Op-Ed: How Lilly Singh’s Guest Appearance On “The Simpsons” Disproves “The Problem With Apu”

 

 

 

In the midst of an international pandemic, the one-time groans of hard-left political correctness has certainly subsided as it pertains to the entertainment industry. Personally, I think we’re maybe in the eye of the hurricane, because as history suggests, freedom of speech is an extremist-bipartisan issue, one that has seen it’s fair share of battles on both sides of the political aisle.

Under the radar,  comedian Hari Kondabolu has slowly continued to walk back claims made against The Simpsons that “Apu” is a racist stereotype. Before I tee up his recent interview with Salon.com, note the publication doing the interview continues it’s years-long tradition of never getting facts straight which, a couple of years ago, came to a head when the publication posted an article from RFK Jr. called Deadly Immunity that seemed to insinuate that vaccines cause autism, therefore strengthening yet another social argument against the science rather than the facts. So, when Salon.com says that The Problem with Apu was critically acclaimed, take it with a grain of salt, because the truTV documentary was anything but.

In any event, Hari comments on Hank Azaria’s recent decision to stop voicing “Apu” on The Simpsons: 

Hank Azaria said he’d stop doing the voice, and someone else, hopefully a South Asian, does it. The documentary to me wasn’t about that. When I made the documentary it was like three, four years ago. The show had already been out over 25 years. It wasn’t even relevant the way it had been before. To me, I couldn’t make the documentary when I was 7, otherwise it would have been a bit more timely. It was to tell a story that had been ignored for decades, to hear a perspective of a community that hadn’t been heard, especially during a time when everyone’s talking about representation and progress. It’s funny to see this thing which is a relic of another time and a caricature that was grandfathered in. I think it’d be interesting to analyze that because “The Simpsons” isn’t just a show, it’s an institution in this country.

This past weekend, we got to see a completely different take on The Problem with Apu argument, but in a completely different way. It came in the form of Lilly Singh who, like Hari, is a second generation comedian of South Asian decent, guest-starring as “Kensey”. And talk about excited, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a reaction like this one before from Lilly from when she was told that she had landed a dream gig of hers, one in which she had written on her vision board as she was first embarking on her quest for show business stardom. Look at how happy she is!

Does that look like the face of an ethnic background marginalized by The Simpsons? Not to me. And Lilly was excellent in her guest-role and I hope there are many more to come down the road. Irregardless, the guest appearance, and Lilly’s deafening excitement and life-long goal to acquire this guest appearance, are a good indicator that Hari’s dogmatic viewpoints are subjective and certainly not a fair representation of the overall attitude of South Asians towards The Simpsons. 

The Problem with Apu argument now becomes a failed one. Yes, there were casualties, Hank Azaria among them, but overtime the healing will continue and The Simpsons will continue to thrive.

The Simpsons is all-new this Sunday Night on FOX @ 8pm ET/PT, check your local listings.