Dead Homer Society

10 Responses to “Quote of the Day”

1. 1 Cal

   17 November 2017 at 7:17 pm

   Are you planning to review/talk about that documentary “The Problem with Apu”? Your opinion might be the only one I’ll trust.

   (I was listening to NPR and some critic played the Ganesha clip from “Homer the Heretic” and dismissed it as unfunny and I briefly fantasized being in that studio and punching the stupid out of him.)
   • 2 Lucille Bryant

     20 November 2017 at 8:48 am

     What, the part where Homer tries to feed Apu’s Ganesha statue a peanut, then says, “No offense, Apu, but when they were handing out gods, you were probably out taking a whiz” (line may not be accurate)? I mean, yeah, it can be kind of insensitive, but (a) what isn’t these days, and (b) it’s more hilarious than insensitive.
     • 3 Cal

       25 November 2017 at 1:30 am

       It was the whole scene, up to the part where Apu kicks Homer out of the Kwik-E-Mart for being disrespectful but still says, “Thank you come again.” The critic seemed to think Apu was being mocked when it was clear to me that the writers thought Homer was in the wrong, clearly emphasized at the end of the episode.
   • 4 jbwarner86

     20 November 2017 at 10:47 am

     That “taking a whiz” line is hilarious, but it’s in no way meant to be offensive towards Hinduism. If anything, it’s meant to be offensive towards an idiot like Homer, who made his own “religion” based on wasting his Sundays on the couch in his underwear watching football and reading Playdude, and gets so wrapped up in it that he criticizes other people’s actual religions. The joke isn’t that Hinduism is stupid, it’s that Homer is stupid.

     Now, that’s not to say that anyone who takes offense at a character like Apu is invalidated. If someone objects, we should hear them out. Though I don’t doubt the Simpsons writers mean no offense at all through the character of Apu, it is possible to offend unintentionally out of ignorance rather than malice. I don’t think it would hurt the writers to listen to a different viewpoint and maybe see if there’s something they could be doing better.
     • 5 Bleeding Gums Murphy

       20 November 2017 at 1:17 pm

       The point is, even if the writers had good intentions, Apu represented an entire race for nearly nine years, and Manjula was less of a character than many other one-time female characters like Allison Taylor or Lurleem Lumpkin. Moe, Skinner, Wiggum, they might be stereotypes, but they don’t represent all whites, and making stereotypes about whites is way safer than making stereotypes about non whites. No one will kill you in the U.S. for being white. And that’s just one part of the many problems with The Simpsons (the ableist jokes, including Grampa’s senility, or the (trans)misogynystic stuff, the bigger focus on Homer and Bart even when Marge/Lisa are harmed or are the voice of reason because a lot of time the show spends time in Homer/Bart apologizing than in makinng clear the Simpsons women were right, etc). It’s worse in The Simpsons’ case because the show had inmunity from network interference, and while I understand where these writers came from (Alf, etc), it hasn’t aged as well as I would like.

       You can love something and still being critical of it, and I think the documental will put attention on the difference between good intentions and the social impact. I’m excited about it.
       • 6 David Abell

         24 November 2017 at 12:32 am

         Hmmm…. no one is killing you in the US for being Indian either… Last I looked we have laws against that plus added penalties for “hate crimes”…

         The idea you can only make “safe” jokes leads to not making jokes at all (ask Jerry Seinfeld about it) and it leads to many unfunny (or missed) moments in the Simpsons who quit being politically incorrect a long time ago…

         The fact the show wasn’t interfered by the network is why they were able to be politically incorrect and thus hilarious in many, many cases…

         You seem to confuse The Simpsons with a How To Run Your Society… It’s the same mistake its critics made when confusing it with a How Your Family Should Be Like…
         • 7 Steamed Hams

           24 November 2017 at 10:39 am

           Well it all boils down to one question: would you rather live in a world where we’ve eliminated as much ugliness & negativity from it as possible but in the process eliminated so much beauty & positivity that nobody can move an inch unless licensed or authorized to, or would you rather see a world in which, while everyone’s free to contribute as much beauty & positivity to it, also wind up being allowed to contribute some ugliness & negativity to it as well?
           • 8 Bleeding Gums Murphy

             24 November 2017 at 5:10 pm

             What a bunch of simplistic analysis and intentional misinterpretation of my comment you two are making.
             • 9 Cal

               25 November 2017 at 1:33 am

               Your comment was not well argued or based in serious analysis.
               • 10 Bleeding Gums Murphy

                 25 November 2017 at 10:26 am

                 Ah, now we act like children.

                 “THAT’S NOT WHAT YOUR MOM SAID!!!11”