where the Satyajit Ray homage gets more than a tad awkward. According to Hollywood lore, Ray was considering working with Sellers, and came to the set of The Party and was less than impressed.
Despite the cringe-worthy brownface gag, The Party has cult status with American comedy fans. Not to mention, many American comedy writers working in the 1980’s who grew up with it, consider it to be one of the best exercises in improv ever captured on film. But it’s important to remember this origin, as we move forward.
Because as Apu’s story lines grew, sadly the representation did not. Over the years, two different white actresses have voiced his wife Manjula.
And when they went to cast Apu’s mother — they chose SCTV alum Andrea Martin. Martin based her accent by listening to tapes of Azaria’s accent. And the results are quite… well, something.
Apu’s father and brother are played by fellow Simpsons cast member Harry Shearer. His niece is also handled by two different members of the Simpsons inner character circle.
In fact the only time anyone actually South Asian had been involved with the plot lines is when an Indian singing group was hired to play a Simpsons fave — a cover of the Carpenter’s Close to You near the end of the episode “The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons”
And throughout the Simpsons you get the feeling, whether it’s music (Ravi Shankar was who did the score for the Apu trilogy) or the art work within Apu’s story lines — that most of The Simpsons’ knowledge of Indian culture is really just six degrees of Beatlemania.
But after a generation of South Asian folks began getting a foot in the door in media and comedy — the conversation of Apu began to get louder. After Mindy Kaling’s show launched successfully on Fox, Kondabolu’s rant found it’s zeitgeist moment. The conversation about Apu began to take on a new tone.
When entertainment writers found out that Mindy Project actor Utkarsh Ambudkar would be taking on a role in “Much Apu About Something”; many wondered if Apu’s days were numbered. The episode however, turned out to be just a one off with Ambudkar playing Apu’s obnoxious millennial nephew “Jay”.
The casting of Utkarsh Ambudkar at first seemed like a Simpsons writing room admission of guilt. After all Ambudkar was one of the many South Asian actors who spoke out against the character. Perhaps of equal importance, he had also spent the past few years co-starring on a half hour comedy on Fox led by a South Asian woman.
“It totally fucked with my childhood”
Utkarsh Ambudkar on being called “Slushy Boy” and dealing with the fallout of Apu.
The writer of “Much Apu About Something” was 59 year old Michael Price (not South Asian). Price had been a long time Simpsons writer and who recently co-created “F is For Family” with outspoken anti-political correctness crusader Bill Burr. Price’s credits also include an animated film for Jeff Dunham “Achmed Saves America” who himself is no stranger to stereotypes and racial call outs from critics.
Whether you see the episode itself as an attempt to make amends or to offer a defense of an almost three decade long stereotype, probably comes down to where you fall on the issue in general. To me the episodes message felt closer to the usual snark on Millennials, than anything approaching a greater understanding of the satirical sins of Apu.
But nevertheless an actual South Asian voicing a Nahasapeemapetilon was a much needed Simpsons first.
And though Hank Azaria is more apologetic than ever about the character, he still stands behind the Simpsons main line of defense. That at heart, they are equal opportunity offenders.
Where fans and Azaria may feel this is the strongest defense of the portrayal of Apu, I do not. In fact, I think the “equal opportunity offender” line is actually the Achilles heel of defending the character. And that’s because — not all cultural stereotypes on The Simpsons are handled the same way.
The Case Against “We’re Equal Opportunity Satire”
Below is Harry Shearer, he’s one of the more important cult comedic figures of the 20th Century, from Spinal Tap to various Christopher Guest films and finally the voice of Apu’s dad and brother. He also voices Dr. Julius Hibbert.
Once again, representation in television comes into play. When Dr. Hibbert was created, The Cosby Show was one of the most popular shows on television. Hibbert of course is a take on Bill Cosby’s character of Dr. Cliff Huxtable. The Simpsons based him after Huxtable as an in joke when Fox moved The Simpsons time slot to go directly against the Cosby Show. That being said, I’m not suggesting it excuses the vocal whitewashing. Especially when you come up with comedy bits like Shearer belting out Old Man River for the lolz.
But before your eyes roll out of your head entirely. It’s not just my millennial woke take that is suggesting this. Within the Simpsons universe, they seem to be uncomfortable by having white actors play certain African Americans (Not Carl). When the writers took on the idea of having an African American blues musician be a Springfield resident — they didn’t let one of the inner circle handle it.
