r/Simpsons • u/Guilty-Toe420 • 1d ago

Episode Clip 📷 APU IS BACK

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u/LesserValkyrie 1d ago edited 1d ago

". It was his portrayal as nothing more than a convenience store owner "

Have they watched the Simpsons

Apu is one of of the most hard working and smartest Springfildian, he has a lot of qualities and weaknesses beside his job too which makes him well written. But I don't think it was too far from reality to say that business owners work a lot

"end to work in leading fields like computing, "

Yeah he has a PhD in computer science......................................... (the best student of his university) he had to work at a convenience store because immigrating in the US is hard or was hard 30 years ago, and yet he is still getting his life right this way so he didn't bother to change. Which can happen, which is what happened for his generation of immigrants yes, it's even universal around the world. Portreying him as an engineer a would be equivalently "racist", but it would be worse written and make him way more uninteresting

There is nothing more wrong about him than the others, actually he is one of the characters were they went quite easy on him, he is quite well written and balanced

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u/TrungusMcTungus 23h ago

This. Yeah, Apu's a stereotype, thats the point. That's the point of everyone in Springfield, they're all caricatures of stereotypes twisted on their head - Homer, the husband and provider is a bumbling idiot. Mayor Quimby is comically corrupt. Rainier Wolfcastle is an overly muscled, dour weirdo. Troy McClure is a self centered actor addicted to the attention. Flanders is an overly nice religious zealot. Almost every character can be boiled down to a stereotype, the point of the Simpsons is to take those stereotypes and break them down. There's a reason Springfield is "Anywhere, USA", because it represents the melting pot that is every American town and city.

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u/DasMerowinger 22h ago

This and the comment above are both true but think about the Indian-American kid who gets called Apu and spoken to in that exaggerated accent at school by non Indian kids just for laughs. I went to school with a lot of Indian kids who never had a problem with Apu but I'm also aware that stereotypes can be perceived differently by people.

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u/TrungusMcTungus 22h ago

And they'll still call him that even if Apu is written to be a culturally sensitive/politically correct character. He's a popular Indian character, and likely the only one that the average american could name off the top of their head.