The Most Hilarious Woke Pop Culture Fails Of 2023
Slade Hale
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2024 is here, which means it is time to review the previous year in all its quirky and upended glory!
It was a year in which the steady march towards Leftism, which had already been frozen in its tracks by the latter half of 2022, had begun retreating and ceding ground.
The world, it seemed, had had enough of the Woke mind virus permeating and corrupting both society and pop culture, and the pendulum-like backlash was in full effect.
This lead to a series of amusing, surprising, and downright unexpected cultural twists that signaled the end of Woke dominance on the cultural sphere, and its slow, yet inevitable reversal. Society was fighting back, and winning.
To commemorate a glorious 2023, we are highlighting the most laugh-out-loud Woke blunders of the entire year.
So sit back, relax, and join us as we stop and smell the ashes.
DISNEY ON THE ROPES AFTER MULTIPLE BOX OFFICE BOMBS
The House of Mouse had been marching steadily towards its own cultural destruction and irrelevance by the time 2023 rolled around, and audiences began tuning out altogether.
It was a year of unmitigated box office disasters, starting with the ill-fated and poorly executed Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania, a film that suffered an astonishing 70% drop in ticket sales after its initial first week haul of $106 million.
Next in line was Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3, riding on the coattails of the goodwill it had built up with its fan base over the years. The movie managed to rake in $358M domestically, culminating in a worldwide grand total of $845M, on par with the first two films in the series. Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse also managed to perform well, which arguably had more to do with Sony’s production involvement.
The problems began to manifest in earnest by the time Spring was in full bloom, starting with the controversial and widely panned remake of The Little Mermaid, which failed to excite moviegoers. The film was excoriated for race-swapping the character of Ariel, implementing a number of drastic and unnecessary changes, and, perhaps worst of all, allowing Awkwafina to rap.
From there, the dominoes began to fall, one after the other. Animated films like Elemental and Wish failed to generate much in the way of audience enthusiasm, while unnecessarily regurgitated IPs like Haunted Mansion were given toe tags upon arrival. Even the titanic Indiana Jones franchise collapsed under Disney’s own hubris, earning a pittance – more on that film later.
Catastrophe soon engulfed Disney as the fandom, comedians, and even the mainstream media caught the strong, copperish odor of blood in the water. The once-iconic family-oriented company had been dealt a series of massive defeats that extended across the aisle into their streaming catalog, where they arguably fared worse. This, combined with a massive amount of internal infighting and a probable investor war, spell big trouble for the company as we move into 2024.
Disney’s decision to walk boldly through the culture war gauntlet has since backfired, and those in charge are incapable of altering course. Expect Disney’s reputation to erode further throughout 2024 as audiences begin looking elsewhere for their entertainment.
RACHEL ZEGLER AND DISNEY UPSTAGED BY THE DAILYWIRE+ SNOW WHITE TRAILER
Few actresses received as much scorn and rejection in 2023 as Rachel Zegler, the radically Left progressive given the lead role in Disney’s upcoming Snow White remake. Zegler, for her part, made everything worse by publicly trashing the story of Snow White during press interviews, and behaving in bizarre fashion, much to the chagrin of longtime fans.
Things got exponentially worse when production photos surfaced online showing the titular Seven Dwarfs replaced by more racial and gender diversity hires garbed in odd attire, all of whom looked nothing at all like their classic counterparts. It was parody beyond measure – so much so that Disney outright denied that the photos were real, only to walk the claim back shortly after.
Meanwhile, conservative media outlet DailyWire+ stunned the pop culture world with a teaser trailer for a competing Snow White film, produced by their own child entertainment subsidiary Bentkey, which promised a return to the traditionalism of the original classic. Actress and mega-popular YouTube commentator Brett Cooper was fittingly cast in the title role, though it remains to be seen if a reduced budget can compete with a billion-dollar powerhouse.
However, the trailer did manage to stun Disney and send them into a panic, forcing the studio to change course and throw out DEI in favor of CGI for their dwarven creatures. However, with so much negative backlash surrounding the film, combined with Rachel Zegler’s half-hearted attempts to walk back her previous attacks on the classic story, the likelihood of box office success is slim. Meanwhile, it’ll be interesting to see if the DailyWire+/Bentkey adaptation manages to upstage Disney entirely.
NOBODY WATCHED THE MARVELS
It has long been theorized, perhaps rightly so, that the initial success of 2019’s Captain Marvel was an issue of timing, as it was sandwiched between two of the most colossal chapters in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe – Avengers: Infinity War, and Endgame, respectively.
From an artistic and story-driven standpoint, however, Captain Marvel was a massive fumble, and a victim of its own radically Left cast and crew, particularly lead actress Brie Larson.
Following Endgame’s release, the quality of MCU films began to erode at breakneck speed, with the studio focusing almost exclusively on leftist political messaging and radical feminist narratives. The results were disastrous for Marvel across the board, yet the studio continued to double down on critical failures like Eternals, Thor: Love and Thunder, and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.
