Holy shit, I’m actually surprised by this.
That, I think, is the core of the complaint. The producers of The Simpsons don’t get to pretend it’s still the 1990s, any more than octogenarian racist business owners get to bar African Americans from their establishment as if it were still the 1950s.
Because it’s not a product of the ‘90s. Or, rather, it’s not just a product of the ‘90s. You might justifiably give something a pass for being a product of its time, but implicit in that is the fact that it was produced in that time.
The thing is, it’s not just a white guy voicing an Indian character: it’s a white guy voicing an Indian character who’s a walking pile of stereotypes, without less stereotypical characters to balance him out. It’s a combination of issues that exacerbate eachother.
“Phony white outrage” from Hari Kondabolu...
THE INTERNET FOR THE PAST DECADE: The Simpsons isn’t funny anymore, it’s a shadow of its former self, they should just kill it already.
Why do people act like Kondabolu’s point is to “change” Apu? From his point of view, Apu is pretty much a lost cause.
Ah yes, Kondabolu’s nefarious scheme to produce an hour-long documentary that everybody had stopped talking about until the show, itself, brought it up again.
Yes. The reason is racism.
Except there was no lynch mob. The documentary came out, people wrote some articles and had some conversations, and it mostly died down until as episode aired that addressed the matter in a tone that managed to be neither funny nor insightful.
Seriously. I haven’t watched the Simpsons since the late 90s when, in my opinion, the writing went downhill in its cleverness and incisiveness but I’m still shocked that a showrunner is using the National Review as some kind of defense of an episode.
For me, this has become less about Apu and more about the fact that the showrunner of The Simpsons is comfortable sharing an article from the National Review to defend his smirking contempt for fans willing to have a conversation.
So to answer the question... you didn’t see it?
Yes, I’m sure that was Kondabolu’s actual motivation and not pointing out something that maybe people didn’t understand about portrayals of people from the subcontinent in American entertainment.
“hyper-sensitive”
Shut the fuck up, you dumbshit. Is that sensitive enough?
Well done Al! You have truly mastered the art of digging holes deeper.
Have you seen the documentary? It’s not as hyper-sensitive as you may think.
They’ve bought into the story that Elon has told, that Tesla is somehow a decade or more ahead of the industry, making Jesus cars. The idea that it could all be just a good hype man who comes up with fun names like “Ludicrous Mode” and is selling them nothing more than an electric car with a big battery and…