While the tenth anniversary of Disney Channel’sGravity Fallswas met with much celebration by fans, creator Alex Hirsch decided it was time to share some behind-the-scenes action.
Disneyhas been criticized in the past for censoring content for questionable reasons, with one of the most-recent controversies being the initial decision to cut asame-sex kiss in Pixar’sLightyear. However, this is hardly a new practice for Disney, as Hirsch shared some of the more unusual notes he received from Disney censors aboutGravity Falls.
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One email from Disney reads, “Please revise ‘poopface’ as it comes across as a replacement for ‘shitface.'” Prior use of Mabel saying, “Poop. Poop. And Butts,” intheGravity Fallsepisode"Fight Fighters" came across as more childlike and not as offensive, to which Hirsch replied, “I’ve never met a human on Earth who would be offended by a cartoon saying ‘poop face.’ Not changing it.” Another email asked Hirsch to revise some wording on a poster for a party because it seemed to indicate that the characters were going to play the infamous party game “Spin the Bottle.” Hirsch then changed the poster to read, “Not S&P approved,” which was later approved.
Hirsch continued the Twitter thread with a few more emails that he deemed to be ridiculous requests. One email from Disney S&P says, “In the movie poster for the movie ‘Horse Dad,’ please omit the pipe in the horse’s mouth,” with no other context. Hirsch replied, asking, “Why? Is the concern that we’ll influence horses to smoke pipes?”
While Hirsch’s comedic replies showcase how some ofDisney’s requests seemed a bit ludicrous, Disney S&P has the responsibility of ensuring that audiences (and their parents) don’t interpret something the wrong way. Even though Hirsch’s scripts and the context of the “offensive” phrasing made sense for the jokes to land, Disney S&P, unfortunately, has to think of the worst-case scenarios if certain jokes are taken the wrong way.
