Disney: Gay Villians Made Straight (& Boring) 

So, to address a common comment I've been seeing on this video lately, I should make clear. As I state in the video at 6:30, I am not saying that Scar or Jaffar are TEXTUALLY gay within the films themselves. For example, as some folks point out, Scar seems to have interest in some female lions for example. However, Scar and Jaffar were coded with stereotypes of gay people to highlight their villiany, something that comes of the Hays Code of the 1960s where characters were coded as gay, but had to be villain's due to Hollywood censorship. So after the Hays Code went away, the streotypes of gay people as well as those sterotypes highlight a character as villian, stuck around, conciously or more often unconciously in Hollywood writing. This is not me saying that I approve of the stereotype of gay men as always flamboyant or effeminent, as I don't (though obviously it's 100% ok if a gay man is those things), but just that these streotypes were used to highlight characters as villians, as they were in the case of Scar and Jaffar (again, not saying that Scar or Jaffar were officially gay within the film either). While I touch upon all this in the video, I just wished to reiterate it here as I keep seeing this comment. If you wish to learn more about the history of queer coding, here is brief article on it. roganshannon.com/2018/05/15/queer-coding-and-queerbaiting/

Even as a straight guy, I was offended by the way they handled Lefou in beauty and the beast. If he's openly gay, why does his best friend seem to be either oblivious or worse, outright ignoring his friends sexual orientation. Shit, Lefou translates to "the fool."

"Le Fou" literally means "The Idiot." The first gay character is the idiot. Thanks I hate it

The best part about Ratigan is that he’s voiced by the legendary Vincent Price, who was not only bisexual himself, but was a HUGE ally to the LGBTQ+ community after denouncing his previously conservative views and was a proud member of PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) after his daughter came out as a lesbian. Basically, Vincent Price was a bicon!

Its almost like they declawed the villains, in the animated films the villains completely dominated their scenes. In the live action they are just walking'n'talking scenes like they are star wars prequels.

Parents in 1999 : "Why do you like the villains so much?" Me now: Oh....yeah that makes sense

Why always villains. Especially in Beauty and the Beast remake, it'd have been so simple to make that candle and clock domestics gay AF

What about Timon and Pumbaa, they're the best gay couple ever and they aren't even villains

This reminded me of how much I enjoyed that Elsa didn’t hook up with someone at the end of Frozen. I really hope that either she says single, and I can keep my imaginary asexual representation, or she gets a girlfriend, because that would be super cool

"You know how much Disney wants to avoid controversy!" *laughs in mulan 2020*

in this era of increasingly ''sympathetic'' villains i find it low-key suspish they couldnt be both sympathetic and also gay, or respectable(?) and also gay, ''compelling'' and also GAY?!

They made Scar boring. They made Jafar boring. THEY BETTER NOT LAY A FINGER ON MY BOY HADES!!! 👏👏👏

"throw some racism in there for funsies" is not a phrase I thought I would ever hear.

If they can put it in a Disney Channel show, they can put it in a movie. We need a gay Disney prince or princess. Actually, why not both?

the sad part about that beauty and the beast live action is that they had luke evans right there.... a gay man... to help them out. gay men can always play straight men down to a T but its a struggle the other way around huh

It's important to highlight that Scar AND Jafar were animated by Andreas Deja, a gay man. I think his silence and distance from these trash remakes compared to many other Disney Alum speaks volumes. This is erasure. I am still SALTY live action Ursula was such a lazy casting. Drag is so much more mainstream thanks to DragRace etc that it's inexcusable and offensive to her majesty, Divine who directly inspired her.

I feel like the genie got the same treatment as scar. Removed any feminine qualities, and gave them a love interest.

Disney: let's de-gay the villains so we dont get backlash Me: *cackles* You can't get backlash for an lgbt+ villain if most of your characters are lgbt+ anyway! *chugs tea and continues writing*

Disney of the 60s and the 90s did their villains really well. Sadly the current Disney villains boring and have no eccentric character at all

This explains why I, as a gays, loved villains so much.

Funny that you mention Kaa from The Jungle Book because I grew up with the 1967 Soviet movie adaptation and in it I swear Kaa was an actual positive example of queer coding. He lives alone, has effeminate mannerisms, the other animals dislike him and insult him for reasons that were never quite specified, and there was even a scene where his skin gets wet and becomes rainbow-colored. Except he's portrayed as a positive character. Once Mowgli gets to know him, he discovers that all the stereotypes aren't true, and Kaa becomes one of Mowgli's caretakers along with Baloo and Bagheera (which I think is how it was in the original book before it was changed for the Disney movie, likely for the reasons you mentioned). I never actually thought about it this way until now.

