The New York Times takes cartoons very seriously, criticizing the long-running Fox comedy The Simpsons for its humorous stereotyping of Indian convenience-store owner Apu. Sopan Deb has the latest on the gripping saga of a humorless comedian who made a documentary, “The Problem With Apu,” attacking The Simpsons for its purportedly racist portrayal. (Not all Simpsons stereotypes are equally criticized by the Times -- more on that later.)
The show itself nodded toward the “controversy” in Sunday night’s episode, and Deb was aggrieved on behalf of the now-even-more-offended anti-Apu comedian, Hari Kondabolu: “A ‘Simpsons’ Response To Criticism Over Race.” The online headline was harder on the show: “‘The Simpsons’ Responds to Criticism About Apu With a Dismissal.”
On Sunday night, “The Simpsons,” a cultural staple and television’s longest-running sitcom, now in its 29th season, finally responded: with a dismissive nod that earned the show more criticism, especially from Mr. Kondabolu himself. The episode, titled “No Good Read Goes Unpunished,” featured a scene with Marge Simpson sitting in bed with her daughter Lisa, reading a book called “The Princess in the Garden,” and attempting to make it inoffensive for 2018.
At one point, Lisa turns to directly address the TV audience and says, “Something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive is now politically incorrect. What can you do?” The shot then pans to a framed picture of Apu at the bedside with the line, “Don’t have a cow!” inscribed on it.
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The writers of the episode -- one of whom was Matt Groening, the show’s creator -- received immediate backlash. Some viewers found the response tone deaf, and criticized the choice of Lisa, often the show’s moral center, to voice it. (And not to mention: “Don’t have a cow!” could be interpreted as a jab at Apu’s Hinduism.)
Reporter Robert Ito also took it all too seriously in his November 2017 report on the documentary’s release under the moralizing headline, “You Love ‘The Simpsons’? Then Let’s Talk About Apu.” Ito explained:
The brainchild of the actor and standup comic Hari Kondabolu, a lifelong lover of “The Simpsons,” the film wrestles with how a show praised for its incisive humor -- over the years, it has explored issues like homophobia and political corruption -- could resort to such a charged stereotype. Making matters worse is the fact that the Indian character is voiced by a non-Indian (albeit an Emmy-winning) actor, Hank Azaria.
Apu is far from a negative stereotype – as many have pointed out, he’s portrayed in the show as a hard-working, educated family man. He is also a fictional character in a cartoon, though you wouldn't know it from the paper's overwrought response.
Ito ridiculously tried to make Watergate out of the process of how jokes come into being, which is pretty deadly for humor:
Still unclear is who originally pushed for Apu’s broad accent. Was Mr. Azaria asked by producers “how offensive can you make it,” as he claimed in that earlier interview? Or did he come up with the accent unprompted, as the “Simpsons” writer Mike Reiss said in a 2016 podcast?
The Times didn’t give Joe Biden this hard of a time when he made a dumb observation about 7-11’s and Indian accents -- and he was running for president!
Columnist Jay Greeson of the Chattanooga Free Press had a more complete and sensible view:
There's Groundskeeper Willie, Fat Tony and Bumblebee Man among those as stereotypes of other nationalities....if everyone is the subject of satire, then it's logical to believe that no one is being mocked, correct? If everyone is a stereotypical caricature, then is anyone truly being singled out?
