Disney Channel always feels to me like a sparkly, playful companion, skipping alongside the more risky waters of Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. Something about Disney shows always hit me as much more cheesy than other networks, with a desperate need to please. That doesn’t mean that the shows aren’t enjoyable, as many shows on this list have brought me a few laughs. I know that some of these were important to others growing up.
I feel that Disney Channel is under a little bit more pressure than the other two mentioned kids channels to be more appropriate. You could never have had Invader Zim or Rocko’s Modern Life on Disney Channel! Parents are way more willing to forgive Nickelodeon for implied jokes then Disney Channel. I found most of these from complaining parents rather than fans of the channel itself! So, anything vaguely inappropriate gets taken off the channel and replaced with sparkly teen sitcoms.
Maybe the writers for Disney slipped these in because they thought that older viewers appreciate them. Or maybe it was just to annoy censors and parents! After all, it must be hard work constantly having to look out for anything that might just tick off the neediest breeder! Having said that, many of these I’m sure were just harmless mistakes that people thought too much about.
25 That’s How It Happens
Children are very curious and will often ask whatever questions pop into their heads. But sometimes parents just don’t want to ask those questions!
One such question pops up during Disney’s A.N.T Farm, a sitcom surrounded talented middle schoolers. During season one episode, PerformANTs, Agnus asks how to get an “Octopanda.” Innocently and rather casually, Fletcher explains that the only way to get an Octopanda is to “get them together, put on some romantic music, and wait for nature to take its course.” Maybe this went unnoticed to the smaller viewers, but I’m sure some parents found themselves in awkward conversations!
24 Zack’s Snorkel
The Suite Life of Zack and Cody was a fun sitcom starring that adorable little kid from Big Daddy and Ross’s son Ben from Friends (a role played exclusively by Cody.) And with budding adolescence comes comments like this!
In season three, when trying to get out of some shenanigans, Cody instructs his brother to “Keep London in the bath!” Zack, the more deviant of the twins, enthusiastically misunderstands, replying: “I’ll go get my snorkel!” I’m fairly certain that the very young members of the audience wouldn’t have understood why Zack was so eager to take part, so this is definitely one for the older siblings who were forced to watch alongside.
23 No More Kids!
Good Luck Charlie is perhaps one of the lesser-known sitcoms that have come from Disney Channel. It was rather a sweet premise, surrounding a large family with a young baby. Older sibling Teddy then starts a video diary for her younger sibling Charlie, which is adorable!
Despite her affection for her younger siblings, that doesn’t mean Teddy wants any more. Very early in the series Teddy is saying goodbye to her parents telling them to “Have fun,” but quickly following this with: “But not too much fun! We have enough kids already!” This honestly made me laugh, but I suppose parents with too much time on their hands didn’t…
22 Hands To Yourself
Jessie is also one of the sitcoms that I feel had, at least, a sweet premise. Jessie, the title character, is employed as a nanny in New York City for a large, rich family. While the show itself is sweet, parents might not have found all the jokes easy to take. When Tony, the doorman, goes out with Jessie in season one, sassy but young Zuri warns him “To keep his hands to himself” and tells Jessie to “not have too much fun!”
What’s being implied could be considered inappropriate, but it is rather sweet to see a young girl looking out for her friend.
21 From Their Own Minds
Austin and Ally is a more typical premise for a Disney Show, surrounding two musically talented youths, perusing fame as musicians.
In the very first episode of the show Rockers and Writers, the title characters are attempting to finish a song by morning. There’s a visualization technique when Ally is asked to “imagine the beach.” Her image of the beach didn’t turn out to be filled with happy memories of fun in the sand, and instead she says: “Ugh, sand is getting everywhere. Ew, is that guy really wearing a thong?”
We all have our own interests, but I certainly don’t want to find myself on whatever beach Ally has been to!
20 Keep Your Moves To Yourself
That’s So Raven has perhaps the catchiest theme tune of any other Disney show, one I still find myself humming at very random points in my day. The title character Raven is a teenager who gets random, and sometimes out of context, visions of the future.
In the episode Out of Control, Raven gets a vision of her two best friends Chelsea and Eddie kissing! When she finally confronts them, Chelsea explains: “I don’t know, we knew if we told you, you know… you’d want to control our every move.” Raven replies, disgusted, “I don’t even wanna think about y’alls moves!” Sometimes visions are best kept to ourselves.
