Fox News is now mad about the A&W bear parodying the M&M mascots
Fox News anchors called A&W's obvious parody tweet an example of "woke police cancel culture"
Aux Features Fox News
M&M’s recently announced that it will be euthanizing its sexy, anthropomorphic candy mascots as part of a soul-wearying ad campaign that has incensed Fox News and, presumably, a handful of illustrators with hyperactive Deviant Art accounts. (Here’s an example that you don’t actually need to click on.) As always, other brands have picked up the scent of a successfully aggravating marketing plan and hopped on board with their own contributions—like a jokey post from A&W regarding their half-naked bear mascot, Rooty.
Despite the fact that the sodamonger’s tweet is clearly a parody, evident from the announcement’s layout down to the wording of the statement itself, that hasn’t stopped Fox News from bemoaning this latest instance of cancel culture run amok.
Aaron Rupar tweeted a clip from Fox Business yesterday that saw a panel of the network’s leading minds commenting on Rooty receiving a pair of jeans due to the fact that, as the original post reads, “a mascot’s lack of pants can be polarizing.”
“First it was M&M’s,” a host says before continuing, sadly, “Now it’s root beer.”
The apparent mascot design change is summarized further and the camera zooms out to mutters of “That’s ridiculous,” a shouted “Quit your cryin’!” and, finally, an explanation: “It’s the woke police … cancel culture has gone ridiculous.”
“Is this a gag?” one anchor asks just before the segment ends.
A YouTube clip shows an earlier, similarly earnest discussion from the same show. The host explains the story and adds, “Okay, look, I don’t mind that Rooty The Root Bear’s got a pair of pants, but the reason he got one is because apparently it was … what’s the word here? It was ‘polarizing?’”
“He’s a cartoon! Who is he polarizing?” another host asks with incredible sincerity.
“We’re at a point in society where bears gotta have pants or somebody’s getting triggered?” the first host says.
“I guess,” the second responds, probably not having thought about her own network’s M&M’s coverage or A&W tweeting “Is now a good time to mention this is a joke?” below its initial post.
When M&M’s was faced with Fox’s criticism of its revised mascot designs, having courted the knuckleheaded controversy it wanted, the company claimed it will be replacing them with Maya Rudolph (as part of what’s definitely going to be a Super Bowl commercial reveal). Now that A&W’s received the same treatment, there’s only one proper move to ensure it stays in the spotlight a while longer: Announce that Rooty The Great Root Bear’s design is going to change once again so that he not only no longer wears jeans, but also hangs cartoon dong in all official depictions going forward.
[via Boing Boing]
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99 Comments
I have to wonder did Root Bear steal Smokey Bear’s jeans?
Things got all mixed up after the threesome.
Some guys really like bears.
and apparently bears really like mom-jeans. Maybe slim fit just doesn’t work for bear bods.
Is Rooty like, the green M and M for guys who can sing the entire original cast recording of “Oklahoma!”?
After the drunken Bear party in San Francisco.
Has H&R Block said anything?
It’s almost as if Republicans have no real platform or policies to pursue save for manufacturing outrage.
Why mess with a successful formula?
I guess you have to periodically take a break from being racist, misogynist religious kooks?
Yeah, they’re really jumping all over the place now in a desperate hunt for something to get the country back on their side after the whole abortion thing and midterm disaster. A couple weeks ago it was gas stoves, then it was M&M mascosts again, now as of yesterday it’s WOKEbox (Xbox) for instituting powersaving measures in a patch. Totally worthless culture.
Yep.And here I heard that overturning RvW would galvanize the base, and that Trans people existing would lead to a red wave! 🤣🤣🤣
Next, they’ll equate the Energy Star on appliances to the communist red star.
Don’t give them ideas!
I kinda wish they’d go back to having no policy ideas because as more MAGAs get real office, they have some insanely bad “new” ideas from the 13th century.
Yep. Well, aside from “the government shouldn’t provide services or collect taxes of any kind.”But hey! The grifters are having a gay old time selling brain pills, colloidal silver, and “Hustlers University” subscriptions to weird, brain-rotted partisans too worried that daddy’s mouldering corpse would roll over in its grave if they don’t vote straight GOP.We’re a staggeringly dumb, foresight averse, broken country in many ways.
