The MRC's Culture War Toy Box

The Media Research Center melts down over Muppets (repeatedly), Dr. Seuss, Mr. Potato Head and Legos for committing the offense of not hating certain people enough.

By Terry Krepel
Posted 11/22/2021

Given that the MRC once attacked the Muppets for being conservatively incorrect in having an oil tycoon as a villain in a movie, recent moves in the Muppetverse were sure to set the MRC off.

Gabriela Pariseau complained in February that some episodes of the 1970s "Muppet Show" being rerun on Disney+ now have disclaimers at the beginning warning viewers of outdated offensive content:

According to Kermit the Frog, "It's not easy being green," and apparently it's not easy being The Muppet Show, either. Disney+ just couldn’t resist slapping an offensive content label on the beloved family show.

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It seems Disney is keenly aware of the popularity and profit value of Muppets content so the streaming service must defend why it refuses to ban the show entirely. The Disney warning explains, "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." That’s all fine and great but most families don’t need Disney’s parenting advice to decide what is appropriate for their kids and when it is appropriate to have conversations about racism and cultural appropriation.

It’s interesting that Disney singles out the cultural offenses of The Muppets. Part of what makes the Muppets funny is the fact that, like all good humor, it lightheartedly offends and makes fun of everyone. Anyone who has seen The Muppets knows the franchise is politically incorrect about a whole bunch of things that make viewers both cringe and laugh at its brilliant comedic charm. As it is with many shows designed to keep the whole family entertained, much of so-called “offensive” or inappropriate content goes over kids’ heads and is left for them to enjoy or understand when they are older.

We would remind Pariseau that, again, her employer didn't think it was being "lightheartedly offended" by the Muppets' choice of a villain for one film.

The MRC then took offense at being mocked for taking offense at this. A March 3 post by Alex Christy raged at NBC late-night-host Seth Meyers for calling out right-wingers pushing "invented culture war grievances" like the complaints over the Muppets, insisting that conservatives are "merely responding to the left's culture war offensive" and huffily adding: "Meyers, sounding like the political hack he is, of course omitted that it is the left's culture warriors, who motivated by 'invented' grievances, urge content advisories for The Muppets on Disney+ and the turning of Mr. Potato Head into a genderless spud."

MRC executive Tim Graham similarly went into defense in his March 5 column: "Our family watched The Muppet Show every Saturday night when it originally aired. These defined the words 'family entertainment.' Conservatives are mocking the Left for attempting to turn wholesome products into loathsome products." Graham and Christy will never admit that being mad over a tycoon as a villain in a Muppets movie was an "invented" grievance.

Then, Lindsay Kornick spent an entire March 25 post being mad that "Sesame Street" is adding two African-American Muppets:

The famous children’s show Sesame Street is determined to talk about race whether we like it or not. Their latest terrible example is the introduction of two African-American Muppets to “educate children about race.”

On March 23, the educational series introduced two new Muppets in an online video. As part of the series "ABCs of Racial Literacy," Elmo talks to 5-year-old Wes and his father Elijah about race and what it means to them. Elmo asks the two why their skin is dark and Elijah explains that it’s because of melanin and how “the color of our skin is an important part of who we are.”

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Color me skeptical but telling kids that skin color is “an important part” of them doesn’t feel like it’ll end racism. In fact, suggesting that children can inherently judge others by race is far more racist than anything I’ve seen lately. Besides, we all know that the “racial justice” they’re talking about is the BLM abolishing the police variety. It always is.

Also, considering the most famous characters are colors not seen in the human race, Elmo (red), Big Bird (yellow), Cookie Monster (blue), and other more human-like characters like Bert (yellow) and Ernie (orange), was there really anyone really whining about Muppet color representation? And it’s not like Sesame Street was lacking in actual black characters beyond ones made of felt. How can a show that premiered in 1969 somehow think it’s more racist in 2021?

I can’t answer those questions, but Sesame Street will be sure to avoid them. And then they’ll claim it’s racial justice.

And the MRC will claim it's racial pandering.

