As we’ve mentioned before, The Simpsons doesn’t seem to be sure of what to do with Apu Nahasapeemapetilon.
The propieter of the Kwik-E-Mart can still occasionally be seen on the show (most recently in post-apocalyptic skeleton form) but he hasn’t actually said anything since way back in 2017, which was the same year when Hari Kondabolu released his documentary The Problem with Apu.
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The doc famously argued that the character, an Indian-American stereotype voiced by a white actor, was basically the cartoon equivalent of minstrelsy. And in 2018, actor Hank Azaria revealed that he was willing to “step aside” from the role.
The show itself responded to the controversy by essentially shrugging its shoulders in a scene that implied that the problem would be dealt with at a later date “if at all.” Worse, this backwards opinion was expressed by Springfield’s only progressive moralist, Lisa Simpson.
“They could have just said, go to hell, Hari Kondabolu, and at least it would have been more direct,” Kondabolu said in a 2023 interview. “But it was very untrue to the character of Lisa. Lisa would have agreed with me. That’s just – that’s betraying the character.”
At least the show’s producers never tried to retroactively change Apu into a white character – but now some fans are worried that they’re currently doing exactly that.
A viral social media post revealed that an old photo of The Be Sharps from Season Five’s “Homer’s Barbershop Quartet” has been modified to lighten Apu’s hair and skin color, erasing his original identity and seemingly turning him into a white character.
But the image isn’t actually from The Simpsons, it’s from the newly-released Simpsons-themed Fortnite season and, as TheGamer points out, the depiction of Apu was, apparently, just a big screw-up.
The photo can be seen hanging inside of Moe’s Tavern to the right of the Love Tester. But Apu, as we remember him, can be clearly seen in a nearby photo of the “Pin Pals” bowling team. And it, too, features a coloring error (Otto’s hair is brown instead of black). Also, Barney’s hair in the Be Sharps image is randomly grey.
And it should go without saying that whatever appears in Fortnite is not necessarily representative of what’s going to happen in the show. Like, we probably shouldn’t expect to get an episode in which a machine gun-toting Marge murders strangers while leaping off of Ned Flanders’ roof.
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