Much Apu About Nothing episode's title is based on William Shakespeare's play "Much Ado About Nothing". The original title for the episode was going to be "The Anti-Immigrant Song", in reference to Led Zeppelin's song "Immigrant Song". A sign held by a protester outside the Kwik-E-Mart says "The only good foreigner is Rod Stewart!", a reference to the British singer. Brad Bird, an American director who has worked as executive consultant and director on "The Simpsons", can briefly be seen in the crowd that complains to Mayor Quimby. In its original broadcast, "Much Apu About Nothing" finished 49th in the ratings for the week
Much Apu About Nothing succeeds as a savage satire on the scapegoating of immigrants. Homer has never been so frighteningly dumb, although he does come through with a rousing liberal speech." The episode is "The Simpsons" creator Matt Groening's third favorite episode of the show. The episode received a negative review from Dave Foster of DVD Times. He considered "Much Apu About Nothing" to be one of the season's most "tiring" episodes, "mostly because Apu is not a strong enough character to focus an episode on no matter how much writer David Cohen develops him". Foster commented that the episode deals with a political