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I’m not gonna lie…..I’ve kinda been fantasizing about doing this piece since just before the weekend began, in part so I could use that title above, and because I’ve been thinking about the analogy I’m about to elaborate on since this past week. For those wondering, that title was inspired by a book from my youth called “The House With a Clock In Its Walls”, which later got made into a movie starring Jack Black. I’ve seen the movie, I’ve never read the book, but the cover for the book is amazing and creepy as hell. I was under the impression the entire time that the book was just a collection of other stories, but am not entirely sure; all the same, the movie wasn’t bad. I just….I really wanted to use that as a title!!!!!!

That being said, let’s get to what this entry is about, shall we?

So, for anyone keeping up to date these days with the House of Mouse, or happens to watch videos by Victor Van Doomcock (the future ruler of Earth), Clownfish TV, The Critical Drinker, Nerdrotic, Yellowflash2,or many others, you know that Mickey is in a lot of trouble, and…..trouble in ways it wasn’t even during their down years after Walt left the picture in 1966, and before Michael Eisner came into the picture in the mid 1980s. However, another fascinating aspect is happening in the process:

If any of you happen to watch the WorldClassBullshitters videos as often as I do, you often see the ones where their guy Jeff goes into stores to see what’s still on toy shelves, and what actually sold; as stated here, he primarily goes to check for Disney-based merchandise, but if you pay close enough attention in his footage of Ollie’s Bargain Outlet, you’ll usually notice every other major brand is there, too. I believe there’s a direct correlation between the downfall of the Mouse, and the rest of pop culture. Essentially, I believe that as the Kingdom loses its Magic, it’s gonna take the world of pop culture down with it.

This is gonna be one of those entries, similar to this one, that isn’t specifically about Autism, but instead my using my mental abilities to elaborate and articulate why I see this going the way it is….hopefully motivating more of you to give it a try in your own areas of expertise. So, let’s get to it, shall we?

Let’s start with this analogy:

Imagine you just moved to a neighborhood, and the “centerpiece” to that neighborhood is a gorgeous gigantic mansion, with every imaginable facet and add-on to the exterior you could possibly imagine; it’s a sight to marvel at, and while everyone wishes they could be the ones who reside in that manor, they’re content to be in the presence of it with their “inferior” seeming dwellings, while still being motivated to do whatever possible to rise up to be able to own that mansion, or one like it. Then…..one day, many years later….you find out that the mansion–this whole time–was little more than a front for a criminal operation. All of a sudden, that luster goes up in a puff of smoke; sure, some people might still love the mansion, and want to buy it when the criminal operation is taken down, but they won’t put up the same amount of money for it, and most of those who found the association with that mansion to compliment their nearby dwellings….not only no longer do, but are far more content with their dwellings, or might want to completely sell it off due to being associated with a neighborhood that might as well have just been a crack-running operation (and that’s putting it nicely), the entire time; i.e. the motivation is either no longer there to strive for more when the truth about the mansion comes out, or if they do strive for more, it’s to strive for what the mansion never actually was…so essentially in a completely different way, so to not “keep up with the joneses” appearance-wise, if that makes sense.

Even after Walt Disney left the World Stage in 1966, his company was associated with the highest standards imaginable for the world of entertainment……to the point where–several years back–a former coworker of mine told me a story about a family who’s house burned down, and the one thing the daughter was freaking out about over it was losing a piece of Cinderella merchandise; that was the attachment level the public had with the Mouse, all those years later. The late 60s-mid 80s, despite being a downtime for the company until Eisner took the reigns, even if the company wasn’t producing the most successful content–generating offerings like the Million Dollar Duck, the Witch Mountain movies, Tex, the Black Cauldron, and Tron (a favorite of mine, might I add)–the public at least viewed the Walt Disney company as trying, just…..directionless; their at-the-time modern fare may not have been turning heads or generating lots of attention, but it was still basking in the glow of a company that people revered highly for all the years of brand recognition that had preceded it, with the likes of Snow White, Pinocchio, Cinderella, Bambi, Fantasia, and their A-list characters like Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Pluto, Daisy, and Pete. A hostile takeover of the company nearly happened before Eisner stepped in, and the public breathed a sigh of relief at the time to hear that the “crisis” had been averted with Eisner stepping in, to “give Disney another chance”, upon finally finding someone to lead them anew.

