In Traditions Passed Down Over Hundreds of Years from the Stage and Theater, Film Uses

ED815: LANGUAGE IN SOCIETY

Apu Nahasapeemapetilon The Simpsons 10/25/2010 Nicholas Mortimer

“In traditions passed down over hundreds of years from the stage and theater, film uses language variation and accent to draw character quickly, building on established preconceived notions associated with specific regional loyalties, ethnic, racial, or economic alliances.” (Lippi-

Green 81). The entertainment industry has a large variety of ways that they use that can reach audiences through characters. And each one of those characters is depicted by the language that they use. “…animated films entertain, but they are also a way to teach children to associate specific characteristics and life styles with specific social groups, by means of language variation.” (Lippi-Green 80-81). In accordance to Lippi-Green, animated films are a specific example of how this is done.

The Simpsons, a series created by Matt Groening, is an American animated television show. It is a satirical parody of a working-class American lifestyle shown by The Simpson’s family, which is currently in its twenty-second season. In addition to the main family, there are many other characters that take particular roles through the show. One particular character, Apu

Nahasapeemapetilon, is the owner of the store Kwik-E-Mart in the television show. Apu

Nahasapeemapetilon can be recognized by common phrases such as: “Thank you, Come again!”,

“Please pay for your purchases and get out but come again!”, “I won’t lie to you, but in this job you will be shot at”, and “It’s going to be a rough couple of lifetimes”.

I watched a clip of Simpson’s Episode 23 from its 7th Season from 7:23 until 13:55. The first thing I want to mention is during the clip, Apu explained that he graduated from Calcutta

Technical University at the top of his class of 7 million. This already is a play on Indian culture due to its massive population. To simply graduate in a class of 7 million is just out of the question. This might not be a huge deal, but there already has been remarks regarding India just a few seconds into watching the clip. It was soon after that I noticed a difference in Apu’s speech. When he would say certain words in the clip, like “Mr. SIMpson” and “no truth an ILLEGAL immigrant, Sir”, he would say the first part in a higher pitch. In linguistics, this is known as intonation; the biggest and easiest difference in Apu’s speech. Actors and speakers use this skill in order to place certain emphasis on specific words, but in this case, this could be considered just as an attempt for Hank Azaria, the voice-over actor for Apu, to disguise his voice. But because of this difference, it is easily understandable to automatically put Apu in a lower class because of just this simple difference. Putting emphasis on the wrong words in wrong situations not only could cause immense confusion, but at the same time could very likely sound “stupid”.

When we watch this on television, we aren’t thinking, “Oh that’s bad intonation”. Instead we are laughing because of the vibe this guy has just given off to us. As Apu kept talking, he sounded very high pitched and nasally. It seems like however Hank Azaria is manipulating his speech to make it sound this way, he has to be changing the way the air flows through his nose when speaking. The next thing that I noticed was the way Apu said “P.H.D.”. When we say the phrase

“P.H.D.”, we usually pronounce it as “PHD”, but Apu somehow said each letter with a stop. His pronunciation of each letter was very short. Another thing Apu said was “Most humble and greatful thanks to you!” instead of just “thanks”. There wasn’t a difference in how he said the words but the difference is that he actually said these words. In America, we never say those words; we can offer our gratitude in multiple ways but never do we say anything more than two or three words long. Just these words make people think Apu is “different” than “us”. It’s easily noticeable when people with accents and differences in speech say things that do not fit and are not typical of American speech. At the same time, this can be viewed as stereotypical because not all people with Indian accents say things like this. Another difference that I noticed was when he attempted to say “One more year or two”, he said it as “One more year o’ two”. There also were a couple of other instances where I noticed him drop more R’s. R-less speech is usually viewed as speech used by the lower class, which also applies here. Apu also pronounced the as “da”, which is similar to AVE. “a pervasive phonological feature in AAVE and other

English vernaculars is the tendency to reduce final consonant clusters…” (Yule 261). This aspect can be viewed as being illogical and be seen as a bad language.

As stated by Lippi-Green, “It is first observably true that somehow, children learn not only how to use variation in their own language, but also how to interpret social variation in the language of others.” (Lippi-Green 80). Anything you put on television, it is going to be watched; no matter how pointless it is or how much crude humor is used. In addition to the television industry, film industry has also become a major way to contact people to the world. It is not every day that people in America see many people from other parts of the world. We have no contact with the heritages of the people who are usually portrayed, so we only have what we see with our own eyes on television to believe how these people act and handle themselves. As stated by P.J. Gladnick, “The Simpsons has long irritated some Indian-Americans because of the thickly stereotypical character of Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, the effete cornershop owner with fractured English, excess fertility, bizarre religions practices, illegal immigration status and a penchant for cheating customers” (Gladnick). Inevitably, The Simpsons have created a view of

Indian-American’s. Not just by Apu’s speech, but also by his actions on the show. A good example would be in an episode of The Simpsons, a hotdog rolls on the floor and was smeared in dirt and old candy was stuck to it as well, but Apu still sells it regardless. We, as Americans watching this television show, are led to believe that this is how Indian-Americans are due to the depictions created by the show even if they are absurd. Works Cited

Gladnick, P.J. "Writer: 'Simpsons' Portrayal of Apu Is Racist | NewsBusters.org." NewsBusters.org | Exposing Liberal Media Bias. 25 Oct. 2010. Web. 25 Oct. 2010. .

Groening, P.J. (Director). (1993). Much apu about nothing The Simpsons. Fox 29. .