Advance Review: The Problem with Apu

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When you make a documentary, you have to put a journalism hat on. When you’re a comedian trying to make a documentary, it can be VERY tricky to understand the conventions that allow you to do both.

In The Problem with Apu, Hari Kondabolu asks a challenging question. Is the beloved character from The Simpsons known as Apu Nahasapeemapetilon a racist depiction of a South Asian immigrant? I have an opinion on that, and you’re gonna hear about it in another article. But for now, I want to take a look at The Problem with Apu at face value and inform you whether or not it’s an entertaining 50 minutes.

And I’m happy to say it is. As mentioned, the film is produced and stars Hari Kondabolu, a comedian with more of a political commentary flavor to his act who travels all over the world with an ax to grind against the depiction of Apu in The Simpsons. Hari notes that he, along with a sample of well-known South Asian actors and actresses like Aziz Ansari, Aasif Mandvi, Kal Penn, and more, have more or less been tortured by comparisons to the famed character and are possibly even more annoyed by the fact that Apu is voiced by longtime “man of a 1000 voices” Hank Azaria.

At its core, the movie can’t be taken seriously as a serious journalistic endeavor, mainly because a lot of the inspiration for the movie comes from hearsay noting LOTS of people have shared similar complaints with Hari Kondabolu but with no real verifiable data to back it up and a lot of times offers up contradictory insight to the message he’s trying to get across. For example, for expertise on The Simpsons, Hari makes the mistake of the first chapter of journalism 101 by not checking his sources and instead features literal douchetard John Ortved who wrote the book The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History, a book that ironically has a lot of the same issues as The Problem with Apu, initial chapters with fun insight that then leads to the final chapters being about how The Simpsons isn’t funny anymore which is actually how Hari ends his movie-with an opinion-which is really what this whole movie is. Even more ironic is that the film kicks off with Hari giving a glowing review of The Simpsons. So which is it, Hari? Do you like The Simpsons or not?

If you’re gonna make a movie or a book on an opinion, that’s fine, we live in a free country and you’re allowed to broadcast your opinions as such. But, at the end of the day, The Problem with Apu is like reading a clickbait article on the subject. You click on a link to an article you hope to find valid insight and opinion on a subject matter, but with no real data and just other peoples’ opinions to back it up, the author of the movie really just picks a side of the growing “PC culture” that is slowly eroding at the seams of American pop culture, and makes a movie that would adhere to that audience, one that fears free speech but doesn’t actually do anything to change anyone’s mind, just instead filing a complaint.

In fact, I think my favorite part of this movie is when Hari interviews his parents. Hari’s mother, to kick off her conversation with her own son, notes that he bears a resemblance to Apu and right away Hari gets a bit defensive. And that’s a lot of what The Problem with Apu is, a small sampling of people expressing their distaste of which a South Asian character in The Simpsons is portrayed. Okay fine. But, then to claim that the producers of the show or voices for the show are racists is a stretch and Hari does a lot of finger pointing but with not a lot of substance to justify his claims. If anything, the doc feels more like a long-winded bit of The Daily Show than a real magnifying glass on racism in pop culture.

 Here’s the thing, if someone has been butthurt by a Simpsons character for 28 years that features a negative depiction of a South Asian character, the end result is going to have a very biased and skewed opinion on the subject. Unfortunately, what Hari exhibits, is a doc that showcases how art that is a reflection of the society we live in. While never confirmed, Matt Groening offers up a lot of autobiographical points for The Simpsons that were inspired by his upbringing. All of the characters, the setting, probably the layout of the neighborhood, were probably very much from Matt’s brain of how he remembered his surroundings as a kid. Apu is Hank Azaria’s experience with going to a local convenience store. It doesn’t necessarily mean that there was a racist motivation to denigrate a class of people. As a matter of fact, Hari actually credits the writers of The Simpsons’ first 10 seasons noting the last time the series was any good, certainly a sideswipe comment in the face of the writers that have come on the show for the following 20 seasons, all with different ethnic backgrounds and upbringings and ideas, like the idea to bring on Utkarsh Ambudkar, who a couple of seasons ago was a guest star on the series voicing the role of another South Asian character for the series. Or what does this say about Greg Daniels? A for writer for The Simpsons (who is actually seen in that early writers’ room picture that also had the likes of Conan and Dana Gould), who would later help create King of the Hill, who featured Aasif Mandvi as guest star, and eventually, helped create other shows like Parks and Recs and The Office, both of which ALSO featured the early stylings of Aziz Ansari and Mindy Kaling respectively and both of whom would go on to have wonderful careers.
So The Problem with Apu isn’t really The Simpsons. Maybe the real problem is we are living in a culture that is taking itself too seriously, and as a result, we get a documentary produced by a guy LOOKING for racism in pop culture. Anyone looking for racism, sexism, ageism, is gonna find it in American pop culture, and a lot of the time, those ‘isms’ are misconstrued at poking fun at stereotypes of which no one, not even you or me, is safe from. But, maybe if you’re someone LOOKING for an entertaining 22 minutes to help rid yourself of a mundane 40 hour a week work week, well, you’re gonna find way more of those people than you are of people looking for racism in an animated series.
To succinctly put it. Imagine, if you will, 57 minutes of watching  Hari Kondabolu using a gold sifter to sift through the sands of The Simpsons so that he may locate that piece of gold that says, “Ah-HA! See? FOUND THE RACIST GOLD!! WHOOO!!!”. What Hari actually comes up with, is iron pyrite. Fortunately, the actual act of doing said gold sifting is fun, but the end result doesn’t leave much in terms of actual substance.
That said, at least we got to see some of Rohitash Rao’s animated pilot Rancho Cucamonga which looked really funny and I hope Rohitash is shopping it elsewhere.
 
Score
6/10

About John Schwarz

John is the Chief Editor and Founder of Bubbleblabber.com. While at first a part-time project, Bubbleblabber quickly grew into a full-fledged operation and officially became a company in 2014. When John isn't running a business full-time, he likes to go to concerts with your mother.