"What're ya gonna do?" Don't buy tickets. Seems easy enough. I haven't seen any of these unnecessary (and quite flat/bland from the look of the clips) remakes.

I dont know anything abt Josh Gad but LaFou or however you spell that has such "a straight actor tries to play a comedic gay man" energy I wanted to walk out of the theater and I promised myself not to watch any other disney live action remake Call me a snowflake but being made fun of doesnt feel good even if the bully calls it representation

The funny thing is, in the b-roll and behind the scenes footage of the film, Gaston (Luke Evans) was pretty blatantly seducing Lefou (Josh Gad), to get him to do what he wanted. It's wild to me that even though the actors were into it, it still didn't make the final cut. :P

Once Upon A Time's boringification of Ursula, especially after Ursula had already made an appearance, was when I first clocked the straightening. I am genuinely afraid for live action Hercules and Little Mermaid.

Speaking as a former comedian who did impersonations, your Mickey Mouse was just fine.

Setting aside the moral implications of specifically queer coding villains for a moment... I think it made their characters SO much more intriguing! Even as a cishet girl myself, I always ALWAYS liked the villains wayyyy more than the heroes in movies. The heroes were so incredibly bland and cookie-cutter (with only a few exceptions) whereas the villains were charismatic and interesting and, frankly, just looked cool. Why would I like Basic Muscle Hero Hercules when there was Flamboyant Gothic Flame Hair Hades???

In a deleted scene in the original Scar does try to make Nala his mate though. It's what leads her to run off and eventually stumble upon Simba because he was like "Be my wife or be ejected from the pride."

1:14 as a sudanese dude, can confirm, we do have cvs's in the sahara specifically for gay lions

Honestly the Gay coding in a lot of characters made them a lot more likeable and realistic to me.

Just watched "Some Like It Hot" a few days ago and man. That movie is so gay. I know I shouldn't read too much into it, I know most of the gay/drag/psudo-trans stuff is meant to be just comedy... but it does close with a character being totally fine with it when he finds out his bride-to-be is a man. Sorry, that has nothing to do with this topic, just thinking about how that came out while the Hays Code was still in full effect.

NOTE: There is a "joke" at the start of this video where I jokingly attempt to pronounce an actors name. The intention of the "joke" was to make fun of myself for my inability to properly pronunciation words and names, as I've been noted to do both in my everyday life and in other videos. However, after hearing criticism from many of you who watched the video, I realize that the joke comes across as othering and belittling, especially to many who have names that are often mispronounced or mispelt, often because they aren't names that are given notice by the world at large. I apologize for this badly thought-out stab at humor. I will endeavor to do better moving forward, and I thank you all for being so kind, yet honest with your criticism. I want to make work that advocates for everyone, especially those who who are most in need of being advocated for. Yet, I do, and still will, fall short of that goal at times, and I honestly appreciate it when those in the community hold me accountable, yet do so with the best of intentions. I thank you so much for your criticism, and I again apologize to you

So when Jafar is hypnotizing the Sultan with his snake staff does that mean he’s getting him to do what he wants by....with the Sultan? Oh mai! XD

I love the outfit, it's so cute!

"Straightened up" is appreciated as a pun. That is all.

I actually will argue on the comparisons in the Scar’s. While the animated version is fun and good he is so CLEARLY mustache twirling evil. Like everyone should have know he was evil. In the “live-action” version he’s just talking but he actually sounds like a caring uncle and thus the threat works in the different way in how he can be seemingly loving and put together hiding literal murderous intent. Not saying one is better than the other even though overall the “live-action” was clearly overall inferior but there were elements that worked in their own ways. But I totally agree with about the live-action Jafar. God the actor gave a boring performance.

As a proud Ace I see Elsa as asexual as she stays single and is happy on/with herself, nice to see a rare example of my asexuality in a popular Disney movie. I loved she didn't have a love interest and stayed single at the end of both movies, a rare Disney choice for a Princess.

