The Simpsons :Channel 4

[Yakumo]

Yeah that's the idea in a comedy, which seems to be lost on the political correctness brigade. Still we live in a age where Ann Robinson was be reported to the Police, for so-called Racist Comments against the Welsh on the Weakest Link.
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Ann Roberts was reported to the Police for racist comments against the Welsh? WTF! It sure is crazy. God knows how Blazing Saddles is still on sale then. Every race in that movie are under the racist gun but its so funny. The whites are either dumb as **** or caniving sods in that movie but man, it's funny laughing at them.
It's comedy. Now straight up hurtful racism is out right wrong. That should never be tolerated by anyone. Ever saw Richard Prior live? Holly crap, he was as racist as they came but I still think he's funny.

[Neon Ignition]

Given the nature of the show being animated, who knows why they didn't just opt to recast the voice unless they wanted to avoid setting an example that would lead them to them needing to accurately recast every ethnicity given white americans broadly cover most the characters. As it is, like DT says, those wanting the 'black facing' of Apu to end have potentially achieved that goal but with the expense of sort being that it's lead to their removal making the show that little bit more 'white' orientated

[Asura]

Given the nature of the show being animated, who knows why they didn't just opt to recast the voice unless they wanted to avoid setting an example that would lead them to them needing to accurately recast every ethnicity given white americans broadly cover most the characters. As it is, like DT says, those wanting the 'black facing' of Apu to end have potentially achieved that goal but with the expense of sort being that it's lead to their removal making the show that little bit more 'white' orientated

They should just replaced Apu, and may do, for all we know. Like didn’t they replace “comic book guy” with a “cool geek” character years ago because he’d become an outdated stereotype?

[Dogg Thang]

Yep or replaced characters when their actors left or died. I totally agree with you, Asura. Like I say, I get it. But I don’t like the precedent of having people fired for internet outrage.

The main issue is one of longevity. If you look back at any 30 year old show, you would expect the tone of the world to have changed since then. Some jokes won’t be funny any more, some would be straight out wrong. The world changes. That’s expected and it’s a good thing. Even within much shorter runs, most live action shows would change with it as characters get old and cast changes. Even in just 11 seasons or whatever, Cheers changed. MASH changed hugely. Friends raises a few eyebrows for its jokes. And those shows ended and new shows came along each one reflecting the day it was created. But The Simpsons as animation hasn’t progressed the same way and has survived too long, still retaining elements that were locked down 30 years ago.

But yeah, just replacing the character seems like the best solution I guess. Or just acknowledging that the show’s time has passed and letting it go.

[Team Andromeda]

Ann Roberts was reported to the Police for racist comments against the Welsh? WTF! It sure is crazy. God knows how Blazing Saddles is still on sale then. Every race in that movie are under the racist gun but its so funny. The whites are either dumb as **** or caniving sods in that movie but man, it's funny laughing at them.
It's comedy. Now straight up hurtful racism is out right wrong. That should never be tolerated by anyone. Ever saw Richard Prior live? Holly crap, he was as racist as they came but I still think he's funny.

Yes some sad Welsh loser reported her to the Police after she took the pee out any Welsh contestants and so he reported her for hate crime. In this day and age Harry Enfield and chums is a racist comedy, Mario needs to be voice by an actual Italian and Sonic by a real Hedgehog

[Neon Ignition]

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/entertainment/tv/the-simpsons-faces-uncertain-future-due-to-forthcoming-disney-fox-merger/ar-BBSCNrh?li=BBoPWjQ&ocid=iehp

Reports that Simpsons is to get a renewal for Season 31 and Season 32 is emerging but it's interesting to hear how the show may have a limited life as part of the Disney family beyond that as it's a loss maker Fox and has survived due to a series of financing and merchandising arrangements that won't apply anymore soon.

[Neon Ignition]

http://www.darkhorizons.com/fox-renews-simpsons-scraps-24-reboot/

Well, that renewal for Season 31 and Season 32 is now official which will take the show past its 700th episode. Now the wait to see if the rest of the rumour pans out as true

[Neon Ignition]

"The Simpsons" Retires Homer-Bart Gag - Dark Horizons
Homer strangling Bart has been officially retired

[Yakumo]

It's a bloody cartoon. How on earth can people connect this with real life? Do you see people dropping pianos on the heads of people during the golden age of Warner Bros cartoons? Nope, I don't think so.

[Lebowski]

Hate to play devils advocate but when Simpsons started and where it did well was that despite it being a cartoon it was very firmly grounded in reality, those first few season worked well as homer was just a bum trying to support his family and failing, it looked at some quite interesting family dynamics not seen in a TV program before, so i can see why they wanted to remove this gag as it could be seen as normalizing child abuse.

[Neon Ignition]

‘The Simpsons’ Co-Creator Says Homer Will Keep On Strangling Bart – Deadline

[Asura]

They've changed a lot of stuff. I heard that Apu is no longer part of the cast? I think they only use him in crowd scenes/background scenes.

Apparently there are too many people in the US with Indian (or geographically similar) heritage who spent their childhood being called "Apu" by bullies, and adults who get it from people in their daily lives; and they see his exaggerated Indian accent as similar to offensive Chinese accents that are largely retired from pop culture at this point.

Honestly I can see it, especially the latter.

[wakka]

Just culture war outrage bait.