Hays returned on Aug. 2 to spew hate on the idea of a transgender (or even cross-dressing) Muppet:

Disney continues to corrupt everything it touches. Since it now owns the rights to Jim Henson’s The Muppets that means The Muppets gets ruined, and by extension our children’s opportunity for quality entertainment. Recently the Disney Muppets spin off TV show, Muppet Babies made beloved character Gonzo into a trans woman, because anyone can be any gender these days.

Pop culture outlet Vulture reported on Gonzo’s new transgender iteration recently, praising the fact that the show for “3 to 8" year-olds is making such a pro-LGBTQ statement. Though this is disturbing propaganda that insists that parents trying to raise boys and girls normally aren’t doing it right.

Not to mention it’s super confusing for impressionable children.

This gender-subversive TV episode features the boy alien/thing (we’re pretty sure Gonzo has been a guy throughout Muppets’ history) donning a dress and becoming “Princess Gonzarella.” Apparently that’s the height of freedom and expression for Gonzo, who usually has to suffer through wearing boys’ overalls, t-shirts and sneakers out on the playground.

Hays further whined, "This is Disney propaganda so none of the Muppets found it weird. In fact they all loved it." Hays, of course, would be waiting outside the school to beat up this (completely fictional) character for being a little too swishy for his comfort. It must be such a sad existence Hays leads, being so consumed with people for people (real and fictional) who are different from him.

Dr. Seuss meltdown

"Cancel Culture Comes For Dr. Seuss," intoned the headline on Lindsey Kornick's March 1 MRC post attacking a newspaper columnist who argued for rethinking Dr. Seuss. Kornick said of the columnist, "Imagine someone in the world finding 'One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish' offensive" -- even though the columnist never mentioned that book, let alone expressed offense at it.

Kornick also repeated a bogus attack claiming a Virginia school district "took steps to “cancel” Dr. Seuss in their annual “Read Across America” event on Dr. Seuss' birthday" before walking it back. She then huffed: "This ignores the fact that Theodore Geisel was a liberal Democrat in life and supported many left-leaning policies and causes including in his books (read: The Lorax) which should deem him anything but 'racist.'"

Thus, Kornick inadvertently admitted that the MRC are the ones who have been trying to cancel Dr. Seuss. She linked to a 2012 MRC post raging against a movie version of "The Lorax" because if offered environmental tips for children alongside the film, thus appeasing "thousands of left-wing zealots." (The MRC also complained that the movie indulged in "liberal indoctrination" for pointing out that plastic water bottles are wasteful.)

But that's not the MRC's only attempt to cancel Dr. Seuss: In 2019, the MRC actually tried to blame Dr. Seuss for a massacre in El Paso because the alleged shooter referenced "The Lorax" in a manifesto. Corinne Weaver ranted that "You can’t buy a Confederate flag on Amazon, but you can read literature that helped inspire one of the deadliest shootings in the United States." Joseph Vazquez similarly huffed: "Following the murder of 20 people by a racist terrorist in El Paso, Texas, the liberal media cherry-picked portions of his alleged manifesto to connect him to the right. But some ignored portions that cited The Lorax as an inspiration for his views — a book and movie the liberal media used to love to promote because of its environmental agenda."

Strangely (or maybe not so strangely), neither Weaver nor Vazquez cited any particular passage in "The Lorax" that could possibly be interpreted as encouraging a white supremacist to murder Hispanics. Perhaps because, you know, there isn't any and the MRC is just trying to spin away Trump's much closer connection to the attitudes in the shooter's manifesto.

But all that has to go down the memory hole because it currently serves the MRC's political agenda to portray Dr. Seuss as a victim. For instance, Curtis Houck whined that Biden press secretary Jen Psaki wouldn't give a straight answer addressing "the woke mob’s canceling of Dr. Seuss."

But the MRC also got a little defensive about the whole Seuss thing. Alex Christy complained that NBC's Seth Meyers pointed out conservatives' obsession with culture war issues, adding, "If conservatives are detached for merely responding to the left's culture war offensive, what does that make Meyers' fellow leftists, considering they are now also trying to cancel Dr. Seuss?"

