You have been warned. Kermit the Frog, Animal, Miss Piggy and friends, who have long been the heart of ‘The Muppet Show,’ will now only be available to view alongside an “offensive content” alert.
The “woke” move came to light Friday in the UK when Disney Plus made five series available on its subscription streaming service. Viewers are greeted with the disclaimer:
This programme includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures. These stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now.
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.
According to the Daily Mail, the warning is believed to refer to Muppet characters designed as stereotypes of Native Americans, Arabs and East Asians.
Although the warning has been issued as a general theme, some episodes of the show, which was first broadcast 45 years ago, have disappeared entirely from British screens.
They include a 1979 one starring British comedy legend Spike Milligan in which he and the puppets pay tribute to the 108 nations where the show was broadcast.
It depicted national stereotypes and included fleeting use of a Nazi-style gesture. It is still available to American users of Disney Plus.
Disney says on its website it is “committed to creating stories with inspirational and aspirational themes that reflect the diversity of the human experience around the globe.” It declined to comment to the Mail.
Other family films to carry the warning include ‘The Aristocats,’ ‘Dumbo,’ ‘Peter Pan’ and ‘Swiss Family Robinson.’
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