Why is Apu singled out in this discussion? Every single character on the Simpsons is a stereotype, and no-one gives a positive image of the person/profession they represent, maybe with the exception of Lisa. Are all white males with family like Homer? Are all cops like Chief Wigum? Are all teachers like Skinner? Is it okay to make fun of Flanders religionousnes? If political correctness is the benchmark, each of these characters had to go.
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Good point. But Lisa is a stereotype too. An academic, a hardcore vegetarian, a do gooder, she questions religion, she’s made fun of by others. Other things too. I remember one episode where she helps some animal, which turns around and bites her.
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Every single character on the Simpsons is a character in a fictional cartoon universe. The difference is that they aren’t all perpetuating racist tropes.
I don’t see why this is so hard to comprehend.
No, because with very few exceptions every character in the Simpsons is yellow. The only time the ethnic makeup of a character becomes important is when the show’s creator makes an effort to make it important. Apu is one of the very few non-yellow characters.
Yes, because the over the top evangelical caricature that Flanders represents is not a that of a systematically oppressed or marginalized minority.
Ah yes, this canard. “If I can’t make fun of someone it’s because of political correctness! You can’t make fun of anybody!” Comedy doesn’t work this way.
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Because for over three decades Apu was the most prominent character of South-Asian descent in a popular primetime television program and that played a major role in shaping Americans’ stereotypes of Indian-Americans.
If you grew up black in America it’s very unlikely that kids regularly teased you by voicing impressions of Bleeding Gums Murphy or Carl Carlson or Sergeant Lou. If your family background was Scottish there’s still a good chance nobody ever broke into a “Groundskeeper Willie” accent when you walked into a room. But if you grew up looking anything like Apu during the height of the Simpsons’ run you almost certainly knew what it felt like to hear some white kid mockingly say “Thank you! Come again.”
As a white male with a family I have literally hundreds if not thousands of examples of TV characters representing my demographic spanning almost every possible permutation of the white male experience in America.
So while I appreciate your concern, I’m actually doing just fine and you needn’t worry about me.
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Well, I presume it still makes a profit as a broadcast network first run TV show. TV execs are dumb, but they’re not that dumb. I think it’s safe to assume, no matter how hard it may be to believe, that advertising revenues still exceed production costs. These are two measure that even bonehead TV execs can measure with reasonable accuracy.
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“Didn’t we warn you that making us stop performing in blackface would set a bad precedent???”
—Some 115-year-old Vaudeville curmudeon, probably
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I think you are absolutely right, but in the Flanders part you’ll get an argument, because the whole driving myth of the evangelical community is that they are, in fact, oppressed and marginalized. Why, they have to live in a country where other people are different than them! What could be more oppressive? And many people disagree with them, which makes them feel marginalized.
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Why did you call him a white male, instead of a nuclear plant worker? Why did you call Skinner a teacher instead of a white male?
Hint: White men are not an oppressed group.
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Just claiming something doesn’t make it so. The evangelical community is, unfortunately, extremely powerful and in the upper echelons of power in America. Any claims of oppression and marginalization are laughable at best.
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You’re absolutely right. But, just as claiming something doesn’t make it so, denying it doesn’t change minds. It serves many vital purposes to that community to feel embattled. For one, it takes their minds off those who actually keep their pay stagnant, namely their bosses and their investors (i.e., Wall St). It keeps them feeling allied with rich, powerful white people, who feel no such kinship with them. And it gives them a sense of being a key player in a cosmic drama. What can equal that? It’s opera.
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Somebody has to be watching it.
The networks don’t work for free.
I just do not know who. Maybe this rumored Silent Majority?
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People keep watching it because it’s something they’ve known about for their whole lives. And older folks remember when it used to be really good, and still occasionally tune in out of nostalgia or in the hopes that maybe there’s been a rise in quality.
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The Simpsons is a zombie show and there is more interesting thing made by fans on the internet than in the actual show :
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Max Gilardis take on he whole shmerbakle:
I honestly don’t know why Matt wants to remove Apu, despite claims of him being a “racist caricature”. Whatever the case may be, Apu is a classic Simpsons character. You remove him and the show suffers and loses credibility. Matt may want to rethink this decision, because remember when Seth MacFarlane killed off Brian in “Life of Brian”? Fans weren’t happy about it and I’m sure fans will do the same with Apu.
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But is the exclusion of certain ethnicities on other TV shows the fault of the creators of the Simpsons? Wasn’t it then a good thing to include Apu and his family? Of course he is a stereotype, but as I said: So is everyone else on the show. Why should he have been treated differently?
I completely agree that such depictions in other contexts (e.g. the Mickey Rooney character in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”) is not acceptable, because here a stereotype is singled out among “plain” characters. But IMHO this is simply not the case with the Simpsons.
As a German, I am not overly fond of the character Üter Zörker. But I get that some people think that all Germans are wearing Lederhosen all the time, and in the context of this show I am okay with this image.
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I think there has been no German character on the show that wasn’t a stereotype, usually an offensive one. Same with other non-Americans. Which kind of supports the original point: the only only stereotypical that regularly get passes and may shine as individuals on the show are white . The few black black characters are mostly bland and inoffensive.
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