If Americans are feeble-minded enough to just follow anyone that gives them a rage boner, then it’s a perfect plan.
It’s hilarious how much of Fox News is just telling old white dipshits what to be mad/scared about.
Whenever Biden’s approval numbers are increasing, Fox News starts going super-hard on the nonsense culture wars (Dr Seuss, hamburger ‘bans’, M&Ms, etc)
They actually do have a platform, it’s just one that the vast majority of people would hate, so they have to keep it on the DL. Manufacture outrage over bullshit culture war nonsense while working quietly behind the scenes to bolster corporations, dismantle the social safety net, continue to decimate the middle class and, oh yeah, foist Christian nationalism on the country.
When all you have to do is convince the stupidest people in America, how hard to you need to work?
The sad thing is, if the populace ever meets that level of outrage and votes these assholes in… they go amok in the system. It’s win-win. Either be on the outside complaining about America going to hell, or get elected and actively drag it to hell.
“We’re at a point in society where bears gotta have pants or somebody’s getting triggered?”Said someone triggered by the M&M redesign.
“Is this a gag?” one anchor asks I wish.
“He’s a cartoon! Who is he polarizing?”So close to an epiphany, there. So close.
But then the light dawning becomes a source of terror for the Faux-head and they intellectually flee the other way.
Yeah. You’re almost there, buddy!
We still have commercials where a family of cartoon bears are constantly shitting, and want a strong toilet paper so they don’t get dingleberries. There’s far more triggering stuff out there, Fox News.
AND they shake their asses at the camera!
Don’t they have the right to bear ass, guaranteed by The Constitution?
Yes, but be careful, there’s also a right to arm bears.
“a mascot’s lack of pants can be polarizing.”
Why are those bears so concerned with grooming? They’re coming after your kids next!
Well, it is if you put it THAT way.
I think the Charmin Bears are modeled after a family who chronically overeats and therefore puts their shared toilet to the test. The smaller one reminds me of my nephew who will eat an entire large pizza at one sitting if there’s nobody there to stop him. Of course he wants an ample share of bathroom time and a lot of toilet paper. He even managed to clog a pre-water-saving toilet in my house which used over five gallons a flush. You could flush a ham down that beast.But Charmin is not going to solve anything. Once I stood behind someone in line at Walmart similar in shape to the Charmin Bears. The odor wafting from behind this person indicated they should have used a bidet, a nice, powerful one which supplied a high-pressure water blast… because fancy toilet paper is not enough when your arms are too short to reach back there after you decimate a toilet with “The Go”.
(Here’s an example that you don’t actually need to click on.)
Is this the battle cry of The AV Club?
Every single year, these conservative nitwits get even stupider.The idiots complaining that someone else is upset about what a cartoon character is wearing in the midst of the profoundly stupid culture war they are whipping up about what a cartoon character is wearing. These people are actually for real.
Announce that Rooty The Great Root Bear’s design is going to change once
again so that he not only no longer wears jeans, but also hangs cartoon
dong in all official depictions going forward. *A&W receives cease and desist from the Chicago Cubs*
More like the Chicago CLUBS, amiright?
Nah. Nobody cares about Clark.
He’s less polarizing though.
Call me crazy, but I’m not really sure the kind of folks who are throwing a fit over the new M&M’s are going to be placated by making Maya Rudolph their spokesperson. Consider it a hunch.
They do not like black ladies down there
Sorry, under where?
“Also, everyone knows polar bears are true Americans. Woke culture would have you believe it’s OK for your daughter to date a grizzlie bear! Listen, I’m not against any species but we all know brown and black bears rummage through more trash cans than any other Freedom Bear and live off of government park lands because they are lazy!” – FOX talking head
Those polar bears who shill for Coke don’t wear pants. Are they polarizing?
Obviously, “polar” is right there in the name.
It is interesting how there is a double standard in this though. Pantless male animals are okay, Pantless females not so much.
Its probably due to female toons usually having breasts or at least the appropriate lumps to give the audience the impression of their presence, and that makes them just anatomically correct enough for a lack of pants to look odd.Not sure how that factors into the design of Cleo from Heathcliff though.
Even without pants, Rooty Bear is still less disturbing than Gritty.
Checks out:
Leave Philly outta this!
username/comment synergy!
But I grew up in East Falls.
