“Instead, Best Actress and Best Actor went to Frances McDormand and Anthony Hopkins (the latter of whom paid tribute to the late Boseman in his acceptance speech), respectively—also known as regularly scheduled Oscars programming. The choices were predictable in their typical Academy whiteness, yet the display was…

The problem isn’t Apu. The problem is that this 90s show has inexplicably been allowed to keep making new episodes 20+ years after they made their last watchable episode.

I suppose he should also apologize to every gay man for Agador from The Birdcage.

On one hand I get why this is wrong and understand that some central Asian people really dislike the character

Hey, whatever happened to not becoming outraged over what are certainly unintentional slights?

For me was Kal Penn in Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. Came out in 2004 and had two Asian-Americans who acted like the people I knew (I took a ton of advance placement classes in high school so majority of my friend group were Asian-Americans at the time as we all stereotypically overachieved).

Yup. All of this. Seeing yourself represented on TV/movies/etc., heck even teachers in school or whatever makes a difference. You’re already clearly “the weird kid” when you’re the only one with a different skin tone or a funny name or anything like that. Kids should feel like they belong, not alien. But I digress.

Kids…

Just going to point out that the thread where two evidently Indian guys are discussing their relationship with representation is waaay less popular than the threads where a bunch of white people argue with each other. Sigh.

Not every person of Indian descent had a problem with his portrayal and some were even on the opposite side of the view on his portrayal.

I understand the impulse to apologize, and maybe he should, but come on. Apu was always portrayed incredibly well; a family man, a hard worker, a man with a goddam PhD! I think there is a level of hand-wringing about Apu, and about all the Simpsons characters, that is out of proportion to how they were actually…

Pretty much same experience I had as a kid. I don’t really blame Apu that much for getting made fun of or picked on though, kids are just plain assholes when they want to be. They would have made fun of me for something else if they weren’t handed layups from The Simpsons.

First gen Indian-American here. From my user name, you can guess my approx age and know that I grew up IN THE THICK of prime Simpson’s. I’m forever grateful to that show giving me & my family so much joy (and now I get to bond over it again w/ my kids).

As a kid, it was interesting to see Apu on the screen. We were…

Isn’t the main problem with Apu that the show lasted for 30 years and Apu is a character who I think it’s safe to say literally wouldn’t be conceived today? He was treated both as a bad caricature and a fully fleshed out character, but this likely wouldn’t have ever been a problem if the show ended after like Season…

The Simpsons is produced in Los Angeles, a place I lived for 15 years and know well.

You see how easy it is to say “I’m sorry. I fucked up. I will do better.”? More people need to learn how to do this. All “cancel culture” really is is a bunch of assholes unwilling to admit they fucked up to some degree and just doubled down on shitty behavior.

The worst part is that as far as I can tell (and based on what I have heard before), that TV Guide article only insinuated drug use among the writers/crew, not among the young cast. The ravings of Gerald Casale seem to be the only source for orgies or drug use among the teenagers, so that was really questionable.

My and I'm sure Tracy's pleasure. And we did and do share something special. Over the years I heard this and that..but this was so specific and SO off the hook wrong in every way..I couldn't resist…trying to set the record straight. Truth is had we been sourced..the memories we do have would have been a lot less…

Thanks for commenting, Jon (and also Tracy above) It's really cool to get perspectives from the actual cast. You guys really must have had something special back then for you to so passionately step up to defend the image of your show so many years later.

I don't know where to begin…I honestly don't, My name is Jon Caliri ..I played Vinnie on Square Pegs
… I was in fact the "buffoon".or."thug"..Though I
think what we were going for was a kid that couldn't help being the
former even as he struggled to evoke that latter.
You won't find me
on the DVD..not because as was…

"Over here I have a TV Guide that belonged to Jackie Onassis. If you look at the crossword, she thinks the name of the show is 'Mark' and Mindy."