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Anyone see Simpsons sunday at 8 p.m. on Fox?

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A Christian character, Ned, was trying to preach to a Hindu, Apu about Christianity, and Apu HIMSELF expresses ignorance about Hinduism, claiming it deals with many gods instead of ONE god. Then Ned pinches Apu, and asks him "Where is your superteam now?" I got so mad, I had to turn off the TV. There's so much ignorance being displayed on the Simpsons, and it's not even a funny show to begin with. It used to be, but it no longer is. And it has devolved into a very crude and offensive show.

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The worst commercial I have seen is one that Arby's (slaughter-house beef pushers) has where two (obviously) westernized American East Indians are standing before the menu at an Arby's and one prods the other and says "you need to start enjoying more, go ahead and order [something like a beef sandwhich]" /images/graemlins/mad.gif

 

..the friend starts to imagine that in his next life he will probably reincarnate as a Mexican pinata, so he may as well start "enjoying" and living it up some......he snaps out of his daydream and agrees with his friend.

 

How offensive and ignorant is that? That is almost as bad as that Australian commercial where the butchers are on Harinam singing "High in protein, high in protein..." thankfully that one was pulled after many complaints.

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"and Apu HIMSELF expresses ignorance about Hinduism, claiming it deals with many gods instead of ONE god"

 

 

Well this part maybe true because most hindus themselves are ignorant about hinduism...whose fault is that? not muslims or christians....if more hindus knew about hinduism this problem wouldn't arise..

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the one that cracks me up is one on the radio about kleenex...anyone heard that one? ...about how hindus beleive in not killing other organisms...but use kleenex which kills 99% of germs! hehehehehhe!

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The Simpsons make sure to offend everyone, that is why it is so popular. A good comedian doesn't hold back for anyone.The Simpsons mostly make jokes about the stupidity and ignorance of Americans.

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but it's NOT FUNNY either.

 

Simpsons was funny, one time. But their sense of comedy has gone down the drain. I can laugh at jokes about Hinduism IF they're funny. I can't laugh at ignorance, and Simpsons IS ignorant about Hindus and Buddhists.

 

For one thing, they picturize Buddha as this Asian fat guy. That's not the real Buddha, it's the Happy Buddha being depicted. The original Buddha was Indian, of thin stature and dark complexion.

 

They've made the same mistake several times already this season. I only end up catching bits of the show these days because it precedes an actually funny show by the name of Arrested Development.

 

I used to watch Simpsons regularly but the show's quality has really deteriorated to making the most banal of jokes, and it's just not relevant anymore.

 

In any case, Apu's OWN understanding of Hinduism is hardly supposed to be funny. It only spreads more misinformation about Hinduism, and it can be construed as malicious.

 

It would be one thing if someone else had the mistaken idea that Hinduism is polytheistic, but a Hindu doesn't know his own religion?

 

I'm sorry, but Apu's ignorance wasn't part of the joke. The actual joke in that episode was Ned's preaching to Apu while in the car.

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  • 8 months later...

I was wondering about something. Why can't Hindus sue this jokers (I meant the producers of the show, not the characters in the show or commercial)?

 

A few years back, I got news that Australian/New Zealand production called Xena : Warrior Princess was sued by a group of Hindus (from associations) for insulting Sri Krishna in the show. Xena, along with Hercules, used to revolve around Greek . and very much between Christianity-supporting or atheist-supporting in its themes. After the law-suit, Xena and Hercules stopped airing in Malaysia and still available in Cable (not sure reruns or what).

 

Anyway, why don't someone gather Hindus together and sue producers of Simpsons for their insulting Hindusm?

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  • 7 months later...
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A few years back, I got news that Australian/New Zealand production called Xena : Warrior Princess was sued by a group of Hindus (from associations) for insulting Sri Krishna in the show. Xena, along with Hercules, used to revolve around Greek . and very much between Christianity-supporting or atheist-supporting in its themes. After the law-suit, Xena and Hercules stopped airing in Malaysia and still available in Cable (not sure reruns or what).

 

The problem is that the lawsuit against Xena was bogus and misinformed. If anyone saw that show they would see Sri Krishna was NOT insulted. He was called the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and helped Xena defeat the demon king of Lanka. He was treated with nothing but respect.

