It was all over the recent Apu controversy.
South Park has always had a grudging respect for The Simpsons. Most famously, there was the episode ‘Simpsons Already Did It’, where creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone basically admitted that the long-running show had done a lot of things first.
Their attitude seemed a little different last night though.
On the new episode ‘The Problem With A Poo’, which aired on Wednesday evening, South Park addressed the recent controversy over Apu.
A quick recap: last year, Indian-American comedian Hari Kondabolu released the documentary The Problem With Apu, which addressed the stereotyped way South Asians are portrayed in American movies and TV. In particular, he focused on the owner of Springfield’s Kwik-E-Mart, who is voiced by white actor Hank Azaria.
Since then, there have been calls for Apu to be retired from The Simpsons – but the show went on to address the controversy in very clumsy fashion in a recent episode, with Lisa saying: "Something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive is now politically incorrect... What can you do?"
Many thought that was the show ducking away from the problem – and now Trey Parker and Matt Stone have weighed in on the issue.
The new South Park episode is mostly a riff on the firing of Rosanne Barr, with Mr Hanky The Christmas Poo standing in for the comedian. It ends however with Mr Hanky leaving the town of South Park.
Stan asks "Where will he go?".
Randy replies: "He’ll have to find a place that accepts racist, awful beings like him. There are still places out there who don’t care about bigotry and hate".
It then cuts to Mr Hanky arriving in Springfield, where he is welcomed by Bart and Apu.
https://twitter.com/mattwilstein/status/1050213610461392896
It then ends with the message: #cancelthesimpsons
Now that's definitive.
