Let's talk about this documentary,

which has thrust you into a firestorm, it feels like.

-Because... -Yeah. I can't check my Twitter mentions.

-That's true, yeah. -Right, right.

Because you have made this documentary,

which is really interesting and hilarious,

about Apu from The Simpsons.

Some people say you've made this movie to say

that Apu is only racist, and it is bad, and you are you angry.

Are you angry?

I'm 35 years old.

This-this cartoon's been around for a while.

I get other things to worry about.

I mean to be honest, do you want to really know

-what I think of Apu? -Yeah.

The network's not gonna like this,

-but I don't really give a (bleep). -(laughter)

Wait. So, so, wait. If you don't give a (bleep),

why did you make the story about Apu?

Well, a couple of reasons. One, because,

um, I feel like there's a gap. You know what I mean?

That there's a bunch of stuff that happened

that wasn't covered, because, like,

brown people weren't allowed to talk until, like, 15 years ago.

-You know? -Right.

-We're talking about the pre-Aziz and Mindy era. -Right.

-Right? -(laughter) -I like that. "Pre-Aziz and Mindy era."

-Yeah. P... P.A.M., and, um... -(laughter)

But yeah, so we weren't allowed to talk,

so there's this huge gap in who we were and what we...

what that experience is like, and what it feels like

when your only image is a cartoon character

voiced by a white guy.

So it's a white guy in brown paint,

and this country has a history of that. So...

Well, when you... when you look at the story

of The Simpsons, though, there are people who say:

But, Hari, you can't say this about The Simpsons, though.

The Simpsons offends everybody equally.

Some people would argue that Homer Simpson is a stereotype

of a white man who's not well educated in America,

and the family and the townspeople

represent stereotypes of caricatures of everyone,

so why would you be offended by Apu?

'Cause there's a lot of different white characters,

and we just had a convenience store guy

voiced by a white guy with brown paint.

(laughter)

It really is... it really is just representation.

Yeah. I mean, honestly, I wanted to call the film,

-I Got to Explain This to You? Um... -(laughter)

-(applause, whooping) -It's...

It's representation.

I mean, we had this one thing, and that matters.

And I think a lot about post-9/11--

stick with me.

Um, you know, we only had two representations,

brown people, in this country-- whether that's South Asian,

Arab, Muslim American.

We had, uh, we had Apu from The Simpsons--

harmless convenience store character--

and, uh, we had terrorists, right?

And there is a huge range of humanity

-between those points. -Right.

And so, but that didn't exist on television,

the media, at the time, so all of a sudden,

there's all these hate crimes and deportations and detentions,

because if you only have two places--

convenience store owner, terrorist--

where are you gonna go, right?

Meanwhile, white guys, like, a middle-aged white dude

can shoot up Las Vegas,

and no one's going after all middle-aged white guys, right?

That would be an absurd thing. No one's like,

"Oh, it's a middle-aged white guy! Get him!"

"Don't shoot! It's Steve Carell!"

-Like, that's never... -(laughter)

that's not gonna happen.

That's an interesting idea,

in that the lack of representation

fundamentally shapes how people see

-Absolutely. -the world around them.

So when looking at this character, Apu,

there are people who say-- and I've seen, funny enough,

on your Twitter, I've seen online--

people who are South Asian saying,

"No, man, why are you doing this?

"I enjoy Apu. He's my dude. I laugh at this.

-Why is it such a bad thing?" -I enjoy Apu.

I think Apu's a really funny character,

but there's a... just because something's funny

doesn't make it right.

In fact, if something is wrong,

the fact it's funny makes it easier to push it forward.

That's how any kind of propaganda works.

That's how anything that is good art

-that has a messed-up message works, right? -Right.

So for me, it's, like, if we had a bunch of other characters

at that time, then Apu would have been...

it would have been fine, just one of many characters.

But that's all we had, and when you can shape...

I don't know if you know this, but there's, like,

uh, you know, a billion of us.

-(laughter) -Um...

-Wait, like, here? -No. My God.

-Oh. Whoa. -If there was... if there was a billion of us here,

-I'd have a show right now. -(laughter)