Over the last few years, in the name of being woke, Simpsons (and others) have changed a
number of voice actors because their real ethnic background didn’t match the fictional ethnic
background of the cartoon character being depicted onscreen, not that you could tell from a voice.
It’s funny how many of these awake individuals state on the one hand that race doesn’t exist
and that we should be aiming for a post-racial future, but on the other hand they’re constantly
categorising people into essentially different races. Everything has to be racialised. A number
of people jokingly said that minor characters like Bumblebee Man should also change voice
actors stating words to the effect, “Bumblebee Man better be voiced by a Mexican dressed like a bee
or so help me God!” But it’s true! Bumblebee Man’s voice actor was replaced. Up until 2020, Bumblebee
man was voiced by Hank Azaria, but in the name of diversity, since 2021 Eric Lopez is the new voice.
According to his Wikipedia page, “Eric Lopez is an American voice actor of Mexican descent.”
That seems like an odd thing to write, don’t you think? Couldn’t you just say he’s an American?
In 2002, Homer moves in with Julio Franco, a gay man,
who was also originally played by Hank Azaria up until 2020, but because Hank Azaria’s not gay,
of course he was bumped for an actual gay person, Tony Rodriguez. Yes,
apparently now your real sexuality has to match the fictional sexuality you’re playing onscreen.
To be clear, I’m certainly not blaming the actors here. Many actors struggle to find jobs,
so of course, they’ll take any work they can get. If I was a struggling actor and I was offered the
voice role of say an Asian cartoon character, I’d happily take it, simply because I needed the work.
Kumiko Nakamura a Japanese artist from Osaka, Comic Book Guy’s girlfriend, and later wife,
used to be voiced by Tress MacNeille until 2020, but unfortunately for her,
she had the wrong genetic makeup, and has since been replaced by Jenny Yokobori. Noting that,
Ms Yokobori is not Japanese, she’s American, but because her ethnic
background matches the character’s, then all is right in the world apparently.
Bernice Hibbert, the recovering alcoholic wife of Dr Hibbert, often a non-speaking role,
even she’s been replaced. Tress MacNeille was the original voice actor for the first
few decades of the series, but just like her husband, Bernice was replaced in 2021 by a
voice actor who has an appropriate level of melanin content in their skin, Dawnn Lewis.
Drederick Tatum, used to be voiced by Hank Azaria,
but apparently Mr Azaria can’t possibly know how to voice a black world heavyweight
boxing champion, so he was replaced with stand-up comedian Jay Pharoah.
Judge Snyder, voiced for decades by Harry Shearer. Sorry Harry, your skin tone doesn’t
match the imaginary cartoon character’s skin tone – piss off! Replaced by Kevin Michael Richardson.
The funny thing about all this, the so-called “white” characters aren’t even white. They’re
bright yellow! And what does all this mean? Does this mean black actors can now only play
black characters? This is severely limiting their options, is it not? What kind of message does it
send? Black actors have a “black voice”? Or does it mean “black voice” requires a “black accent”?!
What the hell? Does black voice mean slang and a strong suburban accent or something like that?
Isn’t that being racist assuming black people have black voices? It’s basically telling voice actors:
“Nope, you can’t do that, your skin colour/sex is wrong”. Basically, more segregation.
The Simpsons were kind of forced to spend extra money to get all these
different actors to voice all these minor characters. But there was one easy fix. I mean,
the characters portrayed on screen aren’t even real, right? At the stroke of the cartoonist’s
pen (well, nowadays it’s all done on computers), but the producers could have simply changed
Dr Hibbert to be a bright yellow character, and kept his voice exactly the same. I mean,
that’s how ridiculous this all is. It’s just an onscreen colour that the producers of the
show could easily change. I mean, it’s not even the producer’s fault. If the powers that be are
telling them they can’t have non-bright-yellow characters voiced by white people, then just
make all characters bright yellow onscreen, and then just write it into the script.
“Dr Hibbert! What happened to your skin!?” “He, he, he. Don’t worry Homer. I’ve just got
a rare form of yellowmysitisis. It’s completely harmless.”
“But your voice is exactly the same?” “Why would my voice change?”
Fans would understand why it happened,
and it would show the world how ridiculous this has become. I mean ultimately, it’s up
to the producers whether they write non-yellow characters into the show or not. If they’re
going to be forced to hire all these different voice actors to voice minor roles because of
their depicted colour on screen, well, they can just change the colour onscreen, can’t they?
I remember seeing a skit by funnyman Eddie Murphy where he put on makeup
and dressed up as a white guy. I remember it being quite funny,
and I certainly wasn’t offended by it. But that was live action. What we’re seeing with
The Simpsons is just their voices. We’re not seeing the people behind the voices.
Of course, skin colour sometimes matters when casting live action, since we see the actors
and actresses. It would be weird if, say, Hua Mulan was played by Denzel Washington, no matter
how well he delivered the lines. But we don’t see voice actors. So how they look doesn’t matter in
the slightest. The only valid job requirement is, can they make the correct voices? Heck,
Bart has been voiced by a woman for 35 years, and nobody seems to care. Nor should they.
Gin Rummy in The Boondocks is voiced by Samuel L Jackson. Who cares? Are we going
to demand that only white people can play white cartoon characters?
Cree Summer was the original voice actor for Penny in Inspector Gadget. I didn't
care. It shouldn’t matter. As long as the voice actor plays a believable,
entertaining version of the character played onscreen, it shouldn’t matter
what the actor’s skin colour is. And if it does matter, then who’s the one being racist?
Apu could have an Indian accent, or a British accent. Heck, he could even have absolutely
no accent, because you know, that happens too. Or he could have a Hungarian accent, because at some
point he could have lived there. There should be nothing wrong with any of that, especially
that the point of voice acting, as the name suggests, is to act. No matter the skin colour,
ethnicity, gender, etc., an actor is expected to act, as a character, and not be themselves.
Forcing the casting of voice actors that match the ethnicity, gender,
and sexual orientation of the cartoon character they play,
is bordering on ridiculous in my opinion, and is just limiting actors’ opportunities.
It will end up creating more problems in the long run, and won’t fix a damn thing.
I know this has become trite, but Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed of a day when people were
judged by the content of their character, not the colour of their skin. So why are
people who claim lineage from his movement striving so hard against this very idea?
I never cared who did the voices, and I really don’t want to be pushed into
conversations about how I should care now. Look, the bottom line is that if you have
a problem with a voice actor because they have a different melanin content than the
fictional onscreen character they portray, then aren’t you the one being racist?