Joshua Kors: Voice of ‘The Simpsons’ Speaking Up for New Orleans: Q&A with Harry Shearer

filed in Daily Buzz News on Sep.07, 2010

As Troy McClure would say, you might remember Harry Shearer from such “Simpsons” voices as Ned Flanders, Reverend Lovejoy, Mr. Burns, Waylon Smithers, Otto the Bus Driver, and Kang the Alien Octopus. You might also know him as the bassist from the heavy metal band Spinal Tap, author of the novel Not Enough Indians, and host of the radio show “Le Show,” a one-man vocal circus in which Shearer talks politics with angry callers, insane guests and top-tier celebrities, all of them played by Shearer himself.

This week Shearer shifts gears, with the release of his new documentary The Big Uneasy, a serious, scientific look at how New Orleans flooded. With an investigative reporter’s focus, Shearer hones in on the Army Corps of Engineers, the government agency that built the faulty levees which collapsed during Hurricane Katrina, flooding 80 percent of the city, killing over 1,400 people.

The film features stunning internal memos, scientific reports and an interview with an Army Corps whistleblower to show that the Corps knew its levees were faulty and did virtually nothing to fix them. Instead of retrofitting the levee’s walls and drainage system, the Corps spent millions on a public relations campaign trumpeting its own competence. It went to court to force a private company to install faulty levee walls, though the company objected, saying the walls would collapse in a storm.