Our city has as many inspiring journalists as it does unlicensed marijuana dispensaries these days, but yesterday, one Vancouver Sun reporter went above and beyond the call of duty.
Stephanie Ip made a call to action when she nominated Seth Rogen as the voice Translink should broadcast through transit stations as part of its upcoming Visa campaign.
Lots of emails today were along the lines of: "What, there wasn't a Canadian actor who could've done the job?" After some thought, I do have a suggestion: @Sethrogen. I would happily listen to him announce my transit stops all day, every day BUT ONLY IF IT COMES WITH THE LAUGH. https://t.co/o0v5FWlocj
— Stephanie Ip (@stephanie_ip) May 23, 2018
That call was answered, but not in response to national pride or the company’s support for a comedian known to hit bongs and anthropomorphize sausages.Translink is suspending—read: not necessarily reacting to allegations immediately—Freeman’s voice because CNN released a report on May 24 containing eight women's stories of being sexually harassed by the actor.
After an unfortunate series of events that even Lemony Snicket couldn’t have predicted, people have turned to humour rather than horror over these accusations. Twitter and reddit seemed less concerned about another celebrity tricking the public into trusting them, and more interested in suggesting alternative narrators for Translink and Visa.
Some of my favourites include:
Ryan Reynolds—Vancouver’s local treasure that a number of commenters decided should make the announcements in the character of Deadpool—Marvel’s jaded, boisterous superhero.
Note: He worked with Air Canada for this ad, so the idea may not be too far fetched.
The Marine Gateway Station Canada Line announcement would sound like this, if narrated by Deadpool: “Move out of the way to let the people out before you enter the goddamn train you uncultured f**ks" (Source: Reverie_Incubus, reddit).
Stephen Harper, who would simply repeat: “I too, enjoy the normal human activities such as riding the train and watching Netflix,” at every station (Source: El_Cactus_Loco, reddit).
Michael Buble, who I personally hope would be programmed to start singing along to people listening to their headphones at dangerously loud volumes. That technology surely couldn’t cost more than Freeman’s fee?
Red Robinson: “Hello, and welcome to Red Robinson’s transit announcements. I’m Red Robinson. The escalator at Waterfront station is down. This is Red Robinson, signing off”(Source: Quatchi, reddit).
Sarah McLachlan, Mike Myers, Celine Dion—of course there are other Canadian voices who could fuel our addiction to celebrity. But it was one tweet by an American comedian that demonstrated how society has started to normalize sexual harassment allegations since the legs of #metoos hashtag started sprinting last fall.
Yo @tomhanks, have you ever sexually assaulted anyone? Plz lmk because I’m living in constant fear of this and I’d prefer to go back to just living in the constant fear of getting raped.
— CORINNE FISHER (@PhilanthropyGal) May 24, 2018
I understand the need for laughter and humour to help some people through upset, trauma and devastation.
But how would you feel if someone who made you unsafe had a voice that people deified to the extent that an unaffiliated city wanted to broadcast their voice in public spaces?
Probably not as though Translink is over-reacting. We need to take people seriously when they demonstrate bravery by publicizing their traumatic experiences.
