Apu To Be Dropped From The Simpsons

[Vegita-San]

oh for ****s sake. the world has gone insane.

[AquaParade]

Don't worry, y'all, the golden years of the show is enough to nourish us until death. We can survive on 8 or 9 seasons. Trust me, I've already watched most of those episodes over 5 times and they never get old. Enjoy!

[Sumac]

Well, this cretin just opened himself to SJW sharks.

[sdp]

Originally Posted by AquaParade

Don't worry, y'all, the golden years of the show is enough to nourish us until death. We can survive on 8 or 9 seasons. Trust me, I've already watched most of those episodes over 5 times and they never get old. Enjoy!

I mean true we have 31 seasons worth of Apu's original voice and no one is going to care to even watch 21 of those seasons Neither the ones getting upset over apu's replacement or those upset that apu was voiced by a whitey ironically enough

[CyberCubed]

As a white man I am offended Homer is fat and dumb. It’s a stereotype that all Americans are lazy and get by easily.

Oh wait, no I don’t mind since it’s a cartoon.

[Leo656]

I read that sh*t. What an asshole.

"I wish I could apologize to every single Indian person I've 'assaulted' with my performance on a cartoon show." Good GRIEF.

So a couple of kids on the playground got called "Apu" when they were kids, or taunted with "Thank you, come again!" by other kids. Oh my GOD, that is SO HARMFUL, you guys! How Dare They. Kids tease, that's what they do, that isn't "assault". I constantly got called "gay" for having long hair and having a feminine jawline. Where's my reparations?

"This Apu character perpetuates a stereotype of Indians being convenience store workers! How horrible that they push that Provably True Fact on people by way of their cartoon show!"

I mean, if the show introduced a character named Sanjay who worked in computer software and made seven figures, would that ALSO be "a racist stereotype" considering that's another extremely common thing Those People do? Or is it just the Kwik-E-Mart thing that's "racist"? I don't get it.

As for the voice, it's called voice ACTING. They didn't hire the guy to be "racist", they hired the guy because at the time they started doing the show they only had like five voice actors and they had to do use everybody for multiple roles. No malice intended whatsoever, it was a cost-saving measure. AND, it's a cartoon and therefore shouldn't matter.

I mean, Cree Summer is black and Native American; her first and most prominent cartoon role was playing a little blonde-haired, blue-eyed white girl. Tara Strong voices GUYS, sometimes. By the New Logic, that stuff "shouldn't be allowed" because people need to "stay in their lane" and only voice characters they share race or ethnicity or "identity" with. That's STUPID.

This whole "Only ______ can act ______ roles" stuff is nonsense, and it undermines the entire principle of "acting". I'm not saying exclude people; if you wanna cast an Indian guy to play an Indian character and the guy you find is good at the job, that's fine. But it's pretty disingenuous to go back and be like "Wow, we've been hurting people for over 30 years! Let's start making reparations Right Now because people are suddenly offended!" First of all, nobody was ever "hurt" by this situation, and second, if not for the "moral outrage" they never would have taken a step to "fix" anything anyway, so their ham-fisted efforts to "make it right" at present aren't even sincere.

But yeah, the overly-dramatic "I wish I could hug every Indian person and say I'm sorry" stuff from Azaria is just cringe. What a baby. I love how he tried to make it about himself, too, with the whole "If I'd never gone to rehab I might have reacted to this differently, but now I have empathy." What a rube.

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by Leo656

I constantly got called "gay" for having long hair and having a feminine jawline. Where's my reparations?

I mean... we can gather all those now-adult bullies and have them hug you one by one and give you a heartfelt apology. And maybe make your birthday Rikki Ain't Gay day? Maybe name a street after you.

[Leo656]

I live around the corner from a street called "Legends Drive". Close enough, I reckon.

[Wildcat]

Well if he genuinely feels uncomfortable doing the character now that’s fine. It doesn’t make an @-hole or SJW. He just feels different about it.

Ya if there was no documentary or public complaints he probably would not have cared to see what others thought and Apu would not have been recast.

That’s not really the point though. Something happened that made him look into the subject and decide how he felt about it.

I don’t think Apu or any Simpsons stereotype is offensive. As others have pointed out he’s a well rounded character and he’s never looked down upon for being Indian in the show.

Like I said before “so-and-so should only voice this” is dumb but I actually listened to the segment because reading quotes isn’t the same as hearing it.

He basically said that you don’t actually know how something comes off to others (or who you’re impersonating) and didn’t feel the need to keep doing it.

He even mentions Cletus and his other characters. He says the difference is there’s other representations of those characters in entertainment but Apu is a very default view of Indians.