Bleeding Gums Murphy is voiced by two African-Americans. Ron Taylor does the speaking voice while Daryl L. Coley handles the singing. And once again the pop culture references are a plenty. The Simpsons use various blues references throughout, including an homage to Sonny Rollins famous Williamsberg bridge secret solo concerts, and name dropping Billie Holiday.
The popular episode where Murphy passes away is entitled “‘Round Springfield” a take on a Thelonious Monk album ‘Round Midnight. The blues is a rich African-American art form, and it was clear the Simpsons writers treated it with some depth and affection. Though they weren’t helping their whitewashing cause by ending on a Carole King jam — but I digress. The folks behind the Simpsons, realized to handle this aspect of American culture and subject matter, they couldn’t let Harry Shearer belt out Howlin’ Wolf.
The fact that the Simpsons decided this character needed a bit of authenticity as opposed to others, says a lot about the lens of racism in America. It also shows the blind spot of white artists who at times respect the artistic culture of other artists, more than the actual culture of the artist themselves. But when it comes to Apu, it shows us that there was indeed a line, the Simpsons weren’t willing to cross when it came to cultural satire via white voices. But that line was drawn somewhere in America.
Which brings us to Scotland.
Maybe the most frequent defense of the Simpsons use of stereotype is Scottish stereotype on steroids Groundskeeper Willie.
But that character too is a reference of previous pop cultural representation in North American pop culture. Though Willie is voiced by non-Scot Dan Castellaneta, the voice was inspired by two Scottish sources. The first being SCTV character Angus Crock played by Dave Thomas. Thomas’ mother was born in Scotland and met his Welsh father there while he was at school.
Willie is also partly based on James Finlayson who was the Scottish-American actor known for being the foil to comedy legends Laurel and Hardy.
And their love of the famous Scot doesn’t end there. He is also the inspiration behind Homer’s famous “D’Oh”.
Speaking of Willie, an inspiration for another Simpsons character was organic as well. One of the most loved genres in American cinema is that of American Crime. And it was only a matter of time before Springfield got a satirical Godfather.
Fat Tony’s first appearance is in 1991’s “Bart the Murderer” and he is voiced by Italian-American actor Joe Mantegna (fresh off playing Joey Zasa in 1990's The Godfather: Part III). Mantegna based the voice on his own Uncle Willy and the rest is Springfield history. Fat Tony’s episodes are filled with various homage to American Crime films like the Godfather, Goodfellas, Scarface and later on the Sopranos.
While it’s true that Apu isn’t the only Simpsons only sin of stereotype, he has been the most popular with their writers and the public. But diving into even the smallest Simpsons’ regulars finds a deeper pattern of reference than Apu.
Even a character like Luigi Risotto who was used as a gag, to double down on the equal opportunity stereotype idea in “Much Apu About Something” ; has roots in video game heroes the Super Mario Bros. and classic Disney films like Lady and The Tramp.
The Bumblebee man is based on the writers room binge watching Telemundo and stumbling upon the character of real life Mexican television comedian Roberto Gómez Bolaños. His character was known as “The Red Grasshopper” or El Chapulín Colorado.
I’m not here to argue the level of offensiveness that each character may give to the corresponding community. But what I am saying is each of these representations is rooted within North American pop culture — where Apu plainly isn’t.
If it was “just a joke”, I wouldn’t be able to give you references dating back to the classic age of Hollywood to back up some of these characters. If they truly stood by the “equal opportunity offender” defense, Bleeding Gums Murphy would’ve been played by Phil Hartman.
Why the Apu conversation, is even a conversation is not because the Simpsons is a hack show, it’s because it’s been such an intelligent one.
The Simpsons is a pop culture classic in part because of how brilliant their use of homage is. When the series is at its best, there is an encyclopedic referencing to American culture woven into original story lines. It’s at the core of why comedy snobs argue against Family Guy and hold up The Simpsons as the gold standard of adult cartoons.
Part of the reason for those rich and layered references, is due to a highly educated writers room that grew up as pop culture nerds themselves. They’ve even been a Simpsons reference at various times.
And that’s why Apu really sticks out — because we know they know better but can’t be bothered. His character lacks the depth of reference and pop culture history. If you search YouTube for “Simpsons references” you’ll find hours of fan supercuts showcasing their frequent use of homage.
But there is no canon of South Asian characters within North American pop culture where they are drawing their homage or their satire of South Asian culture from.
