Last night,The Simpsons offered itstepid reply.
The scene began with Marge reading a bedtime story to Lisa that had been neutered with social justice buzzwords.
“What am I supposed to do?”
Credit: FOX (2)
Marge asks when Lisa complains.
“Something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive is now politically incorrect.
What can you do?”
“If it all,” Lisa concludes.
There’s something about the response that came across as not only tasteless but viscerally unsatisfying.
inThe Problem with Apu.
“We just were underrepresented.
We didn’t have any other representation in this country.
Kondabolu revealed a particularly eye-opening tidbit in his documentary about the origin of the Apu character.
And so the accent stayed.
It’s something Kondabolu pressedSimpsonswriter Dana Gould on in his documentary.
There are plenty of portrayals of Italian Americans on screen.
There are plenty of films ofexclusivelyItalian American characters, and these are mainstream films that win Academy Awards.
And to make it even more heartbreaking, they put the words in the mouth of Lisa Simpson.
Lisa Simpson would not bemoan social justice the way, say, a wealthy middle-aged white male writer might.
In season 5, Lisa was outraged that her talking Malibu Stacy doll came with ditzy catchphrases.
“They cannot keep making dolls like this,” Lisa declared at dinner.
“Something has to be done!”
Her identity was stalwart, her convictions and self-confidence challenged but never broken.
would be exactly the throw in of thing Lisa in her unfailing idealism would do.
“That’s shitty.
That’s bad that I did that,” Bob-Waksberg said.
The moment in last night’s episode was so defensive it was almost calcified.
