Thursday, May 1, 2025

7 Animation Myths, Rumours and Urban Legends Busted, Debunked and Questioned

 Trigger Warnings:

-Suicide
-Phallic Imagery

 

The world is full of urban legends, and honestly, these can be some of the most entertaining rabbit holes to explore. You get legends like "Dial a certain number on your cellphone and it magically charges it for you" to things like "The Cat-wolf-goat witch of Butt-knuckle nowhere who eats your eyes unless you offer her a cup of sassafras tea while singing old English sea shanties", these urban legends can get absolutely wild. Unsurprisingly, the art world is also full of these myths and urban legends, and they are especially prevalent in animation.

What it is about animation and urban legends is hard to guess. It might be because some people misremembered something, misunderstood a scene they watched, or just retold a story they heard the wrong way, sometimes things get misreported, sometimes opinion gets confused as fact, sometimes Fact A combines with Fact B to make Possibility Z, things happen. Regardless, there are a lot of rumours, urban legends and myths about animated shows and movies that just are not true, and some that are. So I figured it would be fun to talk about some of these myths and see if I can find the truth about them. So, with all of that said, here are five animation myths busted, and some others confirmed.

Before we begin I want to give an honourable mention to the Sponge Boy story. The story that the original name for SpongeBob, which was Sponge Boy, was already taken by a mop or cleaning product and so could not be used. I was tempted to include this one on the list, but I learned of it literally two days ago, so I'm gonna leave this link to a video by YouTuber Kid Leaves Stoop about the story.


7. Literally anything regarding creepypasta

Thumbnail Credit: "Cartoon Creepypastas are Dumb" by LS Mark, "Top 10 Worst Nickelodeon Creepypastas" by PhantomStrider, and "Top 10 Worst SPONGEBOB CREEPYPASTAS (Feat. PhantomStrider)" by HoodoHoodlumsRevenge

Okay, this one is kind of cheating, but I have to mention this because I know someone is going to bring up this "Lost SpongeBob Episode for being too dark" or "How everything in this show is actually just a dream or hallucination" or something like that, so let me break this down; the general rule is that, if it's a creepypasta, it's safe to assume it isn't true.

I feel like the big reason people even humour the notion that anything creepypasta related is true is simply the fact that, on some level, we all want it to be. We want there to be a lost Mickey Mouse short film that is satanic and evil, why? Because we want to expose every bad thing The Walt Disney Company ever did, and a short film that causes people to go crazy? That would be a perfect thing to dirty up Disney's squeaky clean image. A lost SpongeBob episode involving suicide? Of course we want that to be real, because it would explain why an episode like One Course Meal or A Pal For Gary exist.

What also gets to me are all the theories that people make about certain shows. Pokémon is actually all Ash's comatose dreams, Ed, Edd n' Eddy takes place in purgatory, the children in South Park are all ghosts, Family Guy is actually a mental delusion by Peter after his kids died in a car accident and his wife committed suicide. I did not make any of these theories up by the way. I think on some level we talk about these theories because, they are some explanations as to why the usual quirks of cartoons are the way they are. Like, why does Ash Ketchum stay 10 for his entire pokémon journey? Well of course it's because he's actually in a coma. Why do the kids in South Park never age despite the world around them changing? Well obviously they are all the ghosts of murdered children. Like, I get the temptation and the need to look deeper into things, but sometimes the curtains are just blue, you know.

I almost don't want to give too much guff about this, I fell into these traps too as a kid, and it's not like this is a new thing. I remember talking about a "Lost SpongeBob Episode" which was supposedly the final episode of the series, an episode where SpongeBob smoked, swore, and killed Mr. Krabs and Squidward. Still though, one does have to apply some common sense and logic to these cases, Disney making a short film that makes people kill themselves? Walt Disney was a lot of things, but a satanic sorcerer who put curses on his short films? I doubt he was that. The South Park kids being ghosts because they never age? I think a floating timeline is a better explanation.

I like to think that Creepypasta is losing its popularity, but recently I got a creepypasta screamer add-on for Garry's Mod, so maybe not. Creepypasta is so early 2010s.

