Simpsons and Apu ?

[#1]

[#2]

I haven't watched many Simpsons episodes to be fair, but would agree that Apu is a stereotype, but in fact, every character in the Simpsons is a stereotype - the slob dad, the scatty mum, the bolshy teenage son, the nerdy daughter, the bartender - every one is a stereotype. That's how the show builds its humour. It takes one or two traits and then exaggerates them.

You might just as well get angry because it portrays all white working class American men as fat stupid slobs. Of course it's not true (mostly)

[#3]

That's true - and then you've got the criminal, the comic shop guy (my friend used to visit them), the clever nerd at school.

It's going to get to a stage where the PC Brigade ban Tom and Jerry from being shown on TV as it may encourage any cats watching to harm mice.

Mind you not that ours need much encouragement anyway.

[#4]

Quite often, in American cartoons and films the criminal or the bad guy often has an English accent such as Snake and Sideshow Bob in The Simpson's.

Always wondered why that is. 

[#5]

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@Minivanman wrote:

the bad guy often has an English accent.

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I'm ok with that as it's usually a posh accent. And they often are the bad guys.

[#6]

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@Minivanman wrote:

the bad guy often has an English accent such as Snake

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Errm, not quite:

[#7]

@twocvbloke

No?

[#8]

Snake isn't English, he's american, with a "California surfer dude" accent, as depicted in the video...

[#9]

I need to wash my ears out then because he sounds English to me. Maybe I have lived in Wales for too long! 

[#10]

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@Minivanman wrote:

Maybe I have lived in Wales for too long! 

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Probably so...

[#11]

Well I did a little Googling and you are spot on, but it also seems that others are confused and that some like myself thought it was an English accent. 

So lets hear it from Sideshow Bob 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKXtv2_IaCY

[#12]

Yeah, he's supposed to be English, though he is played by Kelsey Grammar, who is basically a posh american...

[#13]

Posh American ? 

[#14]

Yes, he plays one quite well (E.G. Frasier Crane in Cheers & later his own self-titled series), well-educated and articulate, with a lot of snootiness & superiority, so, a posh american...

[#15]

a Update

The Simpsons: Not all Indians think Apu is a racist stereotype

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-44027613