Op-Ed: “The Simpsons” Should Not Recast “Apu” And Hank Azaria Should Consider Leaving The Show For Good And Forfeit His Emmy Wins

 

 

 

We’ve got politics, we’ve got disease, we’ve got a litany of things way more pressing than The Simpsons, but sure, let’s continue to make a cartoon character a hot-button issue for 2020. As Hank Azaria’s interview with The New York Times continues to send waves, more specifically why he’s dropping the “Apu” character, talk of what to do about the character’s future is in full-swing.

The Hollywood Reporter, whom former Deadline editor Nikki Finke noted “The Hollywood Reporter rumor-mongers inaccurately about the business of Hollywood and gorges on celebrity bullshit.” , posted a reaction article from the normal talking heads from this movement to drop “Apu” featuring the likes of The Problem with Apu producer Hari Kondabolu, Snigdha Sur, and Adi Shankar, who made waves a while ago in trying to recruit South Asian producers to come up with an original episode of The Simpsons. Unfortunately for him, it didn’t work because nobody entered into the contest (Full disclosure: while I haven’t met him, I actually do like Adi quite a lot, but he’s incorrect on this issue).

The article from THR makes the argument that a new actor should be the voice of Apu moving forward. I am a staunch advocate against this for two reasons:

1) With what Hank is saying about his inspirations for the character including “Hrundi Bakshi”, a character portrayed by Peter Sellers in brownface makeup that he now deems a “blindspot”, are we now to call Peter Sellers a racist for portraying that character? Ironically, Amitabh Bachchan’s character Arjun Singh in the 1982 Bollywood blockbuster Namak Halaal took inspiration from the Sellers character!  Peter Sellers was a comedic deity in his era at a time when comedy was dangerous. Statues should be made in his honor and just like Hank Azaria isn’t a racist for portraying “Apu”, Peter Sellers certainly wasn’t for his portrayal of “Hrundi Bakshi.”

2) If people are that bent out of shape about “Apu” so much so that people are calling for a recast of the character, then I’m fine with eliminating the character altogether instead of getting a new voice portrayal. Why? Because replacement voices for known characters almost never work.  Just like Mark Hamill is “The Joker” just like Kevin Conroy with “Batman”, you can’t just use anybody to replace voices. This is seen evident with Grey Delisle’s attempt to replace the voices once portrayed by Russi Taylor on The Simpsons. I’m sorry to say, and I mean this with the utmost respect to Grey who is a wonderful actor, the voice portrayals are just not working and new characters should have just been inserted in their place. Likewise, if you kids cancel “Apu”, go for it. He will forever me a martyr for the cause against censorship and freedom of expression. And if Hank Azaria is too afraid to portray “Apu” anymore, then he should return the 1998 Emmy he won for the character and then consider ending his affiliation with the show entirely. Because if Hank really thinks that the writers and producers of The Simpsons have racist hearts despite having been there for 30 seasons, then Hank obviously has forgotten about the spirit of The Simpsons and the definition of leading-edge comedy.

For me, the preferred route would be for Hank to continue to portray the lovable “Apu” for generations to come regardless of any calls-to-action. This is comedy television and it’s supposed to be dangerous. This is why when someone like a Dana Schwartz makes false and unwarranted claims against South Park’s fanbase, the producers stay quiet, probably add her name to a book of plot ideas for the upcoming season, and move on. Because if The Simpsons listened to every religious group, every conservative movement, and every PC barb thrown at them, then this show would not have lasted as long as it has.

The Simpsons is all-new this Sunday Night @ 8 pm ET./PT, only on FOX.