The Simpsons is one of America’s longest running shows.
The ten-time Emmy Award winner for Outstanding Animated Program is in its 30th season.
And now The Simpsons was forced to drop one of its original characters because of liberal backlash.
The Simpsons is one of America’s great pastimes.
The Simpsons is one of America’s great pastimes
The Fox animated classic stormed into living rooms in the late 80’s and early 90’s.
It quickly became a staple of Sunday night television.
It stars one of the funniest iconic characters of all time in Homer Simpson.
He’s a dimwitted but well-meaning middle class American who works at a nuclear power plant. The town of Springfield is loaded with hilarious characters.
One of those characters is the owner of the Kwik-E-Mart named Apu.
And now they just announced it will do away with the character because liberals are furious with the Indian-American “stereotype.”
Leftists claim that the Indian-American depiction of the character is “racist.”
It began earlier this year in April.
There was a Twitter outrage over the character.
That went viral. And even some Hollywood elitists agreed with them.
Instead of cancelling the character though, the writers addressed the problem in an episode called “No Good Read Goes Unpunished.”
In the episode they referenced that stereotypes used to be okay back then.
But they are problematic today.
Lisa Simpson says with a framed photo of Apu next to her, “Something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive is now politically incorrect. What can you do?”
And that’s where they left it. Apu appeared in other episodes afterwards.
Hank Azaria voices Apu among many other characters on the show as well.
Hank Azaria voices Apu among many other characters on the show as well.
He appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert after the outrage and was asked about it by the show’s host.
Azaria said, “I’m perfectly willing and happy to step aside or help transition it into something new. I really hope that’s what The Simpsons does.”
It only took six months for the show’s producers and writers to finally phase out the character altogether.
Film producer Adi Shankar wanted to address the problem before they cut the character for good.
He thought it was a mistake.
You don’t get rid of a 30-year-old character abruptly.
His reason was because The Simpsons is a satire on all American culture.
Shankar said, “If you are a show about cultural commentary and you are too afraid to comment on the culture, especially when it’s a component of the culture you had a hand in creating, then you are a show about cowardice.”
And he’s right. That’s a bad choice to just ignore the character who is a big part of the town.
There’s no shame in owning a convenience store.
But that’s the implication, right?
They think the stereotype is wrong.
Is Homer Simpson not a satire of working class America?
He’s a dense beer loving working-class American with a heart of gold. His children are smarter than he is.
Isn’t that offensive? Or, it shouldn’t be because he’s white?
Chief “Clancy” Wiggums is a doughnut loving irresponsible police officer who is completely incompetent.
This is the politically correct culture that exists in America right now.
It could also be that a white actor voices the character.
But the point was that they found voice actors who could do multiple voices.
They did that because it saves money.
The show’s creators saved a lot of money by hiring a handful of actors to do all the characters instead of one actor per character.
Apu is gone forever now though.
Do you care that they got rid of Apu?
Let us know in the comments below!