 

Those who sued, were fools. There are gross misrepresentations of Hinduism in western tv shows, focus on these shows. Not on shows that were actually handling Hinduism respectfully. It makes Hindus look like irrational hotheads, if we get offended over nothing.

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The worst commercial I have seen is one that Arby's (slaughter-house beef pushers) has where two (obviously) westernized American East Indians are standing before the menu at an Arby's and one prods the other and says "you need to start enjoying more, go ahead and order [something like a beef sandwhich]" mad.gif

 

..the friend starts to imagine that in his next life he will probably reincarnate as a Mexican pinata, so he may as well start "enjoying" and living it up some......he snaps out of his daydream and agrees with his friend.

 

I hope they got paid well, selling out their religion and its adherents (assuming they were Hindu) for a few bucks on a commercial. They should be ashamed. I'd like to see a Christian participate in a commercial, mocking Christ. Or a Muslim participating in a commercial mocking Muhammed. It wouldn't happen. They have more self-respect.

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Why can't Hindus sue this jokers (I meant the producers of the show, not the characters in the show or commercial)?

 

how can you sue over freedom of speech? the best you can do is boycott the company/product, and try to educate people on their ignorance and misperceptions of our beliefs and practices.

 

Spreading true knowledge of Hinduism is very important in our information age. Many in the west still know very, very little about Hinduism. Only those who have studied eastern religions, understand Hindu beliefs on Ahimsa and reincarnation.

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I was wondering about something. Why can't Hindus sue this jokers (I meant the producers of the show, not the characters in the show or commercial)?

 

A few years back, I got news that Australian/New Zealand production called Xena : Warrior Princess was sued by a group of Hindus (from associations) for insulting Sri Krishna in the show. Xena, along with Hercules, used to revolve around Greek . and very much between Christianity-supporting or atheist-supporting in its themes. After the law-suit, Xena and Hercules stopped airing in Malaysia and still available in Cable (not sure reruns or what).

 

Anyway, why don't someone gather Hindus together and sue producers of Simpsons for their insulting Hindusm?

 

Thats all pretty narrowminded of people who dont actually know the Simpsons for years. Lisa Simpsons is vegetarian and once she visited Apu who has on the roof of his Quicky market a beautiful garden. Paul McCartney was there and he explained Lisa a vegetarian recipy. Apu sells Soja sausage and in sum they pick up people where they are stuck. In another episode Lisa marries a vegetarian, and all the problems about being a vegetarian are presented. Quite often you even see devotees at the airport trying to sell a Back to Godhead magazine. They show Vishnu as the source of gravity, they make pilgrimiges to the Himalaya and Apu was voted to be the most attractive person in Springfield. Of course the actual humor of the Simpsons isnt understandable for 90%.

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ya.. simpsons makes more fun of christianity than anything else...

 

it does poke fun at other religions too at times. so this is normal.

 

but ya, hinduism is horribly distorted on TV and espeically in childrens textbooks.

 

i thikn the textbook thing is much much worse b/c then american children grow up w/ these WRONG, messed up, distorted views and it becomes part of them.

 

this prejudice is very, very hard to get rid of. and no one cares enuff to try..

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It seems a little inane to be offended by the Simpsons. As Hindus we should not be led about emotionally by anything. I just don't think it is the way practitioners (or non practitioners in Appu's case) of the perennial philosophy should behave.

 

Don't give them ammunition. Don't let's get offended about something we can shrug off. There are far more insiduos attacks on our religion to worry about. Being insiduos attacks...I naturally can't think one up right this moment. A bit like Karna on the battlefield. Last moment jitters...

 

We should be taking it in our stride, otherwise we're going to get as agitated as Muslims over every damned thing said of our faith.

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just 2day I had a discussion with a 'Hindu' who claimed that there was no reason for him/her to practice Hinduism (whatever that may be). This apparently did not discount his/her availabilty to defend the religion.

 

Crazy? Our problem is that we are telling our children lies about how tolerant our religion is and how they're going out with arms wide open from an ignorant view of their own religion and then being PROSELYTIZED!

 

I know boys from another faith for example who are actively told to go after 'Hindu' girls and convert them. Don't have more babies with your own women. Get Hindu girls and convert them!

 

Does anyone think that we should worry about what Appu knows about his religion...No! we should be more worried about where his eight children land up.

 

Know thyself...is the most important proclamation you can teach your children. Know your faith not to be mindless dogma...but a mystery school as old as the world...a magic order...

