SNL Ruins Childhoods Everywhere With Erotic Artwork Of Disney Characters

Is there a more unholy pairing than children's cartoon characters and the internet? That's a question that the writers of "Saturday Night Live" may have been asking themselves when putting together this week's "Rorschach Test" sketch. Returning "SNL" guest host Bill Burr plays a firefighter whose responses to the famous ink blot test all share a common, childhood-ruining theme.

It's a sketch idea that can only have come from the writers accidentally stumbling upon (sure, let's go with that) "Rule 34" material online. Though broadly speaking Rule 34 refers to the ancient internet truism "if it exists, there is porn of it," it most commonly takes the form of decidedly non-sexual characters from Disney movies and other kids' media being put into erotic situations for the purposes of titillation.

In this instance, it seems "SNL" set itself the challenge of coming up with Rule 34 material that even the internet hadn't managed to think of yet. And that's how we all ended up looking at Mike Wazowski in a thong.

The question, "How did SNL get away with putting Bluey's dad in a sex swing?" is a question of two halves. On the one hand there are Disney's copyright lawyers to contend with. On the other, the FCC's strict rules against obscene content on terrestrial TV channels.

The Disney workaround is actually the easier of the two, which is why this isn't the first time "Saturday Night Live" has borrowed characters from the Mouse of House. The fair use principal of copyright law creates exceptions for parody and pastiche, so "SNL" is covered for everything from "The Real Housewives of Disney" to Jafar from "Aladdin" responding to Governor Ron DeSantis' attacks on Disney World. There's also a case to be made that putting Mike Wazowski in wedding lingerie and showing him "grabbing on to his little green ass" constitutes a transformative work. 

Meanwhile, the FCC's policing of obscenity is subjective, and is still ruled by Justice Stewart Potter's 1964 "I know it when I see it" definition. Whether or not "Saturday Night Live" gets hit with a fine would largely depend on how many people file a consumer complaint. Fortunately, the only person in a position to complain about Master Chief's erectile dysfunction is the dead wife from "Up."