Gravity Falls creator shares hilarious exchanges with Disney’s censorship department

Creator Alex Hirsch has released what he claims are hilarious “real notes” he received from Disney’s censorship department, for revisions to his 2012 show Gravity Falls.

The two-season Disney cartoon follows Hirsch’s own character Grunkle Stan, the great-uncle to twins Mable (Kristen Schaal) and Dipper (Jason Ritter), as the three uncover the mysteries of the town of Gravity Falls.

In celebration of the ten year anniversary of the series’ release, Hirsch exposed some of the “fights” he had with Disney regarding censoring the show.

On Thursday (16 June), he tweeted a video compilation of past email correspondences, alongside the caption: “One last treat. Ever curious about the fights I had with the censors on Gravity Falls? I probably shouldn’t share this buttttt here are some REAL NOTES from DISNEY S&P and my REAL REPLIES. You are not prepared.”

Among the notes from the network, one reads: “Please revise ‘poopface’ as it comes across as a replacement for ‘s***face’. Prior use of Mabel saying ‘Poop. Poop. And Butts’ in the episode ‘Fight Fighters’ came across as more childlike and not as offensive.”

To which Hirsch argued: “I’ve never met a human on earth of any age who would be offended by a cartoon saying the word ‘poop face.’ Not changing it.”

Another Disney request said: “It has come to our attention that ‘hoo-ha’ is a slang term for vagina, please revise.”

“It is a proper word meaning excitement for hullabaloo, and that is CLEARLY its meaning here. The context is an Owl-Themed restaurant called ‘Hoo-Ha’s Jamboree.’ Not changing it,” Hirsch responded.

Next, the department requested revision to the word “Chub Pup” on a t-shirt, as they claimed: “Chub has a sexual connotation.”

Again, Hirsch contended: “This is silly. It’s an image of a fat dog. From the context, there is no reason to think that ‘chub’ means anything other than that.”

The tweet has since gone viral, with other creators sharing related stories of their experiences with Disney censorship.

“I know this all too well. On Jessie, we had to change a scene because it implied a cricket was depressed,” commented actor Kevin Chamberlin.

In similar news, Pixar, a subsidiary of Disney, recently restored a same-sex kiss in its latest animated film Lightyear, after staff released an open letter criticising Disney’s response to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill.