[2] A 2017 documentary, The Problem with Apu, written by and starring comedian Hari Kondabolu, criticized the character as a South Asian stereotype.

[3] Apu began working at the Kwik-E-Mart during graduate school to pay off his student loan; he stayed afterwards as he enjoyed his job and the friends he had made.

Apu responded by purchasing a forged birth certificate from the Springfield Mafia that listed his parents as American citizens Herb and Judy Nahasapeemapetilon from Green Bay, Wisconsin.

When, however, he realized he was forsaking his origins, he abandoned this plan and instead successfully managed to pass his citizenship test with help from Lisa and Homer Simpson.

[4] In 1985, Apu was a member of the barbershop quartet The Be Sharps, along with Homer Simpson, Barney Gumble, and Principal Seymour Skinner.

[6] In the episode "The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons", Apu enjoys a brief period as Springfield's leading ladies' man after being spontaneously drawn into a bachelor auction.

He spends the days following the auction on a whirlwind of dates, which suddenly ends when his mother announces his arranged marriage to a woman named Manjula, whom he had not seen since childhood.

In the episode "Eight Misbehavin'", Manjula receives too many doses of fertility drugs, leading to her giving birth to octuplets: Anoop, Uma, Nabendu, Poonam, Pria, Sandeep, Sashi, and Gheet.

[14][15] Azaria has said that he based Apu's voice on Indian convenience store workers in Los Angeles with whom he had interacted when he first moved to the area.

He also loosely based it on Peter Sellers' character Hrundi V. Bakshi from the film The Party, who Azaria thinks has a similar personality to Apu.

[13] His surname is a scrambled version of "Pahasadee Napetilon", the full name of a schoolmate of Simpsons writer Jeff Martin.

[22][23] Apu's portrayal has been accused by many as being a racist caricature of Indians and South Asians in general and was criticized as showing bias along racial/ethnic lines and called "brownvoice" (similar to "blackface").

[28] Pakistani-American comedian and actor Kumail Nanjiani has also criticized the character, relating that early in his career,[29] he was asked to do "the Apu accent", a stereotyped version of the speech patterns of Indians.

[25][30] In a 2007 interview, Azaria acknowledged some of this criticism when he recalled a conversation with the writers of the show during the inception of the character: "Right away they were like 'Can you do an Indian accent and how offensive can you make it?'

"[30] In 2016, Kondabolu announced his intention to produce a documentary about "how this controversial caricature was created, burrowed its way into the hearts and minds of Americans and continues to exist – intact – twenty-six years later".

Marge introduces Lisa to her favorite childhood book, but is shocked by its racist stereotypes and attempts to rewrite it to suit modern sensitivities.

[33] Mike Reiss, The Simpsons' longtime writer and producer, acknowledged the problem, and pointed out that Apu had not had a line in the show for the last three years.

[34] During an appearance that same month on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Azaria said that he would be "perfectly willing to step aside" from the role of voicing Apu, saying that he was increasingly worried about the character causing harm by reinforcing stereotypes and that "the most important thing is to listen to Indian people and their experience with it ...

[36] In an interview with USA Today, creator Matt Groening dismissed the criticism of the Apu character, saying, "I think it's a time in our culture where people love to pretend they're offended".

[37][38] Dana Walden, the CEO of 20th Century Fox Television, said in an August 2018 interview in regard to the Apu controversy that the network trusts the showrunners "to handle it in the way that's best for the show".

[39] In October 2018, in the South Park episode "The Problem with a Poo", Mr. Hankey is expelled and sent to a land where "people don't care about bigotry and hate" – Springfield.

"[54][55] In 2022, comedian Akaash Singh made a comedy stand up special called "Bring Back Apu", where he claims that the character is "not racist", and represented the American Dream.