are arguing in Hindi. During the scene, both characters speak the language accurately, as both Hooks and Hank Azaria (the voice of Apu) were given a phonetic transcription of their lines. The singing parrot that Apu sends to Manjula was voiced by series main cast member Nancy Cartwright, who also portrays Bart in the series. The episode features singer Sir Elton John as himself. John's lines were recorded by current showrunner Al Jean, who found working with John being a "wonderful experience". "Elton John was a very nice person," Scully spoke for Jean in the DVD commentary for the episode, since Jean was busy during the commentary record. "He was a great sport and worked really hard for the show." Scully also stated that the re-recording of "Your Song", which appears near the end of the episode, had to be recorded "several times," but that John was "very accommodating" about it. Themes and cultural references In their book Picturing South Asian Culture in English: Textual and Visual Representations, Tasleem Shakur and Karen D'Souza analyzed "I'm with Cupid" along with the season 9 episode "The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons". The two argued that "I'm with Cupid" represents Apu's role in the series, and "reinforces the romanticised view of Apu's marriage through the increasingly elaborate ways in which he expresses his love for his wife." They wrote: "In a Valentine's day episode, the message is clearly critically showing up the all-American men of Springfield for their lack of romance. [...] Throughout this episode, Apu's identity is reinforced as exotic other, but not so much as 'South Asian' other, as an 'American' ideal other, that more wholesome, romantic male juxtaposed to the Duff drinking, couch potato male typified by the men of Moe's bar and Homer Simpson. Again, Apu is not so much represented in his ethnicity, but presented in his critical otherness to both contemporary degenerativeness of American culture, specifically male identities and ironically (re)constructed idea of South Asianness. In these two episodes, the Asian cultural space which Apu, his mother and Manjula perform is a hybrid one, mixing 'Asian' and 'American' values and identities, but critically displacing Asian 'authenticity' and revealing the displacement of contemporary American marriage from its 'authentic' traditions." In a scene late in the episode, John, having just chewed his way out of a dog carrier, meets Apu, who exclaims "Elton John!", to which John replies "That's my name!