0/5

The Muppet Show carries disclaimer

“Rather than remove this content, we want to acknowledge its harmful impact, learn from it and spark conversation," says Disney.

All five seasons of The Muppet Show began streaming on Disney+ on Friday.

Guests across the show filmed from 1976 – 1981 include Elton John, Liza Minnelli, Alice Cooper, Julie Andrews, Bernadette Peters, Diana Ross, Gladys Knight, Gene Kelly, and Mark Hamill.

However some episodes carry a disclaimer, endeavouring to put context on the era they were filmed. Much has changed culturally since then and Disney is conscious of cancel culture.

“This program includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures. These stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now,” a disclaimer states. “Rather than remove this content, we want to acknowledge its harmful impact, learn from it and spark conversation to create a more inclusive future together.

“Disney is committed to creating stories with inspirational and aspirational themes that reflect the rich diversity of the human experience around the globe,” the statement concludes.

The disclaimer has been added to a total of 18 episodes throughout the show’s five seasons, including those guest hosted by Jim Nabors, Joel Grey, Steve Martin, Peter Sellers, Cleo Laine, James Coco, Spike Milligan, Crystal Gayle, Kenny Rogers, Beverly Sills, Jonathan Winters, Alan Arkin, James Coburn, Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, Debbie Harry, Wally Boag and Marty Feldman.

Disney has a vast library of period content including depictions of Native American, Middle Eastern, African and Asian cultures.

This Stories Matter initiative outlines the platform’s reasoning for adding the labels to its content.

Source: Deadline, Variety

8 Responses

  1. Hopefully Disney+ will include the episode with actor Burt Lancaster as he only did push-ups to help kids count.
    Comedians and satirists from all cultures have been using cultural cringe since Adam was a boy, I doubt much is going to change.

  2. I think this is the correct corse of action – there is value to these older works, both to entertain (the non-problematic aspects of these shows) and to learn (regarding the problematic aspects).

    1. The problem is, it is a never ending slippery slope. Disney has teams of people walking around its theme parks declaring robotic animals are voiced by people of the wrong race and must be replaced. While I agree, a disclaimer is better than removal. This culture of safetyism and cancelling is absolute cancer for society. It will keep iterating until everything is “problematic” because the critical ideologies it comes from are intended to be corrosive to society.

Leave a Reply