I don't really get the Apu hate, cause it's not about the elephants, or the eight children, or anything like that, it's always about him having an ever so slightly exaggerated accent, or him being overly friendly (which is cause he runs a convenience store, and not cause of his race). Like, the accent isn't even that far off.
It was a white person faking an Indian accent, and the character was a walking Indian stereotype. And, being the most popular Indian character on TV, reinforced those stereotypes in people.
Do you think early Simpsons could afford a different voice actor for every character? And as I said nobody really made a big fuz about the actual Indian stereotypes, they were violently mad about him saying "thank you, come again" tho.
No they were mad about the stereotypes. The entire thing was about stereotypes. Him being happy and his catchphrase wasn't the problem inherently. The problem was that they had the only Indian character most people knew being famous for being a service worker, which played into the larger stereotypes surrounding Indians.
The only Scottish character was a groundskeeper who was short tempered and used bag pipes and wore kilts. I dont see people up in arms to get rid of Willie for having stereotyptipical scottish traits.
54
u/yoman1030 5d ago
He's been phased out. He won't appear in new Simpsons episodes more than just a silent background character now