Michael Knowles demands to see Mickey Mouse as a Nazi in bizarre Disney rampage
Michael Knowles wants to see Mickey Mouse as a Nazi to punish Disney. (Getty Images)
The Daily Wire host Michael Knowles has called for Mickey Mouse to be depicted as a Nazi as a way to punish Disney for supporting the LGBTQ+ community.
Knowles’ suggestion was inspired by the news that Disney’s copyright on the earliest versions of the famous cartoon mouse expired in the US on 1 January.
Less than a week after entering the public domain, Mickey Mouse’s image has been used for NFTs, a slasher film killer, and a shooter video game. Next, Knowles wants to see Mickey as a Nazi.
The right-wing news host made it clear that he is “quite anti-Nazi”, but would like to see Mickey become a Nazi symbol “‘cause Disney’s bad.”
Knowles shares conservatives’ long-held gripe with Disney for defending LGBTQ+ rights and standing up against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
The mass-media company has also made strides in its LGBTQ+ representation in recent years, including projects like Strange World, Elemental, The Owl House, and the Pixar Short Out.
Launching into a tirade against Disney, Knowles told his viewers: “Mickey Mouse has to become a Nazi. He has to. Because Disney is a very, very evil corporation that wants to trans your kids and fill their heads with all sorts of crazy ideas, and Disney’s gotta go.”
Seemingly referring to leaked videos from a 2022 Disney webinar in which executives spoke about plans to uplift LGBTQ+ content across more projects, Knowles continued: “You heard all the Disney executives talking about their not-so-secret LGBTLMNOP agenda.
“You’ve seen what Disney has done in recent years, so much so that the governor of Florida had to take political action against them to stop Disney from trying to interfere in the democratic process in Florida to stop the libs from transing your kids. OK?”
To clarify, Disney has been engrossed in a legal battle with Ron DeSantis since 2022, when the presidential candidate passed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
Disney is suing DeSantis and his board for a “targeted campaign of government retaliation” in response to the company’s criticism of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill and their vow to help repeal it. DeSantis’s board has counter-sued.
Court documents from October saw Disney warn that if DeSantis was to have his way, it would affect the future of the First Amendment and that it wouldn’t be the last entity to be punished for supporting what it called a “disfavoured viewpoint.”
Proudly sharing his scheme, Knowles insisted that “one of the best things that we can do right now is make the Disney characters toxic” because “Disney is really really bad.”
The political commentator suggested that Mickey Mouse could be the next Pepe the Frog – the internet meme that was appropriated as a symbol of the alt-right movement.
“Remember what they did to that cartoon frog?” asked Knowles.
“There was this cartoon frog that a regular cartoonist had made, and it was kind of a popular webcomic. And then these guys on 4chan turned the frog into a Nazi… And it drove the cartoonist who made the frog completely crazy because the frog became a hate symbol. It was listed on all — SPLC, ADL, all these different lists.
“And we can do the same with Mickey Mouse. It’s not just enough to make Mickey Mouse a serial killer as you’re seeing in these movies.
“Mickey Mouse has to become the most odious kind of symbol in the entire world. And we have the ability to do it… Just through the power of memes.”
