The Fallout of a Callout

Code Switch

NPR

Society & Culture

4.6 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 26 April 2023

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 2017, comedian Hari Kondabolu called out Hollywood's portrayals of South Asians with his documentary The Problem With Apu. The film was also a criticism of comedian Hank Azaria, who is white, for voicing the Indian character on The Simpsons. On this episode, Hari and Hank sit down to talk publicly for the first time about that callout and everything that has gone down since.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just the heads up everybody, it's gonna be some cousin in this here episode.
0:03.2	You've been warned.
0:05.0	What's good, y'all?
0:05.8	You are listening to Code Switch.
0:07.2	I'm Gene Demby.
0:08.3	On this episode, the fallout of a callout.
0:12.3	Okay, so it all started out as a bit or an aside to a bit, really.
0:16.3	Here's Tully Buys writer and Indian American Arikanda Bolu.
0:19.1	Arikanda Bolu?
0:20.0	Arikanda Bolu, you've probably heard him on Code Switch a few times,
0:22.5	was a writer on a show on Comedy Central called Totally Buysed with Kamal Bell.
0:27.0	And he was doing a short routine about the premiere of the Mindy project
0:30.1	in South Asian representation in Hollywood.
0:32.5	Mindy Kaling has the first ever sitcom starring in Indian American.
0:36.6	This is huge.
0:38.0	Because growing up, I had no choice but to like this.
0:44.2	Yeah.
0:49.9	A poo, a cartoon character voiced by Hank Azaria, a white guy.
0:54.7	A white guy doing an impression of a white guy making fun of my father.
1:02.0	If I saw Hank Azaria do that voice at a party, I would kick the shit out of him.
1:12.9	Yeah.
1:20.3	All right, imagine kicking the shit out of him.
	...

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