Much apu about nothing

The episode begins with how a brown bear wanders in Springfield and, despite its calm character, scares civilians to death. Citizens led by Homer go to the mayor's office and demand that Springfield be protected from bears in the future. Mayor Quimby forms the Bear Patrol, but demands a tax of five dollars for him, which also upset Springfield. To reassure them, the mayor says that high taxes are the result of illegal immigration , and suggests adopting Amendment 24 to deport all illegal immigrants from America .

Homer willingly accepts the amendment and wants to please Apu , but finds out that Apu is also an illegal immigrant, and if the amendment is accepted, he will also have to leave America. Apu is forced to go to Fat Tony and buys from him false documents for American citizenship. Tony advises him to behave in an American way, so Apu adorns his store in the American style and behaves accordingly in an American way. But very quickly, he realizes that this way he only dishonors his people, and tears his false documents, because he wants to stay in the United States legally.

Homer swears that he and his family will help Apu. Lisa learns that Apu will not be deported if he passes the citizenship test. Homer promises to teach Apu, but teaches him poorly. During the test, Apu forgets from fatigue, what Homer taught him, so he gives up “excellent”. At a congratulatory party, Homer makes a speech about how terrible it is to be deported, and urges all citizens to vote against the amendment, so that all immigrants remain in Springfield (except for gardener Willy , who remained on the ship for deportation).

The author of the script was David Cohen , and the director was ^[1] To voice Fat Tony , Joe Mantegna was invited ^[2] . The episode was mostly inspired by news reports about bears walking along the streets of Southern California ^[3] . According to Cohen, news of bears swimming in someone’s pools or digging in someone’s trash is quickly gaining popularity in California ^[4] . The then- showrunner of The Simpsons, , noted that such news often provoked “anti-bear hysteria,” which also served as an inspiration for the episode. ^[3]

Another source of inspiration was the , which offers a reduction in the rights and benefits of illegal immigrants ^[2] . Cohen decided to give the amendment number 24 - it was under this number that he played in the . He commented on the episode as follows: “The main theme of the episode is illegal immigration and anti-immigration sentiment, which is a big problem here in California. So both the introduction with the bear and the main theme were taken from the California news ” ^[4] .

The final version of the series is not much different from the first draft of Cohen. According to Oakley, some scripts are rewritten many times over, but Cohen “doesn't rewrite them so often because they are very good from the beginning.” Oakley added that Cohen has a very distinctive sense of humor, and there are certain jokes in the episode that “just sound like Cohen” ^[3] .

Sometimes Oakley and his partner, , while they were show-runners for The Simpsons, thought about revealing some minor characters — such as Apu — “a little deeper.” The origin of Apu was shown in this episode, and Oakley is proud that he was the one who proposed it. Another character, "revealed deeper" in their times, was Ned Flanders in the Hurricane Neddy series ^[3] .

The title of the episode is a reference to William Shakespeare’s play “ Much Ado About Nothing, ” although it was originally planned to name the series “The Anti-Immigrant Song” with a reference to the song Led Zeppelin , “ Immigrant Song ” ^[4] . The sign held by the protester reads: “The only good foreigner is Rod Stewart !” - which is an obvious reference to the British singer ^[1] . In the protesting crowd, you can see Brad Bird , an American director, including one working on The Simpsons ^[3] .

Nielsen 's Much Apu About Nothing rating is 8.2. According to this indicator, among the series “Simpsons” broadcasting the same week, they took 4th place after The X-Files , Beverly Hills, 90210 and Melrose Place ^[5] .

After being aired, the episode received mostly positive ratings from television critics. Colin Jacobs from the DVD Movie Guide praised the episode, saying that "if some series and chose a more original way to talk about xenophobia , then I definitely did not see it." He praised the bear scenes, which he considers the most “entertaining” part of the episode. Further in the review, he writes: “the immigrant unit is also good, especially given how cleverly it presents its point of view. Add to this the hilarious sound of “American Apu” - and get a very strong program ” ^[6] . DVD Verdict's Jennifer Malkowski believes the best part of the episode is the scene in which Homer tries to teach Apu American history. She rated the episode B + ^[7] . The authors of I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Varren Martin and Adrian Wood, write: “This is one of the most bloody and, of course, evil episodes, a successful satire to attempt to expose immigrants as scapegoats. Homer has never been so frighteningly stupid, although he delivered an incendiary liberal speech ” ^[2] . The creator of The Simpsons, Matt Groening , puts the episode in third place on the list of his favorite episodes of the show ^[8] . The series, however, has been criticized by Dave Foster of the DVD Times. He considers Much Apu About Nothing to be one of the most boring episodes of the season, “for the most part because Apu is not a strong enough character to focus on the whole episode, regardless of how much screenwriter David Cohen has worked on it.” Foster also noted that the episode raises a political problem that is difficult to explain in 20 minutes, and therefore it rises and closes rather haphazardly ^[9] .

In the episode, after creating the Bear Patrol, the number of visible bears drops to zero, so Homer concludes that the patrol is doing its job well. Lisa tries to tell Homer a logical mistake on the example of a tiger-repellent rock, but he skips the explanation. Scott Anthony of the Harvard Business Review describes this scene as a “classic example of a logical fallacy,” specifically the fallacy that ^[10] . Mike Moffatt also calls this scene “the best discussion about erroneous reasoning of all time” ^[11] .

The episode was used as educational material in sociological courses at the University of California at Berkeley to "study the problems of creating and perceiving cultural objects, in this case, a satirical animated show." Questions addressed in the courses included: “What aspects of American society were addressed in the episode? What aspects were used to convey opinions? How was satire transmitted: through language? A drawing? Music? Does the behavior of each character contradict his / her character, developed over the years? Can we identify the elements of the historical or political context that the scriptwriters tried to satirize? What is the difference between satire and parody? ” ^[12] .