 

6. Class of 3000 was dropped because of a lawsuit


Class of 3000 was not a cartoon I grew up with, I don't really remember watching much TV when it was airing, and it was never on when I was watching TV. Me not watching Cartoon Network because I had Teletoon instead might have also had something to do with it, though it's not like it wouldn't have aired on Teletoon. Anyway, the point I'm making is, the only times I ever heard of this rumour, was when it was being debunked.

Class of 3000 was a Cartoon Network show created by and starring musician André 3000, the premise was about a music teacher who taught about music, from the history to the creation of it and everything in between and beyond, and each episode featured one original song. Then, one day in 2008, the show just disappeared, and no real explanation was given, but there was a possibility. Around the same time, someone allegedly sued Cartoon Network over infringement, because they also pitched an idea about a music teacher who taught about music, from the history to the creation of it, and everything between and beyond, and each episode would feature one original song. This lead to people assuming the show was cancelled because of said lawsuit.

I'm not a lawyer so don't take anything I say as legal advice, but this kind of reminds me of two cartoons from the 1980s. You know why there were two different shows titled "Ghostbusters" in the 1980s? because one was based on the 1980s movie, with the characters and objects from the 1980s movie, titled "The Real Ghostbusters", and the other was based on a 1975 sitcom, and had characters and objects based on things from the 1975 sitcom. So, while someone did in fact sue Cartoon Network, as well as André 3000 and Turner Broadcasting, he lost the suit because Class of 3000 was determined to be different enough to not violate any copyright.

So why was it cancelled? Well, according to a comment designer David Colman made on DeviantArt, the ratings of the show were too low to justify the high cost of making it. It also appears that it was not an easy show to make, especially since André was probably busy with... you know other priorities since he is a musician. So, there you go, it was not due to a lawsuit, it was due to ratings... it's funny how this lesson of "It's usually pulled for ratings" is not a lesson we learn easily.

 

5. Korra was pulled from air for homophobia


Okay, of all the rumours on this list, this is probably the most believable, given the time period it was happening, frankly I can't blame anyone for believing it, honestly I'm not even sure if I fully disbelieve it. However, fair is fair so let's talk about The Legend of Korra, and how it was treated by Nickelodeon.

The Legend of Korra was the sequel series to Avatar: The Last Airbender, it featured the new Avatar, Korra, and her own journey of becoming the Avatar. Regardless of what you think about The Legend of Korra, and frankly I'm not the biggest fan of it, but the show was not treated well by Nickelodeon. In the late 2010s, Nickelodeon was pulling shows left and right because, the late 2010s was a transitionary period that nobody was prepared for, people were ditching cable to move towards streaming, and this meant that ratings started to dip for a lot of shows, even popular ones. However, something else was happening around the late 2010s, there was more of a push about queer rights and representation.

Why is that latter bit necessary? Because it was rumoured that the reason Korra was officially pulled from the network and dumped online, was because it was known that Korra and Asami were going to end up in a relationship at the end of the finale. Again, it is easy to understand why one would think this, many companies, especially Disney, have been very... apathetic about queer representation, preferring to make very minor queer characters that can easily be erased for markets that don't allow these characters on screen. The thing is, unless you were super into subtext, the only hint we got that Korra and Asami were going to get together, was right at the very end. To be fair, it is kind of hard to address your feelings in the middle of a giant mech fight, because Korra had a giant Mech fight, what was this show‽

Also, it is worth pointing out that, while Nickelodeon did treat this show horribly, it wasn't the only show of the 2010s that they mistreated, Harvey Beaks is also very much in this group chat, also according to Bryan Konietzko, the show did way better online and in streaming than on TV, so with all of that, I am going to go on a limb and say that it wasn't because of some light evidence of a same-sex relationship. You don't have to believe the official statement, but the official statement is made.

 

4. The Road Runner Rules


This one is... questionable, in that we have information to verify one part of this rumour, but not enough to fully confirm nor debunk this, so bear with me because this one may be true, may be false, or may just be true but misrepresented, or false but based on some truth, lots of rumours and urban legends fall under one of those four categories.

