Just when Simpsons voice Hank Azaria seemed to turn a corner on the Apu controversy, creator Matt Groening drags us right back. The longtime producer accuses viewers of “pretending” the character is more offensive than they actually believe.
Days after The Simpsons tried to address criticisms of Apu, showrunners have acknowledged their mistake. Writer Al Jean promises the long-running animated comedy will find a better way to address the character’s controversial history, and hopefully stay “popular.”
It’s been months since comedian Hari Kondabolu laid out The Problem With Apu, and The Simpsons at last responds. A short aside from Sunday’s latest sees Lisa brushing off the stereotype controversy as “something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive,” and unlikely to be changed.
As often as The Simpsons predicts reality, America’s favorite family can sometimes make their own. Such is the case with a perfectly cromulent new addition to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, dating all the way back to a 1996 Simpsons episode.
Thousands of years from now, alien archaeologists will come to one inescapable conclusion: The Simpsons dictated humanity’s every advance. The latest evidence is none other than today’s giant Disney-Fox merger, which America’s favorite family jokingly predicted in 1998.