Apu Nahasapeemapetilon appears to have, once again, come back to haunt Simpsons creator Matt Groening. The character has barely appeared on the long-running animated comedy in two years—but as Groening sat down with The New York Times ahead of a Comic-Con appearance to promote his new Netflix series, the Indian store clerk came back to haunt him once more. Specifically, the Times asked Groening about his last attempt to address the controversy—which didnt end well.
The saga began last year, when comedian Hari Kondabolu released a documentary called The Problem with Apu. As Kondabolu pointed out in the film, Apu, who was introduced in the shows first season, traffics in countless stereotypes, from his occupation running the Kwik-E-Mart to his thick accent. In April, the series confronted the issue directly, but the shows flippant approach only courted more controversy. Weeks later, Groening emerged to brush off the whole conversation surrounding Apu: “Im proud of what we do on the show. And I think its a time in our culture where people love to pretend theyre offended,” he said. As one might imagine, it did not go over well.
When asked by the Times how he felt about the response to the shows handling of the Apu debate, Groening responded, once again: “I love Apu. I love the character, and it makes me feel bad that it makes other people feel bad. But on the other hand, its tainted now—the conversation, theres no nuance to the conversation now. It seems very, very clunky.”
Soon after that poorly received April installment of The Simpsons aired, Hank Azaria, who has voiced the character since Season 1, said he was willing to “step aside” and let someone of South Asian descent play the role—an offer Simpsons writer Mike Reiss later compared to “Val Kilmer announcing he wont play Batman again—no ones asking him to.” The show has dealt with the controversy surrounding Apu, according to Reiss, by sidelining the character; he has hardly appeared on the series in years, and given his polarizing nature, it seems likely that he wont for quite some time.
When the Times asked whether Apu would appear again, Groening demurred: “If we come up with a good story, well do it.” As for his previous comment, Groening now claims that when he said people like to feign offense at things, he wasnt speaking specifically about Apu: “That was about our culture in general,” Groening told the Times. “And thats something Ive 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 theyre picking the wrong battles.”
Despite the criticism The Simpsons has received over Apu, Groening insisted that at its core, the series is thoughtful. He pointed to the fact that its core family is painted yellow, rather than a shade of pink that connotes Caucasian skin. “Its taking that pink away, and making it yellow,” he said. “And then taking yellow away from whatever racist connotation that that has had . . . As many people have pointed out, its all stereotypes on our show. Thats the nature of cartooning. And you try not to do reprehensible stereotypes. Anyway. I probably said too much.”
Get Vanity Fairs HWD NewsletterSign up for essential industry and award news from Hollywood.Laura BradleyLaura Bradley is a Hollywood writer for VanityFair.com.
[contf] [contfnew] 
Vanity Fair
[contfnewc] [contfnewc]
