Mr. Nezzer

**Nebby Nezzer**, or better known as **Mr. Nezzer**, is a major protagonist from Big Idea's famous animated production, VeggieTales. He was replaced by Ichabeezer in the Netflix shows due to DreamWorks having a policy against interracial casting (his voice is based on Oogie Boogie from *Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas*, who was voiced by Ken Page).

He returned in The VeggieTales Show but with a new voice actor, David Mann. However, Phil Vischer continued to be his understudy.

## Bio

He is a middle-aged green zucchini with white hair and often wears a red tie. In his debut episode, he portrayed as Nebby K. Nezzer, as well as he and Mr. Lunt work at the chocolate factory.

## Voice Actors

* Phil Vischer: VeggieTales (1995-2014), Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie (2002), The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie (2008) and The VeggieTales Show (2021-present)
* David Mann: The VeggieTales Show (2019-2020; 2021)
* Joe Zieja: Very Veggie Silly Stories (2022-present)

## Fun Facts

* A running gag is that the characters Mr. Nezzer plays since his debut is that they often run a factory, and they're usually the antagonist before reforming.
* Phil's inspiration for Mr. Nezzer's voice was that of Oogie Boogie from *The Nightmare Before Christmas*.
	+ As Oogie Boogie's voice actor Ken Page is naturally African-American, Mr. Nezzer was considered to be a stereotypical African-American. As a result, DreamWorks had strongly thought Mr. Nezzer of his African-American race and, due to their policy restricting African-American characters being portrayed by white voice actors, had replaced the character with a similar-looking character Ichabeezer (voiced by Rob Paulsen) for VeggieTales in the House, and VeggieTales in the City.
	+ When *The VeggieTales Show* was put into production, as Phil managed to reprise most of his Veggie character roles, he was originally going to reprise Mr. Nezzer as well (judging by the trailer for *The Best Christmas Gift*), but managed not to for that character. It is confirmed that David Mann assumed the role of Mr. Nezzer for the new show.
		- Not long after the announcement, there were rumors going around that the reason for this was because Phil was uncomfortable voicing an African-American stereotype. However, this was debunked in a tweet by Phil, saying that it was Big Idea’s decision, not his. He also stated in this tweet that he might be voicing Mr. Nezzer again in the future. This was proven in later episodes of *The VeggieTales Show* starting with Forgiveness Brings the Fixing, where Phil reprised his role as Mr. Nezzer (though mostly as an understudy for David Mann). The only exception in this case was LarryBoy and the Angry Eyebrows Trouble.
* Mr. Nezzer in his original appearance was inspired by Nebuchadnezzar II from the original Biblical account of "Shadrach, Medshash, and Abednego" from the Book of Daniel.
* He is actually not a villain because it's only his performance and usually a nice guy in real life. George mentions this: "Mr. Nezzer's not a BAD man, he's just too big for his britches." Which it means the first time that Mr. Nezzer was portrayed as Nebby K. Nezzer (as a villain) and it didn't mean that he is a villain in real life.
* He has very short minor roles in both *VeggieTales* movies.
* Duke and the Great Pie War is the only time he worked for Mr. Lunt. In the other episodes, Mr. Lunt works for HIM instead.
* His performance that he paired with Mr. Lunt as villains, good guys, or just partners.
* He is partners in "Sheerluck Holmes" and "Duke and the Great Pie War."
* He is well known for singing "The Bunny Song."
* He protrays as Wally P. Nezzer in The Toy That Saved Christmas, which he is actually the brother of Nebby K. Nezzer and possibly not the same character, as the difference is told by the size of their noses. Mr. Nezzer also mentioned this in A Very Veggie Christmas.
	+ Even though Wally P. Nezzer only intended to appear once in The Toy That Saved Christmas, the official Larry-Boy website confirms that he also appeared in Larry-Boy and the Rumor Weed.
	+ Also, Nebby K. Nezzer oddly had the same bigger nose as Wally P. during Josh and the Big Wall!.
	+ Despite this, they have the same voice and look almost identical.
* From 2000 to 2005, his skin color would switch between dark green and light green. From Lord of the Beans onwards, his skin was only dark green, as it had been prior to 2000.
* He is the second *VeggieTales* character to have eyebrows and bulging eyelids at the same time, with the first being Scooter.
* He's one of few *VeggieTales* characters to have died in a story, doing so offscreen as Moses just before the events of Josh and the Big Wall! as revealed by Bob.