The Four Color Media Monitor

Breitbart's informing that the Simpsons producers have made sure to replace voice actor Harry Shearer with a different guy for playing Dr. Julius Hibbert, much as they already have for the character of Carl Carlson:

Fox’s The Simpsons has found a black actor to replace Harry Shearer as the voice of Dr. Julius Hibbert. Actor Kevin Michael Richardson will now voice the role of Dr. Hibbert following Shearer’s final performance as the Simpson’s family physician on Sunday night’s episode, according to multiple reports.

The re-casting comes after Fox said last year that it would no longer allow white actors to voice non-white characters on the long-running primetime animated show. The decision was part of Hollywood’s larger effort to crack down on content that might be deemed offensive or racist in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests and riots that were taking place in cities across the country.

Of course, when you consider that Hibbert was inspired by Bill Cosby, who's still serving time at a prison in Norristown, Pennsylvania for his serial rape crimes, that's why one can wonder if there's any point keeping the character in the cast, now that an unfortunate pall hangs over, any more than keeping the whole show on the air, since it's long lost its humorous edge. And to think, that Matt Groening and company are enacting all this political correctness for the sake of a movement that's led to horrific violence in the past year. That's why the time has come to switch off the TV set.

Update: series creator Groening says he didn't have a problem with white actors voicing non-white characters. But if his staff is now making these changes, it's clear he's not all that different in his knee-jerk PC thinking.

Labels: animation, politics