The Road Runner and Coyote are a famous Looney Tunes duo who debuted in 1949 in the short film Fast and Furry-ous, and have starred in a total of 41 cartoons from 1949 to 1966, with an additional nine cartoons from 1979 until 2014, and they have been mainstays in the Looney Tunes ensemble since their debut. These shorts were created by Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese, both of whom are animation legends. Famously, Chuck Jones had a list of nine rules that he laid out in his book Chuck Amuck: The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist, these rules pertained to the Road Runner cartoons, and all the writers behind these cartoons had to stick to them.

Now, here is where this gets fuzzy, because Chuck may have had these rules, however it is also possible that these were just rules that he stuck to when he wrote these shorts, or rules he wrote down for other future creators to follow when making Road Runner cartoons, because Michael Maltese never actually heard about these rules. It also doesn't help that another writer, Jason Kottke, had a different list with eleven rules, so what does this mean? It means either, Chuck Jones ever actually wrote down these rules and only did so later in life, or these rules never actually existed in the first place, because some of these rules are just strange.

Rule 5 states that "The Road Runner Must stay on the Road - Otherwise, logically, he would not be called a road runner". There are many instances of the Road Runner running on not road things, including cliffs, fake roads and even the air. Rule 2 states that "No outside force can harm the Coyote - only his own ineptitude of the failure of acme products." There are moments where the Road Runner does actually cause harm to the Coyote, not directly of course, he usually just beeps at him and makes him jump off a cliff or into some rocks. Also, there are a couple times the Coyote gets hit by a vehicle or directly run over by the Road Runner, which also breaks Rule 1, which states that "The Road Runner cannot harm the Coyote except by going 'Beep-Beep!'". One of the extra rules from Kottke states that "The audience's sympathy must remain with the Coyote." which, I feel just kind of misses the point of the whole concept of the shorts, and directly contradicts Rule 3, which states that "The Coyote could stop anytime - if he were not a fanatic."

It might be fun to go through each cartoon and see how many times the rules are broken, but for now, I think with the fact that Michael Maltese never heard of these rules, there is contradicting evidence about how many rules there are, and the fact that some of these rules are very much not followed, or at least were not initially followed, I think it's safe to say that this is not one-hundred percent the truth.

 

3. Little Mermaid, Big Phallus


Alright, almost everything else on this list has been, and will be heavily involved, so let's do something that's relatively simpler. It was common rumour at the time, and still today that there is a phallus drawn on the cover of the VHS release of Disney's The Little Mermaid, and some even make the claim the it was a deliberate move by a disgruntled artist who was being laid off from Disney.

According to Snopes, this is not true. It is true that there is a tower in the background of the image that looks like a male phallus, actually there are a couple but one in particular that looks really phallic. The truth is that it was completely accidental, according to Snopes, the artist rushed to get the video release cover finished and did not even notice the resemblance until he heard people talk about the controversy. It also is not true that this was just for the VHS release, it's also on the theatrical posters.

Really, I could have gone with any weird Disney renaissance sex rumour, like the word "sex" appearing in dust and pollen in The Lion King, which was actually meant to be a nod to the Sound Effects crew of the movie by spelling "SFX", and I remember one person online claiming that Aladdin was telling people to take of their clothes, when he was whispering for a tiger to "Take off and go", it is easy to see these things, especially when we are looking for them, but it does not change the fact that none of it is true.

There is also a claim that Disney has a whole bunch of pornographic drawings of their characters that were drawn by Disney staff, whether or not this is real is debatable, I can see arguments being made on both sides, of course the rumoured Mickey and Minnie sex tape can also be thrown into this section, but the main point of this bit was the untrue stuff about Sex and the Disney Renaissance movies, so there you go.

 

2. Hey Arnold had a Suicide in it


Alright, back to the heavy stuff,  on November 20, 1996, the Nickelodeon show Hey Arnold! aired episode 14b, "Pigeon Man". The episode is about Arnold meeting the mysterious recluse known as Pigeon Man, in hopes he will take care of one of Arnold's sick pigeons. In the end, Arnold befriends Pigeon Man, but Arnold's friends trash his place, causing Pigeon Man to fly away towards the setting sun.

