'Little America' is a Love Letter to Immigrants

Things to Know From Angry Asian America



Little America
Inspired by the true stories featured in Epic Magazine, and produced by the likes of Kumail Nanjiani and Alan Yang, Little America is a new anthology scripted series that tells funny, romantic, heartfelt and surprising stories about immigrants who come to the United States from all over the world. It's a marvelous series that premieres today on Apple TV+. I particularly enjoyed "The Grand Prize Expo Winners," written and directed by Tze Chun, and "The Manager," directed by Deepa Mehta and written by Rajiv Joseph.

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Evelyn Yang reveals she was sexually assaulted by her OB-GYN
Evelyn Yang, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang, revealed for the first time she was sexually assaulted by her gynecologist when she was pregnant with her first child in 2012. In an interview with CNN, Yang said she kept the assault a secret, and only told her husband many months after their son was born. She said she decided to go public now after being moved by stories from voters she met on the campaign trail.

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Andrew Yang Explains Why the Democratic Debate Was So White
Andrew Yang didn't hit the required thresholds set by the Democratic National Committee to participate in Tuesday night’s presidential debate, which left only white candidates onstage in Iowa. On Wednesday's episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Yang offered his explanation for the whiteness of the debate: "What I said at the debate before this one [is that] fewer than 5% of Americans donate to political campaigns. You need disposable income to contribute to campaigns, and you need some form of security in order to run for office. So what happened on the stage last night reflects the inequities and realities in our economy."

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Apu Will No Longer Be Voiced By Hank Azaria
Hari Kondabolu's documentary The Problem with Apu examined the Simpsons character Apu Nahasapeemapetilon and the character's impact on stereotypes of South Asians. Hank Azaria, who has performed the voice for over 30 years, says he will no longer be doing the voice of the Kwik-E Mart proprietor. "All we know there is I won't be doing the voice anymore, unless there's someway to transition it or something," Azaria tells Slash Film. Here's hoping the show doesn't get rid of Apu altogether. This is an opportunity to re-cast the voice, revamp Apu and do something interesting with the character.

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WTF Episode 1089: Randall Park
Randall Park is on the latest episode of WTF with Marc Maron, talking about his Hollywood career, the approval of his Korean immigrant parents, his friendship with Ali Wong, and the magic of a root canal.

The voice of Apu responds to 'The Problem with Apu'

"We're just really thinking about it. It's a lot to digest."



Comedian Hari Kondabolu's truTV documentary The Problem with Apu set out to explore the impact of casual racism in The Simpsons in the form a racist, broadly offensive stereotype that has plagued South Asians for decades: Apu, the show's Indian convenience store owner.

The film got a lot of people talking, which was great, though I'm guessing that most of Hari's fans were aware of said problem with Apu. If you watched The Problem with Apu and it was all totally mind-blowing news to you, congratulations; you were part of the film's target audience.

But here's the big question: have the folks at The Simpsons seen The Problem with Apu? And how about Hank Azaria, the white actor who provides the super-stereotypical voice Apu? (Or, as Hari puts it, "a white guy doing an impression of a white guy making fun of my father.") One of plot points of the documentary concerns Hari's attempts to interview Azaria and talk about the character on camera. It doesn't happen.

However, it seems that Azaria has indeed seen the film. Speaking to a reporter from TMZ, who asked for this thoughts on the documentary, Azaria said that Kondabolu "made some really interesting points" and "gave us a lot at The Simpsons to think about, and we are really thinking about it."

Hari Kondabolu explores 'The Problem With Apu'

Comedian's documentary confronts the controversial 'Simpsons' character.



Hari Kondabolu has strong feelings about Apu. That's Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, the "Indian" cartoon character on the perennial animated series The Simpsons. The comedian has such strong feelings about Apu -- his 28-year "nemesis" -- he made a feature length documentary about the character, The Problem With Apu.

The Simpsons' Indian convenience store owner has been regularly criticized over the years as a racist, broadly offensive stereotype, and yet Apu, voiced by Hank Azaria, is arguably the most recognizable Indian character on American television -- much to the dismay and torment of South Asian folks everywhere.

Apu, as Hari puts it, sounds like "a white guy doing an impression of a white guy making fun of my father."

In The Problem With Apu, Hari sets out to explore the impact of casual racism in The Simpsons and the negative effect that the Apu caricature has had on the Indian American community. And if you ask around, you'll find that a lot of brown folks also have some pretty strong feelings about Apu.

Here's the trailer, in which Hari interviews the likes of Kal Penn, Hasan Minhaj, Sheetal Sheth, Aparna Nancherla, Samrat Chakrabarti, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Aasif Mandvi, Maulik Pancholy, Sakina Jaffrey and more.

The Simpsons pays tribute to Hayao Miyazaki

Wonderfully weird sequence says goodbye to the master animator



In this week's episode of The Simpsons, Springfield's number one geek and proprietor of The Android's Dungeon & Baseball Card Shop, Comic Book Guy, finds his true love: a manga artist named Kumiko. Let's face it: that sounds about right. And that's a cue for the show to do some Japanese stuff...

Like pay tribute to a legend. In this crazy sequence, The Simpsons tips its hat to legendary filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, who announced that his latest animated feature The Wind Rises, would be his last. The wonderfully weird scene says goodbye with references to some of the master animator's most well-known films.

Take a look. From My Neighbor Totoro to Spirited Away, keen-eyed Studio Ghibli fans will dig this: