“The Simpsons” In The News Round-Up: Hank Azaria Talks Apu ; Writer Pissed At Coronavirus “Predictions”
A few weeks ago we told you about all of the mis-characterised comparisons that fans of The Simpsons were making about the “Marge in the Chains” episode possibly connecting the dots to that of another potential prediction that seems to have played out with our current state-of-affairs with coronavirus. None of the connections fans are superimposing are making any sense which episode writer Bill Oakley seems to back up in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter explaining that the Osaka flu of 1968 was actually the bigger influence which makes more sense when you learn more about where the origins of coronavirus are founded:
“It was meant to be absurd that someone could cough into a box and the virus would survive for six to eight weeks in the box. It is cartoonish. We intentionally made it cartoonish because we wanted it to be silly and not scary, and not carry any of these bad associations along with it, which is why the virus itself was acting like a cartoon character and behaving in extremely unrealistic ways.”
Look, I’m all for prediction theories from The Simpsons, but the “Marge in the Chains” one is such a stretch anyway people are going to have to let this one go…including the ridiculous clickbait press.

In a new interview with WESA.FM, not only does Hank Azaria say that he shouldn’t be voicing “Apu”, that even if Birdcage were to be cast today, it wouldn’t happen the same way and instead the role would be cast by an authentic gay Guatemalan, ditto for The Simpsons:
“They would get a gay Guatemalan or Latin character – Latin guy to play it, and which I think is as it should be and is right.”
Hank also goes into some of his past reservations about “Apu”. For my take, acting isn’t everyone just playing themselves for a film or TV series. Could you imagine anyone else but Al Pacino as “Tony Montana”? How about in Peaky Blinders, we’ve got Adrien Brody a Jew, playing an Italian mobster and Tom Hardy, not a Jew, playing the leader of a Jewish gang. The idea of acting is that you get to put yourself in roles that you wouldn’t have had a chance to play elsewhere. Animation takes this a step further and says Will Arnett can voice a horse or Seth MacFarlane can voice a dog. One of the great performances of a gay role of all-time is Tom Hanks in Philadelphia, on the other hand, we had LGBT-actress Cynthia Nixon have a starring role in Sex in the City as a straight and promiscuous woman. That’s the “fun” of acting and show business, potentially being anything you want to be.
I think the real rub here is that Hank was probably scared straight by his publicists and that’s why he’s got these talking points against “Apu” all of a sudden. This cancel culture nonsense is nearly finished, and when history looks back, they’ll remember the warriors for freedom of speech and expression.
"There are also other characters that come and go (also owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery conglomerate media company)."
Huh. Is that just referring to other characters from the show itself, or is this implying that the new season is going to have cameos from other WBD IPs