Back in May, Vancouver’s public transit system announced passengers would hear a familiar voice during ride announcements: Morgan Freeman had agreed to record messages for TransLink in cooperation with Visa, Global News Canada reported.
Sound on! 🔈🔼 Gotta hear this 👇
You can now tap your contactless @VisaCA or @MastercardCA to pay for your adult cash fare. Don't just take our word for it, take Morgan Freeman's word. ^at pic.twitter.com/E1m8Eboswn
Just a few days later, though, multiple women came forward accusing the actor of sexual harassment and inappropriate conduct. TransLink immediately pulled their collab with Freeman, but today they’ve announced they got a rather suitable replacement. Seth Rogen will be the new TransLink guest announcer.
I’M GONNA BE THE VOICE ON PUBLIC TRANSIT IN MY HOMETOWN OF VANCOUVER. pic.twitter.com/JduvqtqU3o
As the announcement video above suggests, the move came about after Rogen himself offered up his services in a tweet to a Vancouver Sun reporter. The tweet caught the eye of whoever runs social media over at TransLink, and now a properly Canadian, non-sexist star can have all the glory.
Yo if they need a replacement now let me know.
Hit me up
“Any opportunity to enrich the lives of the Canadian people is an opportunity I will take,” Rogen said in the tongue-in-cheek video. “I’m very proud to be from Vancouver, and I grew up taking public transit my whole life and I still use public transit when I’m in the city.”
The video also included a sneak peek at what at least one of Rogen’s messages will sound like: “Hey Vancouver, it’s Seth. Here’s a tip to make your transit ride even more awesome.” If you want to know what the tip is, you’ll have to get to Vancouver, since the video cleverly omitted that detail.
Global News reported back in May that one of Freeman’s phrases would’ve been: “Hello transit riders, remember what your mom used to say: please keep your feet off the furniture.” While that sounds perfectly pleasant, Rogen might be able to do a better job. In the video, the comedian did suggest he would be providing “some interesting information” about their destinations, which definitely sounds like some of his sense of humor might have been employed in this case.
