Grumpy Thoughts

From Lileks:

I like Grumpy. Don’t identify with him, though – I’d go with Doc, maybe.

What? You don’t see many people wearing mildly abrasive Grumpy shirts? You need to spend more time in Disneyworld, where such things are encouraged as an expression of the outer limits of Disney-sanctioned negative personality characteristics. They’re aimed, probably, at the middle-aged men who accompany their families and need something that seems aimed at their particular demographic, and they accommodate Disney agnostics and Disney adherents. Doc speaks to them both.

Aside from that, though, what do adult males have for Disney character identification? Squat and diddly, it seems. We’re not in the mood to wear a Prince on our shirt: teh ghey. Sully: too hairy and fat for some. There’s Donald, but in his T-shirt form he’s Grumpy + anxiety disorder.

There’s no Disney version of Bugs Bunny. No character with the self-possession, the amused expression – he’s laughing at you, not with you, but he’s doing you the favor of not laughing out loud – the cynical tilt of the eyebrow, the carrot-cheroot, the eyes calculating the odds and the way this caper will play out. There’s a scene in “Roger Rabbit” where they finally meet, and I remember at the time it was a moment of great pop-culture significance. Which, I suppose, it was. It was fleeting, as it should be – together they would never work, like swing played on top of ragtime, but for that one moment there was a certain pleasure in seeing them together, like Bogart shaking hands with Harold Lloyd.

Which is a roundabout way of saying the only Disney shirt I’ll wear around the Kingdoms is a Classic Mickey.

No one opines on pop culture better.

[Update a few minutes later]

And don’t miss Red Planet Mars.

6 thoughts on “Grumpy Thoughts”

  1. As a middle aged man who has traveled with wife and children through Disney World, I’ve always preferred Epcot because I can readily purchase -OH enhanced beverages.

    Enough of those, and I don’t need no Grumpy shirt.

  2. ..and they accommodate Disney agnostics and Disney adherents.

    I think there’s a category missing there.

  3. Having come up next to that tourist trap in the OC, I think the last place I’d go, were I ever (heaven for forbid) anywhere near FL would be the East Coast version. That’s like the ironic ending of an unpublished Twilight Zone script.

  4. RED PLANET MARS doesn’t sound any stupider than some of the agitprop the Hive’s Hollywood division turns out these days..

  5. Aside from that, though, what do adult males have for Disney character identification? Squat and diddly, it seems.

    Mr. Incredible?

    There’s no Disney version of Bugs Bunny. No character with the self-possession, the amused expression

    Um, Br’er Rabbit?

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