The rumour is that the original ending of the episode was that Pigeon man jumped off the side of the building and died, and that Nickelodeon had to step in and reject this ending outright, this leads to a similar theory that the ending is an allegory for suicide with the image of Pigeon Man flying towards the sun being Arnold blocking out the image of Pigeon Man jumping to his death.

Craig Bartlett has admitted that he hates this theory and he specifically put Pigeon Man in The Jungle Movie to put the rumours to rest. Pigeon Man was never meant to commit suicide, and he was never meant to be considered an allegory for suicide. I think this one was though about because, Hey Arnold! is one of the darker Nicktoons, not as dark as Invader Zim, but it was definitely darker than something like Rocko's Modern Life or KaBlam! was. It did seem plausible that the writers would try to get something like a suicide allegory into the show. Funny enough, in 1999 the episode "Dino Checks Out" aired, which was about the character Dino Spumoni faking his own death, and in 2003, the episode "Ghost Bride" aired, where Gerald tells the story of a ghost bride who was left at the altar and her fiance married her sister instead, so she murdered them both and jumped out the window to her death.

I think because of these later episodes, and the general tone of the show, it made sense for a lot of people that "Pigeon Man" would have such a dark ending, but the reality is that it was never the case, Pigeon Man was always going to fly off into the sunset, and he was always going to be alive at the end of the episode.

 

1. The Who and What Bears?


Let's finish this by discussing probably the most well known myth about... well okay this isn't about animation but it is animation adjacent, so I might as well talk about it. So, here's a question, were the books "Berenstain" or "Berenstein" for you growing up? That's a fun question because it has lead people to what is known as "The Mandela Effect", which is a term given to false memories, and has devolved into a conspiracy about parallel universes, named after Nelson Mandela, who people believed had died in prison in the 1980s, even though in 1993 he was one of the recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize.

So a lot of people swear that the spelling of the name of both the bears and the authors of the books was spelled "Berenstein", however all the books are spelled "Berenstain", so what gives? Well, Mike Berenstain, current author of the books and the son of Stan and Jan Berenstain, has stated that this confusion actually predates the books, as one of Stan's teachers in elementary school said that "Berenstain" was not a real name and changed it to "Berenstein", but the name "Berenstain" is on the birth-certificates of Mike's grandparents, and other documents.

It might be due to the fact that the family was Jewish, so a "Stein" suffix to their surname would be expected, but the family was also Ukrainian, so the pronunciation of their names would have been different, so if they immigrated to the United States, whoever was documenting their arrival might have tried to spell their name phonetically, though Mike also says that spelling it as such was what the family did.

Of course, it is not out of the realm of possibility that the Berenstein surname was also used to sign the books a couple of times. Shakespeare had several ways to spell his surname, which leads to the theory that he either did not exist and was the sixteenth century equivalent of Alan Smithee, or that Shakespeare was not actually the writer of any of his work. The difference of course being that the Berenstains died in the twenty-first century, and have a lot more records about them written down.

 

So there we are, seven famous rumours, myths and urban legends about animation completely busted, or partially busted. I think ultimately there is an importance to doing stuff like this, Todd in the Shadows did a similar video about James Somerton and a bunch of mistruths and lies he spread in his videos, and the thesis of that was that the truth matters, and in some regards that is also the thesis of this blog. Really though, this is not spreading misinformation about medicine or even making weird claims about Nazis and fitness culture, at best this is silly nonsense kids talked about at school, and at worst it is accusing companies of things, neither of which are really crimes or even really wrong.

But still, eventually you are going to have to learn the truth behind these rumours. I don't really want to think about people who hold on to the idea that Hey Arnold! was going to have Arnold witness a suicide. Like, why do you still want to believe that? Do you really want to believe that the spelling of a surname is the proof that there are multiple universes that we jump between at random? What do you get from that, outside of people looking at you like you have a second head? I think the reality is that when you just accept something as a fact without looking into it, it only proves you're more gullible than you think.

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