{"id":96964,"date":"2016-04-14T16:50:05","date_gmt":"2016-04-14T20:50:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=96964"},"modified":"2016-04-14T17:19:03","modified_gmt":"2016-04-14T21:19:03","slug":"simply-charmin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/14\/simply-charmin\/","title":{"rendered":"Simply Charmin\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Lc3rcodUuKg\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Hence the strong attraction which magic and science alike have exercised on the human mind; hence the powerful stimulus that both have given to the pursuit of knowledge. They lure the weary enquirer, the footsore seeker, on through the wilderness of disappointment in the present by their endless promises of the future: they take him up to the top of an exceeding high mountain and show him, beyond the dark clouds and rolling mists at his feet, a vision of the celestial city, far off, it may be, but radiant with unearthly splendour, bathed in the light of dreams. \u2015James George Frazer,\u00a0<em>The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion, <\/em>Volume\u00a01<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The voice actor Arthur Anderson <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/04\/13\/arts\/television\/arthur-anderson-voice-of-lucky-charms-cereals-leprechaun-dies-at-93.html\">has died at the age of ninety-three<\/a>. Although he enjoyed a long and varied career as a working actor, the Staten Island\u2013born Anderson was probably best known for voicing Lucky, the perennially bereft Lucky Charms leprechaun. He said in a 2005 interview,\u00a0\u00a0\u201cIt was a fun character to play. Hardly a day goes by when somebody doesn\u2019t ask me to sing the Lucky Charms jingle, and I\u2019m proud of that.\u201d\u00a0<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>But \u2026 but \u2026 why? How? What kind of a psychopath approaches a stranger on the street and demands he scream,\u00a0\u201cThey\u2019re always after me Lucky Charms!\u201d or,\u00a0\u201cFrosted Lucky Charms\u2014they\u2019re magically delicious\u201d? Furthermore, we should assume that not everyone knew what the guy looked like in real life\u2014so what are the odds of their approaching the actor who<em> voiced <\/em>the leprechaun?\u00a0With all due respect, I imagine Mr. Anderson must have been fairly free and easy with the information\u2014and why not? (That said, I have firsthand seen people make this demand of Irish people, with even less justification.)<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s always seemed like anonymity was one of the great perks of voice work. Not least because, with the notable exception of Brian Lehrer, people almost never look the way they sound, and that kind of magic is important to the world\u2019s functioning. But then, it would be natural to want credit for creating a pop-cultural icon, too.<\/p>\n<p>I didn\u2019t realize, until watching a spate of vintage cereal commercials, how strange the original premise was: the kids quite literally mug the leprechaun. Their entitlement is remarkable, their privilege shocking. Leaving aside the embattled history of the Irish in America, the pro-theft messaging is highly problematic. Now, if you choose to see Lucky instead as a demonic figure\u2014and feel that, indeed, the struggle for Lucky Charms is one of good and evil\u2014it\u2019s a more complicated proposition altogether.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>Sadie Stein is contributing editor of <\/em>The Paris Review<em>, and the <\/em>Daily<em>\u2019s correspondent.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hence the strong attraction which magic and science alike have exercised on the human mind; hence the powerful stimulus that both have given to the pursuit of knowledge. They lure the weary enquirer, the footsore seeker, on through the wilderness of disappointment in the present by their endless promises of the future: they take him [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[21965,13460,1642,1120,21963,11989,16400,21964,652],"class_list":["post-96964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-arthur-anderson","tag-cereal","tag-commercials","tag-ireland","tag-lucky-charms","tag-obituaries","tag-stereotypes","tag-the-irish","tag-voice-acting"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>On Arthur Anderson, the Voice of the Lucky Charms Leprechaun<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"April 14, 2016 \u2013 Hence the strong attraction which magic and science alike have exercised on the human mind; hence the powerful stimulus that both have given to the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/14\/simply-charmin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Simply Charmin\u2019 by Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"April 14, 2016 \u2013 Hence the strong attraction which magic and science alike have exercised on the human mind; hence the powerful stimulus that both have given to the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/14\/simply-charmin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-04-14T20:50:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-04-14T21:19:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/14\/simply-charmin\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/14\/simply-charmin\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sadie Stein\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9\"},\"headline\":\"Simply Charmin\u2019\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-04-14T20:50:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-04-14T21:19:03+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/14\/simply-charmin\/\"},\"wordCount\":449,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Arthur Anderson\",\"cereal\",\"commercials\",\"Ireland\",\"Lucky Charms\",\"obituaries\",\"stereotypes\",\"the Irish\",\"voice acting\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Our Daily Correspondent\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/14\/simply-charmin\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/14\/simply-charmin\/\",\"name\":\"On Arthur Anderson, the Voice of the Lucky Charms Leprechaun\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-04-14T20:50:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-04-14T21:19:03+00:00\",\"description\":\"April 14, 2016 \u2013 Hence the strong attraction which magic and science alike have exercised on the human mind; 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