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Apu is offensive!

Started by Munch, November 16, 2017, 06:57:30 AM

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pr126

Every single character is a stereotype. Why pick on Apu?

It's a cartoon! Not real.


Cavebear

Quote from: pr126 on November 26, 2017, 05:43:12 AM
Every single character is a stereotype. Why pick on Apu?

It's a cartoon! Not real.

Actually, if you have seen any of the "future" episodes, none of the characters are very strereotypical.
Atheist born, atheist bred.  And when I die, atheist dead!

Shiranu

I realise this is half a year later, but I watched a video of Indian people reacting to various portrayals of Indians in media today and it really reminded me of this. It really puts alot of things in a perspective we as the majority don't get.

Note, it is from Buzzfeed, but I will say throughout the video you had several of the members disagreeing based on conservative and liberal viewpoints, so I would say as a whole the video was not slanted either left or right.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=px6NL-c_fD0
"A little science distances you from God, but a lot of science brings you nearer to Him." - Louis Pasteur

SGOS

I met a guy from India in Chicago through my sister.  He played the sitar and even performed part of a score in a Beatles song or movie.  I can't remember which.  But I just threw that in because it was interesting.  We were at this home, and at one point, he wanted to show us this video satire of an Indian man doing customer service.  You've seen the typical skit before.  I think this one came from SNL.  We were visiting and talking, and we agreed, although none of us were dying to see it at the moment.  But he wanted to show it to us right then, which seemed unnecessarily pushy. 

Maybe he just wanted to change the subject because we were debating his nutty wife, a doctor, on global warming, which she insisted was a hoax.  Granted this was long ago at a time when major industries were still denying it publically.  She was not of Indian decent, by the way.  She was true blue American Red Neck.  At one point, her husband rolled his eyes and interjected apologetically, "She's a Republican." Anyway, we watched the video, which seemed to delight him more than anyone else, although I did think it was funny, as a lot of SNL stuff often is.

I suppose, majorities don't all understand they are offensive, but some do.  On the other hand, not all minorities, Indians anyway, seem to take offense when made fun of.  SNL makes fun of people, situations, and stereotypes.  As a member of a majority, I should probably take offense when they make a mockery of my government, but I don't.  As a minority that I do belong to, the subset of non-believers, I take offense when some one makes fun of atheists, but it's not an overwhelming offensiveness where I want to start a national movement.  In time, atheists will become accepted, or killed, or just relegated as they are now to an annoying outsider group.  It's just the way it is.

Also, the Simpsons, outdo even SNL when it comes to making fun of anyone or anything.  I haven't watched it for years, but at one time, it was my favorite TV program.  Apu was cute, but not a major figure to me.  I liked him.  There was a certain believability about him.  His stereotype was immediately identifiable, and then they go on to Ned, whose stereotype was even more immediately identifiable.  Homer, Marge, Lisa, and Bart were stereotypes too, along with the guy that ran the nuclear power plant.

Baruch

Hate speech ... anything Liberals hate about free speech.

Aka ... must have a Commissar for Satire ... and you can't post anything, unless you get his/her permission first.  Would fit in right well with Commie Europe.  Even Commie Canada.  Not so much in the US.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Munch

'Political correctness is fascism pretending to be manners' - George Carlin

Shiranu

#51
Hey, at least one of us knows how to admit their source is biased and should be taken with some scepticism, even if multiple view points are presented.


Also didn't present it as fact like some people here do but just an interesting perspective. If you posted a video from Brietbart, Fox News, whoever, and it was just, "______ (Let's say conservatives) Opinion on ______ (say Muslims), I wouldn't have any problem with the validity of that, because it's very clearly an opinion. I might have a problem with the validity of what they say, but not the source sharing it.
"A little science distances you from God, but a lot of science brings you nearer to Him." - Louis Pasteur

Baruch

Quote from: Shiranu on July 24, 2018, 07:17:43 PM
Hey, at least one of us knows how to admit their source is biased and should be taken with some scepticism, even if multiple view points are presented.


Also didn't present it as fact like some people here do but just an interesting perspective.


*shrug*

All sources are biased, including posters themselves.  When are y'all going to implode from the unconsciousness of your self contradictions?
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Cavebear

Cartoon characters are sterotyped to make the plots easier to grasp.  It isn't just Apu, ALL of the Simpsons characters are equally stereotyped. 
Atheist born, atheist bred.  And when I die, atheist dead!

Mermaid

Like Groundskeeper Willie?
A cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness to criticise work which the critic himself never tries to perform, an intellectual aloofness which will not accept contact with life’s realities â€" all these are marks, not as the possessor would fain to think, of superiority but of weakness. -TR

Baruch

Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

PickelledEggs

I can't believe this shit is still going on lol

Every person I know that moved from India after the age of 20 or so sounds like apu. Not exactly, of course. But with apu's type of accent.

And yes, "not all bla bla bla" the people that sound like the rest of the United States population... they were fucking either born here or moved here earlier in their lives.


Guess what. I had neigbors that were indian. They moved here in their mid to late 20s, probably their 30s and guess who they sounded like? Apu. Their son, my friend of course did not, but he still had some accent things going on. He worked REALLY hard to get rid of them, but they were there for a long while. For instance, when he tried to pronounce "van" he pronounced it "wan".  My friends grandparents that lived there with them even had THICKER accents.

*but pickelledeggs, what about the fact that they have him working a convenience store?*
yeah? what about it? Almost every single convenience store, with the exception of 1 in my area is run by thick accented indians. Not going to say that i have anything against that, but it's just a fact. The convenience stores, at least near me, are run by indians that all have thick indian accents like Apu's...

So no, Apu isn't doing any damage to anything. It's just a fucking character. In fact, it's probably one of the least offensive characters in that show

PickelledEggs

I should add that I have nothing against Indians at all.

well... except maybe the fact that they use cashews a lot in their cuisine.... I'm allergic to nuts

Baruch

Quote from: PickelledEggs on July 25, 2018, 09:13:03 PM
I should add that I have nothing against Indians at all.

well... except maybe the fact that they use cashews a lot in their cuisine.... I'm allergic to nuts

And yet you hang out here ;-)
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

PickelledEggs

Quote from: Baruch on July 25, 2018, 09:25:09 PM
And yet you hang out here ;-)
I'm trying to build up my tolerance