The Simpsons creator Matt Groening has continued his defense of the shows characterization of Apu, calling the debate “tainted” and lacking “nuance.”
During an interview with The New York Times about his upcoming Netflix series Disenchanted, Groening was asked about his previous comments about the criticisms surrounding Apu, as well as The Simpsons’ apparent side-stepping of the issue.
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He responded by saying, “it makes me feel bad that it makes other people feel bad. But on the other hand, it’s tainted now — the conversation, there’s no nuance to the conversation now. It seems very, very clunky.”
When asked how The Simpsons would handle the issue going forward, Groening seemed to agree that there was a moratorium on the character for the moment, before adding that “some of the stuff the show got taken to task for, we covered in an episode a couple of years ago.” This was an apparent reference to 2016’s “Much Apu About Something,” an episode in which the character of Apu was called out by his nephew for being a stereotype.
Groening previously drew criticism when he seemingly dismissed criticism by saying “people love to pretend they’re offended.” When asked to clarify that statement by the Times, he explained:
“That wasn’t specifically about Apu. That was about our culture in general. And that’s something I’ve noticed for the last 25 years. There is the outrage of the week and it comes and goes. For a while, it was, believe it or not, kids were stealing quarters out of their mothers’ purses in order to go to the video arcade, and that was going to bring down civilization. No one even remembers that, because that lasted a week. I think particularly right now, people feel so aggrieved and crazed and powerless that they’re picking the wrong battles.”
The interview concluded with Groening explaining that he had been to India several times, and that the Simpsons characters were intentionally yellow and not “Mickey Mouse pink,” and that the show was “all stereotypes,” blaming “the nature of cartooning.”
RELATED: Hank Azaria Offers to “Step Aside” As Apu Amid Controversy
Introduced on The Simpsons in 1990, Apu Nahasapeemapetilon has been criticized as being a caricature of Indian immigrants, voiced by white actor Hank Azaria, speaking in a stereotypical accent. While complaints have been leveraged against the character for some time, the issue gained significant visibility from comedian Hari Kondabolu’s documentary The Problem With Apu.
The 30th season of The Simpsons will premiere on Fox this fall. The first season of Disenchantment is due on Netflix on August 17. The Problem with Apu is available for streaming on truTV.com.