Apu Nahasapeemapetilon is back on The Simspons . The Sunday special episode of the world’s longest-running sitcom surprised viewers with a major resurrection: Apu, the beloved Kwik-E-Mart operator who had not been heard for the better part of a decade, spoke once again in Springfield.
The actor stepped away from the role after the documentart, continuing to voice other characters on the show. After this, Apu was largely only seen on the Simpsons, and even those sporadic appearances diminished in the tears since. The show then recast two Black characters, Carl Carlson and Dr. Julius Hibbert, with Black actors.
In 2020, in response to racial reckoning demonstrations, The Simpsons announced it would no longer cast white voice actors as characters of color.
Apu had been voiced by voice-over artist and comedian Hank Azaria for over two decades prior to being exiled from the screen around 2018. Apu was introduced in The Simpsons in 1990 as an Indian convenience store clerk. In The Problem With Apu, a 2017 documentary, comedian Hari Kondabolu interviewed a slew of celebrities of South Asian origin, including Kal Penn, Utkarsh Ambudkar and Hasan Minhaj, about growing up with the character.
His family was introduced in the subsequent seasons. The Halloween -themed Treehouse of Horror episodes of The Simpsons have been known to bring characters back from the dead. This time, it did so figuratively. Apu and his wife Manjula are back on the show, but with new voices. Indian American actors Sunil Malhotra and Janina Gavankar voice the couple now. “Bringing Apu back feels like a reclamation. Over the years, he became a staple of the show, and a beloved pop culture figure. However, many critics pointed out that Apu was a painful stereotype for some South Asian Americans. Hank Azaria himself admitted that the portrayal was a caricature.
They shared memories of being bullied and called “Apu” as an insult. It truly IS his homecoming,” the two actors said on Sunday in a joint Instagram post.
