MEGA MEDIA PORTRAYALS

There has now been claims that Apu will be written out of the show. A Indian producer named Adi Shankar claimed in an interview that he has multiple sources telling him that the storekeeper will be quietly written out of the show in the near future. However, a response tweet from one of the show’s producers Al Jean states “Adi Shankar is not a producer on the Simpsons.  I wish him the very best but he does not speak for our show”.

When Apu first came to the Simpson’s and became a regular character in the show in the 90’s, this was seen as groundbreaking. There had really never been another South Asian character portrayed on a popular show like this on a major network. I just find it fascinating how times change that much that just 15 years ago people were just happy to have someone of South Asian descent on the show, and in 2018 they are trying to get the writers to take him off the show, and look like they are succeeding.

Although I am not an avid Simpson’s watcher as I have only seen a few episodes here and there, but I don’t remember Apu being that controversial of a character and being that stereotype that Kondabolu is talking about. I have seen way more episodes of Family Guy, American Dad, and South Park, and there have been plenty of jokes and jabs at racial stereotypes in those shows, but no backlash like the creators of The Simpsons are seeing right now.

The character Apu Nahasapeemapetilon from the long-running show “The Simpson’s” has recently been a subject of controversy for creating a stereotype of South Asian people. Apu is a shopkeeper and a fairly minor character in the show as he is not in every single episode, but is voiced by a white person doing an accent. Indian American comedian Hari Kondabolu brought this issue up in his documentary “The Problem With Apu” and included him as well as other Indian Americans talking about the way people perceived Apu and how that affected how other people as well as themselves thought about their own identities.

While watching episode 5 of season 7, I noted that Walter White had become not only cruel but also began to grow together with Heisenberg’s personality as he appears by his name not only because of the need to hide but also because he is proud of the new opportunities that he gets thanks to the reputation of the most dangerous distributor of drugs.

The primary evidence of the complete change of Walter White was shown in episode 13, which completed the 4th season. When I saw that this character was ready to blow up the whole hospital to get rid of Gus, I noted that he became a completely different person who has nothing to do with the hero from my first blog.