So Long, Springfield

“Something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive” – to quote the Simpsons – might have been how the producers saw it, but the biggest problem they have now is that the people who were offended and have been for decades are being heard. Maybe they are the ones who should stop complaining. 

My childhood was one where I grew up watching The Simpsons. My family was a Disney family, so we watched animation all the time. Add the myriad of PBS shows that were cartoons, and shows like The Simpsons weren’t that much different, especially since my parents loved the yellow-skinned family from Springfield. Of course, watching them as a kid is much different than watching them as a young adult, but the show had been close to my heart for years. And the best episodes and moments of the show still hold an insurmountable power. Hell, after an emotionally taxing week earlier this month, I watched the scene from a Season 2 episode where Bart breaks into tears after failing a must-pass test on two different occasions, and I cried both times.

Of course, it was unmistakable that the show was on a decline for years, but this recent controversy about how they dealt with the fallout from the documentary The Trouble With Apu might be the final breaking point where we needed to let go of the show once and for all. Full disclosure: I haven’t seen the documentary, which follows comedian Hari Kondabolu (who is Indian-American) as he confronts the dilemma of loving the show that also features the shopkeeper of the Kwik-E-Mart and the stereotype that Apu engenders. However, as the documentary and others have pointed out, the danger of Apu isn’t just that he’s a blatant stereotype: Since the representation of South Asians at the time The Simpsons came out was so dire, Apu was pretty much the only representation of that community, which lead to racist attitudes and mockeries of that community for years.

Nowadays, representation is much better for South Asians onscreen, whether it’s Mindy Kaling or Kumail Nanjiani or any of the other actors and entertainers that have flourished in the last decade or so. That doesn’t mean Apu or The Simpsons have gotten better about it. Then again, The Simpsons never had the best track record when it comes to race. Not counting the fact that Apu and Carl Carlson are both voiced by Hank Azaria and Dr. Hibbert is voiced by Harry Shearer, the show’s depictions of other cultures have ranged from the truly over-the-top to the downright uninformed.

However, Kondabolu’s confrontation about Apu isn’t coming from a place of righteous indignation like you could expect from Social Justice Warriors. Instead, Kondabolu (like many of us) is a fan of The Simpsons and just wants the show to confront that problematic part of the show.

Which is what makes the decision to respond to the controversy in a recent episode is so disheartening. Reading about it from other pundits beforehand actually is the best route to go, since it prepares you for the shocking clip of Lisa and Marge basically poo-pooing the entire controversy. That the show chose to have Lisa be the translator of the thoughts and feelings of the show’s creative team (especially given the pattern of the show’s treatment of Lisa) is bad enough, but their response is so deeply defensive, they manage to become truly offensive. It’s not only that the team behind The Simpsons deliberately chose to deal with the controversy as they did and thus showing how little they care about fixing it; they also give the equivalent of the shrug emoji, wondering what’s to be done despite the fact that other outlets like Warner Bros eventually confronted their racist past and made amends for it.

Which is how this can only be the last straw in allowing The Simpsons to continue as it is. Despite there being funny isolated moments and even decent episodes that manage to pop up, the depths of the decline of The Simpsons are shocking in how much the show has run out of steam. A season premiere from several years ago hyped the death of a Simpsons character. Like, really hyped. Despite the speculation, the character they killed off was so minor that if they did nothing to promote it, it might be worth a minute of water cooler conversation but nothing that deserved the promotion it did. Another episode finally dealt with Mr. Smithers being gay, something that was widely speculated even when others argue that he only has eyes for his despicable yet iconic boss. Yet the episode that came from it was so under-cooked, it never even entered the oven. It’s hard to tell whether The Simpsons became mired in contempt or indifference.

And yet…there’s a reason why so many people, including myself, hold onto The Simpsons as we do. This isn’t just another landmark show; this is a show that has produced some of the best television of the last three decades. One that has moments so touching, it can bring tears to a celebrity like Ricky Gervais; and one that continues to inspire memes upon memes on the Internet, especially a recent one involving “steamed hams” (which coincidentally are a real thing).

The influence of The Simpsons also cannot be overstated. It’s hard to think that shows like King of the Hill, Family Guy, South Park, Bob’s Burgers, and many other shows would exist today if it wasn’t for the inhabitants of Springfield opening that door in the first place. Yet, most of the shows mentioned above didn’t present any great threat to the undisputed place that The Simpsons held. King of the Hill was more grounded in reality, giving it a greater slice-of-life feel and humor that made it more grounded than The Simpsons. And both Family Guy and South Park not so much challenged The Simpsons so much as took its blueprint to its logical conclusion. Both shows aimed to be so vulgar and crass as they possibly could, that it gave the more restrained Simpsons a veneer that lasted up until a certain point.

However, shows like Bob’s Burgers prove that the torch can justifiably be passed on to a new generation. On matters of race and such, though, there are still issues when it comes to voicing characters with actors that correlate. With Bob’s Burgers, it’s hit-and-miss with casting actors to characters that correlate with their race and the fact that their transgender characters are voiced by cisgender actors (for example, white cisgender male actor David Herman as recurring favorite Marshmallow, a black transgender female character) grates on the nerves, even though the gender-bending of some of the characters such as Dan Mintz voicing the beloved Tina Belcher is fantastic. And with Bojack Horseman, the creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg confronted a similar issue with casting a white actress (Alison Brie) as the half-Vietnamese Diane Nyguen, but responded in a manner that was infinitely more honest than what The Simpsons had to offer.

What matters is that these shows had dealt with this same issue (or have the opportunity to do so) and be honest about it. What was asked of The Simpsons wasn’t much, but the show couldn’t even accomplish that relatively small gesture to the zeitgeist. By failing to understand the changed times, the show has somehow locked itself into a time capsule. In that case, it’s best for the show to be there, where we can cherish it and finally let go of the bad relationship we’ve been stuck in.

So long, Springfield.