At the end of the day Apu is merely a cultural stereotype, and that’s why it stings.
Even if you’re the cynical comedy writer of the “if it lands, it’s funny” belief, and don’t want to listen to a generation of South Asian kids all grown up — how about the gag writing?
The Simpsons writing around Indian culture always tends to be less than inspired.
In Kiss, Kiss Bang Bangalore — they incorrectly have the Taj Mahal in Bangalore, while the river that runs behind it is referenced as the Ganges. For you geography geeks, that would be the Yamuna river in the city of Agra.
Even in the popular episode “Homer and Apu” the pop cultural reference chosen is Lawrence of Arabia — because reference?
The arranged marriage aspect in the previously mentioned “The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons” is also a clunky mess that isn’t rooted in any culture per se. In an interview with the BBC Kondabolu explained the issue like this.
“He’s defined almost entirely by his job. But he also happens to have eight kids, a joke about India having so many people, and he has an arranged marriage via this weird matchmaking system that’s almost like football draft picks.”
— Hari Kondabolu via BBC Culture’s “The Simpsons’ Apu: A Stereotype Hiding in Plain Sight”
And it’s hard to imagine a South Asian writer — penning “if only that dot on your forehead was an off button” like in “Moe Better Blues”.
Or this Treehouse of Horror episode “The Most Dangerous Game” where Mr. Burns throws away the line “I smell fear mixed with curry” before Apu jumps out to be shot only then to become reincarnated and to die again.
Now read this recap of the scene from Kondabolu’s perspective during a recent A.V. Club interview.
I was watching this episode where Mr. Burns goes people-hunting — it was a Treehouse Of Horror episode. And the premise is funny: This is what happens when you’re a rich maniac with no perspective and you need the next thing. “How far can I go? What does my privilege get me?”This was a couple of weeks ago — me and my brother were watching the FXX reruns — and all of the sudden, Burns says something to the effect of “I smell a mix of fear and curry,” and all of the sudden Apu pops up. I’m like, “Fuck! Really? Did you go back in time and ask my sixth-grade bully to write that line?” That’s not good writing — as a comedian I’m offended. And second, that’s just stupid. That’s so basic, that’s so old. And it doesn’t feel like The Simpsons I know. And that takes you out of it. You’re immediately like, “Oh, right. This wasn’t written for me. This was written by non-South Asians. Probably white guys. That’s when you have to put it aside and watch the rest of the episode. You also know, especially when I was in high school, “Oh, that’s going to be brought up. Somebody’s quoting The Simpsons and that’s showing up.”
- Hari Kondabolu On Loving the Simpsons But Hating Apu (And Making a Movie About It) by Erik Adams
If The Simpsons truly are equally opportunity satirists — it’s clear that Apu is getting the short end of the stick.
The character is offensive not because of some sort of new Millennial SJW search for political correctness in everything, but because the character lacks the depth within the Simpsons universe. Having a South Asian person voice the character or be on the writing staff, could have given Apu’s satire a pop cultural depth, which it lacks.
When a culture isn’t represented in your own pop culture and you use stereotypes to create one — you create something harmful whether that was your intent or not.
And that is sadly why this documentary is full of South Asian comedians, actors and entertainers talking about how it’s affected them growing up. It’s long past the time The Simpsons truly listen.
As The Simpsons gets set to pass Gunsmoke as the longest running scripted show of all time — it fights against critiques that its most relevant days are behind them. But what better way to enter the new global digital era than to keep opening up the writers room up to those who have a new perspective to give on pop culture. Representation isn’t just a buzz word, it’s something that makes story lines, plots and yes — even references have more depth.
And the show that gave us this Fit-Fat Tony exposition should have no trouble pivoting to give South Asians a more intelligent satire of modern American culture, without leaving a hole in Springfield.
So, before you dismiss Hari Kondabolu as just another offended snowflake, perhaps you should think about why you really like The Simpsons to begin with. Is it because they random fire references without depth like Family Guy? Is it because they always run with the first joke that comes into your head? I’m guessing it’s not.
The Simpsons still has the time and ability to correct their mistake and make that Satyajit Ray reference worthy.
And that’s just one of the reasons why “The Problem With Apu” is worth our attention this weekend. Real representation is a conversation that needs a push in comedy moving forward — in live action shows and in our beloved yellow cartoon universes.
And that’s the tooth!