Marvel and Disney did their best to generate uphill momentum for the November release of The Marvels, but the exercise was futile. The film ultimately grossed just a measly $199M worldwide, with just $84M courtesy of domestic audiences, making it one of Disney’s costliest and most embarrassing flops to date. The critical and commercial failure of The Marvels signaled the end of what has since been dubbed the “M-She-U,” and with it, any hopes of mainstreaming extreme-radical feminism into the DNA of Western pop culture.
INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY GETS UPSTAGED BY SOUND OF FREEDOM
In a sane and rational world, an Indiana Jones film would be incapable of flopping in theaters. The franchise has been a staple of pop culture for decades, with lead actor Harrison Ford epitomizing the dashing masculine hero who braves unknown terrors whilst dispatching Nazi thugs in grisly fashion, and charming antagonistic love interests out of their clothes.
However, thanks to the incompetence and destructive influence of LucasFilm President Kathleen Kennedy, fans have tuned out entirely. As such, it was no surprise to see Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny fail horrifically at the box office. The film encapsulated Woke antagonism and nihilism, particularly from its director James Mangold, turning the character of Henry Jones into a divorced, bitter old man who is eventually upstaged by his goddaughter Helena Shaw, played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
Meanwhile, another film began making headlines, despite all the efforts of the access media and Left-wing circles to either bury, de-legitimize, or downplay its reach. That movie was Sound of Freedom, a somewhat low-budget Angel Studios project starring Passion of the Christ actor Jim Caviezel as real-world figure Tim Ballard, an HSI agent obsessed with bringing child sex traffickers to justice.
It was a deeply uncomfortable and unsettling film that shined a light on the worst crime imaginable, and its influence began to spread like wildfire throughout the entertainment sphere. With a budget of just $14.5M, Sound of Freedom managed to rake in $184M domestically, with a grand worldwide total of $250M by the time its run had finished. It became one of the top grossing films of 2023, and a massive success for its production studio.
By contrast, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny raked in an embarrassing $174M domestically, losing to Sound of Freedom in a head-to-head match-up. The film would eventually take in $381M worldwide, signaling a huge financial loss for parent company Disney, who could not even make their money back. In the other corner sat Sound of Freedom, which turned out to be a huge financial profit for its parent company.
HOLLYWOOD GOES ON STRIKE, AND NOBODY CARES
What should have been a big story in 2023 turned out to be little more than a minor blip on everyone’s radar. That, of course, was the SAG-AFTRA strike, a much-welcomed four month respite from Woke cultural badgering and ceaseless antagonism towards anyone who didn’t swallow the message. The strike, which kicked off on July 14th and ended unofficially on November 9th, was triggered by SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
Nobody cared.
Pretentious and unskilled writers walked the picket lines with contractual demands in tow, causing most TV and film productions to grind to a screeching halt. Even late night hosts like Kimmel, Fallon and Colbert were not immune, but while the strike dragged on for months, audiences didn’t seem to mind all that much.
In reality, the SAG-AFTRA strike represented the unyielding hypocrisy of the cultural Left, particularly within entertainment. Their anti-capitalist ideology took a backseat to personal financial demands, demanding more money and perks on top of their already generous salaries. Meanwhile, the effects of the 2023 strike wreaked havoc on workers who weren’t as high up on the elitist ladder.
45,000 jobs were lost, and many out-of-work employees were forced to sell or mortgage their homes, or blow through their retirement funds to survive. When the dust had settled, the radically progressive state of California suffered a $6.5 billion dollar loss to its economy. The fallout was poetic, yet audiences took it all with a heavy dose of nonchalance.
AHSOKA‘S FEMINIST OVERTONES KILL THE ENTIRE SERIES
After a string of disappointing Star Wars TV adaptations under the Disney+ streaming banner, LucasFilm began scrambling for a comeback. This, in the wake of character deconstruction campaigns like Obi-Wan Kenobi and The Book of Boba Fett, an aimless third season of The Mandalorian, and the pointless exercise that was Andor.
LucasFilm President Kathleen Kennedy kept shouting one name over and over again – Ahsoka Tano, whose live action portrayal by actress Rosario Dawson was initially well-received during season 2 of The Mandalorian. However, her foray into a standalone TV series was met with a lukewarm reception and little hope for a decent show. Ahsoka debuted in late August, yet failed to generate widespread enthusiasm.
The season finale garnered just 863,000 viewers, which is a monumental failure for such an iconic IP as Star Wars. Part of the blame can be laid at the feet of the writing team who crafted a story that went absolutely nowhere, while squandering its most interesting characters, and failing to tie up Rebels-era loose ends to fan satisfaction. However, the overt feminist overtones were arguably the show’s biggest downfall.