"I already have my Mulan tickets pre-ordered" Oh dear, how'd that go?

i know it's been a hot minute since this video dropped, but i just have to add since i rarely see anyone mention it: the actor for governor ratcliffe, david ogden stiers (also the original voice of cogsworth and major winchester on m*a*s*h) was gay himself. i don't know much about the details of his role in pocahontas, but i do know that, when beauty and the beast was released, cogsworth was very much seen as a stereotypically gay character. not sure if this was intentional, but it sparked a quiet controversy because, unlike the queercoded villains, he is not punished by the narrative nor demonized - he's one of the heroes and an instantly likeable character. and, unlike lumiere, he doesn't have a female love interest to brush any suspicions under the rug. not much was publicly said about this, but behind the scenes disney executives were chewing out stiers and trying to keep everything as quiet and innocent as possible. not much of a point here, but i do think it's interesting

honestly I'm happy with bland "straightened" villains - makes it easier for to ignore them and their terrible live action movies

Here in Sweden, Scar was voiced by the late Rikard Wolff, an actor and singer who not only was openly gay, but also looked so much like Scar in those days that you could have thought the character designers had based it on him. Some were very offended by the fact a gay man was in a kids movie (sigh) but to the most part, people seemed to think he was perfect. And for me, who were old enough with a strong enough gaydar to know about Rikard, I've always thought of Scar as him. A beautiful, proud gay man.

Gaston is the gayest character of live action movie of Beauty and the Beast and its only because of Luke Evans

The whole Disney pandering to countries like China by making "representation" easy to edit out sucks. The whole star wars no-homo thing made me *so* mad

I remember when I first watched Frozen as a tiny child, I was confused on whether Elsa and Anna were sisters or friends who were becoming lovers. My friends always come at me for this, and hey man, i was tiny. But I genuinely did not catch the sister queues, and the line was repeatedly wobbling between the two.

Jessie: *talks about sexual perversion in Hollywood and starts naming off things* RU-vid: Heres that hip swaying AFK Arens ad

Maybe it's just my upbringing, but I always saw the gay coded characters as intelligent and condescending. I saw their mannerisms as acceptable, if bold. I kinda wish we could have that, plus explicitly gay characters, so that we have a wider range of behaviors in our culture. After all, not all gay folk have those mannerisms, so why limit the mannerisms to gay folk?

Wait the only other The Great Mouse Detective enthusiast I've heard of is also trans ? Is the Great Mouse Detective a part of the trans agenda ? But yes this video is hilarious and interesting.

Jesse I bet you were a master at writing an essay. The way you present an argument is so eloquently laid out. You definitely would make a great Humanitarian Advocate / Lawyer.

Also I feel like another thing lost in the adaptation is that that the animated versions of these characters were actually like... animated? There's so much MOTION in the animated characters and the live action or "realistic" animated versions just feel so static by contrast

Jafar loving mascara is culturel. North African, Middle-Eastern and South Asian men use to wear Khôl/Kajal (the traditional eye makeup on which the West based eyeliner and mascara) before these countries became more westernised.

Ahh, the hope we all had that Mulan wouldn't be a trashfire

So could it also be the villains exhibit femininity because it is forbidden for men in a patriarchal culture and also the witch archetype where women’s reproductive “magical qualities” make them taboo? And Lefou comes across as a comedic foil.

Curious that they coded Scar as gay considering he's lion Claudius, aka "the guy who may have murdered his own brother to get with his wife".

I'd say a gay man more manly, after all, what's more manly than one manly man, two manly men. I ripped this joke straight (or gay) from Overly Sarcastic Productions.

It's weird that in the US characters that act like Scar are considered gay. For most people in Europe he was just acting like a cunning fashionable Prince from like the 18th century. Also,I always thought Big Ben was the gay one in Beauty and The Beast.

You know what I wanna see? An original gay character. Not an old character they turned gay, but a new and unique character to show that they truly care and not just throw them into a movie. But as long as China is one of the biggest money gives Disney will not do that.

Such an innocent thing you said last year: "And if there's one thing Disney hates, it’s a controversy."

“Oh God, I’m sooo white...” 😂

"they ask me 'Marlene, are you a lesbian?' and I say 'yes'"

Can I just thank you for being so gracious with your time and energy liking comments like mine so frequently? It makes me feel so seen, and appreciated, and loved. I'm disabled, I don't see anyone but doctors and my partner in real life, and it's so wonderful being listened to and valued by people like you. You make my day with every single ❤ and I just want you to know you're a wonderful, spectacular woman too ❤🧡💛💚💙💜

The return of ‘See how I glitter’!! Iconic line for all Lindsay fans 💜

Dammit I never thought Scar's name was short for Mascara.

