These days, it seems like Disney is buying up intellectual properties the way most of us buy up expired 7-Eleven hot dogs at 3 A.M. (right?). It’s hard to believe there was once a time when if Disney wanted to make a Star Wars-type movie, it A) couldn’t include the words “Star Wars” and B) inexplicably ended in the bowels of literal Christian Hell.
Now that they own Marvel, Lucasfilm, and Fox, Disney is well-stocked with a lot of movie and TV franchises that aren’t traditionally Disney-ish. And isn’t it just a tad odd that the Disney-owned catalog now includes so many legit insults to Disney? Like, you can log onto Disney+, throw on an episode of The Simpsons, and enjoy a vast array of ruthless Disney-targeted gags made long before the Fox sale.
Obviously, The Simpsons crapping on their parent company is nothing new, but some of these burns are especially harsh. Like how the Walt Disney-esque creator of Itchy and Scratchy was also the filmmaker behind the controversial picture … Nazi Supermen Are Our Superiors.
Bart straight-up calls them an “evil corporation.”
And there are loads more examples we just don’t have time to go into. Even more ruthless was Family Guy, who routinely tore into Disney, sometimes with predictably over-the-top Mickey Mouse parodies –
And in other, more uniquely bizarre ways. For instance, Disney is now the proud owner of the episode in which former Disney CEO Michael Eisner gets violently ripped to shreds by crocodiles at Disney World.
20th Century Studios
And those are the more tasteful examples. Even Star Wars took pot-shots at Disney in the past; the non-canonical comic book series Star Wars Tales includes a story in which the Imperial logo is the Death Star with Mickey ears.
Dark Horse
Maybe we should just be glad that Disney chose not to censor these derogatory jokes, and has instead focused their editorial attention on babysitter meltdowns and mermaid butts.
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Top Image: 20th Century Television