The Apu ‘Parody’
The Simpsons has overstayed its welcome, each successive season more flaccid than the last. It was revolutionary decades ago, priding itself on the sharpness of its satire, on being, as its writers insisted, an equal-opportunities offender. Except, as the Indian-American standup comic Hari Kondabolu pointed out in a recent documentary, for a long time Apu, the show’s lovable if ridiculously accented owner of the neighbourhood convenience store, was mainstream America’s only recognisable representation of the Indian immigrant. Apu became a playground insult, an excuse for the casual bullying of Indian American kids. The Simpsons creators responded to the social media controversy generated by Kondabolu’s documentary with a scene in an episode last week in which Lisa, the show’s most thoughtful, ‘progressive’ character, reflects on the ways in…
