Top 10 Times Gravity Falls Was Censored

After Alex Hirsch released a video on his Twitter reading out email correspondences between him and Disney’s Standards and Practices, fans had a lot to unpack. “Gravity Falls” got away with showing a lot for a kid’s cartoon–and we do mean a lot. So, it was kind of crazy to see the discrepancy between the stuff that had to be omitted. For instance, references to Lucifer, the Devil, Satan, and just about every other name you can think for the fallen angel were prohibited, even in a spooky Halloween-y context. Hirsch did retaliate, claiming that, in the context, it obviously was not intended to offend any religions. He also shot back with a mention of Disneyland's Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. Alas, it seems S&P won that round.

If there’s one thing teenagers love to draw… Well, we won’t finish that sentence. But, Alex Hirsch and his creative team had a hilarious workaround to make Robbie’s vandalism kid-friendly while still getting the message across to older viewers. The scene doesn’t stop there, as Robbie is caught by the Mattress King in his golf cart. Robbie is then said to be making “lewd hand gestures” which, of course, happen offscreen. Disney is weirdly cool for letting this one slide with its American audience but, in some countries, the scene apparently had to be cut altogether for the two adult references made back-to-back.

If you’re not familiar with the “There once was a man from Nantucket” limerick, you might want to look it up for yourself before coming back to this video. While there are many family-friendly versions of it, the notoriously vulgar rhyming scheme is what most remember. In the “Headhunters” episode of “Gravity Falls”, wax Shakespeare starts off the beginning of the limerick, though Hirsch purposely changed “Nantucket” to “Kentucky” to avoid any sort of misinterpretations about the rhymes to follow. The joke we ended up with in the episode is funny in itself – especially if you recognize the source of its inspiration – but what might just be even funnier is Hirsch’s wearing patience with Disney’s S&P.

We’re not sure what episode this would’ve been as it seems like Alex Hirsch lost to S&P here, but one of Soos’ lines was apparently supposed to have him make mention to dressing up as a giant teddy bear. This feels like one of those things you don’t know how anyone could find a problem with, but if there’s an S&P will there’s an S&P way. Hirsch was asked to revise the line as Disney felt it could allude to the furry community and the rhetoric of fetishization so often associated with the practice. We’ll just let you listen to Hirsch’s response for yourself.

The episode where Dipper’s feelings for Wendy finally come to a head starts out with the two of them in Wendy’s room watching a bad horror movie. Or a bad… romance horror movie? We’re not entirely sure. Either way, there’s a quick throw-away joke when Dipper falls back on Wendy’s comforter and she tells him: “Dude, you’re laying on my bra.” Dipper, in all his pre-teenagehood, naturally reacts with a scream before a quick cut to the show’s intro. It’s a funny moment we’re happy to see Disney approved, but Southeast Asian audiences weren’t so lucky. The moment was reportedly cut altogether overseas, with the intro beginning right before Dipper laid down.

“Gravity Falls” expertly walked the fine line between showing graphic horror while still making it kid-friendly. With that said, we’re not surprised to hear the depiction of zombie heads exploding was cut in other countries. In “Scary-oke”, when Dipper, Mabel, and Stan harmonize in order to defeat the hoard of dead Dipper accidentally raised, zombie heads are seen exploding. It’s definitely animated to be more suitable to younger audiences, but some places in the world still took issue with airing it. The moment with the zombies clutching their heads was instead purportedly looped to fill up the time frame.

Stan’s fez has always pretty much been a nod to the Shiners society. Whether it has a symbol at all, the color and type of hat is probably enough for many adults to make the connection. In North America, this allusion wasn’t a problem but, elsewhere in the world, it was seen as offensive, either as cultural appropriation or as an intention to promote a specific religious group. In Southeast Asia, the symbol from Stan’s fez was removed completely and it’s also presumably why the symbol changed around halfway through season one. According to an interview with CBR, there were also concerns that the Shriners might pursue legal action against Disney for the original symbol.

In the video Alex Hirsch released to Twitter, it was revealed that many of Disney’s complaints had to do with specific words in the scripts. For instance, the term “poopface” is quite obviously the PG version of a more vulgar insult, which Disney’s Standards and Practices preferred to avoid. The words “Hoo-ha” and “chub” were also said to have sexual connotations which, although objectively true, was wildly offbeat from the context Hirsh provided in his responses. “Chub”, for example, was used in reference to a chubby puppy. “Jeez” as an abbreviation for “Jesus” and the word “crud” were also considered too inappropriate.

If you’re a bit more than a casual fan of “Gravity Falls”, you’ve probably heard Alex Hirsch tell this story before. In the episode “Summerween”, Wendy and Robbie are headed to their friend Tambry’s party. Wendy hands Dipper a flyer for the party which reads “not S&P approved” and “no photos better end up online!” That first line is the result of a back-and-forth between Hirsch and Disney. It was originally supposed to read “bottles will be spun”, but S&P claimed they didn’t want to “send the wrong message”. Alex Hirsch, in a brilliant move of spite, came up with quite possibly the cleverest replacement line.

“Gravity Falls” is included in the “LGBTQ+” category on Disney Plus, which is beyond hypocritical given how hard executives fought Alex Hirsch for the merest hint of queer content. In the episode, “The Love God”, the original storyboard had two older ladies falling in love. But, it clearly didn’t get the OK from higher ups because one of the characters was changed to be an older gentleman. More than that is the relationship between Sheriff Blubs & Deputy Durland. The email exchange Hirsh publicized makes it clear that S&P thought the officers should be strictly work partners. Luckily, Hirsch obviously had other plans. Even though their reunion in the series finale is adorable, we can’t help but feel like there should have been more there – and there probably would have been without Disney’s censorship.