Adult Swim "Witches Abusing Babies" Controversy

Overview

Adult Swim "Witches Abusing Babies" Controversy refers to the backlash to an interstitial short music video aired on Adult Swim. The video features several figures with pyramid-shaped heads creating music by smacking 3D-animated babies on pedestals. Some viewers found the video inappropriate and Satanic, criticizing the network for presenting the content to children. Others refuted the argument by stating that Adult Swim is for mature viewers.

Background

On November 12th, 2018, content creator Mike Diva uploaded the video "PreBirth" to YouTube, which he writes is "A short made for the Adult Swim show 'Off The Air – Sound.'" The video received more than 611,000 views in less than two years (shown below). The video originally aired on Adult Swim sometime in late October 2018.^[1]

On July 18th, 2020, Twitter^[2] user @soonergurl74 shared the video with the caption, "Cartoon Network after hours. They throw it in your face. They hope you aren't the kind of parents who monitors what your kids watch and do. They're busy conditioning them. What do you see here? I see witches abusing. This is not ok. This is not funny" (shown below).

Developments

Online Reaction

People who agree with Soonergurl74 also shared the video. Instagram user @educatingliberals shared the video. They wrote, "Satan is working overtime right now." The post received more than 14,000 likes in less than two days (shown below, left). Instagram user @kingfreespeech wrote, "This is what Democrats are showing your children." The post received more than 16,000 views and 1,200 likes (shown below, right).

Others disagreed with the criticism. Twitter^[3] user @ArchonOf shared the tweet and the caption, "Its called Adult Swim For a reason, Karen As in, not for children, playtime is over, send them to bed." The tweet received more than 17,000 likes and 3.5 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below, left). Twitter^[4] user @Teknoh2 tweeted, "#Karens: how dare Adult Swim show my child this content it is irresponsible!!!! Adult Swim at the beginning of their program." The tweet received more than 12,000 likes and 2,300 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below, right).

On July 19th, Twitter user @jo3buck shared a clip from the animated TV series Family Guy, which has run in syndication on Adult Swim since 2003. They wrote, "@ all you dumb parents concerned about Adult Swim." The tweet received more than 197,000 views, 17,000 likes and 6,000 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below).

@ all you dumb parents concerned about Adult Swim pic.twitter.com/UxqTmwbN8v

— Cheddar (@jo3buck) July 19, 2020

Several media outlets covered the controversy, including Uproxx,^[5] CinemaBlend,^[6] Boing Boing^[7] and more.

Mike Diva's Response

The music video's creator, Mike Diva, commented on the controversy on July 19th. He tweeted^[8], "Adult Swim is now trending cos the Qanon Karens are losing it over a vid I made about pyramid bois playing drums with shitty CGI babies. While getting accused of being an Illuminati pedovore daily has been fun, let it be known that I do NOT condone any form of CGI baby drumming." The tweet received more than 3,700 likes and 650 retweets in less than two days (shown below).

Adult Swim's Response

Adult Swim addressed the controversy on July 20th by tweeting its content warning bumper.^[9] The tweet gained over 71,000 likes and 11,000 retweets in two days (shown below).

Search Interest

Not avaiable.

External References