BoJack Horseman Creator And Hank Azaria Respond To Worries From Increasingly PC Culture

Yep…this.

Last week, Hank Azaria was on a panel for IFC promoting Brockmire where the voice of Apu, Chief Wiggum, and other characters from The Simpsons, had to yet again answer baseless claims as to whether or not The Problem with Apu is causing concern with the show’s producers and if anything should be done about it. Hank says, the producers are going to “address” the claims. We’ve made our thoughts perfectly clear on the movie and in other editorials on what we think the producers should do (in short…toss them), so now it’s really a “wait and see” as to how they move forward from here.

In related news, BoJack Horseman creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg had to answer claims of potentially miscasting himself after a Twitter user begged the question, should an Asian-American character in “Diane Nguyen” be voiced by a decidedly NOT Asian Alison Brie. Well, here’s what Raphael had to say:

Twitter feels like a bad place to get into a nuanced conversation about this, but I’d be happy to discuss further in an interview if asked. Almost nobody does ask — possibly because most interviewers are fans of the show who don’t want to upset me (and they’re mostly white too).

— Raphael Bob-Waksberg (@RaphaelBW) January 15, 2018

Our Take

First thing’s first, we’ve requested an interview with Raphael at least six or seven times over the last few seasons of his hugely successful series and we’ve yet to get a response. Yes, I am a white man and a fan of the show and have no problems in asking questions that make people feel uncomfortable. So here’s an open invite, Raphael! My email’s at the bottom.

In the meantime, the irony behind everyone worried about Asian-Americans not voicing the role of “Diane”, note this is an industry where black actors voice numerous white characters, women voice male characters, men voice women characters, and yes, Japanese actors based in Tokyo regularly voice characters in anime that is increasingly more indicative of Western culture than that of Japan. A good example is Star Blazers 2199, an anime series featuring a big white-scruffy bearded character named “Juzo Okita” who looks closer to the part of coming from the United States than anywhere in the Pacific Ocean.

Alas, this is the “reaction culture” we live in.