Is Apu leaving The Simpsons for good after longstanding controversy?
Speaking in a new interview with IndieWire, producer Adi Shankar (who has been crowd-sourcing a spec script in hopes of transforming the character into a better representation of Indian-Americans) made it clear that he has been told be show sources that Apu will be going to the way of the dodo. Yet, they aren’t going to make a big deal out of it:
They aren’t going to make a big deal out of it or anything like that, but they’ll drop him altogether just to avoid the controversy.
There has been criticism over the depiction of Apu as an Indian-American caricature for a rather long time, but most of it was amplified by comedian Hari Kondabolu and his The Problem with Apu, which looked into the problems with the character and the difficulties that the character presented for real Indian-Americans. If the only person with this background a viewer of The Simpsons encounters in their lives is Apu, that’s a generalization that could stick with them — and that’s troublesome, especially since the character is not even voiced by a South Asian performer.
Hank Azaria had already stated that he had no problem stepping down so someone else could voice the character, and this seemed to be the right way to go about things — bring in a new character and transform Apu into something more than what he was. Eliminating him altogether seems almost more like you are just pointing the finger at the critics and blaming them rather than putting forth any real work to change the character and improve them on your own.
In the end, we’ll see what The Simpsons are doing; the only official response executive producer Al Jean has given is a cryptic one saying that Apu was recently featured in an episode a little bit earlier this month.
What do you think: Is writing out Apu the right move for The Simpsons overall, or a totally misguided idea? Share in the comments. (Photo: Fox.)