The Simpsons’ Hank Azaria Explains Why Moe’s Voice Has Evolved – Looper

On April 24, 2013, Hank Azaria started a thread on the r/IAmA subreddit, introducing himself as “actor, ‘Simpsons’ voice guy & Determined to Succeed supporter.” Over 3,000 comments were made on the thread, including many by Azaria himself. Ultimately, one of his most-liked responses was the answer to a question posed by KellyCommaRoy, who asked why Moe’s voice had changed so dramatically from the 1990s to then. (The poster attached a YouTube link with an illustrative video to their comment, but the video in question is no longer available.)

Azaria complimented the user’s power of observation and confirmed that Moe’s voice had indeed undergone changes in those two-plus decades. 

“[P]artially it’s because my voice has gotten deeper over the years as the character became more real and gained more layers and depth, [I] felt it should be less squeaky and more ‘human sounding,'” the actor wrote, adding, “[I] didn’t notice it was happening while it was happening, but [I] prefer the current moe voice.”

Azaria then asked which of the Moe voices was the commenter’s favorite, to which they replied that they preferred Moe’s old, cartoony voice due to associating it with their favorite episodes. This answer may have struck a chord with the “Simpsons” fans who feel that the show has declined in quality from the 2000s onward. Even so, of course, Azaria’s voice work has remained consistently top-notch.