Me as a kid: Why do I like Scar so much? Me as an adult bisexual transman:..... Oh. Oh. THAT'S WHY!

One character that the Hayes code ruined was Dorothy from TWWoO. In the books she's pretty strong and independent for an 8 yo girl dropped in the middle of what is basically a revolution. In the film she's relying on everyone else for help 90% of the time

"Scar is gay" me: * has flashbacks of the deleted scene in which Scar is hitting on Nala * Are you sure about that

I always read Scar's flamboyancy as both a "fake nice" thing, and his way of mocking others, like "I'm so much smarter than you, so I have no need to get so worked up over anything". It makes his total switch to cold cruelty, anger, and outright terror all the more impactful. The jokes are done for Scar at those points. Not disagreeing or anything, just saying how Scar's came across to me in-character and such. Since I came across this video, I just want to share something about the performance by Irons I've read about. When he does "Be Prepared" and yells "YOU WON'T GET A SNIFF WITHOUT ME!!!!!" that line was shouted so loud he actually _tore his own voicebox._ The rest of the song is done by Jim Cummings doing a dead-on impression of him.

The most unacceptable act was getting rid of Li Shang my beautiful Bi-con. let's be real we loved Scar, Ursula, and Jafar more than the heroes they were all that and more, I miss sassy sarcastic icons. I watched Raya and the last dragon and honestly I know it's not the basic Disney story but it wasn't that fun and I don't really like the frozen movies either.

Chew-uh-tell edge-ee-uh-fore.

I would hazard a guess that you've seen the documentary "The Celluloid Closet". (And don't get me started on ScarJo, please.)

The Great Mouse Detective gets an extra layer of fun if you watch it with the head-canon that Basil and Rattigan are ex-boyfriends and Rattigan is just constantly trying to one-up Basil because he's not over him.

Fun fact: lions are like, the most gay animals (Don’t correct me on that I think it’s right)

I think the key thing that changed was there’s no personality back then they have a lot of it however there doesn’t seem to be any personality to any of the live action Disney remakes. Sure characters like Scar and Jafar we’re very flamboyant in their personalities Jafar in the original cartoon movie was also misogynistic, remember his first line to Jasmine when she was told she’s going to marry him is: “Speechless I see a fine quality in a bride.” And he was insistent on her falling in love with him even trying to make it a wish. So I think it’s less that they’re gay and more that they just have personality.

As Kermit the Frog once said, "You can't beat the classics. You can only destroy 'em"

Disney, please stop these remakes. Stop it. MAKE MORE 2D ANIMATED FILMS IF YOURE GOING TO JUST THROW RESOURCES AND MONEY AROUND LIKE THAT

I just started watching the video and damn the bit with the lion mouths got a genuine chuckle out of me. Gosh I love Jessie so MUCH 🤣 Her videos are such a serotonin boost. Jessie if you're seeing this, you're wonderful 💙

I dont know about Sher Khan. Hes probably the empathis of "Im not Gay, im just british". But who knows, im fine eighter way.

Also, as a 2D animator my problem with the live action reboots. is that they feel like a slap to the face to the folks who originally worked on the films.

I remember watching Lion King and finding it strange, probably because it is so strange to change from such lively and expressionful animation to such a bland live-action. Some scenes can look nice, but all the characters seemed... bland. I think it is more then just de-gaying, but it is also just more realistic but blander cinematography. But I only really watched the live-action Lion King, but similar criticisms have been made by people better then I could for the other movies.

Live action scar looks like he's just Simba's sickly uncle who straight up told him a place to practice his roar. I haven't watched the live action and had no idea about scar want to put Simba in danger by telling him about that roar practice place.

"I've already got my Mulan tickets preordered" Ahhh. That was unwise. For many reasons.

i mean... a sexuality is not a personality so.. how is that important to a movie?

Don’t hate me, but I personally am n out impressed with most of the live action remakes. I just feel that they lack creativity and imagination, and are just cash grabs. Not trying to offend here, just my opinion

When the whole "first gay character for disney" was being shown everywhere I slipped up and said "you telling me olaf, hades, and scar aren't gay?" Infront of my mother she looked exactly like: 👁👄👁

"She's being weird" Cute lol

Wait... being camp and gay are two different things, right??? You don't have to be gay to be camp (or vice versa)! Pls, correct me if I'm wrong.