It was actually during this period of time that Walt Disney World had officially opened in Orlando, FL, with EPCOT opening the year I was born, and I went there on my first trip in 1986 at age 4; I think my Mom or Grandparents bought me some mouse ears and a Goofy plush toy, and I wandered into the Mile Long Bar at some point, and had my very first exposure to–what I didn’t realize at the time was intended to be– the Country Bear Jamboree exit show featuring the three trophy heads; incidentally as it was 1986, and the show was undergoing an update (known as the Vacation Hoedown…IMO, the absolute weakest of all the iterations), the entire time I was there, the three trophy heads never moved, so I was unaware there was anything more to three seemingly-unusually placed trophy heads in Walt Disney World, but for whatever reason, I found myself drawn to them in a way that they always stuck out in my mind….not to mention I’d never seen trophy heads before, so I didn’t understand why in the hell three animals heads were attached to a wall, or where the rest of them was.

The whole point is, despite this downtime period for the company that lasted about 2 decades, the populous in general thought nothing more of it than a company in need of new direction, and with their reputation preceding them, with the emotional and nostalgic investment of said populous in tow, the money, recognition, and positive associations just kept coming in, simply being looked at as “needing the right pick-me-up”. Hell, when my parents decided to rent a VCR to see if they wanted to buy one, they even picked up some Disney movies, immediately associating it with something safe that I could watch too. When I went to summer camp/after school day care, they even did trips to the movie theaters to see the latest Disney release; again, this is how strong the emotional attachment was for the masses, and how highly regarded their brand quality was viewed. One more fun example, in fact:

Did you know that, in the 80s, when the home video market was growing in popularity, most studios sent their movies & TV shows over to porn producers to have them do the transition to video, as they were one of the pioneers in video production (apparently, the industry has to be the pioneer in many particular aspects, to get as much reach possible for their product), and the studios just figured they knew their stuff, so they had them handle it? Well, Disney apparently refused to do that to have any association whatsoever with big name porn producers, and instead did the video production themselves, which is likely in part why their videos usually came in those nice clamshell boxes; also cost more, most likely….but to the general audience, it was likely worth it.

I not only loved them so much that I wanted to propose to Jeanette there, but I even based inspiration on how I wanted to run my former business with the level of perfection that the Magic Kingdom appeared to embody!

“Ok ok Russell, we get it……even during their downtime, everyone knew and loved Disney, and now Disney is just pissing everyone the fuck off….but what does all that have to do with why you can pick up Batman, He-Man, Ghostbusters, and Ninja Turtles up on Clearance at Ollie’s?”

Let us first begin with how Disney is pissing everyone off currently, how it connects with who Disney truly is behind the scenes (and you can either get a somewhat idea from Joe Normie on this one, as one of my Normie coworkers looked into this herself, or you can take the tin-foil hat approach, and I assure you, you’ll get not only the same result, but far more elaborate), and then conclude with why it affects everything else:

So aside from the fact that Disney–and every other major studio–is currently in the midst of pushing “the Message”, and appears hell-bent on doing so to please the World Economic Forum and Blackrock, come Hell or high water, regardless of how well their stocks do, it’s doing absolutely no favors for their movie or TV content, and it’s not a case this time of “having no direction, but at least trying”, the public at large is fully aware the House of Mouse knows what the fuck they’re doing, and are more concerned with–again–pleasing Blackrock and the WEF than they are about actually getting ticket sales and ratings, no matter how much their investors are pissed off, or in what financial straits they happen to be in…..and to the point where they even picked an absolutely unbearable actress to portray Snow White in the life-action remake that–the more that comes out about it–just continues to turn the stomachs of everyone who hears about it, including the son of the director of the original animated film; granted, trying to sell Rachel Zegler as being more physically appealing than Gal Gadot you really have to suspend disbelief for as it is (though goddamn it if she doesn’t look so fine in that black halter top in that photo circling…..erm *ahem*)….and yes I’m aware that Disney claims that’s not the definition they’re using this go for being “the fairest one of all”, but fuck it if you think I’m buying the talking points they have to churn out to please their masters at Blackrock. Having drag queens at the Orlando resort assisting girls in dressing up as princesses isn’t helping their case either.

But ok……you may be wondering “so they’re pissing off everyone now; they’re not the company they used to be; it may take years to turn it around, but it can be restored…..so what in the hell does that have to do with why the rest of pop culture also seems to be going on Clearance, with the rest of their merchandise?”

