It may only happen once out of every few thousand or million tries, but never let anyone tell you that goofing around on YouTube can’t lead to the impossibly big break of your dreams—again, it probably won’t, and assuming that it will is childishly naive, but it still could happen. Just ask Arif Zahir, a YouTube impressionist who makes videos where he pretends to be famous people/fictional characters in Omegle chats or while playing video games. One of his specialties happens to be imitating the voice Mike Henry used to use for Cleveland Brown on Family Guy, and now that Henry has stepped down from the role as part of an industry-wide trend of moving away from having white people provide the voice of Black characters, the Family Guy people have actually decided to hire Zahir as the new voice of Cleveland.
Family Guy’s next season premieres tonight, and while it was produced before Henry stepped down (and therefore still features him doing the voice), the episodes that are currently in production will feature Zahir taking over as Rhode Island’s giggliest mustache-wearer. Zahir released an appropriately enthusiastic statement (via TVLine), saying he was “shocked and saddened” when Henry announced that he would no longer voice Cleveland because he thought that meant the character would never be seen again, but he feels “overabundant gratitude” at now having the opportunity to play his “favorite cartoon character of all time.”
Henry released a statement of his own, saying that Zahir not only has “obvious” talent, but that his “understanding of Cleveland and his respect for the character” made it clear that he’s the right choice for this gig. It also sounds like Henry will be working with Zahir as some kind of Ceveland advisor, so it seems like there should be no reason to be concerned about any dramatic changes coming to Family Guy. As for Zahir’s aforementioned obvious talent, it really is pretty damn obvious that he really is good at this:
While we won’t hear Zahir on Family Guy just yet, tonight will feature the debut of a new voice for Carl on The Simpsons (though it’s unclear if that’s a permanent replacement).
47 Comments
But will the scripts be authentic to the Black experience?
This is even worse than the time our scripts weren’t authentic to the Black experience!
The entire run of The Cleveland Show is going to be a long-ass cutaway.
*Manatees in tanks move balls around*
Yes, like a lot of black men he will be falling out of his bath after half of his house has been destroyed.
This is a great positive outcome. Zahir gets the voice down pretty much perfectly so you won’t notice any distracting difference. And now he’s got his foot in the door for more work because he’s got talent. Talent is everywhere. You just have to be willing to go find it.
He doesn’t have more talent than the guy that made the voice what it is, but I imagine that won’t matter for the moral crusade.
as if you have anywhere near the data needed to draw that conclusion.
Considering the fact that his race is the only reason he is getting the job, then I think that’s a pretty good piece of data.
A black guy being a white guy being a black guy. Cool.Here’s a suggestion though: how about comissioning a new show from black creators?
They can call it “The Black Family Guy.”
Or as it was known “The Cleveland Show”
I don’t think the producers of Family Guy have the power to green-light new shows. They’re doing what they can.
No
Naw, this is easier, more cost effective and less risky.
I mean, those are two separate issues, but go off dude!
They did. It was called The Cleveland Show.
Yeah none of those exist anywhere
A black guy being a white guy being a black guy. Cool.That’s just for a start. He can probably start putting his own take on it over time.
Should’ve been Carl Tart.
Zeke Nicholson as Peter.
With his dog Brian and his daughter Meg?
Who else but Arif Zahir!
…take your star.
They are plenty of black show’s from black creators check out BET, Bounce, OWN and TV one. Let’s stop making it about black or white and caving to PC crybabies.
I dunno, I was initially skeptical of this choice, but judging from the video up there, this guy can clearly do the voice, and will be a good Cleveland. My concern was that they would not only recast the role, but alter the character to be more stereotypically “black”, and defeat the purpose of what made him funny in the first place (i.e., a black guy with corny white mannerisms). They were actually pretty clever in how they went about this.
As long as they felt replacing Mike Henry was necessary, they should’ve went all-in with it.They could’ve done the sliding bathtub bit but this time around, when Cleveland falls, he hits his head and the next time he sees Peter and Joe, he has a completely different voice. At first, no one notices but then Peter pauses and asks, “Hey Cleveland, is it me or do you sound different?” and Cleveland and Joe would both respond, “What are you talking about, Peter?”- “Eh, nevermind.”This could be a running gag throughout the show where every once in a while, Peter will break to ask Cleveland if he sounds different but noone else seems to notice.