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just 2day I had a discussion with a 'Hindu' who claimed that there was no reason for him/her to practice Hinduism (whatever that may be). This apparently did not discount his/her availabilty to defend the religion.

 

Crazy? Our problem is that we are telling our children lies about how tolerant our religion is and how they're going out with arms wide open from an ignorant view of their own religion and then being PROSELYTIZED!

 

I know boys from another faith for example who are actively told to go after 'Hindu' girls and convert them. Don't have more babies with your own women. Get Hindu girls and convert them!

 

Does anyone think that we should worry about what Appu knows about his religion...No! we should be more worried about where his eight children land up.

 

Know thyself...is the most important proclamation you can teach your children. Know your faith not to be mindless dogma...but a mystery school as old as the world...a magic order...

 

Sorry, but I ascribe Hinduism to be tolerant, and open about other religions. At the same time, I know that not all paths are equal. Some are quicker to God than others, and I believe Hinduism is the best path out there for me to reach God the quickest. That still doesn't mean Hinduism isn't tolerant or that a person shouldn't embrace any other religion or get to know any other religion.

 

I do agree though, Hindus SHOULD know their religion and not be stupid enough to claim all religions are equal. It's simply not true. There's a difference between tolerance and recognition of other faiths, and the inequality of faiths in general.

 

One has to be smart enough to know the distinction and see it from a proper point of view or he is easily misled.

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just 2day I had a discussion with a 'Hindu' who claimed that there was no reason for him/her to practice Hinduism (whatever that may be). This apparently did not discount his/her availabilty to defend the religion.

 

Crazy? Our problem is that we are telling our children lies about how tolerant our religion is and how they're going out with arms wide open from an ignorant view of their own religion and then being PROSELYTIZED!

 

I know boys from another faith for example who are actively told to go after 'Hindu' girls and convert them. Don't have more babies with your own women. Get Hindu girls and convert them!

 

Does anyone think that we should worry about what Appu knows about his religion...No! we should be more worried about where his eight children land up.

 

Know thyself...is the most important proclamation you can teach your children. Know your faith not to be mindless dogma...but a mystery school as old as the world...a magic order...

 

I agree with you and understand what you mean about boys from another faith dating Hindu girls to convert them and now that particular faith community realise that marrying cousins is a very bad thing as you can see the results today. They believe they will get to heaven by converting the girl, especially Hindus as they see them as polytheists.

 

I believe Hinduism teaches all valid paths lead to God. I take this to mean the different Hindu sects, since the time this was revealed there was no other religions we have today. This doesn't mean that every religion is true, that would be absurd, since other religions purpose is to destroy other religions like Hinduism.

 

Apu on the Simpsons represents the ignorant Hindu Americans. You will find some of these people who just know what their mother and father told them and repeat this to others such as "we Hindus have hundreds of gods", "we worship idols" and are very stubborn to change their views. So in a way I'm not offended, I find Apu quite funny, but Hindus in America (the non-ignorant ones) should use the opportunity to explain truly what Hinduism is. You will have to tackle ignorant Hindus like Apu, that's the only way of progress.

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I agree with you and understand what you mean about boys from another faith dating Hindu girls to convert them and now that particular faith community realise that marrying cousins is a very bad thing as you can see the results today. They believe they will get to heaven by converting the girl, especially Hindus as they see them as polytheists.

 

I believe Hinduism teaches all valid paths lead to God. I take this to mean the different Hindu sects, since the time this was revealed there was no other religions we have today. This doesn't mean that every religion is true, that would be absurd, since other religions purpose is to destroy other religions like Hinduism.

 

Apu on the Simpsons represents the ignorant Hindu Americans. You will find some of these people who just know what their mother and father told them and repeat this to others such as "we Hindus have hundreds of gods", "we worship idols" and are very stubborn to change their views. So in a way I'm not offended, I find Apu quite funny, but Hindus in America (the non-ignorant ones) should use the opportunity to explain truly what Hinduism is. You will have to tackle ignorant Hindus like Apu, that's the only way of progress.

