The Simpsons star Harry Shearer has suggested that the recasting of Dr Hibbert has “affected” his former character.
The actor was replaced in the role by Kevin Richardson in 2021, after the long-running animated sitcom decided the year before that white actors would no longer voice non-white roles in the series.
Shearer previously voiced Hibbert, who is Black, from the show’s inception, and in a new interview with The Times reflected on the change.
“Folk say the show has become woke in recent years and one of my characters has been affected,” he said. “I voiced the Black physician, Dr Hibbert, who I based on Bill Cosby. Back then he was known as the ‘whitest black man on television’.
“Then, a couple of years ago, I received an email saying they’d employed a Black actor, who then copied my voice. The result is a Black man imitating a white man imitating the whitest Black man on TV,” he added.
The show had previously come under fire over white star Hank Azaria’s voicing of Indian-American character Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, which was highlighted in 2017 documentary The Problem With Apu by Hari Kondabolu. In it, the comedian argued that the character was an offensive stereotype to people of Indian descent.
Azaria stepped away from the role, and later apologised, telling Dax Shepherd’s Armchair Expert podcast in 2021: “I’ve had a date with destiny with this thing for about 31 years. Part of me feels like I need to go around to every single Indian person in this country and personally apologise, and sometimes I do when it comes up.”
Apologising to the podcast’s co-host Monica Padman, an Indian-American woman, he added: “I know you weren’t asking for that, but it’s important. I apologise for my part in creating that and participating in that.”
The Simpsons creator Matt Groening also addressed the decision to cast non-white actors in the roles, telling BBC in 2021: “Times change. But I actually didn’t have a problem with the way we were doing it.”
He added: “All of our actors play dozens of characters each, it was never designed to exclude anyone.”
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