{"id":24065,"date":"2018-10-31T17:00:30","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T17:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/?p=24065"},"modified":"2018-10-31T17:00:30","modified_gmt":"2018-10-31T17:00:30","slug":"come-again-the-simpsons-to-say-goodbye-to-controversial-character-apu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/come-again-the-simpsons-to-say-goodbye-to-controversial-character-apu\/","title":{"rendered":"Come Again? The Simpsons to say goodbye to controversial character Apu"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The problem with Apu is finally being addressed, as the Simpsons discuss removing the character to stop controversy.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The fictional Kwik-E-Mart store owner Apu Nahasapeemapetilon was brought into question in the 2017 documentary called \u201cThe Problem with Apu\u201d written and directed by Hari Kondabolu. The documentary questioned the use of a white actor to voice the \u201cstereotypical Indian accent;\u201d Hank Azaria, the voice of Apu quoted in the Guardian at a table read. Kondabolu said to SF Weekly, \u201cThe punch line to every joke is he\u2019s Indian. I mean, how many jokes do I need to hear about multi-armed gods and arranged marriages and how many people there are in India?\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Cannot believe Matt Groening has caved to the pc brigade and is cutting Apu! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Pani3MmyD3\">pic.twitter.com\/Pani3MmyD3<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; David Morris (@barneyboos) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/barneyboos\/status\/1057647982382927872?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 31, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Rival of the Simpsons, South Park addressed the debate in an episode titled \u201cThe Problem with a Poo.\u201d In the episode two characters make the message clear when they say, \u201cHe&#8217;ll have to find a place that accepts racist awful beings like him. There are still places out there that don&#8217;t care about bigotry and hate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Simpsons writer Matt Groening, who declined to address the documentary, referenced the ongoing controversy in a recent episode when Lisa states,\u201cSomething that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive is now politically incorrect. What can you do?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The issue has sparked debate on Twitter with many users citing other characters based on stereotypes. The Simpsons have noted at this previously in the episode \u201cTeam Homer\u201d in which another bowling team call themselves \u201cThe Stereotypes.\u201d In the episode Apu refuses to join the team made up of the Scottish Groundskeeper, the Italian pizza chef, the Sea Captain and the Redneck.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/lowgster09\/status\/1057654152833257475<\/p>\n<p>Twitter users debated on the ways the character of Apu could be improved rather than removing the character completely.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Apu: \u201cI learned long ago, Lisa, to tolerate others rather than forcing my beliefs on them. You know you can influence people without badgering them always.\u201d Apu\u2019s wisdom lost on the easily outraged. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Xap6E9sEBS\">https:\/\/t.co\/Xap6E9sEBS<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Rita Panahi (@RitaPanahi) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RitaPanahi\/status\/1057242051819929600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 30, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Words: Fiona Patterson<\/p>\n<p>Subbing: Sorcha Gilheaney<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The problem with Apu is finally being addressed, as the Simpsons discuss removing the character to stop controversy. The fictional Kwik-E-Mart store owner Apu Nahasapeemapetilon was brought into question in the 2017 documentary called \u201cThe&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":476,"featured_media":24070,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,93,101,106,145],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activism","category-news","category-politics","category-religion","category-worldnews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/476"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}