Muppet show gets flagged as depicting negative stereotypes

Just this month Disney made the original Muppet Show available for streaming on it's Disney Plus service. In a sign of just how much the times has changed, many of the beloved children's show's episodes will open with a disclaimer.

"This program includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures. These stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now,” the disclaimer reads. “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.”

18 episodes in total will get the disclaimer, each for it's own reason. For example The Muppet Show starring Johnny Cash gets the warning due to Cash singing a song in front of a Confederate Flag. 

    The Muppet Show debuted in 1976 in a very different politically correct word than ours of today.

I think what's important to remember is this a show with puppets. There is a puppet that blows things up called Crazy Harry and a Swedish Chef who chases animals in the show around with a butcher knife. I'm not sure how much we can learn, or start a dialogue on why you shouldn't  make puppets hit each other with a comically large hammer, or having a diva pig assault an innocent frog.  Maybe the furry lovable monsters don't realize the negative stereotypes they are perpetuating. 

Disney, a company who made Song of the South, a film about happy go lucky African American sharecroppers working on plantations, bought the Muppet Franchise in 2004. 

File this one under: How to  make a buck off something without taking on any liability 

by Ted Dolby

Gamilon Staff Writer