“The Problem with Apu” Producer Changes Tune On Baseless Racist Claims Against Character

Well, that was fast.

Comedian Hari Kondabolu is getting a bunch of ink about his documentary The Problem with Apu, a piece all about how “Apu” is a racist depiction of people that live in America with South Asian ancestry. We just wrote a piece about how reaction culture to baseless claims and allegations like these is a dangerous precedent that could ruin entertainment in the future.

As mentioned in the prior article, Hank Azaria and the producers of The Simpsons are discussing the future of “Apu”, but it looks like Hari has come up with an idea. Turns out, he’s totally fine with Hank’s portrayal of “Apu”, but now he thinks that “Apu” should get a promotion at the Kwik-E-Mart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EriWw3NPu5Y

 

Our Take

I actually kinda like Hari’s idea. I’ve always been a big supporter of seeing characters in adult animation get some sort of character progression i.e., similar to concepts found in Netflix adult animation and Apu getting to the top of the food chain of the company he works for would be a pretty cool idea for a story arc.

But, this idea from Hari,  comes with it the added bonus of him throwing in the towel on claiming Hank’s depiction of “Apu” is racist, which is good because it isn’t.