It looks like the problem with Apu is not going away any time soon. Three years after documentary The Problem with Apu started a debate about how The Simpsons character reinforces stereotypical portrayals of South Asians in pop culture, creator Matt Groening is back in the eye of the storm.
In an interview with USA Today to mark the long-running animated show's 700th episode, Groening said he was proud of the Indian Kwik-E-Mart operator.
"I think the Apu stories are fantastic, and he's one of the most nuanced characters on a silly two-dimensional cartoon show," Groening said in the interview, released this week. The show was working on something ambitious for Apu, he said.
His comments prompted a response from advocacy group the Hindu American Foundation, which said they were disappointed their concerns about Apu were not being taken seriously.
"The character is the reason many Hindu kids get bullied," Shereen Bhalla, a spokeswoman for HAF, told TMZ. She said that Apu is a "walking stereotype. Apu has been the predominant face in pop culture for the three million Hindus living in America, and the character makes the community feel marginalised."
In The Problem with Apu, released in 2017, comedian Hari Kondabolu looked at the cultural impact of the character and how it contributed to stereotypes about and racial slurs against people of South Asian heritage.
The film prompted Hank Azaria, a white actor, to announce he would no longer voice the character after 30 years.
"My eyes have been opened. I think the most important thing is we have to listen to South Asian people, Indian people in this country when they talk about what they feel, how they think about this character and what their American experience of it has been," Azaria said when appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in 2018.
In a response to the controversy that same year, a less-than-effusive Groening told USA Today he was proud of the show.
“I think it’s a time in our culture where people love to pretend they’re offended,” he said.
The Simpsons seemed to address the growing backlash later with character Lisa Simpson saying in one of the episodes: "Something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive, is now politically incorrect. What can you do?"
In 2020, the show announced it would stop using white actors to voice non-white characters.
Groening said it was not his idea, but that he’s fine with it.
"Who can be against diversity? So it's great. However, I will just say that the actors were not hired to play specific characters. They were hired to do whatever characters we thought of," he told USA Today. "To me, the amazing thing is seeing all our brilliant actors who can do multiple voices, do multiple voices. That's part of the fun of animation, However, to be more inclusive and hire more people, I'm completely in favour of that."
The Simpsons premiered in 1989 and is now the longest-running American animated series with more than 34 Emmy Awards.
