Hank Azaria 'willing to step aside' as voice of Apu on The Simpsons

[swilow]

Didn't know this was even a controversy. Doesn't surprise me though

Hank Azaria 'willing to step aside' as voice of Apu on The Simpsons

The man who voices The Simpsons' character Apu says he is willing to give up the iconic role amid controversy over racial stereotyping.

• Key points:
• Hank Azaria voices up to 30 regular characters on the show, including Chief Wiggum
• He wants to see more Indian or South Asian writers join The Simpsons
• Azaria also distanced himself from the show's controversial response to complaints
• Addressing the growing criticism, Hank Azaria told Late Show host Stephen Colbert his "eyes have been opened" and he was "perfectly willing and happy to step aside or help transition it into something new".

Controversy surrounding the Indian Kwik-E-Mart owner with a thick accent came to prominence in comedian Hari Kondabolu's 2017 documentary The Problem With Apu.

"Everything with Apu is like this running joke," Kondabolu said last year. "And the running joke is that he is Indian."

The show briefly acknowledged complaints in an April episode of The Simpsons, which was met with mixed reviews.

"The idea that anybody, young or old, past or present, was bullied or teased based on the character of Apu ? it just really makes me sad," Azaria said on the Late Show.

"It was certainly not my intention ? the idea that it's brought pain and suffering in any way, that it was used to marginalise people, it's upsetting, genuinely."

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[CFC]

Eh, ridiculous. People really are getting themselves tied up in knots over stuff like this.

 

[JessFR]

I really don't care. And I don't care... Because I do care.

I mean like most sensible people I think this controversy is retarded, but I approve of anything that damages the Simpsons. And like how I don't care because I do care. I hate the Simpsons because I love the Simpsons.

I was born in 1988, i grew up watching it. And I despise what it's become because of how much I loved it in its peak.

I always say that the Simpsons to me is like seeing a loved relative get old, get sick, get dementia, and you just can't stand how the memories of it in its later years seem clearer and fresher than how you remember them in the past.

Some people tell me in response to this that the Simpsons is still funny sometimes. And to that I say I don't give a shit. My problem has nothing to do with how funny it is.

The Simpsons I knew growing up was a family show. It had heart. It wasn't family guy or south park. It wasn't an adult cartoon. And that's not a complaint against either of those shows, I like family guy and south park (some of it anyway). But the Simpsons shouldn't be that.

And I hate that there is now so many more bad episodes than classic good ones.

The sooner the Simpsons is canceled the better if you ask me.

 

[quiet roar]

The is seriously fucked. We really need to start smacking any do-gooders that start with this kind of shit.

 

[aihfl]

It's ridiculous. I remember having a spirited conversation with two British Indian dudes in a London pub about how The Simpsons was brilliant satire. First, I don't understand how Apu's character could be construed as offensive as it came to light in an episode where he had immigration difficulties that he came to the United States to pursue a PhD in engineering or some other STEM field IIRC. If we're bitching about Apu we might as well bitch about Groundskeeper Willie (all Scots are hotheaded drunks), Fat Tony (all Italian-Americans are organized criminals), Bumblebee Man (all Latin Americans are goofy caricatures), Krusty (all American Jews are comic entertainers), the list is endless. I think the biggest irony is that person that started making a stink over all this is an Indian-American "comedian" and I put it in quotes because he obviously doesn't have a single fucking funny bone in his body.