Christy followed up by grousing that "MSNBC Live host Stephanie Ruhle on Wednesday smeared conservatives for caring about cancel culture, calling it unimportant" and pointing out that it was Seuss' publisher and the Seuss estate that agreed to pull six lesser Seuss books (out of the dozens he published) for outdated racial imagery. He retorted, "While Ruhle is correct that it was Dr. Seuss' publisher that suspended the books, they did so because left-wing culture warriors have saying for years that some of his books are racists."

Houck returned to rant that "Thursday’s ReidOut featured more radicalizing rhetoric meant to send MSNBC viewers into a fury of hatred against anyone on the right, falsely claiming the Fox News Channel and the GOP are exclusively obsessed with cancel culture and controversies surrounding Mr. Potato Head and Dr. Seuss." But Houck offered no evidence that anyone said Fox News was "exclusively obsessed" over Dr. Seuss, citing as evidence the claim was false a thread from his Twitter account featuring various random screencaps from Fox News talking about other things. But when Reid pointed out that Fox News had done "33 segments since Monday on Dr. Seuss" -- which has a basis in fact -- Houck offered nothing in rebuttal.

Graham complained further: "This debate needs more precision, not less. What pages in the Dr. Seuss books are objectionable? TV stories on it won’t show any images. Some images of African savages clearly seem like antiquated stereotyping, but others are more debatable. You can’t debate it if no one will show it." Well, nothing's stopping the MRC from publishing those images. And doesn't the MRC operate a "news" division, CNSNews.com, that also played the "cancel culture" card on this story while not showing any of the actual images in question? Yes, it did.

Gabriel Hays touted how usually-despised late-night host Jimmy Kimmel "warned that cancel culture’s current destruction of once-thought innocent pop culture staples like Dr. Seuss, Mr. Potato Head and The Muppets will get Trump elected a second time." Like his boss Graham, hays didn't mention that his employer played the cancel-culture card on Dr. Seuss first.

Duncan Schroeder ranted in a March 8 post where he was defensive about the conservative obsession over this, while also falsely blaming President Biden for it:

On Friday night’s CNN Tonight, host Don Lemon joined in with the liberal media’s obsession with bashing Republicans and Fox News for defending Dr. Seuss after books were cancelled by woke leftists. Lemon unspooled a five-minute commentary freaking out over House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) tweeting out a video of himself reading Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham that went viral.

Lemon lunged to complain that the Democrats had nothing to do with Dr. Seuss. (McCarthy didn't say they did.) "It has nothing to do with Democrats. Nothing at all. As a matter of fact, that particular one by Dr. Seuss is still in distribution. So none of it makes any sense. They’re playing you. Are you going to fall for it? He is trying to stoke the fake outrage machine."

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“The President” does indeed have something “to do with” the cancellation of Dr. Seuss because Biden left Dr. Seuss out of his “Read Across America Day” proclamation, which is celebrated every year around March 2 because March 2 is Dr. Seuss’s birthday. Furthermore, it is a false liberal media narrative that Fox is “covering every single angle” of the cancellation. Lastly, it is objectively false that “nothing is being canceled about Dr. Seuss” because they pulled six of his books from the sales shelf.

Schroeder is the one with the fake outrage here. Biden didn't mention Dr. Seuss because Dr. Seuss is no longer exclusively associated with Read Across America Day -- the contract giving the Seuss estate exclusivity for the event ended in 2019, with the National Education Association, which puts on Read Across America, deciding to promote more diverse books. And, of course, Schroeder didn't mention the MRC's attempts to cancel Dr. Seuss.

Potato Head rant

In addition to the above references, the MRC's Gabriel Hays devoted an entire post to a dumb rant over Mr. Potato Head losing his honorific:

Oh well isn’t that just so appropriate for our deranged and increasingly sterile society? The AP characterized the disturbing and unnecessary change as an update done in order to appeal to the perspective of current children. They wrote, “Many toymakers have been updating their classic brands in recent years, hoping to relate to kids today and to reflect more modern families.”

Of course, the implication there is horrifying. Kids young enough to enjoy Mr. Potato Head really shouldn’t not be having serious, obsessive questions about gender or sex. If anything this seems like insidious programming aimed at sensitive kids with far-left parents than a mere reflection of current toy users’ perspectives.

