The “wholesome” all-American cartoon that we all grew up with is under fire for its history of derogatory stereotypes revolving around a problematic supporting character. The character Apu Nahasapeemapetilon is a South Asian man, played by American actor Hank Azaria. As if this wasn’t problematic enough, Azaria does the voice of Apu using a highly offensive, inappropriate and dramatized accent. To make matters even worse, Apu is a clerk at Kwik-E-Mart (the show’s version of a 7-Eleven-type convenience store). Apu’s character coincides with every stereotype in the book, from arranged marriages to curry, tikka and vindaloo references.
Courtesy: YouTube
Comedian Hari Kondabolu released a 50-minute documentary titled The Problem with Apu on TruTV. The documentary covers Apu’s character and the way that it reflects the lack of South Asian American representation in the media. Hari interviewed fellow South Asian American comedians and actors regarding their opinion of Apu’s character. For example, actor Kal Penn from Harold and Kumar contributed the following:
Kal Penn (KP): “I hate Apu. . . hate Apu. And because of that, I dislike The Simpsons.”
Hari Kondabolu (HK): “Wow. The whole series?”
KP: “Yup.”
HK: “The whole series? I love The Simpsons, I just don’t love that character.”
KP: “I have never been able to divorce the two.”
Courtesy: IndieWire
Overall, these actors agreed that Apu is a small piece of the puzzle surrounding the lack of South Asian American representation in the media. The bottom line is that, as an underrepresented culture, South Asian Americans are getting a very specific and unflattering image through the Apu character.
Pitch Perfect actor Utkarsh Ambudkar said, “I wonder how many Indian Americans – South Asian Americans – have had to deal with this. This f*****g guy; this ‘Apu.’ This one character created so many problems – psychologically, emotionally – for so many people. They didn’t mean for it to happen. We just were underrepresented, and so we struggled.”
Courtesy: Variety
The documentary is also heavily centralized on Hank Azaria’s role in perpetuating the inappropriate stereotypes. As if it weren’t bad enough to cast a white man to do the voice over of a South Asian man, Azaria “patanks” in his role. “Patanking” is known as the act of speaking English with an inaccurately exaggerated enunciation of an Indian accent. One major criticism of this is that Hank Azaria is a white man who is imitating South Asian culture while hiding behind the mask of a South Asian character. Sound familiar? Hank is essentially doing the cartoon version of dressing in blackface.
The most recent controversy surrounding Apu is in reference to the latest episode of The Simpsons. “No Good Read Goes Unpublished” aired on April 8, 2018, and gave a subtle response to Hari Kondabolu’s documentary. In the episode, Lisa says, “Something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive is now politically incorrect. What can you do?” and longingly glances at a black and white photo of Apu. The writers and producers of the Simpsons have since been under fire on Twitter for this “What can you do?” attitude.
Courtesy: Twitter
The main reason that this is all so problematic is that it reflects a much larger issue: South Asian Americans are being incredibly underrepresented in our society’s world of fame. Although progress has been made with recently acclaimed celebrities like Aziz Ansari, Mindy Kaling and Kal Penn, South Asian Americans still make up an incredibly insignificant fraction of the media. This is the true problem at hand.
From India to Pakistan to Nepal to Sri Lanka, South Asia encompasses such a vast and diverse culture. South Asians are not a stereotype. They are not the society of convenience store clerks and cab drivers that Hollywood paints them out to be. Apu is simply one character in a sea of characters that are further perpetuating these ridiculous stereotypes. There is so much more to the South Asian American culture than we are being exposed to in the media. So why is it that America has painted a one-dimensional image to typecast an entire culture?