In the 2017 documentary The Problem with Apu, comedian Hari Kondabolu examines The Simpsons’ character Apu Nahasapeemapetilon. The character is an Indian immigrant store clerk who, until 2020, was voiced by White American actor Hank Azaria. For Kondabolu, the problem with Apu is that he’s a racist caricature. An example of ‘brownface’, the character amplifies ethnic stereotypes: he’s a foreign-born workaholic shopkeeper who has a funny accent, too many children, and a wife from an arranged marriage. As Kondabolu puts it, Apu sounds like ‘a White guy doing an impression of a White guy making fun of my father’.

Apu has plenty of sharp lines and witty rejoinders in the show. But his catchphrase, the joke he’s most known for, isn’t really a joke. It’s an ordinary sentence turned into comedy by Apu’s over-the-top intonation: ‘Thank you, come again!’ It’s also the line that a heckler shouts at Kondabolu midway through his stand-up set, a shocking scene that opens the documentary. Apu exudes sweetness and charm in The Simpsons, yet his catchphrase has become a subtle insult, a way of implying that South Asians are servile and obsequious. This is why Kondabolu wants to get rid of Apu once and for all:

Kondabolu acknowledges that The Simpsons was a pioneering comedy show when it first aired in 1989. It broke new ground by satirizing middle-class American ideals such as the traditional nuclear family, the work ethic, and small-town Christianity. But Kondabolu reminds us that some of the show’s funniest and best-loved characters, characters who are quietly subversive in their own way, also reinforce offensive stereotypes about minority groups. ‘Thank you, come again!’ is the punchline of a joke that’s on Apu and that’s on Brown people like Kondabolu.