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It seems the breakdown of the family in modern society won’t fail to be represented in every stupid bit of our culture. And what about Toy Story now? Will the fifth movie now do away with the stirring romance between Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head? What are we going to see next? A polyamorous, non-binary "throuple" of spuds helping Woody (who has since been changed into a gender-neutral Native American toy,) with his latest scheme? Next time we see him, will Andy have undergone a sex change which prompts all his toys to question their own gender realities? Knowing Disney, they’ll take that story idea.

Hays is what happens when the MRC pays someone solely to spew hate of people he thinks aren't like him.

Despite that blistering attack, the MRC still felt defensive about all that attention on a toy potato. Alex Christy complained in a May 1 post that late-night host Stephen Colbert "falsely claimed that Biden has been so successful that the GOP has been relegated to complaining about the emasculation of Mr. Potato Head and literally presented zero ideas to counter the White House," going on to huff that Biden's policy ideas "have led to constant FDR and LBJ comparisons and declarations that the era of Reagan is finally over. But sure, conservatives only care about Mr. Potato Head's genitals or lack thereof."

Plastic bricks and cereal

The MRC expanded its fight over inanimate objects to plastic bricks and cereals for committing the offense of not hating LGBT people. Matt Philbin ranted in a May 20 post:

Having neutered the notoriously toxic masculinity of Mr. Potato Head, progressives are continuing their long march through the toy industry. Lefties intent on remaking the world in their image know their project depends on indoctrinating the young.

Thus, Lego has announced “‘Everyone is Awesome,’ its first LGBTQ-themed set,” according to USA Today’s Christine Fernando. Lego is launching the toys in “Pride Month” in June, which, as we know, is Ramadan for the leather speedo set.

Fernando explains, “The colors in the set are inspired by the rainbow flag, according to the statement.” And they probably don’t hurt when you step on them. But just the rainbow flag? Surely intersectionality demands the inclusion of other victim groups.

Yes, Philbin is mad at Legos, which should apparently always be considered heterosexual. On top of Philbin's bizarre sneering that anyone who's not heterosexual is part of "the leather speedo set," whatever that means, he went on to huff, "No doubt Lego will follow up with a Portland Public Library set where the purple drag queen can really strut his stuff. And with all those new letters in the alphabet soup, surely there will be many opportunities for follow-ons."

Alexa Moutevelis brought that same hateful, dismissive tone to a May 25 post raging at Kellogg's for offering an LGBTQ-themed cereal:

It's that time of year again - time for corporations to rainbow-up and start pandering to the LGBTQABCDEFG crew for “Pride Month” in June!

This year, Kellogg’s is partnering with GLAAD for a new “Together With Pride” cereal, which has already hit stores. This is an update from past gay cereal campaigns, which were only offered online. Now can you get woke messaging in your face in the grocery aisle!

The cereal is described as “berry-flavored, rainbow hearts dusted with edible glitter.” Gotta admit, that’s the gayest cereal I’ve ever heard of - way to play to stereotypes!

The box has all your favorite Kellogg’s cereal characters rallying around the bowl, including Tony the Tiger, Toucan Sam, and Snap, Crackle and Pop. A little Frosted Mini Wheat is pictured holding a rainbow flag with a triangle on it, which I had to look up. Apparently, the rainbow flag alone was not inclusive enough and they had to add elements “to represent marginalised LGBT communities of colour” and transgenders.

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Yeah, that’s what everyone wants in their breakfast – cereal with a side of social justice activism. Just another way they force feed their propaganda down people’s throats.

As if the MRC's anti-LGBT hate isn't propgandizing its readers to hate people different from them.

This isn't even Moutevelis' first time raging against cereal. In response to a similar 2019 campaign by Kellogg's, she huffed: "Have you ever eaten Froot Loops and thought, 'This cereal isn’t gay enough?' Do you seek a safe space to eat your Rice Krispies? Are you concerned that your Corn Flakes aren’t sufficiently woke? Well, now Kellogg’s has the solution!" She spat in her conclusion: "Equality and inclusion in a breakfast food – it's social justice cereal! I think I'm gonna lose my breakfast."

Moutevelis doesn't seem to realize that it's her toxic hate -- inculcated by the MRC, which pays her well to spew it -- that's making her ill.