19 Happy Browsing!
Gravity Falls is an amazing piece of modern animation. I know plenty of children and adults who thoroughly enjoyed this show! Twins Mable and Dipper go to live in the mysterious town Gravity Falls with their Grunkle Stan, and adventure ensues.
With the show being so popular with an older audience, there are some jokes within for everyone, like in the episode Into the Bunker. After Sooz comments that the bunker is “way creepy,” Mable immediately comes back with “Not as creepy as Dipper’s internet history!” before shoving him playfully. Don’t’ worry kids, I’m sure he was just looking up a lot of creepypastas. That’s got to be it.
18 Close Quarters
Sometimes these jokes are more the fault of the animators than the writers. Shortly after Mable’s ‘internet history’ remark, Dipper finds himself in another awkward position, although this one might be a little more preferable.
Mable locks Dipper and Wendy in a secret lab together, after finding a note Dipper wrote revealing that he has a crush on her. She says she won’t release them until Dipper confesses. When Wendy pulls a cord, disinfecting the pair, Dipper gets shoved into Wendy! When he pulls away his eyes go directly to her chest. Sometimes those dangerous adventures have interesting outcomes, not all of them unpleasant.
17 Nothing But Computer Stuff
With all the teen sitcoms in Disney Channel history, they can’t always uphold the idea that the teens are always innocent.
In the A.N.T Farm Episode InfANT, where a small baby is entrusted to a bunch of children for no good reason, Lexi thanks Angus for coming over to fix her computer, by saying “Thanks so much, you were awesome.” While cutaways reveal that Angus was actually fixing her computer, Angus tries to imply that he was there for something else, leaving his story vague by saying: “a gentleman never tells.” And using euphemisms like: “Let’s just say, thanks to me, Lexi saw fireworks.” (Referring to her being able to watch her fourth of July videos.)
16 Wizards Being Wizards
This joke is probably a bit more subtle than some of the others, but I still found it a little off colour. In the Fashion Week episode of Wizards of Waverly Place, Alex steals her brother’s poster of supermodel Bibi Rockford in order to make a magical copy of it, bringing Bibi to life so she can model in fashion week.
Justin’s relationship with this poster is a little creepy, as after the poster comes to life she thanks Alex for rescuing her, saying that “Justin was always staring at her.” Later when Zeke sees the model and asks where she came from, she replies “Justin’s room.” Zeke then high-fives his friend, assuming that she was in his room for a different reason.
15 That’s Not What I Mean
This moment from Austin and Ally… well, I honestly have to admit that I’m not entirely sure what Ally is going for.
After Austin joins Glee Club, of which Ally is the captain, he asks if they can make a few changes to the routine, describing it as “a little old fashioned” and wondering if they can “rock things up” and “make things a little edgier.” To which Ally replies: “Oh, I see. You want to add a little shaky-shaky boom, boom.” While moving her body in a seductive looking way, she leaves Austin to reply “Yeah, that’s not what I meant.” And Trish to say: “I never want to see that again.”
I’m not sure whether Ally is being innocent or sarcastic here, but frankly I think talking about the birds and bees would have been more pleasant that her euphemism.
14 In Deepest Dreams
We can’t control what we dream, right? Sometimes we have nightmares we’d rather not have. Sometimes we have questionable dreams while a horse is licking our face.
Such as in the Zack and Cody episode Free Tippy, where the boys try to stop the Lipton’s from selling their horse, Tippy, to a lumberjack, after the carriage driver retires. First world problems, right? Tippy, wandering through the hotel, finds a sleeping Carey and begins to lick her face. Oblivious to the horse, Carey starts to moan, and says while still sleeping: “Oh Mr Clooney, we hardly know each other!”
Of course, we each have our own things, but I don’t want anyone licking my face with a big horse tongue, whether their George Clooney or not!
13 The Magic Touch
I quite liked the beginning of the Kim Possible episode Mad Dogs and Aliens. Trying to destroy the world is hard work, and even villains need a vacation. Kim and Ron disturb villain Shego while she is trying to relax on holiday at a Greek spa, intruding on her hot stone massage with Medias.
Later in the episode, after (spoiler alert) assisting Kim unexpectedly, she claims that she “just wanna get back to the spa. Midas has the… golden touch.” With a small pause before golden touch, I think we can all see that Shego thinks very highly of her masseuse. I can help but wonder what other packages are being offered at that wonderful spa.
