It occurs to me that on at least one episode of the Simpsons
I've seen, they purposefully made fun of their own stereotypes
by having the "arr" pirate, the Mexican bumblebee, and the
groundskeeper Willie as a "rogue's gallery" all standing in a
line acting as over-the-top buffoonishly as they could. After
seeing that, I never worried about racism or stereotyping in
The Simpsons again - I just interpret anything and everything
to do with that show as a spoof, joke, or over-the-top example
of just how wrong people's misperceptions can be. And as
somebody already pointed out, they actually took perhaps the
MOST offensively stereotypical character (Kwik-E-Mart's Apu)
and actually gave him a full background and social life - and
if they hadn't his "thank you come again" shtick probably would
have gotten dreadfully old over time; now he's one of the guys.

--
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