Disney has come under fire over a theme park show that it says is suitable for all ages even though it is littered with raunchy jokes about its characters using gay dating app Grindr and wanting to ‘pound’ each other.
Called Story Time with Deadpool, the show plays at Disney’s California Adventure park and is based on the Deadpool & Wolverine movie which hit streaming platforms last week and had the highest-ever domestic debut for an R-rated film.
It stars Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman as the eponymous anti-heroes who reluctantly team up to save the universe. Although they are characters from Marvel comics and wear colorful costumes, it is anything but a children’s film as it features F-bombs aplenty, repeated references to hardcore sex acts and jokes about taking cocaine.
The theme park show doesn’t refer to drugs but courts just as much controversy as the movie.
It is Disney’s first theme park character experience which promotes an R-rated film and it takes the format of stand-up comedy. The show sees two theme park workers dressed as Deadpool and Wolverine cracking adult jokes despite being described on the Disneyland app as ‘family-friendly’ and ‘suitable for all ages’.
In one wisecrack, Deadpool says he has been on gay dating app Grindr and has seen the profile of Tony Stark, the billionaire alter ego of Iron Man, played by Robert Downey Jr.
In another, Deadpool volunteers to ‘pound’ a good-looking co-worker. An even more smutty segment sees Deadpool refer to Wolverine as ‘the bottom’ – a euphemism for a sex role in a gay relationship.
The Disneyland app says that Deadpool’s ‘tales will delight, charm, and inspire’ but not all theme park fans agree.
One on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, described it as ‘disgraceful and highly inappropriate’.
Another added ‘I love the character and his humor, but it doesn’t belong in the Disney parks.’
This was echoed on Instagram with the comment that ‘it shouldn’t be allowed in a children’s amusement park’ whilst another user said ‘the fact he mentions Grindr in a Disney park is mind-boggling to me.’
Although Deadpool & Wolverine is R-rated, Disney sells action figures of the characters in it.
The company has also announced that Deadpool will also appear on its newest cruise ship next year.
