The Simpsons creator Matt Groening doesn’t do many interviews. Apparently, he announces at the start of ours, he doesn’t “have much more to say”.
Forty minutes later, after diving through topics from his latest Netflix show to memes and… er, monorails, it’s clear he was wrong – there’s plenty still to discuss.
Not least, accusations that some of The Simpsons’ ethnic minority characters, all historically voiced by white actors, encourage harmful stereotypes.
After a backlash prompted by a 2018 documentary called The Problem With Apu, the show has spent the last year re-casting its non-white roles.
“Times change,” Matt tells us, “but I actually didn’t have a problem with the way we were doing it.
“All of our actors play dozens of characters each, it was never designed to exclude anyone.”
At first, the show’s response was along these lines too. Within an episode, Lisa looked directly into the camera, saying: “Something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive is now politically incorrect. What can you do?”
Eventually, though, The Simpsons backtracked and announced it was making changes after all.
Credit: bbc.com
The post Simpsons casting ‘not designed to exclude anyone’ appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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