Indian PM Narendra Modi arrived in Buenos Aires on Thursday to take part in the G20 summit. His arrival prompted a local Argentine news channel to use The Simpsons character Apu as a means to announce Modi's entrance. Argentinian channel Cronica TV immediately received backlash for their headline which read "Apu Arrives" as PM Modi reached Buenos Aires for the international summit.
Stemming from "The Simpsons," Apu Nahasapeemapetilon is a convenience store owner and sports a heavy Indian accent. Apu has been the subject of much debate the last year, with "The Simpsons" going as far as completely scrapping the character from the show due to complaints that the character was reinforcing stereotypes of the Indian-American.
“This couldn’t be true, right?” Hari Karthikeya Kondabolu tweeted after seeing a report of the Apu image on Argentine TV. Kondabolu is an American stand-up comic, actor, filmmaker, and podcast host that directed a documentary called “The Problem with Apu,” which kick-started a campaign to deal with the cultural stereotype of The Simpsons character.