12 Stick With The Grapes
As much as I joke about teenagers thinking about stuff, sometimes it’s the older members of the cast that make the most explicit puns. In the Jessie episode Bye-Bye Bertie, Bertram the family butler quits, instead going to work for the show antagonist Mrs. Chesterfield.
Mrs. Chesterfield is romantically interested in Bertram, although her affections are not generally well received. During the episode, she comes out of the kitchen carrying a bowl of grapes and says to Bertram: “I’ve brought you something to nibble on. I brought you some grapes too!” Aside from the blatant reference, the fact that her affections are unrequited make this moment incredibly creepy.
11 Young Moms Have It Hard
The Lilo & Stitch tv series is a guilty pleasure of mine. It was never Disney at its finest, but it’s still cute and colourful, with the same interesting characters from the film. That’s why this joke feels a little too dark for the show.
In the episode Babyfier, Lilo encounters a pink monster with a pacifier, that has the power to regress everyone back to infancy. In order to cure her baby-faced family, Lilo has to purchase some strong coffee. Being too young herself to buy the coffee, Lilo asks a couple passing by if they’ll get some for her, saying she forgot her ID and has four babies to look after! The couple look incredibly disturbed by this young mother one whispering “Honey, let’s just go,” clearly judging Lilo for her actions!
10 How To Be A Diva
This is a moment from Hannah Montana that I find deeply disturbing!
Whilst I was never a fan of the show personally, I never thought it shouldn’t be allowed. Many parents however disagreed with me, finding it inappropriate, with a teenage Miley having to apologize for the stupidest reasons, such as the girl’s clothes or them acting like teenagers. There was one moment, however, I found too rich for their five to twelve demographic.
During a phone conversation between Hannah and her nemesis Mikayla, they begin to throw insults back and forth. These include “bottle blond” and “bra stuffer.” This scene made me uncomfortable as high school students get enough practice throwing their insults around, without Disney Channel making it look like a comical moment.
9 What Did You Call Me?
People swear. It’s a fact of life. When we’re angry, have been drinking, upset, hurt, or just plain excited, we swear. While we all learn our swears eventually, children’s networks go out of their way to make sure kids don’t learn them from their shows. But what do they put in place of those good old traditional insults and exclamations?
A notable euphemism from Good Luck Charlie is the exclamation “Clump Nugget.” This is used multiple times in the series, the most notably during a fight between Teddy and Spencer. What kind of nugget it really is is delightfully left up to the viewer to decide. Genius.
8 Secret Treasures
This Gravity Falls moment made me laugh very much. It was a moment akin to the “Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road” anti-joke. This moment is very much an “anti-inappropriate joke.”
In the episode Scary-Oke, Dippers opens a chest to find Stan’s magazine collection. His collection contains magazines such as Fully Clothed Women, a magazine featuring women modelling various clothes and Lady Swimwear, featuring a female surfer on the front, portraying it as an innocent magazine about women’s sports. This joke is incredibly cute, since if your kids aren’t already aware of magazines then this scene can’t possibly teach them. Just that there are magazines with women in them and there’s nothing wrong with that!
7 Everyone’s Favourite Coach
Some innuendos aren’t slipped in there to entertain parents, or to try and slip one past people. Some are just there for fun. The best Disney example of this is in Even Stevens, the show that started Shia LaBeouf’s career. One of the most memorable characters in the show was the High Schools harsh gym teacher, Coach Terry Tugnut.
Yep. Coach Tugnut.
This was however, literally just a silly double entendre made for cheap laughs, confirmed by Tugnut’s actor Jim Wise, who commented during an interview: “the Disney Channel executives loved that stuff.” Apparently, Disney are worse than we thought! But while it may just be a silly joke, it probably meant something to all the teachers out there who had unfortunate names.
6 What Are You Giving Them?
While Coach Tugnut may have been a name deliberately created for laughs, some of this list lies purely in the mind of the beholder, like this moment from Recess.
Recess was an innocent program about six young school children and the trials they had to go through at school. It was a very fun and relatable program, with bold characters that stood out in their own way. So any jokes found here are purely in your own minds. Such as in the episode Randall’s Reform, where resident snitch Randall decides to try and make amends with his peers, by taking them to the secret ball room, which is filled with balls. He opens the door and declares: “Kids of the playground! I give you… BALLS!”
