It was only nine days ago that the Animaniacs revival debuted on Hulu, and the show has already been embroiled in controversy for a second time. A background visual gag drew the fury of Johnny Depp’s fanbase after they interpreted it as a direct dig at the fallen star, when in actuality it was nothing more than an outdated throwaway joke based on a meme which peaked in popularity over two years ago.
That wasn’t enough for Depp supporters, though, and yet another petition was launched in the name of the recently deposed Gellert Grindelwald, albeit one that fell flat on its face after taking the best part of a week to gather 500 signatures. The Animaniacs voice cast were even subjected to online abuse, and Yakko actor Rob Paulson admitted that he had no idea what people were talking about until he did some research of his own.
Tthe latest firestorm to engulf Animaniacs, though, is of a much more tangible nature, after viewers called a phone number seen in the sixth episode, only to find themselves connected to a sex hotline. As soon as Warner Bros. caught wind of the situation, the episode was swiftly pulled, re-edited and re-added to the service with the questionable digits now removed.
On the plus side, the Animaniacs revival has certainly generated plenty of publicity over the last week or so having only recently returned to the small screen, but the downside is that there might be a few people struggling to convince their parents, roommates, wives or girlfriends that the sex hotline that’s shown up on their phone bill was a complete accident and innocent mistake, with a cartoon being the real culprit.
