The Comedian Who Made ‘The Problem With Apu’ Responds To ‘The Simpsons’ Axing The Character

Ever since The Simpsons producer Adi Shankar revealed that, concerning the character Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, the show will “drop him altogether just to avoid the controversy,” tensions have flared. Devoted fans of the long-running animated series, supporters who profess seeing no issues with the character and detractors who claim otherwise have all been chiming in, and comedian Hari Kondabolu has been tagged in much of it. Why? Because his 2017 documentary The Problem with Apu exploded the subject.

As Kondabolu joked late Friday night on Twitter, “RIP Apu. RIP My Mentions.” Yet that wasn’t all the comic had to say about the matter, especially since many were asking for his thoughts about Skankar and company’s latest plan to circumvent the controversy altogether. In response to one person’s comment that “Deleting the character completely misses the point of how we need more South Asian representation to combat the fostered stereotypes,” Kondabolu agreed wholeheartedly. “There are so many ways to make Apu work without getting rid of him,” he tweeted. “If true, this sucks.”

Kondabolu also shared a few tweets from his followers that implored the comedian’s critics to at least watch the documentary before trolling him online, or blaming him for Apu’s demise. After all, as he told Uproxx when The Problem with Apu initially premiered, “You can still love something and be critical of it. Doing this doesn’t make you unpatriotic or less of a fan. I’m always willing to have that conversation.”