14 Things Fox Wants You To Forget About The Simpsons

8. The Problem With Apu

In 2017, comedian Hari Kondabolu wrote and starred in a documentary titled The Problem With Apu, which intended to shine a light on everyone’s favourite animated shopkeeper, taking a look at how - as the only South Asian character on mainstream TV at the height of the show’s popularity - he helped perpetuate negative stereotypes of and slurs against people of Indian and South Asian heritage.

The doc was well-received upon release, and it doesn’t reflect too well upon The Simpsons, although there is an admittance that, upon inception at least, it was more a product of its time. That might’ve been bad enough, but recently The Simpsons has responded in the episode No Good Read Goes Unpunished.

In the episode, Marge finds an old book that she loved as a child, but realises contains elements that are now unacceptable and offensive in today’s society, which she chooses to remove only to find the book loses something as a result. “What am I to do?” she wonders.

The show then has Lisa, so often the series’ moral compass, voice of reason, and liberal activist say: “It’s hard to say. Something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive is now politically incorrect. What can you do?” She stars down the camera as she says this, before turning to look at a picture of Apu.

There’s been a widespread backlash to the episode, not least from Kondabolu itself, with it being seen as a rejection of progress and instead recognising there might be a problem and simply shrugging. It’s a shame, because The Simpsons of old would’ve known exactly how to make progress happen, or at least had something with a bit of bite to it, but it’s a sign of how the show’s fallen that its response was basically “no, it’s the children who are wrong.”