Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) attempted to own the Walt Disney Company on Tuesday by making a lewd joke about Mickey Mouse and Pluto ― but only managed to skeeve people out.
The Texas Republican was griping about Disney’s opposition to Florida’s new “Don’t Say Gay” law that critics fear will endanger LGBTQ children who are often already bullied, ostracized and isolated at home or in their communities.
Since acknowledging the fears and concerns of marginalized groups is not exactly Cruz’s “brand,” he chose instead to make a misleading joke that Disney is going to start showing Mickey Mouse and Pluto having sex.
“I think there are people who are misguided, trying to drive Disney stepping in, saying, you know, in every episode now they’re going to have, you know, Mickey and Pluto going at it,” he said on his “Verdict” podcast.
“Thank you for that image, senator,” co-host Michael Knowles joked.
“But it’s just like, come on, guys, these are kids and, you know, you could always shift to Cinemax if you want that!” Cruz said. “Look, I’m a dad, it used to be that you could put your kids on the Disney Channel and be like, all right, something innocuous will happen.”
Disney has not actually decided to depict the animated characters “going at it,” and Cruz was obviously attempting a joke. But it also seemed like he would be perfectly OK if people walked away with this misconception.
In the meantime, his made-up scenario definitely creeped out many Twitter users.