Look I agree it’s all a little overdramatic and recasting is unnecessary but I’m not gonna criticize him for wanting to do the character justice.

[Leo656]

My problem is, he originally had the Sane Person reaction: "C'mon, who gives a sh*t?" That was the proper and reasonable way to react to this kind of nonsense.

Then he let people "bully" him into changing his opinion with their sob stories. "Some kids on the playground called me 'Apu'!" "Yeah... so?" That should have been it, that should have been the entire conversation.

It just comes off as very insincere, like he honestly only felt like it was an issue after he was TOLD to think it was an issue. And I suspect that his "change of heart" had less to do with any sob stories, or introspection, or him going to rehab, and a LOT to do with his new bosses at Disney.

The whole thing just stinks. And where does it end? Are they gonna go back and re-dub 30+ years of Simpsons episodes with the new Apu voice? You may laugh, but it's not outside of their power to do so if they feel like it. All it takes is a few SJW's to email them saying they SHOULD do that, and the next thing you know, they will.

Think they'd never go that far? We'll see. Now that Those People already got their way by bullying the producers into re-casting the role (and Dr. Hibbert, who I never even heard any complaints about to begin with), we'll see just how hard they're willing to commit to their "We don't want to hurt anyone's pwecious feewings" position. Theoretically, those "racist caricature" voices still exist so long as the reruns with the original voice acting in them still air. How long would it honestly take for them to re-record all of Apu's lines with the new actor, in theory... a week or two? And what would it cost? Probably hardly anything.

Will they? Maybe not. Would it shock me? Not at all, at this point. We've already seen what happens when you give a mouse a cookie, after all.

[Wildcat]

The documentary came out well before Disney got it. Hank declined the guy’s interview. He’s had a good while to form an opinion.

Not sure how much the documentary has to do with it anymore. Isn’t it just part of the whole “being more diverse” subject now?

Perhaps...perhaps the guy had somewhat of a point if Apu was the best character he could base it on.

I haven’t seen anything else he did but according to his wiki he hasn’t done much since. I’d like to know what he thinks after they update him.

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by Wildcat

The documentary came out well before Disney got it. Hank declined the guy’s interview. He’s had a good while to form an opinion.

Not sure how much the documentary has to do with it anymore. Isn’t it just part of the whole “being more diverse” subject now?

Perhaps...perhaps the guy had somewhat of a point if Apu was the best character he could base it on.

I haven’t seen anything else he did but according to his wiki he hasn’t done much since. I’d like to know what he thinks after they update him.

I doubt he cares since he probably did all of this for clout rather than actually being offended.

I think most of these people play victim just so they can 'leave some kind of mark' or whatever rather than whatever they're talking about.

So instead of actually being offended, it would not surprise me if he did all of this hoping to get some sort of Netflix deal or something to keep his career going or at the very least look back and be like 'you know how they re-casted Apu and re-did all his lines? Yeah, that was me.'

[GoldMutant]

There's definitely a major disconnect going on. "Cancel culture" is certainly toxic, as we established before. I think the Space Jam 2 thread indicated that.

It just seems counter-intuitive. As pointed above, you got voice actresses that have the voice for boyish characters. Besides Tara Strong, what about Nancy Cartwright, since we're doing a Simpson discussion?

It boils down to voice talent, I feel. You got people who should be able to voice anyone no problem. But God forbid they don't fit the "identity" of who said character represents.

The Apu problem is rough to examine, personally. Mostly because like Pepe le Pew in Looney Tunes, I really don't care for him. Just not one of my favorite characters is all, but I understand his popularity.

I'll have to think more on it another time. But that's my general feeling on it right now.
_________________

Any good episodes from this season so far? Been out of the loop on Simpsons.

[AquaParade]

The only somewhat recent episode I really enjoyed was the Lego episode. Though I'm not sure I can really call it recent. I'd recommend it.

[Andrew NDB]

You can never, ever apologize to these people. Ever. Don't do it. Tell them to f*** off and leave it at that.

[ABrown]

My boss at my second job basically IS Apu. One of my former co-workers used to do an impression of him right in front of him (MAN i miss him). I still do the impression in front of my co-workers, customers, and my family/friends. And I am NEVER apologizing for it.

[Andrew NDB]

John Cleese mocks Azaria:

https://www.louderwithcrowder.com/jo...r%202021-04-15

[Coola Yagami]

It was fine until the writer showed his own racism by using the term Latinx.

[Leo656]

He was using it ironically, sir.

That article was actually very funny. Big fan! Especially the "Azaria showed everyone his vagina" bit. That never gets old.

[ZariusTwo]

Now the show's offended Morrisey

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-56806312