Day 189: Let's have an argument about Apu

Or, OK, a friendly discussion.

You’ve seen the rumours that Apu is going to be written out of the Simpsons, right, due to the character’s problematic nature as an Indian-American stereotype?

And I presume, like all my other friends on social media, you’re up in arms about this. You feel it’s a step too far for political correctness, that it’s needless censorship of something you love, taking way too seriously a show that at heart has always been irreverent and intended to shock.

What about Groundskeeper Willie? you cry. What about Cletus and Comic Book Guy and that Italian chef? It’s only a silly cartoon! Where will the crusade end?

Well, sorry, buddies, but I’m not really with you here. I agree in part, but there’s a real issue of privilege that you’re not seeing, and it makes me sad.

Comedy is a weapon. As such it must be wielded with responsibility. Irreverence should be used to tear down that which we revere too highly, to remind ourselves that those who would position themselves as gods also do smelly shits out of their bums, that organisations that attempt to rule the world are just as prone to buffoonery and incompetence as any of us. Humour should be used to address power imbalances, to level the playing field.

And, no, there is no topic that should be out of bounds, in my eyes - but the more emotive the topic, the more responsibility the comedy writer holds to navigate the issue adroitly.

Make fun of school shootings, is what I’m saying, but not of parents grieving for children killed in school shootings. Mock Catholic priests, don’t mock the boys that they rape.

I mean, we all know this. It is rudimentary stuff. You can find the funny in any topic, but sometimes you have to work really hard.

And when it comes to Apu? I think too often they haven’t been working hard at all.

I get that the issue isn’t cut-and-dry. These things exist on the spectrum. At one end you have things that are clearly not appropriate. The Simpsons may love to stereotype, but they don’t have a recurring black character who deals drugs on street corners and eats chicken wings and robs people at gunpoint. We can all agree that that would only reinforce negative stereotypes. We can all agree that that would be fucking racist.

Then up at the other end of the spectrum you have Groundskeeper Willie, and what amounts to a silly joke among equals. Scottish people don’t have a hard time of it in America - Americans creepily idolise the Scots, scurry to find any vague connections to Scotland in their own ancestry, love the idea of a country with history dating back more than a few centuries (disregarding that of the indigenous folk the current Americans starved and massacred and cheated out of their land). The portrayal of Willie is offensive, totally denigratory, and utterly harmless.

It’s power balance, see? The scales are equal, and it’s like banter between friends.

And then you have Apu. Where does he sit on the spectrum? For me, somewhere in the middle. He’s become a rounded character (although he wasn’t early on), many storylines have treated him with respect, there have been great jokes by him, at our expense (like when he’s referred to, next to a “Christian” and a “Jew” as “miscellaneous”, and he replies: “Hindu! There are 700 million of us.”)

I like him. He’s one of the family. He is a living person now, and to phase him out of the show would be to do him a disservice.

But the power balance is all wrong. You and me see the funny accent, the catchphrases, the octuplets, and believe it all to be, like with Groundskeeper Willie, friends ribbing friends.

But it’s not about us. We are not in a position to know.

Have you ever been spat at in the schoolyard and told to fuck off back to the Kwik-E-Mart? Have you ever been yelled at to get a bath because you stink of curry, or because your skin is the colour of shit?

No? Then how can you know whether a representation of Indo-Americans is problematic? It is not your problem. You don’t get it. If the portrayal of Apu cannot hurt you in any single way then how can you say whether the portrayal is hurtful?

Do you see this? Do you understand this?

Sometimes your viewpoint is simply not the important one. Sometimes something that brings you some pleasure brings more people great pain. You have to step outside yourself and into their shoes, and think about it from their point of view.

A lot of Indo-Americans have stated they appreciated having Apu on their screens growing up, appreciated the exposure he gave to them - that it was nice to have even a stereotype of themselves up there as part of the conversation, even if he was voiced by a white guy putting on an accent unlike the way they really spoke. That the fact he evolved into a deeper character and how he entwined with the Simpsons family furthered race relations in the 90s.

But so many have also talked about childhoods with bullies daily shouting “Thank you, come again.” Of daily minor hate crimes all revolving around the one reference point that all schoolkids knew. That they still had to endure growing up where the most prominent figure like themselves on TV was a servile, penny-pinching convenience store owner who sold dodgy, out-of-date hot dogs and spoke in that voice designed by white people to make other white people laugh. The same voice white casting directors keep insisting Aziz Ansari and Hasan Minhaj and Kal Penn and Aparna Nancheria and every other Indo-American actor puts on in their auditions for cab drivers and store owners and whatever comedic sidekick role has been written for them, despite none of them talking like that.

I don’t want to see Apu written out of the Simpsons (even though it barely matters, as the show hasn’t been close to relevant for over a decade). But I think it’s healthy to have the conversation about it. To not be scared about bringing these points into the open. To listen to opposing points of view, and really think about them, and allow for the possibility that we may have been insensitive, callous, confused.

This isn’t a battle of extremes, of one right and wrong. It’s a discussion, messy, uncertain, and one we are so lucky to be able to have. Don’t be offended that people are offended at something that you yourself are not. Be cool, be open, consider alternatives, and above all stay civil. You’ll be surprised where the journey can take you..