The Voice Actor’s Skin Colour Doesn’t Match!

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to be voiced by Tress MacNeille until 2020, but unfortunately for her, she had the wrong genetic makeup, and has since been replaced by Jenny Yokobori.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.

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!

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), 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.

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?

Apu could have an Indian accent, or a British accent. Heck, he could even have absolutely no accent, because you know, that happens too.

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?

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Allégro by Emmit Fenn