NEW YORK (AP) – Growing up in New York in the 1980s, comedian Hari Kondabolu adored “The Simpsons.” There was just one thing that bothered him about it.

Amid the fictional Springfield’s barflies, incompetent doctors, clowns and crazy eggheads was a truly cartoonish character – Apu, the Kwik-E-Mart clerk who sold expired food and delivered the sing-songy slogan “Thank you, come again.”

To Kondabolu and plenty of other people of South Asian heritage, the pot-bellied, heavily accented Apu led to real world bullying, self-loathing and embarrassment.

Kondabolu, who does stand-up and podcasts with a socially conscious focus, is now fighting back with a documentary called “The Problem With Apu,” airing on truTV on Nov. 19.