When I was younger, I remember watching Disney’s “Phineas and Ferb” (2007-2015) with my brothers on Sunday mornings. With its comical villain, its songs ranging from “Perry the Platypus” to “A-G-L-E-T.,” and its nostalgic celebration of summertime, it was one of our all-time favorite shows. In fact, “Phineas and Ferb” was one of the most popular shows in Disney history. It had over 289 million viewers, and its following included most of my elementary school. But at the same time that the show gained massive popularity, there was one character that soured the production for me: Baljeet.
To this day, I am not quite sure why Baljeet was included in the cast of “Phineas and Ferb.” In many ways, the show transcended reality in ways that made it universally enjoyable to children. After all, it features a secret-agent platypus wearing a fedora and a protagonist with a triangle-shaped face. But among the show’s host of imaginative figures, the writers pulled viewers back down to earth with Baljeet–an Indian boy who talks in a feigned accent, has a designated bully, always needs good grades, and dresses up as a samosa in the episode “Hip Hip Parade.”
The actor who voices Baljeet, Maulik Pancholy, does not have an Indian accent in real life–he fakes it for the show. In the episode “Unfair Science Fair,” Baljeet dances in a kurta and sings about how he needs good grades or his family will reject him, while a group of belly-dancing Indian women flood the scene and the other characters ride elephants. Scenes like this portrayed Indian culture in a way that was both ridiculing and exoticizing–an effect that was consistently exacerbated by Baljeet’s fake accent.
Phineas and Ferb’s stereotypical depictions had tangible off-screen effects, as children began using “Baljeet” as a slur to make fun of Indians. To this day, many Indian content creators deal with this slur on a daily basis, particularly on TikTok. The phenomenon grew so prominent that Dan Povenmire, one of the creators of the show, explicitly asked people to stop using Baljeet to make fun of South Asians.
“Phineas and Ferb” is not the only American show guilty of denigrating Indian culture. Apu from “The Simpsons” (1989-present) is famous for garnering ridicule toward South Asians in a similar manner to that of Baljeet. Voiced by Hank Azaria, an American voice actor with no Indian roots, Apu features a fake accent and plays into multiple stereotypes. In “The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons,” Bart Simpson dresses up as a fake Indian deity to stop Apu’s marriage and comments that only his “screwy country” could have such a twisted idea of matrimony. Apu’s “Thank you, come again,” is another catchphrase that has been used to make fun of South Asians for the past several years. But the stereotypes in American television don’t end there.
The Disney show “Jessie” (2011-2015) features the character Ravi, who talks in yet another exaggerated, fake accent, is a nerd who gets bullied, and has trouble connecting with women. Karan Brar, the actor who plays Jessie, has no trace of an Indian accent at all–he fakes it for comedic effect on the show. And while Raj Koothrappali from “The Big Bang Theory” (2007-2019) is played by Kunal Nayyar, who has a genuine accent in real life, his character is similarly desexualized and portrayed as inept at connecting with women.
The start dates of these shows range from 1989 all the way to 2011, and reflect a lackluster history of Indian representation on American television. When Indians have complained about this issue in the past, there have been many responses akin to “Who cares? They’re just jokes.” And to someone who didn’t grow up with the repercussions of these stereotypes, it’s hard to realize that this is precisely the problem: until recently, virtually all of that we have seen of ourselves on TV is jokes.
Words cannot describe the relief that I felt when watching “Master of None” (2015-present), where Aziz Ansari did not fake an accent, or play into stereotypes, or ridicule Indian culture for profit. Instead, he explicitly addressed problems of fake accents in “Indians on TV,” and had relationships with women, and dealt with questions of cultural acceptance in ways that were sensitive and thought-provoking. The same can be said for “The Mindy Project” (2012-2015), where Mindy Kaling similarly talked in her ordinary American accent, and had a love life, and did normal human things. This is what I had craved from Indian representation on television for so long–to see us portrayed as ordinary people, not the subject of racialized jokes every time we entered a room.
In recent years, things have gotten even better, with Mindy Kaling creating “Never Have I Ever,” where Devi Vishwakumar depicts the struggles of being Indian-American in ways that I find sensitive, and thought-provoking, and impactful. But more than this, she is also a normal high schooler that does normal high-school things, like having love interests, and rebelling against her mom, and going to parties. This is not to say that any of these shows are without their flaws, but they are a serious improvement upon what existed before.
I grew up in a half-Indian, half-Dominican household, and the way that I saw South Asians portrayed on TV as a child made me want to mute this part of myself until it was nonexistent. As wrong and embarrassing as it is to admit, it’s a truth of my childhood that I can’t escape. And although this desire faded with time and maturity, I take great pride in watching our portrayal in media evolve. In light of recent discussions about companies like Marvel spotlighting Asians to make money, my gut response is–who cares? They may be motivated by financial profit, but the net result is beneficial to minorities in ways that were previously unheard of. I can’t speak to the company’s specific depiction of cultures outside of my own, but I will emphatically address the larger issue of representation: I’m glad companies realize that they need to be inclusive to make money. I’m glad that they realize that making fun of minority cultures will cause them to lose viewers. And I hope that as the entertainment industry continues to evolve, we can create spaces for non-Western cultures that are uplifting, and meaningful, and educational–not ones that cater to deprecating racial slurs.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.