The Disney Dilemma

The Disney Dilemma

Have you ever been caught in a situation where you're watching Disney Channel and you think, what happened? Yep, back in the 90s/00s we had such good shows that actually made us laugh and think about life but now they're all centered around unfunny jokes and stale story lines. Do you want to know why? Good, because I'm going to tell you. 

1. Dry Jokes

First things first, who remembers That's So Raven? Who am I kidding? Everyone knows that show and remembers how funny it was. Raven just saying 'Oh Snap' or 'Ya Nasty' after her crazy antics went wrong made little me crack up. Back then, Disney shows were actually good and the jokes were laugh out loud funny because they were so simple and weren't so predictable.

But I guess someone had the idea to try and step it up by forcing every possible joke they could think of in an episode. It's just so predictable I finish 90% of the punchlines before the characters do. Here's an example from the T.V. show Bunk'd where the female protagonists are trying to build a router: https://youtu.be/tuBcNT-8Lmc

Zuri: I'm the one that got attacked by that stupid hawk. *laugh track* He burst my balloons and my dreams of deli in my belly. *laugh track*

Emma: Well it was all a waste of time, while you were plummeting back to earth *laugh track* I heard Lou say Gladys controls the wifi router and only activates it on Sunday.  

Zuri: Great, how are we going to build a router? And if we did it would have to be about 20 feet high.

Xander (Enters driving a Truck): This tree is perfect, it must be like 20 feet high! *laugh track*

Well that couldn't be any more predictable. And what is up with that laugh track after every sentence or action. Someone spills a drink *laugh track*, someone sneezes *laugh track*, a character walks in *laugh track*. Like who are these people and what is so funny because I would really like to know. I have little sisters and I'm pretty sure kids are supposed to be laughing when watching comedy TV and that is not something I see.

2. Life Lessons

Now this part really annoys me. When Disney tries to make important life lessons, but it just ends up being a bunch of rubbish because it's either irrelevant to kids/teenagers and is the type of thing that would only happen on a TV show. Shows used to have important life lessons that kids would actually be able to benefit from. Lizzie McGuire was the show when it came to life lessons. Like the episode where Lizzie's mum doesn't want to buy her the expensive designer jeans that everyone has and instead buys her jeans from a discount store. Lizzie is embarrassed but at the end of the day she wears the cheap jeans and everyone loves them! This taught us we don't need designer clothes to look nice or be popular. Or the episode where Miranda develops an eating disorder because she is overly stressed and feels like food is the only thing she has control over but her friends help her out of the situation and remind her of inner beauty. So Relevant! These episodes were funny but always gave us life tips we could utilise. They talked about issues like racism, peer pressure, body image and more but in ways that we probably would in real life.

But now we have shows like Girl Meets World that do way too much. Like the episode Girl Meets Smackle. Watch this clip and then read what I have to say: https://youtu.be/rKeBqZyiUt8

First off the 'valley girl' voice she is doing and her saying 'Oh my gosh, I'm like so totally unprepared and scared' at the beginning gives the impression that in her world 'pretty girls' are not smart. Also 'When you get compliments from people who don't ordinarily compliment you... Packaging does matter. I wasn't pretty then I was.' Why, because you put on a dress, took off your glasses and took your pigtails down? Is that what pretty is? Because I'm guessing a lot of little girls who watch the show were made to think, that after your makeover you were beautiful and before you were not. It was a good concept to show how beauty isn't everything but was poorly executed. It's almost as if she is saying that if you take a lot of care with how you look on the outside then you are not deeply beautiful and that is not necessarily true. What she forgot to remind the audience of young children is that the other people's opinions are not important and what is important is your happiness. Not just 'Intelligence, Compassion, Integrity, Courage' like she mentions. They're important, but not as important as your happiness and you being able to look in the mirror and love what you see. Sometimes we don't need big speeches with complex words but instead just need to see a character getting advice from their best friend or parent which may be why Lizzie McGuire was so good at what it did. Also we don't hear or see Disney shows talking about real issues that affect kids everyday. Shows on Disney now are so censored and might be afraid to discuss issues like racism, self image, peer pressure and discrimination in fear of hurting someones feelings or coming off to strong but they have the responsibility to educate kids through the characters and story line.   

3. Breaking Stereotypes

Back in the day Disney had realness in it's shows. Like The Suite of Zack and Cody. They were two brothers who lived in a hotel with their single mom. We had Maddie and London who broke stereotypes unlike Disney Shows now. London, the Asian girl was dumb and rich while Maddie, the blonde was very smart and quite poor. Also the story lines weren't always about a girl character falling in love with or having a crush on her guy best friend. (This happens on Liv and Maddie, Austin and Ally, Girl Meets World, I Didn't Do It, Good Luck Charlie and more) Also in shows like That's So Raven, Phil of the Future, Suite Life and Lizzie McGuire they were always kind to their parents. Old Disney did not have to resort to racist or stereotypical jokes and characters to be funny.

But now it's like Disney is playing How Many Stereotypes Can You Fit in One Show? Take Jessie for example and Ravi Ross. We get an Indian kid but they really threw in every possible stereotype. His accent, his clothes, his apparent lack of friends and popularity and his pet Lizard. Now, it would be okay if this was all to appreciate the Indian culture but Ravi is the butt of every joke and is portrayed as a absolute loser. They also threw in the popular, pretty, dumb blonde, Emma Ross. The sassy black girl with attitude, Zuri Ross and finally the generic boy Luke Ross whose every joke is a fart joke and who is dumb yet a ladies man. Also I'm going to tell you a joke that was actually included in a kids show.

Ravi: Excellent choice, brother. India is a fascinating land of beauty and mystery. The jewel of the Near East.

Luke: That's a great opening for my paper. If only I had five to 10 more pages of that.

