Netflix yanks kids’ show episode

If you’ve spent many a latenight deep in an internet hole, going from YouTube video to Wikipedia entry, then you’re probably wellversed on the history of hidden sexual imagery in children’s television and film.

From Littl e Mermaid characters sporting subtle bulges to a cloud of dust spelling “sex” in the Lion King, most instances are too subtle for adults to catch, let alone a younger audience with a lot of space above their heads.

The latest example has been found in Netflix kids’ show Maya the Bee, an animated series that revolves around a community of talking bees. The show is pretty much exactly what you’d expect from a kids’ cartoon until you get to Episode 35, naturally titled King Willi.

In said episode, an otherwise unnoticeable background sports the alleged drawing of a penis on a giant log. The scene that features the questionable phallic reference lasts for about two seconds. Obviously, one would have to be paying very careful attention to catch it, but something is certainly there.

Sure enough, a mother named Chey Robinson spotted the image this week. And while she likely wasn’t the first to take notice, she’s certainly the first to grow so incensed by its presence to send an angry complaint to Netflix, demanding the streaming network yank the episode.

In the aggrieved Facebook post, she wrote, “Please be mindful of what your kids are watching!! ... I know I’m not going crazy and I know that something like this shouldn’t be in a kids’ show whatsoever. I’m extremely disgusted by it, there should be no reason my kids have to see something like this. ... I don’t know if they’re gonna like do something about this or what. But there’s no reasons why this should be in this show.”

But Robinson may be alone in this debacle. Several parents commented on her now private post, suggesting it’s nothing more than a little wink at bored parents.

One mother wrote, “full of stuff like this for adults to keep them amused when they’re watching the same film f or t he umpteenth time.” Another agreed, writing, “It’s a lol for parents so they can watch too, kids don’t get this stuff.”

But one parent put it the most succinctly, writing, “Are y’all really uptight about a dick in the log?”

Nonetheless, Netflix confirmed that they have pulled the episode.

While I’m sure we can simply chalk this up to a bored illustrator and not much more, parents will now have to get their kicks elsewhere, like, I don’t know, HBO?

PLEASE BE MINDFUL OF WHAT YOUR KIDS ARE WATCHING.