I can hear this in my head. “No? Just me? Really?”
“now having the opportunity to play his “favorite cartoon character of all time.””Bro, you gotta watch some more cartoons then…
So funny. The snark, the sarcasm, the insight into cartoon history. You’re just so funny and charming and you TRY and it’s so great the funny things you say and we can tell you put maximum effort and thought into the construction of your funny sarcastic jokes. My god please never ever stop its just too good!
I aim to please, darling.
Finally, racism is solved! BLM can stand down now.
I’m sure the new voice of Joe Swanson is being announced shortly, because this whole uproar was intellectually honest.
So I get that we need more – well, pretty much everyone but old white dude representation in Hollywood. I fully support that, no question.I’m confused why gender and skin color come into play in animation? We could have black dudes playing white characters, white dudes playing black characters, dudes playing female characters, chicks playing male characters. As long as the voice is right for the part and you never see them onscreen, why attach importance to the voice actor’s physical look?
Ideal world/real world problem. Ideal world, it doesn’t matter, anyone can be played by anyone because opportunities are equal. Real word, does matter, because the opportunities are not equal, and black voice actors are often shut out.
What about the other 150 countries FG is shown in, will they all be black actors? Doubtful
In an ideal world, I agree. In the real world, so far, that has just ended up with white dudes playing adult male characters of any race, and white chicks playing female characters and children of any race. If you want to level the playing field, you need to create more opportunities for POC to actually participate, and matching the ethnicity of the actor to the character is a good way to start.It also helps avoid the problems of perpetuating negative stereotypes. Not completely (a black actor can certainly play a black stereotypical character, after all), but it does put someone with a voice and perspective that can prevent it in the cast.
The pokemon voice actor for ash has always been a woman, no one cares about the skin color behind the voice of an animated character. Wanna know what I have never, ever done? Watched an episode of family guy then pondered the race of the voice actors, I just don’t care
Soooooo brave. This is soooo important
Like with Carl, I think it was unnecessary. Also like with Carl, the character sounds the same, so there’s that. Good for the Youtuber.
Because Seth MacFarlane happened to be white- you know, the show’s creator. And he made his pick here. And I’m fairly certain that he will NOT re-arrange everything in his whole work-life schedule just to try & please your millennial, one sided thought process, lame, loser suggestion just to come off as being politically correct. You DO know Seth MacFarlane, don’t you…?
It’s definitely worth listening to the embedded “Cleveland plays Apex” video – Zahir nails it.
He nails the voice but I was kind of hoping for a new take on the character.
I totally get and respect any movement for equal rights and equality for all citizens of a nation but I also think it is unnecessary for Mike Henry to step down voicing a character on the principle that he is a “white” voice actor voicing a “black” character on a show that he has been on for 18 seasons. I mean it seems absurd to be honest. Phil La Marr, a “black” actor/voice actor voiced a Japanese “white” character named Samurai Jack for its full run of 5 seasons plus a newly released video game. I would never have seen the point of him stepping down from the role just because his race does not match that of the character he portrayed. Does not make sense to give up a job or role you are good at or enjoy, especially when it brings others joy, just to follow an industry wide trend.
the Simpsons should get yellow people to voice the characters too. YVM
This guy really lucked out, BUT at the same time it sounds like he didn’t give a shit about who was voicing Cleveland to begin with. Dude voiced the character for literally 20 years and nobody cared. Like, seriously, what’s the point of all this if you’re going to hire a new person who is just doing an indistinguishable impression of the old person? Just keep the guy you had!
Some actors will now be let go because of the color of their skin? This new “trend” attempts to solve what some view as racist with actual racism. What would you do if someone told you that you were being let go or that you wouldn’t be accepted for a potential position because of your skin color? Equality is going to eradicate racism–not this cushy, ultra-politically-correct virtue signaling nonsense.