Morgan Freeman

About

Morgan Freeman is an award-winning actor, director and narrator known for his appearances in several famous films, including Unforgiven, Seven, Bruce Almighty, The Dark Knight Trilogy, and for lending his voice as the narrator in documentaries such as March of the Penguins. Due to his signature speaking voice, Freeman is often impersonated in YouTube videos and referenced in Read This in My Voice images.

Online History

Read This in Freeman’s Voice

On August 13th, 2008, the webcomic Xkcd published a comic joking about a satirical condition known as “Freeman Paracusia,” which causes the sufferer to read everything in Morgan Freeman’s voice (shown below).

On February 8th, 2009, a Facebook^[2] page titled “Morgan Freeman’s Voice” was launched, gaining more than 968,000 likes in the first four years. Freeman’s voice soon became a staple choice in the popular imageboard game read this in my voice that first emerged in May 2009. On May 17th, 2011, a new Facebook^[1] page titled “Morgan Freeman” was created, which received over 2.7 million likes in the next two years. On January 31st, 2013, TV Tropes^[7] user TrollBrutal submitted an entry for Morgan Freeman.

Impersonations

On September 20th, 2012, YouTuber SeaNanners uploaded footage from a session of the Half Life 2 modded game The Hidden, in which he recorded GassyMexican, one of the other players on his server, impersonating Morgan Freeman while hunting his enemies (shown below). Within the first seven months, the video gained more than 7.6 million views and 16,400 comments.

On January 10th, 2013, online performance artist Ze Frank uploaded a video to his YouTube channel titled “True Facts About Morgan Freeman,” in which Frank lists several satirical factoids about the actor read in his signature baritone voice (shown below). Within three months, the video received over 2.1 million views and 4,400 comments.

Other YouTubers have uploaded videos featuring notable impersonations of the actor, many of which feature dramatic readings of humorous material.

“Titty Sprinkles”

In Season 11 Episode 8 of the animated television series South Park, originally aired on October 3rd, 2007, the character Cartman fakes having Tourette’s syndrome in order to say whatever he wants without consequences. While speaking in front of an audience, Cartman concludes his monologue by saying the phrase “titty sprinkles” (shown below).

On January 19th, 2012, Redditor assblaster7 submitted a photograph of Morgan Freeman accompanied by a fake quote ending with the phrase “titty sprinkles” (shown below). Prior to being archived, the post gained upwards of 14,500 up votes and 500 comments.

On April 15th, a Facebook^[11] page titled “Titty Sprinkles” was created, which accumulated more than 83,000 likes in the following year. On September 4th, YouTuber Robert Thompson uploaded a video of himself impersonating Morgan Freeman’s voice by reading the copypasta from Redditor assblaster7’s image macro. Within seven months, the video received over 772,000 views and 770 comments.

Fake Twitter Accounts

Several unverified Twitter accounts have been created claiming to be Morgan Freeman, including @TheRealMorganF,^[3] @Morrgan_Freeman,^[4] @realmorgan^[5] and @MorganFreeman_^[6]. On August 12th, 2012, the now-defunct fake account @MorgonFreeman tweeted a statement about the word “homophobia” (shown below), which became misattributed to the actor according to the hoax investigation site Snopes.^[10]

Reputation

AMA Controversy on Reddit

On April 11th, 2013, Morgan Freeman purportedly participated in an “ask me anything” (AMA) thread on the /r/IAmA^[8] subreddit under the handle “OblivionMovie.” Many Redditors suspected that the AMA was actually being handled by the public relations team for the upcoming science fiction film Oblivion, in which Morgan Freeman appears as the resistance leader Malcolm Beech. For verification, the OblivionMovie account posted a photograph of Freeman sleeping on a couch with a sign that read “Hi Reddit / This is Morgan Freeman” (shown below).

Redditor amf13 commented^[9] that the picture appeared to be photoshopped and that the sleeping photo felt like a “slap in the face.” On the following day, Redditor kingleo1 posted a YouTube video titled “Morgan Freeman’s Reddit AMA Was a Fraud! Proof!” to the /r/videos^[12] subreddit, which featured an amateur photographic analysis of the verification photo (shown below). Within six days, the post received over 33,600 up votes and 3,500 comments and the video received more than 830,000 views and 1,150 comments.

In the following 24 hours, many image macros and photoshopped pictures joking about the AMA began circulating on the social news site, including examples using Futurama Fry (shown below, left) and Matrix Morpheus (shown below, middle).