NEW YORK 鈥� Growing up in New York in the 1980s, comedian Hari Kondabolu was like many young people. He watched The Simpsons and he adored The Simpsons. There was just one thing that bothered him about it.
Amid the fictional Springfield barflies, incompetent doctors, clowns and crazy eggheads was a truly cartoonish character 鈥� Apu, the Kwik-E-Mart clerk who sold expired food, ripped off customers and delivered the sing-songy slogan 鈥淭hank you, come again.鈥�
To Kondabolu and plenty of other people of South Asian heritage, the pot-bellied, heavily accented Apu led to real world bullying, self-loathing and embarrassment. Apu was one of the only Indian immigrants portrayed in popular culture and yet he was a buffoon.
鈥淭his character 鈥� the only representation that we have 鈥� led a lot of kids who were born and raised here to feel non-American,鈥� said Kondabolu. 鈥淚f you don鈥檛 nip racism in the bud from the beginning, it mutates and finds other ways of surviving.鈥�
Kondabolu, whose stand-up and podcasts have a socially conscious focus, is now fighting back with the documentary The Problem With Apu, airing on truTV on Sunday.
He hopes the film is as funny as it is illuminating 鈥� an important thing if you鈥檙e going to war with one of TVs most beloved animated institutions. 鈥淎s a comedian, if you鈥檙e going to kill joy, you better kill it with joy,鈥� he said.
The documentary features interviews with other performers of South Asian heritage, including Kal Penn, Aziz Ansari, Aasif Mandvi and Hasan Minhaj, who share their own distaste for Apu. Vivek Murthy, who became surgeon general of the United States, recalls being bullied in seventh grade by a kid using Apu鈥檚 accent.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not about him being funny. That鈥檚 not the issue. He鈥檚 a fundamentally flawed character, based through the lens of a stereotype. I think sometimes people confuse sometimes funny and wrong,鈥� Kondabolu said.
Kondabolu grew up in the diverse New York borough of Queens and was shocked to not see on film or TV what he saw on the streets every day. The message he got was that non-whites didn鈥檛 exist. He became so desperate to connect with anyone on TV that he found solace in the immigrant Balki from the sitcom Perfect Strangers.
Much of The Problem With Apu becomes like Michael Moore鈥檚 Roger & Me 鈥� an attempt to sit down with Hank Azaria, who has won three Emmy Awards for his work on The Simpsons, which includes voicing Apu since the first episode in 1989.
Kondabolu wants to know what inspired this white man to create Apu and why he鈥檚 continued. He also speaks to Whoopi Goldberg and W. Kamau Bell for a larger context of the way minorities are represented in media. (Azaria did not respond to a request from AP for comment.)
He remains a fan of the animated series. 鈥淵ou can love something and criticize it. I mean, I鈥檓 a Mets fan,鈥� he said, laughing. 鈥淲hen people criticize America, why do we assume that they hate it? I just want America to play better. I want 鈥楾he Simpsons鈥� to play better.鈥�
While he鈥檚 no Apu fan, Kondabolu is adamant he鈥檚 not looking to end The Simpsons or even remove Apu. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 see any point to killing him. What鈥檚 the point in killing him? To me, it鈥檚 lazy writing if they kill him. They鈥檙e 鈥楾he Simpsons.鈥� They鈥檙e supposed to write their way out of it,鈥� he said.
He remains a fan of the animated series. 鈥淵ou can love something and criticize it. I mean, I鈥檓 a Mets fan,鈥� he said, laughing. 鈥淲hen people criticize America, why do we assume that they hate it? I just want America to play better. I want The Simpsons to play better.鈥�
