The Simpsons
continues its unstoppable journey three decades after its inception, now adapting to new social demands.
Specifically, to a greater diversity in the cast of voices according to the ethnicity of the character.
Fox has just renewed the series for
two more seasons
- 33 and 34 - and that will allow it to exceed
750 episodes
and reach, at least, until 2023. But before that, it has had to respond to inclusion requests that it had ignored for years. .
The debate began in 2017 when comedian
Hari Kondabolu
, of Indian descent, called
Apu Nahasapeemapetilon
, an Indian neighbor of Springfield and owner of the Badulaque, a
racist
in his documentary
The Problem with Apu
.
According to Kondabolu and other fans of the series, the stereotypical and cartoonish portrayal of the character, with an exaggerated accent, was, in itself, a problem.
But, in addition, the actor who played him was American and white: the award-winning
Hank Azaria
.
The controversy spread to social networks and, a year later, specifically on April 8, 2018, the series itself addressed the issue in the chapter
No Good Read Goes Unpunished
.
"Something that started decades ago and was applauded and harmless is now politically incorrect. What can you do?" Lisa said in a speech that viewers uncomfortable with the topic found equally offensive.
After the broadcast
Al Jean
,
showrunner
of the series, said that he would try to find "an answer that is popular and, more importantly, right" to the Apu theme.
And the answer came last summer, in June 2020, when
The Simpsons team
announced that starting in season 32, no white actor would voice black, Latino or Indian characters.
Earlier, in January, Azaria had already confirmed that she would stop playing Apu.
But with this announcement Fox extended its resolution to other characters from
The Simpsons
, such as
Doctor Hibbert
or
Carl Carlson
, and from other series such as
Family Guy
.
A decision that followed the path started shortly before by
Netflix
and
Apple
, which did the same with their
Big Mouth
and
Central Park
animations
respectively.
Despite the famous predictability of
The Simpsons
, including the presidency of
Donald Trump
, the series team not only did not see coming the demands for greater inclusion and diversity that are demanded of Hollywood today, but they took years to respond to they.
In fact, the creator of the series,
Matt Groening
, does not seem to agree with these changes.
In 2018, Groening told
USA Today
, "I'm proud of what we do on the show. And I think we have a time in our culture where people love to pretend they're offended."
And just two weeks ago he softened the tone of his words, but repeated a similar message saying to the
BBC
: "Times change, but I really had no problem with the way we were doing it. All of our actors play dozens of characters, the intention was never to exclude anyone. "
Be that as it may, in its 32nd season,
The Simpsons
continues to be a hit series with a cumulative average audience of seven million viewers in the
United States,
according to Nielsen data.
So you can imagine a long life to the yellow family
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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