I can respect that. Gritty is chaos!
User name checks out.
Ok I get why this is a GJI, but why did you link fanart of the green M&M with a cleft(or if you prefer, booty) chin?
TIL that A&W root beer had a pantsless bear mascot
TIL that A&W was still in business.
This is the most relevant the A&W chain has ever been. I wish them all possible success in their delightful trolling of these stupid people.
The fact that his name is “Rooty” would be much more concerning here in Australia.
I have no idea what connotations are associated with “Rooty” down under, but I have a feeling it can’t be good.
“Root” is Aussie slang for sex. It can be a verb (“Did you two root?”) or a noun (“I had a root last night.”).
Ah, so “Rooty Bear” would describe a large, hairy, lustful gay man.
AW has a mascot? This is the first I’ve learned.
He’s used more for A&W restaurants than for the soft drink.
Here in Canada A&W’s mascot is a bald dude in an A&W uniform.
Mr. Clean?
I think we all are asking the same question right now: DOES HE WEAR PANTS??
I am a casual consumer of their beverage and stopped at a few of the restaurants on road trips as a kid. I had no idea either.
I still have my stuffed Rooty I got in a promotion when I was a kid in the 1970s. As mentioned this was from the restaurants (which hardly exist anymore in the US although they are more successful in Canada)
Fox News is now mad about the A&W bear parodying the M&M mascots everything, all the time.
Fox News is now mad about Everything, Everywhere, All At Once.
A&W should double down on the parody and announce that they’ve heard from their customers, and they’re listening; Rooty the Great Root Bear is going back to being pantless! But, as Rooty has no visible genitalia, they will be switch to they/them pronouns moving forward.
After the next round of outrage, Rooty goes back to be he/him, but now he’s got a huge, anatomically correct penis. “This is what you wanted, right?”
Along with a giant-sized bottle, called “The Dong.”“Deep throat you a DONG.”
We really need to band together and throw Rupert Murdoch down a hole
I’m so tired . . .
Of jerking off to sexy candy mascots? Me too!
monsieur, monsieur, how about another one?
Bring me a bucket!
It’s wafer-thin!
Been eating A&W for decades, vividly remember the jingle and commercials featuring him, had no idea the A&W Root Bear had a name.
“Who’s triggered by a cartoon?!?” a lying grifter with no inner life yells into the void.It’s definitely woke cancel culture that’s responsible for this. Not anything FOX News has done, completely on its own. The Leftists demand sneakers and pants on corporate mascots, and it’s totally reasonable for FOX News to have turned one man’s denied fetish for fuckable candy into the stupidest culture war argument anyone has ever heard.
“Who’s triggered by a cartoon?!?” Me. Specifically, Esmerelda. And by triggered I mean… well, you know what I mean.
Judge Claude Frollo was similarly, um, triggered by Esmerelda. So, you have at least one thing in common with him.
Don’t watch a faithful version of the novel or you’ll be sad then.
The furries are going to have a field day with this one.
Every day is a field day when you’re a furry.(Stay out of the fields. Trust me on this.)
The faux tele prompted readers cannot literally take a joke. ItIts
Ugh, this crappy comment system! Anyway, it’s worth it to see faux news tele prompted readers heads explode…..
It’s amusing, and maybe even pleasantly surprising, that even the usual nutjob edgelord grays are staying away from this one.
Even they won’t bother to try and defend this level of stupid.
I have to say the total lack of self awareness on the part of Fox News has reached a new astronomical level here.
Fox News has always been a bunch of children trying to emulate adults with actual news. From Day One.
I remember hearing about FN and thinking, “Hey, it’s the network of the Simpsons, it must be hip.” I started to watch it and, within 15 seconds, turned it off. It was some idiot anchor yelling, yelling, about some perceived liberal conspiracy. That was 1996.
Same as it ever was.
How on earth does FOX News still exist? Between nonsense like this and the Xbox thing it seems only idiots can watch it and believe what they say.
The presenters are all just absolute idiots who do no research into anything they say. They should have been sued off the air years ago.
If they didn’t seem to actually believe every word, they’d be the funniest thing on television.
Well how am I gonna fuck that bear if he is wearing pants!!!!
President Reagan would be appalled to see the quaking, fearful, paranoid mess his party has become.