Disney has a disturbing past (Picture: Getty Images/Disney)

People are defending PewDiePie by tweeting out images of Donald Duck dressed as a Nazi.

PewDiePie, whose real name is Felix Kjellberg, was dropped by Disney (and YouTube) on Tuesday after a report by the Wall Street Journal highlighted nine of his videos that contained Nazi and anti-Semitic messages.

What were the Nazi references that got PewDiePie dropped by Disney?

‘Although Felix has created a following by being provocative and irreverent, he clearly went too far in this case and the resulting videos are inappropriate,’ a spokeswoman for Maker Studios, the Disney division that had partnered with PewDiePie, told the WSJ – before announcing that they were severing their ties.

With 53million followers, it’s no surprise that people – mainly gamers, other YouTubers, and followers of the so-called ‘alt-right’ – have jumped to his defence.


#Resistpewdiepie this is Wernher Von Brown a NAZI (V1 & V2 bomb) with Walt Disney. They help make NACA to NASA. pic.twitter.com/X0HdAutDuF — xTHETRINCHOx (@xTHETRINCHOx) February 15, 2017

If it's a propaganda rather than a joke, then we have to stop Monty Python, Simpsons and South Park before we join nazi. #resistpewdiepie pic.twitter.com/AslKWjqBrr — KSkuza (@SkuzaKamil) February 14, 2017

So it's okay for family guy and south park to make jokes, but not okay if @pewdiepie does it? Yeah, that makes sense #resistpewdiepie — Katia Anguiano (@EloquentKatia) February 15, 2017

Hey. @Disney did you forget about your racist past? Your actions weren't jokes. They were REAL RACISM. #IStandWithPewdiepie pic.twitter.com/WiEQbfMGWF — ? GirlBlog ? (@GirlBlog912) February 16, 2017

People have been digging out some of Disney’s (many, sadly) racist cartoons, and accusing them of hypocrisy with the hashtag #resistpewdiepie.



And while these videos are all from the early-to-mid 20th century, there’s no denying that Disney has a disturbing past it can’t really brush off.

For example…

Silly Symphony: The Three Little Pigs (1933)

Today, this is one of the most controversial cartoons in Disney’s history.

It tells the story of the Three Little Pigs – but when the big bad wolf arrives at the third, brick house, he dresses up as a door-to-door salesman – and is an anti-Semitic stereotype of a Jew.

Mickey’s Mellerdrammer (1933)

Another early short, in this one Mickey performs a minstrel show in blackface.

Mickey’s Man Friday (1935)

In this 1935 animated short, Mickey ends up on a desert island and befriends a cannibal, who he names Friday.

It’s loosely based on Robinson Crusoe, but is extremely controversial today because all of the ‘cannibals’ are black caricatures.

Fantasia (1940)

In the original Fantasia, released in 1940, the caucasian centaurs were all waited upon by a small, black centaur called Sunflower.

For the second version, and the official DVD release, Sunflower was completely edited out.

Dumbo (1941)

The ‘crow’ characters in Dumbo are still very controversial, because they’re stereotypical ‘jive talking’ African-American characters.

The leader’s name, Jim Crow, is also disturbing.

Der Fuehrer’s Face (1941)

In a wartime propaganda film produced by Disney, Donald Duck dresses up as a Nazi, reads Mein Kampf and says ‘Heil Hitler’.

However, in the end he wakes up in American flag pyjamas and hugs a model of the Statue of Liberty. A massive tomato is then thrown in Hitler’s face.

Although the content of the short is obviously anti-Nazi, it’s stills of Donald Duck heiling that PewDiePie fans have seized upon.

Education for Death (1943)

Disney also produced this rather terrifying anti-Nazi propaganda film, which shows children being trained from a young age to become Nazi soldiers.

Again, although this was an anti-Nazi wartime film, stills from this have been used by PewDiePie’s supporters as evidence of Disney freely referencing the Nazis in its own productions.

Song of the South (1946)

Song of the South is probably one of the most controversial films in history.

It was released just after the end of the Second World War, and right in the middle of the US’s racist Jim Crow era.

Despite the horrors of racial segregation at the time, the film showed a black family gleefully devoting their lives to helping a small white boy. The animated Brer Rabbit character was also a racist caricature.



But perhaps the saddest thing about this film is that James Baskett, who played the part of main character Uncle Remus, wasn’t allowed to go to the film’s premier.

While Disney has definitely produced some disturbing stuff in its past, you could argue that it’s a good thing Disney has come a long way since then.

Apple reveals new iPad Air as alternative to the iPad Pro

Indeed, it can only be a good thing that the company is now, finally, taking a hard line on racism and anti-Semitism in its associated acts.

And there have been some quite disturbing anti-Semitic messages posted on Twitter and YouTube in support of PewDiePie, too, which weaken their argument.

For example, quite a few of his supporters have pointed to the fact that Disney’s current CEO Bob Iger is of a Jewish background – propagating the racist stereotype that there is a ‘Jewish conspiracy’.

What were the Nazi messages in PewDiePie's videos? August 7, 2016: PewDiePie, wearing a Make America Great Again hat, begins his video with a swastika and other Nazi imagery, and uses a photo of Hitler as a segue between clips September 24, 2016: In a video criticising YouTube policy, he shows a clip of Hitler giving a speech October 15, 2016: PewDiePie posts swastikas drawn by his fans December 8, 2016: PewDiePie wears a brown military uniform while watching a Hitler clip at the end of his video January 11, 2017: He hires two Sri Lankan actors on Fiverr to do a dance and hold up a sign that says ‘Death to all Jews’ January 14, 2017: PewDiePie plays the Nazi Party anthem before bowing to a swastika in a mock resurrection ritual January 17, 2017: He posts a video saying ‘there’s a difference between a joke and actual, like, death to all Jews. If I made a video saying…’ at which point the camera cuts to a close-up of his face illuminated brightly – ‘Hey guys, PewDiePie here. Death to all Jews, I want you to say after me: Death to all Jews. And, you know, Hitler was right. I really opened my eyes to white power. And I think it is time we did something about this.’ January 22, 2017: PewDiePie hires a Jesus Christ impersonator over Fiverr to say: ‘Hitler did absolutely nothing wrong.’ February 5, 2016: At the start of the video he includes a brief Nazi salute, with a Hitler voice-over saying ‘Sieg Heil’ and text saying ‘Nazi Confirmed’.