I like my villains (and anti-heroes, i.e. Garak) kind of camp. It seems like camp fell out of fashion after the 90s and early 00s?

This video made me think of my favorite gay villain, which is a woman from an anime that came out in 2017. From the very first moment she appears on screen, she draws everyone's attention, and you can't help thinking she's super cool, even if it's obvious by her design that she's "evil". And i think a great part of what makes her especial is the way she dresses and talks and moves that seem to scream "I'm gay", so if she was straight, that just wouldn't have the same effect. That said, although she's technically punished at the end (she goes to jail), it is implied that her sentence won't be long since she redeemed herself at the end, AND she also reconciles with her ex (girl)friend. I really wished Disney would do something like this.

I always thought Scar was just british

Okay but don't forget about Maleficent being made straight and boring. Took away her dragon form, her villainy, AND her lesbianism.

I WAS SO UPSET WITH THE LIVE ACTION JAFFAR. HE DIDN’T HAVE ANY. ANY! EYELINER.

Holy- I was NOT prepared for a reference drop of _12 Years a Slave_ WoAh......... you can’t keep doing this I’ve already subscribed to you onCe

Being dramatic means they're gay? Before anyone says anything I'm obviously not against the lgbtq, I support it I just think these characters were dramatic not gay but you can interpret whatever you want, they are fictional ^-^

I now understand why,as a lesbian,I loved villains

So what you're saying is we need the jack black prince we were gonna get originally from tangled.

"Make... Make do money again." is the best tagline for Disney ever

Personally, I dont think we can assume them to be gay just because of their maneirisms. But anyway, interesting and entertaining video as always.

For anyone who's watched The Untamed, it's so obvious that the two guys love each other, especially if you know anything about the source material. You'll see a scene where a guy and girl stare deeply into each other's eyes with soft music playing, then a scene a bit later with the two guys. And yet! And yet i know people who look at them and think "they're such good friends" like they don't see what's right in front of them.

Even though it’s not Disney. When I was younger I often read the captain underpants books and noticed the interesting lack of either George or Harold having girls to pine after despite the demographic being mainly focused to young boys because of certain humor. They often would occasionally get a little to close sometimes with their hyper fixation on each other and I just brushed it off as them being best friends. But When I got older I saw the captain underpants movie and noticed how after re uniting George and Harold had this bizzare scene that mirrored to romantic leads finally “finding each other” which was a bit awkward since were told their “friends”. Then I saw the Netflix series and just like in the books neither George nor harold had any explicit love interests. There were female love interests in the nexflix captain underpants series however they were always for other characters such as mr krup (Who now that I’m older I actually sympathize with more. He’s probably got some emotional stuff going on at home.) having a crush on the French teacher or Melvin being interested in Erica, fantasizing about dissecting brains with her (out of context it’s weirder). But however there was a shocking amount of moments in which George and Harold would often make jokes about the other being “Their love” I guessed originally was a sarcastic joke made in bad taste, and they began to become even more emotionally wrecked when separated. Like in season 3 when they are sent to two separate summer camps separated by a poorly constructed wall. They cry to see the other in one scene and in another when in a mind head quarters mirroring dr strangelove they joke about sharing a brown when they both appear inside, which is especially weird since many studies have shown that people (often unconsciously) mimic the physical movements of those they are attracted to. It was a bit awkward and then one day I was just taking a moment to sit and think, and it hit me GEORGE AND HAROLD FROM CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS ARE GAY. I suddenly realized what all those weird moments were, hints. Sometimes more explicit than others. It was queer coding at its clearest.

In the late 90s or early 00s, McDonald’s released a three volume compilation series of Disney songs. They had: “Buddy Songs”, “Hero Songs”, and “Villain Songs.” I owned all three, but I only wore ONE of the tapes out... As a young gay, I never got the message that “gay = villain”. If anything, I understood that “gay = the most interesting part of the story.” (And, at a certain point, the only part worth watching.)

When I found out that Ursula was based on / inspired by a literal drag queen, it definitely created some... stirrings in me as I remembered her being my favorite character as a young boy and would even role-play as her playing with other kids acting out scenes from the movie. I mean, if I didn't know before that I was trans, that definitely gave me a big push.