The Simpsons would be in the process of getting rid of the Apu to avoid the controversy

Cinema 29 October, 2018

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True cultural phenomenon for almost 30 years, The Simpsons has always managed to be in phase with her time. In good things as in bad. The evidence today with Apu.

Let’s not fool ourselves, the current world looks like an old apartment’ rotten and stinking, where, rather than opening the window to ventilate, we prefer it empty of air fresheners in the hope that it passes. What makes a pinball machine, it is the speed with which everything happens and everything is moving toward an outcome that we all want to avoid.

While “the people” are shocked by nothing, preferring to store their brain in the closet to no longer function as the emotional reactionary, the second degree, humor is silly and the cartoon are on the verge of extinction.

If he had proof of what we advance, we would speak without hesitation of what is happening on the side of the Simpson. The animated series the flagship of the Fox, thought at the outset by Matt Groening as a satirical acid of the american society, but became with time an object square and fun, finds himself at the centre of all the attentions to avoid a big controversy in the race.

The producer Adi Shankar (who, among other things, the series Castlevania Netflix), has indeed revealed the micro Indiewire that the character of Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, owner of the legendary Mini-Mart of Springfield, was in the process of disappearing discreetly from the show to avoid the controversy. In question, the portrait of little benefit to the character created of the community of indo-americans.

Apu, the banned

“I have information that break the heart, that I have verified by several sources. They will remove the character of Apu. They are not going to make it an event, but they will just delete it to avoid controversy.”

At the origin of this decision, a documentary Hari Kondabolu, The Problem with Apu, released in 2017, highlighting the cultural stereotypes that shaped the character. If the Fox had decided to laugh at first by devoting an episode, the controversy seems to have grown within the community, to the point of pushing the string to take this sad decision. Of course, Adi Shankar cannot be against this manoeuvre well-thinking :

“If you are a show that is based on the social and cultural commentary, and that you are too scared to talk about a culture, especially when it comes to a culture that you had in your hand at the creation of the series, then your show does not talk of cowardice. It is not a step forward or a step backwards, but a giant step to the side. […] I do not think that miss this problem is going to resolve while the main purpose of art, in my opinion, is to all we meet.”

And of course, we share completely his view. An opinion that is not likely to change much, because in the last three seasons of the series, Apu has had brief lines of dialogue. Yeah, world of shit.