Just three episodes into its new season, South Park has already taken shots at Black Panther, the Catholic Church, school shootings, Brett Kavanaugh, Roseanne Barr, and several others, including its long-time animated rival, The Simpsons.
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Over the last year or two, The Simpsons has come under some serious fire for the character of Apu, an Indian immigrant that speaks with a stereotypical accent, runs a convenience store, and is voiced by white actor Hank Azaria.
While Apu has long been a part of The Simpsons recurring cast, South Park has finally decided to address the rival’s issue head-on, throwing the FOX series under the bus in the most devastating way possible.
The new episode, “The Problem With a Poo,” spends a lot of time painting Mr. Hankey, the Christmas poo, as the town racist. After a series of Roseanne Barr-inspired tweets, and a Brett Kavanaugh hearing, Hankey is driven out of South Park. As they watch him leave, one of the boys asks, “Where will he go?”
Randy responds to the children by saying, “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.”
As the quote concludes, the camera reveals the town of Springfield, where The Simpsons takes place. All of The Simpsons characters are standing in the town square when Mr. Hankey arrives with his patented “Howdy, Ho!”
Of course, the one character to enter the screen and greet Hankey is Apu, complete with his stereotypical accent. The screen then goes black and brings up a lone hashtag, asking for The Simpsons to be cancelled, mirroring the new season’s advertising strategy. You can watch the ending scene in the video at the top of the page.
The writing as on the wall for this to be addressed, though very few actually caught it beforehand. Read the title of the episode out loud. “The Problem With a Poo.” The documentary that really brought the issues with The Simpsons‘ portrayal of Apu was aptly titled The Problem With Apu.
New episodes of South Park air on Wednesday nights at 10 pm ET on Comedy Central.
