We won’t drag this out for too long… the Simpson’s character that’s going to disappear is… Apu, the famous Indian shopkeeper. The show’s producer Adi Shankar announced this cut during an interview with IndieWire.
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‘I got some disheartening news back, that I’ve verified from multiple sources now: They’re going to drop the Apu character altogether. They aren’t going to make a big deal out it, or anything like that, but they’ll drop him altogether just to avoid the controversy,’ he explained.
But what controversy is he talking about? For many months now, controversy surrounding Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, the Indian shopkeeper, has been blowing up. On social media, people have been complaining more and more about this subject, and internet users have been complaining about the stereotypes of the Indian community that are shown in the Simpsons. This caused the producers to make quite a drastic decision. There was even a documentary released by Hari Kondabolu in 2017 entitled The Problem with Apu surrounding the discrimination of Apu.
Producer Adi Shankar wasn’t in favor of this decision and was against the removal of the character from the show.
‘If you are a show about cultural commentary and you are too afraid to comment on the culture […] then you are a show about cowardice. […] It’s not a step forward, or a step backwards, it’s just a massive step sideways. After having read all these wonderful scripts, I feel like sidestepping this issue doesn’t solve it when the whole purpose of art, I would argue, is to bring us together,’ explained the producer. So, what do you think?
