April 20, 2022

Akaash Singh’s Bring Back Apu, a 20-minute video, has gotten more than 1.5 million views on YouTube. “I miss Apu the Indian guy in the convenience store. He was a staple of my childhood,” says Singh, 38-years-old, a New York based comedian, podcaster and actor, in the video released earlier this year.

Apu Nahasapeemapetilon was the cartoon character in The Simpsons, a popular TV serial now in its 33rd annual season. He was the owner of the Kwik-E-Mart in the fictional town of Springfield, voiced by Hank Azaria a white actor.

Apu, who was on the show from 1990, was erased in 2020 following criticism that he was based on racial stereotypes. Azaria is “a white guy doing an impression of a white guy making fun of my father,” the Indian American comedian Hari Kondabolu says in a 2017 documentary The Problem With Apu. Kondabolu, who is also based in New York, tweeted that he faced “some death threats,” following his criticism.

Singh was raised in an Indian Hindu family in Dallas, Texas. In the video, Singh notes,“The only thing that offended my (Indian) parents about Apu was that I am not Apu.” Apu “is a brown man married to a beautiful brown woman, owns his own business, selling overpriced products to unwitting white people,” says Singh in the video. “Apu is not a racist. He’s the American dream.” 

After Apu was erased, Kondabolu tweeted that “I do hope they keep the character…(and) do something interesting with him.”

Kondabolu has himself sought to make fun of Indian stereotypes. Last year, for instance, he called for a day of mourning after Indian Americans failed to win the 2021 U.S. national Spelling Bee competition, after twelve consecutive years of wins. “We Lost The #SpellingBee. I am an Indian-American & I am devastated,” he tweeted.

Singh is proud to be an Indian. The principal, in his suburban Dallas middle school, assumed he was Mexican. Singh wanted to be a doctor like his uncle and graduated pre-med from Austin College, Texas.

When he was young, Singh was drawn to comedy, attempting to break it down to a science by figuring out which jokes worked and which didn’t. He failed the first time he performed in front of friends in high school; as well as later, at the renowned Comedy Store in Los Angeles. The failure in Los Angeles motivated him to seek more live performances, based on his belief that he would rather fail doing something he loves than succeed at something he never really wanted.

Singh went on a national tour in 2010. His performances included one before a large crowd at “The Festival of India” at The University of Texas. The show earned him his first media review, one full of praise for his talent.

He moved to New York, anticipating the audience there would tear him down so he could grow back stronger. While performing in the city, his goal morphed from being somebody who told jokes, while sneaking in personal beliefs, to a comic who said exactly what he wanted to say and still make you laugh.

Singh got his first TV role in 2011. He had roles in MTV’s Guy Code and Wild’n Out, Netflix’s Brown Nation and HBO’s The Leftovers. He and fellow comedian Andrew Schulz are co-creators of the popular podcast Flagrant 2, distributed on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, Soundcloud and other online platforms. Currently Singh is on a performance tour of 15 cities in the U.S. and Canada, including Tampa, San Antonio, Toronto and Vancouver.

In his Apu video, Singh pokes fun of Indians in the U.S. seeking to qualify as minorities for jobs, business contracts and government handouts. While Blacks have been mistreated and oppressed for centuries, Singh says, “when I see people who look like me talking about White privilege, I ask where were your parents; they did not teach you about your American privilege?” Singh’s company is named Padma Devi productions, apparently in honor of his mother.

Some Indians are using the victimhood mentality “to get ahead,” Singh told The New York Times. In 2018, when he had very little income, he too tried unsuccessfully to sell a sob story about going to India and connecting with his culture.“This is a struggle that you are using to get ahead,” he said about his peers. “But it’s not a real struggle…The mentality weakens us (Indians) as a people.”

In his Apu video, Singh says “I wanted to send a message to anybody who looks like me: You don’t deserve anything. Your parents, our parents who came here (to America) literally with six dollars…did not get here because they thought everybody owes them…They came over here because they worked, they were the best of the best to a country whose language and culture they did not understand and they built from nothing…how we lost that so quickly disgusts me …you don’t deserve anything. Go be great like your parents.”

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