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Matt Mercer is, I'm going to guess, used to being the voice of your favorite characters. From hotboi Essek in The Mighty Nein to Vecna himself in Dead by Daylight (er, not that one), Mercer's voice acting career is perhaps as storied as the actual play series he co-created, Critical Role. Still, there are voices to which even the great Sylas Briarwood himself must tip his hat, and recently, Mercer got the chance to speak to a fellow soundbooth icon  - that is, Nancy Cartwright, voice of Bart Simpson. And as you can imagine, The Simpsons legend and Mercer had plenty to talk about...

Starting with which Dungeons & Dragons class would best fit Spingfield's most beloved prankster.

We heard about the conversation from the good folks at Nerdist, who reported on the interview January 9. First appearing on Nancy cartwright's YouTube channel, the chat between two of pop culture's most beloved voice actors got into D&D hypotheticals as soon as the video began. Reading from a reddit question submitted by u/sockmuppet5000, Cartwright asked Mercer: "What class would Bart Simpson be?"

"A Bard" Mercer answered after giving it some thought. "Bart the Bard would work well just because of the high charisma aspect of it, the [...] jack of all trades skill scenario. Depending on the build, literally having insults as a defense/attack mechanism, to dress others down and have that diminish their capabilities and eventually send them fleeing into the distance, I think, very much sits in his realm of expertise. A very acerbic, witty, insult-based Bard."

Is it just me, or does it sound like Critical Role's most frequent DM has thought about this before? I don't want to speak for Mercer here, but at the very least, the idea of playing in the Springfield sandbox has got to be at least percolating in his head.

"Try as you might young Simpson," concluded Mercer, leaning into a very Vecna-ish voice (again, not that one) "I will have that cow and you can’t stop me."

To tweak a phrase from a different Matt Groening phenomenon - "Don't shut up, but take my money."

With two animated series on Prime Video, Campaign 4 in full swing, and so much more Exandrian lore to come, Critical Role is showing no signs of slowing down. That's why the adventuring party at Popverse are here to bring you everything we can from those nerdy-ass voice actors & Bo., including:

• How to watch Critical Role in order
• Travis Willingham on the differences between The Legend of Vox Machina and The Mighty Nein
• Taliesin Jaffe on playing Mollymauk Tealeaf for Campaign 2 vs. playing him for Prime Video
• Matt Mercer's homebrew warrior class (created originally for Vin Diesel)

...and much, much more. Roll initiative, player. Magic awaits.