Taking the Mickey
A marvelous proliferation of Mickey’s meaning.
Mickey Mouse
The semiotics of “Mickey Mouse”-ness
Nobrow Mickey
“It’s on America’s tortured brow / that Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow.”
“I’m the Mouse”
The origins of today's rich, imaginative Mickey-scape.
Sixties Backlash
Parody is an art form for "children who have had imposed upon them a meaningless iconography."
Fifties Backlash
"Disney sold him into slavery, and he’s nothing. He's nothing."
Disney Co. Mascot
"He’s so much of an institution that we’re limited in what we can do with him."
Forties Backlash
"A degenerate 'middlebrow' horror, mass-produced for profit."
Mickey’s Dork Age
From 1944–1953, Mickey was a Mouse Without Qualities.
Donald Steals the Show
Mickey’s repressed characteristics had returned… in a deformed (duckbilled) fashion!
Neotonic Mickey
Over time, Mickey became progressively more juvenile in appearance.
Iconic Mickey
Mickey had become a cash cow.
High-Lowbrow Mickey
"He is the voice and personification of the weltschmerz to the sophisticate."
A Good American
"Too much whimsy and fantasy are objectionable.”
Trickster Mickey
"Mickey! Mickey! Tricky Mickey Mouse!”