Simpsons creators respond to "The Problem with Apu"

You clearly don´t understand art if you think Simpsons is art. Not to mention if you think art should be changed because suddenly the climate changes and someone feels offended.

And of course the Simpsons didn´t come out of thin air, it comes out of comedy and from a time where people laughed instead of censoring.

@Jacanuk: why couldn’t Simpsons be considered art?

Because it is an entertainment segment

Also if it is art, who is anyone to come out and demand change? Art is the artists work and if they change their "art" to suit other peoples opinions, would it still be art?

@Jacanuk: It can be both. The world isn’t as binary and simple as you think it is.

Those are complex questions I don’t have the answers to. The voice of Apu has considered resigning.

So you are ok if someone altered the Mona Lisa? or picked up a Van Gogh and changed a bit because they "felt" offended by something.

And it´s crazy that the VO of Apu has mentioned resigning, it´s absolute BS . But that shows he clearly does not feel it´s art.

Well, what he actually said is that he would really like was for some (non-token) Indian Americans to be a part of the boardroom so they could influence the Apu character going forward and that he would be receptive to advice and would even consider dropping the voicing of Apu if that was the general consensus. Considering he does the voice for like 30 characters in that show, dropping Apu is not exactly "resigning"...

Ok, so all he said was that he would be ok to be taken away from Apu, ya that is a long way from saying he would resign completely.

Matt Groening just gave the worst response yet. I still respect him, but damn. It's sad when the only one being reasonable about this is Hank Azaria (Apu's actor).

I agree with him. People need to stop being pussies.

@Jacanuk: who's saying that the old episodes should be edited?

That maybe true. But it doesn't stop the fact that he made the situation worse.

Eh, he's just tired of all the whiners and cry babies. Much respect, Matt.

Says the person endlessly complaining about people voicing an opinion they disagree with. Get some thick skin, snowflake.

Don't you make tons of threads in which you get all bent out of shape because you think folks are snowflakes?

If by "bent out of shape" you mean, utterly sick of the hypocrisy. Never once did I deny it on the left, but this particular case is a rather double edge sword. One side is late to the party, making it pointless. The other just comes off as unbearable in it's response.

Stuff like this is just calling for The Simpsons to finally get canned.

You call out people for being snowflakes. Matt Groening did the exact same thing. If you are utterly sick of hypocrisy, perhaps you shouldn't practice it.

And this isn't going to get the Simpsons canceled. The only thing that will do that is a dramatic slip in the ratings, and The Simpsons is currently trending up. You can kind of consider it rather strong evidence that folks who actually watch the show cares about this controversy.

Mass protest would likely mean the show goes on for another 30 years.

Yeah, in a one sided manner. Which is the case for the majority to damn near everything "snowflakes" (all apparently on the left, none apparently on the right, when again, double edged sword). That's the hypocrisy I'm sick of: one political side thinking they have the moral high ground over the other that claims the moral high ground and bash them otherwise, only for the former to look like the very thing they swore to destroy.

Besides that, never said it would end The Simpsons. But I am saying that stuff like this is begging for it to go. It's as the old saying goes "Die a hero, or live long enough to be a villain". Not even Seth MacFarlane (creator of Family Guy, American Dad, and The Orville) came off as this bad when he had a brief criticism of the left during the Michelle Wolf situation, and he's a staunch critic of the PC and conservatives.

I don't think you understand what that word means.

On the subject of the first paragraph: Neither side has the moral high ground, but both hypocritically claim to have it. I mean come on, these "snowflakes" might outrage The Simpsons right out of existence over Apu of all things. All the while claiming they are the aggrieved party, or that they are outraged on behalf of the aggrieved party.

And you want them treated with kid gloves. Heck, they are being treated with kid gloves, and you are saying it is still too harsh.

As for the second: They are already being treated with kid gloves. Just how gentle do you think folks should treat snowflakes now that you are defending their tender, delicate sensibilities.

"Kid gloves" by not... saying anything? That could've not doused the flames with freaking fuel mixed with napalm. And last I checked "kid gloves" are NEVER a thing when it came to "snowflakes". So, nice assumption there.

lol grow up.

They didn't douse the flames with fuel mixed with napalm. They very gently stated disagreement.

I mean come on. I would challenge you to be that gentle for a week, but we both know you couldn't do it.

Bringing it up and using social media to garner it more attention isn't what I call "gentle" at all.

I don't think you understand what that word means, snowflake.

I don't think you don't think that I don't think that you think that either one of us thinks.

They were facing a full media blitz, and you are upset because they responded gently on social media?

Whoever fights snowflakes should see to it that in the process he does not become a snowflake. And if you gaze long enough into wimpiness, the wimpiness will gaze back into you.

"Media blitz"? Whose coverage didn't come until later by the Daily Show and this terrible response? A media blitz would imply news outlets everywhere would be covering it. I never saw that besides the Trevor Noah interview up until this point, and post response, the Colbert interview with Azaria.

Again, if they had left it alone, the situation would've died. It didn't. Again, napalm and fuel to a blaze.

Do you have any idea what kind of people occupy social media nowadays? Again, not a gentle response. Nothing's gentle on the internet.