Well my friends…..it’s not only that Disney doesn’t care to do better “now”, but that……..they can’t. Associations are already circulating with Mr. Jeffrey Epstein and his gal Ghislaine, to the point where they were one of the defendants in the Maxwell case (and this is not just something I heard from a friend who heard from a friend; I have literally seen the court documents about this). Oh….but let’s go deeper, to even something one of my Normie coworkers found doing her own Google Search one night:

So, as most “conspiracy theorists” will inform you, if you happen to look at Walt Disney’s signature, you will see three “6”s pop up, suggesting an association with Satan worship; you might be thinking to yourself “well, it could’ve just been like that phallus in the palace on the Little Mermaid box; someone wasn’t thinking, and it was purely unintentional”. Friends, I got news for ya:

I watched an episode of “What’s My Line?” many years ago, featuring Walt as the guest celebrity the panelists had to figure out; he was the one who signed his name like that, it wasn’t some 3rd party manufacturing, I assure you. Here’s where things pick up further with that, and based on my coworker’s Google search:

Walt was acquainted with the founder of the Church of Satan. Yes, the Church was founded after he “exited Stage Left”, but he was still associated with him; and if you want to know why I refuse to say “after his passing” or something like that, take a listen on Youtube to the lyrics of “It’s a Small World” in reverse, and you’ll find out quick. Let’s just say….I have questions for the Sherman Bros, and the sole remaining Sherman brother probably isn’t too keen on answering them.

Essentially, now that this information is being brought out in to the public sphere, and also happens to be reinforced by criminal investigations into the Reedy Creek district, uninspiring stockholder conference calls, multiple lawsuits that they’re being hit with over all of this (and soon enough, the Japanese studio behind Kimba the White Lion can probably go to town….), it sounds more like–to maintain that picture-perfect image of quality with the public–they had to cover a lot of shit up, and for a very, very long time. In other words, that “seal of quality” never truly was, so they could release the best thing tomorrow, but…..the truth is already coming out, and as a result, they can never truly regain that image of the high standard they had a reputation for; hell, if you want….think of comedian Bill Cosby, and how he was looked up to as “America’s Dad”; do you view him as that, anymore?

So…..how does this affect the rest of pop culture, you may ask? Well, let’s go back to the analogy of that neighborhood:

You found out that gorgeous mansion was just a front for drug dealing, human trafficking, occult rituals, or whatever else, and as a result, the ambiance of the image no longer holds up. The competing companies, as a result, not only have no real incentive to try to live up to a public image that’s officially dead, but it’s quickly being discovered that they didn’t live up to it, either (see Ricky Gervais’ epic takedown of Hollywood, at the Academy Awards, a few years back). You already have the top spot holder now falling from grace in the eyes of the public…..so what incentive is there as much to proceed even with its “competition”?

If you no longer want the mansion after finding out what a shithole it really was the whole time, what incentive is there to try to buy houses like it, or even in those types of neighborhoods, or want to have any association with them, at all?

A few weeks ago, while I was sitting on a bench in Battery Park doing my “investigations“, I received word about the departure of Paul “Pee Wee Herman” Reubens, with only a short time later seeing my merch being cleaned out on eBay. While that was happening, my former roommate hit me up about said departure, and as we were both huge Pee Wee fans, I reminded him that–the year before–he’d notified me of the loss of my favorite cast member from WKRP in Cincinnati, and I’d said nothing….and for various reasons, but the reason I did disclose to him now was coming to terms with understanding that most of these folks we’ve been taught to look up to do not deserve the attention or praise; that they’re usually associated with very shady people and connections behind the scenes, and as a result…best just to thank them for their performance, and leave it at that.

Yes I still love some aspects about Disney. I still love Beauty and the Beast, the Princess and the Frog, Wreck-It Ralph, Turning Red, Ratatouille, Toy Story, Tron, Duckburg and all its inhabitants, and of course that great Country Bear Jamboree, but essentially I take from it what I enjoy, and leave it at that, now….no longer looking any further into it than what I have gotten from it. I no longer hold Disney to such an impossibly high standard, nor do I think anyone else does either…yet subconsciously in the process, if ya can’t hold up The Standard, ya can’t hold up the others either; the allure is no longer there for any of it, the way it once was, and all due to the public perception that persisted of it for as long as it did, that no longer does.

And that, my friends, is why you now see Ray Stanz, Leonardo, Battle Cat, Snake Eyes, and the lot of ’em clogging up shelves at Ollie’s right next to all the Mickey Mouse, Thor, and Lando Calrissian figures…..and honestly, ya might want to grab some popcorn, cause the spectacle of watching the collapse of pop culture is only set to increase.

Embrace it; this shit’s about to get fuuuuun!

Next time, it’s….that time of year, and we’re gonna discuss an issue I realized I have with the idea that “Autistic kids are too much to handle”; something I used to hear all the time growing up actually blows it to complete shit. Yep, we’re getting back on topic, see you then!