# Disney Disney is internet shorthand for The Walt Disney Company, the American media giant behind Mickey Mouse, the Disney Princess canon, Marvel, and Disney+. Its characters drive a huge fan-art community online, and its 2017 Fox acquisition turned 'Disney owns everything' into a running joke on Reddit and Twitter. ## Overview Disney is internet shorthand for The Walt Disney Company, the American media giant behind Mickey Mouse and the Disney Princess canon. Its characters power a huge online fandom on Tumblr, DeviantArt, and Reddit, and DeviantArt alone held over 1,046,000 Disney submissions by January 2014[3]. Because the company also owns Marvel, Lucasfilm, Pixar, and (through the 2019 Fox acquisition) Avatar, The Simpsons, and the X-Men film rights, Disney gets treated online as shorthand for the media company that owns nearly everything[1]. Its late-2010s pivot to live-action remakes of its animated classics also became a recurring joke online[4]. ## How It Spread In December 2017, Disney agreed to buy the bulk of 21st Century Fox's entertainment business for $52.4 billion, taking on Fox's film and television studios and its 39% stake in the satellite broadcaster Sky[1]. The deal handed Disney the X-Men, Deadpool, and Fantastic Four film rights alongside Avatar, Modern Family, and The Simpsons, and Marvel fans immediately started posting Marvel Cinematic Universe crossover wishlists[1]. Online reception leaned into two running jokes: a resurfaced 1998 Simpsons episode titled 'When You Dish Upon a Star' that had already labeled the 20th Century Fox lot 'A Division of Walt Disney Co,' and Twitter comparisons casting Disney as Thanos from the Marvel films, snapping up rival studios one Infinity Stone at a time[3]. A second wave hit in May 2019, when Comcast agreed to sell its roughly one-third Hulu stake to Disney (with the actual buyout not scheduled until 2024) while immediately handing over operational control[2]. Paired with the April 2019 launch announcement of Disney+, the Hulu deal pushed Disney deep into streaming and set off another round of 'Disney owns everything' posts[2]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Disney? Disney is internet shorthand for The Walt Disney Company, an American media giant that owns Mickey Mouse, the Disney Princess canon, Pixar, Lucasfilm, and Marvel, and it sits at the center of a huge online fandom on Tumblr, DeviantArt, and Reddit[3]. ### Where did Disney come from? The Walt Disney Company was founded on October 16, 1923 by brothers Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, and adopted its current name in 1986[3]. ### What does Disney mean? Online, 'Disney' usually means either the media conglomerate itself (especially in 'Disney owns everything' acquisition jokes) or the shared universe of Disney characters that fan artists constantly remix[1]. ### How do you use Disney? Disney is used two ways online: as source material for princess fan art, character crossovers, and gender-swapped redraws, and as a punchline in news threads about Disney buying yet another studio, such as the $52.4 billion Fox deal[1]. ### Is Disney still popular? Yes. Disney's 2019 majority takeover of Hulu and the launch of Disney+ pushed the company deep into streaming and kept 'Disney owns everything' jokes circulating online[2]. ## References 1. [https://www.bbc.com/news/business-42353545]() 2. [https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/14/media/disney-buys-comcast-hulu-ownership/index.html]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/disney]() 4. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Disney]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/disney Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library