 

No, Hinduism teaches all paths are valid, all paths lead to God. There is no condition of time imposed upon this idea. Obviously this is my opinion, but nevertheless, if your view was right there would not be ONE saint produced from any other religion other than Hinduism. That is simply not true. And no religion was conceived to destroy Hinduism. That would require every prophet to have known and encountered Hinduism and for every prophet in Abrahamic religions to be false and malicious. I refuse to believe this is true. Abrahamic religions have been taken over by greed, ego, and the lust for control, so as to become a numbers game. Even Hinduism is falling prey to this ideology and joining the ranks, but mostly out of pure necessity. However, Abrahamic religions were NOT conceived in order to destroy Hinduism. They arose from a noble goal, to portray some aspect of God, to show a society that was growing increasingly barbaric how to reconnect with God at least for that society in question.

 

 

So while some principles may be diametrically opposed to Hinduism, unlike Hinduism which can offer flexibility, the Abrahamic religions have become institutionalized and offer only rigidity and uncompromising subservience.

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No, Hinduism teaches all paths are valid, all paths lead to God.

 

No Hindu sect I know teaches this. Name an acharya that has taught that atheistic religions like Buddhism are a valid path to God?

 

Do Hindus really teach all paths are valid? Do they teach polytheism is a valid path to the One God? Do they teach left-hand path religions, like the Temple of Set, are valid paths to the Kingdom of Light? Do Hindus teach that worshipping rocks and trees, like some animistic faiths, are a path to Self-Realization? What about hedonistic paths, like Laveyan Satanism: does this path lead one off the wheel of Samsara?

 

 

Abrahamic religions have been taken over by greed, ego, and the lust for control, so as to become a numbers game.

 

Abrahmic religions like Christianity and Islam have always been about numbers, for the very reason that they teach that followers of other religions are eternally damned. They are trying to convert as many lost souls as they can, because that what they believe is their divine commission. Jesus is recording as saying in the Gospel of Mark chapter 16:

 

15 And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned."

 

and Jesus said in John 3:18: "He who believes in Him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."

Now you know why Christians are trying so hard to convert Hindus (and all other non-Christians); because they believe we are condemned unless we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour.

 

I do not believe this Christian rhetoric, but this is what Christians believe, because their holy book, the Bible states these things. You should know what the gospels actually teach, so you can understand why Christians are so bent on converting as many as possible. Their religious mandates and beliefs would be severly compromised if they didn't preach. They would think they have our blood on their hands, for not warning us, while we perish to what they believe to be an eternal hell.

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No, Hinduism teaches all paths are valid, all paths lead to God. There is no condition of time imposed upon this idea. Obviously this is my opinion, but nevertheless, if your view was right there would not be ONE saint produced from any other religion other than Hinduism.

 

 

Oh really? Then why did the acharyas spend hours debating at Varanasi over which systems of Hindu philosophy was superior? Why do Hindu sampradayas seek converts or followers from the already Hindu community? Why was Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism seen as non-Hindu? Why are some paths treated as suspiscious and non-vedic?

Hinduism clearly does NOT teach that all paths are valid. When Krishna spoke about different paths lead to him, he was talking abou the different Hindu sects in his time, not Christianity or Islam since these religions were not in existence in that time and are totally oppossed to religions like Hinduism.

 

 

And no religion was conceived to destroy Hinduism. That would require every prophet to have known and encountered Hinduism and for every prophet in Abrahamic religions to be false and malicious. I refuse to believe this is true. Abrahamic religions have been taken over by greed, ego, and the lust for control, so as to become a numbers game.

 

 

The Abrahamic faiths are totally opposed to ideas in Hinduism such as God's many incarnations, God with form, reincarnation, and murti worship. These religions are supposed to fight any religion which worships engraven images and we all know Hindus are at the forefront in image worship in the world today. Hinduism falls into this category of idol-worshippers. Please do not be an appologist, you're doing nobody any favours.

 

 

So while some principles may be diametrically opposed to Hinduism, unlike Hinduism which can offer flexibility, the Abrahamic religions have become institutionalized and offer only rigidity and uncompromising subservience.

 

No the very Abrahamic scriptures themselves are against what Hindus believe, they have been rigid from day 1. It's not that the Abrahamics are misguided, it's because people like you make up false ideas about them being misguided. They understand their religion better than you do. Throughout history the Abrahamic faiths have attempted to destroy any religion that makes images of God/gods, they are still battling with Hindus today, but the methods have changed. Hindus in India should know about what the Islamic invasions did to their temples and not be ashamed to talk about it. If we do not learn from the past we will have no future!

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