At the beginning of 2024, Mickey Mouse became public domain — or rather, one version of Mickey Mouse did.
Steamboat Willie at the Pixar Short Film Festival at EPCOT
The classic, black-and-white Steamboat Willie version of Mickey Mouse can now be used by ANYONE without permission from Disney, and it didn’t take long for horror movies, video games, and more to start using that version of Mickey for their own artistic licenses. However, the funniest use of public domain Mickey so far might be coming from John Oliver, the host of Last Week Tonight.Â
Recently, John Oliver promoted the return of his show Last Week Tonight on February 8th with a photo of himself with someone in a Steamboat Willie Mickey costume with the headline “What are they gonna do, sue?”
We’re back February 18th, and we’re pretty sure this was an okay way to let you know about it!! Ya, probably fine. pic.twitter.com/rcF5KweIZi
— Last Week Tonight (@LastWeekTonight) January 24, 2024
Previously, Oliver has tested the limits of what he could do with Mickey Mouse on his show, with Mickey saying some pretty vulgar things. According to Deadline, Mickey’s last appearance on the series was on December 17th. It’s likely that Oliver is now going to have a LOT of fun at Mickey’s expense. In fact, Oliver references Mickey’s last appearance on the series, saying, “Did Disney ever sue us over that?” Then, Mickey replies, “Nope,” with Oliver countering, “So, should we take that as a green light that we could do whatever we want in the future?” Then, MEAN Mickey replies, “I don’t see why the f*** not.”
©Last Week Tonight
For those who are curious to see just WHAT Oliver has in store with Mickey, the show returns to MAX on February 18th, so mark those calendars. We’re sure it will be provocative (but also HILARIOUS).
©Disney
Several other uses of public domain Willie are in progress, including a new merchandise collection from art collective MSCHF, a daily webcomic called Mousetrapped, SEVERAL horror movies, a video game, and more. We’re sure we’ll see more projects, though.
Stay tuned to DFB for more news!
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3 Ways Mickey Mouse Has Been Defiled Since Becoming Public Domain
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Definitely WON’T watch this garbage!!!
I love Last Week Tonight. He gets into some really serious issues but adds a little fun in so it’s not all so bad. I was sad when he brought out Mickey because I know what kind of things he does and I love Disney so it does make me a little sad. I hate public domain laws.