Your realize that the problem with Apu crowd has been going after the Simpsons on social media for months, right? Nothing is gentle on the internet also has to be one of the most snowflakey sentences ever written. Being gently rebuffed on the internet isn't akin to being douse with napalm, even metaphorically.

They have also been doing talk shows for months. They are trying to raise as much publicity as they can.

i agree too. should we also get rid of willie, krusty, fat tony, ned, the pizza guy, etc. oh wait they are white so you can't sterotype them.

Why is this the worst reply?

This is the best reply he could give and considering the show is now the longest ever and have spanned 30 years, I think he is entitled to tell this generation of "offended snowflakes" to be quiet.

Who is saying they should not be?

I mean if Apu offends he offends so you can´t come and say those old episodes are fine but new are not, especially not since old episodes are on repeat on most networks and shown around the world constantly,

@Jacanuk: Maybe I'm misreading your post, but you're in favor of editing the older episodes?

@Jacanuk: who's saying they shouldn't replace homer with a giant turtle? Nobody is because nobody was saying that should happen in the first place.

Not all TV shows get reruns and not all Simpson episodes do either. Are you seriously comparing not airing an episode of a TV show to altering the original copy of a work of art?

I am not in favour of altering anything. But what I am saying is that if they went and changed apu´s voice in future episodes that they should of course also change the previous episodes.

We are not talking about a tv-show that do not get reruns and if you look around the world Simpsons is probably one of the most aired and they usually buy seasons not single episodes and show them in sequence.

So does your side want to change apu or not?

Also clearly Simpsons is not art, or there would not be a single leftist "scam artist" trying to hatch onto Simpson's success.

@Jacanuk: I already said in this thread that I like Apu the way he is (or atleast was, I haven't seen the show in years)

Again there already are episodes of The Simpsons that don't get reruns and eventually all episodes will stop airing once it stops getting views. So why is not airing episodes of a TV show comparable to painting over the Mona Lisa?

Ok, so you are not onboard the "APU change train"

But answer this, do you consider The Simpsons art or not?

If you consider it Art, then you of course also know that any work is the artists and no artist with an ounce of respect for themselves would alter their art. "it would be like altering the Mona Lisa" because someone Italien was "offended" by something on the painting.

@Jacanuk: but nobody is saying they should alter the old episodes.

As for future episodes, characters change all the time and many are removed or killed off. The term flanderisation comes from The Simpsons. So what exactly would the problem be?

If I remember correctly, Apu wasn't even supposed to be Indian

I already answered the first one, so not sure why you are going down that road again. and same goes for future episodes.

Also, I think you misunderstood the term if you think it has something to do with the killing of characters, this is not GoT not to mention Apu is a key character in Simpsons so changing him would ruin that character completely

@Jacanuk: First off don't threaten me, I dont care if you know karate, you can't intimidate me.

Secondly like I said before you can't criticise someone for not saying that they don't think something. If nobody is saying that the old episodes should be changed, then it makes no sense to claim people want them changed.

Thirdly Apu isn't really a major character and also all the main characters have gone through drastic changes over the years. Lisa didn't use to be a vegetarian genius, Flanders wasn't a crazy religious bigot, and Homer wasn't nearly as dumb as he is now.

Eh? Threaten? Karate? Are you ok

Also, you seem to miss what I said, not sure if you do that on purpose or not, but as I said if the snowflakes want Apu changed, they, of course, mean in everything, not just future episodes otherwise there is no point in demanding the change.

Sure, the characters have changed their behaviour but they have not changed their voice actor, and the VA is as much a part of the character as anything.

@Jacanuk: you never said you weren't going to karate chop me into tiny pieces, which must mean you want to do that.

Then qoute someone saying they want the old episodes changed. If it's a thing people actually want it shouldn't be hard to find someone saying it.

There's no plans on having Apu voiced by someone else, what are you talking about?

LOL the first bit. Talk about misunderstanding what is being said by miles.

I have already explained why they would need to change the older episodes as well , so not going down that road again.

And what do you think they demand? why do you think Hank has volunteered to step down.

@nintendoboy16: Worst reply yet lol, it's the best one yet. The only thing that could have made it better would have been if he flipped off the so called offended babies and told them to F off. He pretty much nailed it with his response, nobody cared until some nobody made a fuss about it and people latched on just so they could be a part of something.

@Jacanuk: you haven't explained anything. All you've said is they don't like the character therefore they must want him removed from the old episodes, which is as big of a leap as me saying you don't like me therefore you want to challenge me to a karate fight. Itsutter nonsense. If you can't actually find anyone saying that they want the episodes altered then obviously they don't want that.

If the actor steps down from voicing him then they won't have the character in the show any more. They've always simply removed characters from the show when actors quit or die, what makes you think Apu would be any different?

I know I'm bumping an old thread, but Much Music is playing a Simpsons marathon right now and it's all episodes that features a scene with Apu. I love it when people do little things like this to speak out against SJW's.

Who needs the Kwik-E-Mart?

I doooooooooooo!

The real travesty is that Much crops the episodes from 4:3 into 16:9.

Genuinely triggers me

Yeah, not like every single episode from the first 10 seasons when Bart and Thrilho go for squishies.