Ravi: Well, India gained it's independence on 1947. The population is approximately 1.2 billion.

Luke: Heh, I think I talked to all of them when my computer crashed.

Like, what did that boy just say? Is that not racist and stereotypical? Not every Indian works in tech support. Is this what our children should be hearing? Also there seems to be a lack of respect when it comes to the way parents are treated in shows. Seriously, did you see the GMW episode where Riley punches her Dad off the seat: https://youtu.be/nujcWnNA6EY?t=3m25s and tells her Dad's friend 'Don't be such a jerk.' Since when was this okay? If I hit my mum I would get slapped right back and open my eyes to find myself in Nigeria. Also in Jessie they are continuously rude to their nanny and butler whose job it is to take care of them while their parents are working. All the fat jokes and insults would not be something I would want my kids to hear.

4. Relatable Characters
Similar to what I've mentioned before, Disney used to have real characters. You know, people that could exist in the real world. With the older shows the teenagers went to school, they had normal conversations with their friends, they had normal lessons and they acted like real people. They were not an over exaggeration of just one personality trait. For example Raven Baxter was an absolute fashionista, you could say she was a girly girl. But she was also on the volleyball team. Also shows like Hannah Montana had Lily and Miley who were somewhat unpopular at school but were complete rock stars overnight. Hold up, I know what you're thinking, that's not relatable. No kid is psychic, or from the future or is an overnight rockstar but these characters were still relatable because they spoke like normal teenagers and went through situations that we did and we felt the emotions that they did in the episodes. 

Now the characters are just so over the top! Let's look at Liv and Maddie. Maddie is the Tomboy and Liv is the girly girl. That's pretty much all there is to them. There is no depth to their characters, they're just so predictable. The fact the Maddie is a tomboy means that she is on the basketball team which is fine but she is always wearing 'boyish' clothes, hates dresses and everything girly. Liv on the other had is extremely girly, loves dresses, is portrayed as an airhead. There is even an episode where Liv tries to get Maddie to be more girly and so gives her some heels to wear. Maddie ends up loving the shoes but instead of acting like a normal human being and telling her sister and mum she loves them she says that she hates them because I'm guessing she doesn't want to be seen as a girly girl or something stupid like that:https://youtu.be/e5_pTo9frG8?t=1m19s Also with the show GMW again, they talk in a way I have never seen a teenager speak before. It's like the whole show is around them being a dramatization of a teenager. Watch this clip from the episode Girl Meets Boy:https://youtu.be/fvA_eX1-PDw?t=9s Like really? We get it, teenagers use technology and their mobile phones a lot more than they did before but this isn't even funny.Disney forgets that teenagers do still know how to talk to each other and I know this because they throw in every joke about how now we have technology so we don't have to communicate. Yeah instead of actually writing so the jokes are funny they decided to make a joke out of sniffing boys because people apparently do that and aren't insane.

5. Lack of Representation

Previously throughout Disney we were able to find characters of colour that were not extras, or extremely stereotyped. Yeah, before we had a diverse range of people who were not inferior to that star of the show. With That's So Raven we had Raven, Cory, Eddie and Mr and Mrs Baxter; The Suite Life had Moseby and London; Lizzie McGuire had Miranda; Cory in The House had Meena, Mr Baxter and Cory, Phil of the Future had Tia. There was a lot more diversity when it came to Disney Shows and this is really important for young children to be able to understand you don't have to be white to be important, funny, pretty or popular. 

Then there's 2016. There are currently six live action series still broadcasting and making episodes on Disney. So check out the cast of three of the main shows first of all.

Well they all look very...similar. Yep, they're all white. Seriously, is this realistic? I mean sure the family in Liv and Maddie is all white but with Best Friends Whenever and Girl Meets World most of the main cast are the friends of the white main character and they're white too. Sorry, but in my school the white girls are friends with the black girls, the black girls are friends with the Asian girls like... Does Disney know that Black, Asian and Hispanic boys and girls watch their shows too? What are they supposed to think when they watch these shows and see that the popular, cool and funny girls and boys look nothing like them? Also Boy Meets World being a spinoff of Girl Meets World (If you think I thoroughly dislike this show then you would be correct) had Shawn and Angela one of the first biracial couples on Disney Channel but now with this spinoff Angela and Shawn are no more. Mmm hmm, instead they decided to make Shawn's new love interest a waitress. Now if you know Shawn and Angela's love story you know how angry I had to be when I found out they broke off one of the most real love stories so that Shawn could date a pretty, white and blonde waitress. Let's move on to the next three shows before I throw my T.V out of the window:

These shows definitely have a lot more diversity, Bunk'd only has three white main characters out of the seven but there's a problem. It's a spinoff from the show Jessie so they have carried on with using stereotypes to be funny. Zuri is still the sassy black girl, Jorge the Hispanic boy who is portrayed as unhygienic and who lies a lot, there's Tiffany the Asian girl who is portrayed extremely smart and overachieving and Ravi who is still a complete Indian stereotype and keeps samosa's in his pocket. Yep. I'm being serious. He pulled a samosa out of his pocket in an episode. I'm not joking. The white characters Emma and Xander are the pretty and popular people on the show and I just cannot anymore. The show Stuck in the Middle is something I have only seen one episode of so I can't really say much but I think they're a Latino family and there aren't too many stereotypes. K.C. Undercover is like a glimmer of hope on the Disney Channel. It's a black family that does not have to make their jokes all about stereotypes, it's just genuinely funny. K.C.'s best friend is white and her love interest Brett, was Asian. It's not that hard not to be racist and stereotypical. Really.

The end! So, am I overreacting or do you agree with the points I've made? Do you prefer the old or new Disney? Now if it's okay with you I'm going to go re-watch some Even Stevens episode. Seeya!