Much Apu About Nothing
"Much Apu About Nothing" is the 23rd episode of The Simpsons' seventh season. The DVD commentary for this episode reveals that the original title was going to be "The Anti-Immigrant Song" in reference to the Led Zeppelin song, Immigrant Song.
Plot
On an ordinary day, a bear strolls onto Evergreen Terrace. The bear is subdued by the police and Homer rants about these "constant bear attacks", even though this is the very first bear Ned has seen in his thirty odd years of living on that street. Homer then leads an angry mob and demands that Mayor Quimby do something about this. Soon, a Bear Patrol is created, an organization which makes use of helicopters, police cars, and a "Bear Patrol" painted B-2 Bomber. Homer feels happy to know that the Bear Patrol is doing their job, as there are no bears around and is just as shocked when he saw the bear when he discovers that taxes have been raised five dollars to maintain the Bear Patrol (it is revealed in this scene that Homer's wage is around $11.80 per hour). This warrants yet another visit by the angry mob to the Mayor's office. To calm down the citizens of Springfield, Mayor Quimby pins the blame for the high taxes on illegal immigrants. He then creates a new law known as Proposition 24, which states that all illegal immigrants living in Springfield must be deported.
At the Kwik-E-Mart, Apu tells Homer that he is an illegal immigrant and if Proposition 24 passes, he will be deported, as his visa expired many years earlier. Homer feels sorry, but he tells Apu that we will miss him. The Kwik-E-Mart's business goes down due to the surge of protesters against illegal immigrants. Marge cannot believe that Apu is an illegal immigrant. He narrates of how he graduated from Caltech (Calcutta Technical Institute) and came to Springfield for higher studies, and learned Computer Science from Professor Frink. To pay off his student loans, he joined the Kwik-E-Mart and has stayed in Springfield ever since, despite having paid off his loans.
Marge tells Apu she will vote "no" on Proposition 24, although it clearly will not be enough to help Apu. After discovering Kearney's fake ID, he asks him where he got it. On finding out, Apu goes to Fat Tony to get a false United States citizenship. On Fat Tony's advice, he starts acting American but he realizes that he disgraced his parents for turning his back on his Indian heritage.
Homer vows that the Simpsons will help him and Lisa, having read the citizenship laws front to back, discovers that Apu will not get deported if he can pass a US citizenship test. Apu demonstrates excellent knowledge of the United States and goes to take the written and oral test. He passes it and becomes an American citizen. At a congratulatory party, Homer tells his guests how terrible it would be if immigrants were deported. He inspires them to vote "no" on Proposition 24, but it still passes with 95%.
Apu is happy to get a letter to report for jury duty, as it affirms his citizenship, and he does what any typical American citizen would do - toss it into the trash can. The Simpsons are happy that everything worked out for the people they care about; however Groundskeeper Willie is deported.
Deleted scene
At one point, as Homer and Apu are studying, Bart appears over the map of the USA and asks, "Watcha doing, studying?" They then proceed to tell Bart that they are looking for Springfield on the map. Bart goes, "Hey, we live right there!" and points to the map, but his head is blocking the map so we cannot see where he is pointing. This scene is sometimes cut from syndication.
Continuity
There is a scene where young Apu says goodbye to his family, including his future arranged marriage bride, Manjula. This is a foreshadowing, as Apu meets Manjula again for the marriage in "The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons" in Season 9. The only distinction is that in this episode, Apu is shown as being years older than Manjula, whereas in the marriage episode, a flashback shows them to be the same age. This scene is sometimes cut from syndication.
Selma remarks on the phone that her full name is Selma Bouvier Terwilliger Hutz McClure, referencing both marriages to Sideshow Bob and Troy McClure. Presumably some time in between, she married and divorced Lionel Hutz as well, although this has not been referenced since.
If you freeze frame when Fat Tony hands Apu his fake ID, you can see that the state the Simpsons live in begins with the letter "L". This suggests the state is Louisiana, but Springfield is generally considered instead to reside in a fictional state (see Springfield's state).
In The Simpsons Hit & Run mission, "This Little Piggy", Apu wears his American costume from this episode when Krusty wants him to become an American so he can track down a criminal.
Cultural references
The title is a spoof on
The episode pokes fun at India's status in the world. After graduating from "Caltech", Apu enrolls in the Springfield Heights Institute of Technology, which has a taboo acronym ("SHIT"). His Caltech graduating class consisted of seven million students, which is a stab at India's status as the second most-populous country in the world. Apu's parents in the flashback scene resemble the parents of the character for which he was named, the eponymous protagonist of Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy.
Frink's prediction that computers would become ever larger and costlier is a play on the old belief, often attributed to IBM Chairman Thomas Watson, that the world market for computers was limited to just a handful of people and companies.
Two references to classical cartoons exist in the episode. Moe says that the Bears are "smarter than the aver-age bear" and "they swiped my pic-a-nic basket" in an homage to the Yogi Bear cartoons. Homer comments on the bear situation becoming a real "Country Bear Jamberoo" a reference to Walt Disney World's Country Bear Jamboree.
The episode features several political jokes. The "I Want You ... Out!" poster is similar to the famous Uncle Sam army recruitment poster. In a cutaway depicting Chief Wiggum and his men preparing to deport the immigrants, he tells them to "first round up your tired, then your poor, then your huddled masses yearning to breathe free", a reference to the inscription on the Statue of Liberty.
Proposition 24 in the episode references California's Proposition 187, from late 1994, which was an initiative designed to deny undocumented immigrants social services, health care, and public education. The proposition and eventual law prompted a national debate on immigrant rights.
External links
- "Much Apu About Nothing" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
- From NoHomers.net -- a detailed analysis and discussion of this episode.
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