Akaash Singh's Defense of Apu

The thing that you find over time is that people understand you. They'll watch your podcast with Andrew and they've seen you guys for hundreds of hours. They know you. Right. So when you're talking, if you say something, if you misstep or if you say something that doesn't turn out to be that funny, they know what you're trying to do. They know you're not a vicious person. You're just trying to be funny. And you're never going to be perfect. This is the biggest opportunity in my life. I'm going to walk out here being like, I wish I said that one thing differently. Of course. Did you take any shit like you have this defensive Apu, which is a fucking hilarious bit. Thank you so much, man. Thank you. It's so dead on. It's like, why is that offensive? Why is that guy offensive? Does anybody give you a hard time about that? I'm getting some comments. And what I want to do, delineate, I think is the word like differentiate. Delineate. Delineate. Thank you. I'm not as smart as I should be. But what I want to differentiate is the difference between your hurt feelings and being oppressed. Your hurt feelings are valid. And if kids, kids made fun of me for it. That's valid. I can go talk to a therapist, but you're not fucking oppressed. And that's what I thought canceling Apu was. It was we think we're oppressed and we're not at all with that shit. Well there's a lot of things going on, right? Like first of all, there's a white guy doing the voice. Yeah. What's that dude's name? Henri Azaria, the fucking dope dude. Henri Azaria, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's my guy, bruh. He was on, what else was he on? Oh, he's done accent. He's in everything. Been a bunch on TV shows, right? He does a hilarious French accent and along came Polly that's so over the top and so ridiculous, but it's so funny. He's a guy that just does accents well. You're allowed to do French people though. Yeah. Because it's like they don't have extra melanin. They don't have extra melanin and I see how it's worse, but I also. What? This guy, the voice. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Dude, that's so fucking funny. Are you for Scuba? Yes, dude, it's so funny. Lou Ben. What is that movie in? Along came Polly. It's a movie most people hate, but I love. It's one of those romantic comedies, Jennifer Aniston, Ben Stiller. But he was, wasn't he in a sitcom? He's in. Probably. He's in everything. I just thought I understand the context with which The Simpsons was created. It was a show that came out in the late 80s. I didn't know any Indian actors, much less voiceover actors to do that voice. So he did it and then he brought it to life and I looked at The Simpsons and I said, this is the most three dimensional supporting character on that entire show. Everybody else is a static. Chief Wiggum is static. Moe is completely static. Barney's a drunk loser all the time. Apu is three dimensional and he evolves more than every character on that show, including The Simpsons. He gets married, he loses a business, gains a business, has kids, becomes a father. So I love that story. That's a beautiful story. He's the American dream on that show. Have they completely removed him from the show? He's gone from the show. And I think it's fucked because, dude, Apu, if it was voiced by a brown person, Apu is so many of our parents. And I don't mean that in the most respectful way. I used to always hear back in the heyday, people would say, The Simpsons represents every level of society. That's why the politician is a sleazebag and the billionaire is a corrupt fuck. And Apu, I really thought, whether they meant to or not, represented the American dream. He came to this country in search of a better life. He worked hard. He was mostly honorable and he built a fucking life. And that is our parents. And we should all be so proud of our parents. And it sucks that a white guy was doing the voice, but at the time, I don't think they had an option. He's doing 12 voices. They just threw him one extra. They didn't have a budget. And then he made it something. So I would say some of the jokes were a little hacky. You can evolve those, but you don't get rid of the guy completely. It was an overcorrection.