Both LucasFilm alumni and the main cast wasted no opportunity to talk about the irrelevance of gender, while simultaneously championing a female-led Star Wars show; a contradiction by every standard. It played out on screen as well, particularly the reuniting of Sabine Wren and Ezra Bridger. In actuality, the show’s four primary female leads – Rosario Dawson, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Ivanna Sakhno, could not muster up the acting chops necessary to bring energy and life to their respective characters, which was the entire point of the show.
Instead, they look out of place, out of their depth, and unable to summon the confidence necessary to deliver an authentic performance. The inclusion of Mary Sue-style tropes for Sabine Wren did not help the show as it hobbled towards its eventual demise. Meanwhile, the most interesting character, Baylan Skoll (played by the late, great Ray Stevenson), was given nothing in the way of backstory, purpose or incentive for his actions, creating a pointless narrative whose only goal was to unveil Grand Admiral Thrawn as quickly as humanly possible.
It demonstrated once and for all that diversity does not make a show – or anything else, for that matter – great. Substance is what matters, not radical political messaging. The female-centric structure of Ahsoka felt disingenuous, like a crutch in place of solid, authentic writing. The show has apparently been green-lit for a second season, though many Star Wars fans have long since checked out.
DOCTOR WHO‘S WOKENESS CAUSES MASSIVE BACKLASH
In 2023, I wrote an article where I predicted that the return of classic Doctor Who showrunner Russell T. Davies would not solve the show’s myriad problems, including a precipitous ratings drop, and the rejection of overt Woke feminist narratives. This prediction proved to be true when Davies began openly spouting radical talking points, and injecting them directly into the show in preparation for Ncuti Gatwa to take over the role.
However, Davies wasn’t the only party at fault. Disney’s acquisition of the Doctor Who franchise meant that Wokeness would end up becoming the show’s core and primary element, as per standard studio fare. The results spoke for themselves, starting with the much ballyhooed ‘The Star Beast,’ reuniting cast members David Tennant and Catherine Tate for an episode more concerned with addressing alien creatures by their preferred gender pronouns, while championing the failed and rejected message of toxic Left-wing feminism.
The backlash was both swift and harsh, but the stereotypical Woke pandering was far from over. ‘The Wild Blue Yonder’ featured a Doctor insinuating homosexual tendencies alongside a race-swapped Isaac Newton, as per Left-wing attempts to culturally appropriate and rewrite history in the same vein as Cleopatra and Anne Boleyn.
Next was the announcement by Russell T. Davies that the iconic villain Davros would be physically altered to bring him more in line with the “modern age.” In one rather bizarre take, Davies insisted that disabled people were frequently associated with evil in media – an assertion which has no basis in reality, as evidenced by such characters as Charles Xavier, Daredevil, Oracle, Cyborg, and Doctor Strange, to name but a few.
Moving forward, both the cast and crew of this New Who have made it abundantly clear that the Wokeness will continue without respite, further accelerating the erosion of viewers who have already checked out of other shows that pushed the same formula. Doctor Who might have hit a catastrophic low during the Jodie Whittaker era, but the combined might of Davies and Disney will surely spell doom for an irreparably damaged pop culture franchise.
SOUTH PARK TRIGGERS WOKE MELTDOWN WITH ‘JOINING THE PANDERVERSE’
No other singular event in 2023 signaled the downfall of Woke cultural dominance than South Park’s uber-popular lampooning of its ideology. The episode was titled ‘Joining the Panderverse,’ and it acted as a bridge for audiences on all sides of the political aisle to join together and take their frustrations out on the Woke Left in a positive, feel-good manner.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone have never been shrinking violets, no matter what topic they have targeted for some satirical South Park rib-jabbing. Since its inception, the show has become a lens for social commentary that is easily accessible for all viewers, regardless of their political leanings or personal views.
All, that is, except the usual suspects, who were incensed over the messaging of ‘Joining the Panderverse,’ and how it shined an uncomfortable light on the ideological mind virus that has infected our pop culture institutions. It was an episode that pulled no punches, particularly when it came to criticisms of LucasFilm President Kathleen Kennedy, and Disney CEO Bob Iger.
It also sent a clear and precise message to the identity politics acolytes in control of these institutions. Audiences were no longer going to patronize their businesses, watch their movies, visit their theme parks, or pay for their streaming services. They’d had enough, and South Park channeled this collective message into a virtual megaphone that sent deep shockwaves into the collective Woke consciousness.
ANHEUSER-BUSCH SUFFERS COLLAPSE AFTER BUD LIGHT/DYLAN MULVANEY ENDORSEMENT
Political boycotts began as a sub-component of Left-wing cultural pressure tactics leading up to 2023, but the results were negligible at best. Not so when used by their opposition, as evidenced by several high-pressure boycotts that both put the worst aspects of the Left on the ropes and shined a brighter light on their corruptive cultural influence.
Perhaps the largest and most effective boycott in human history was directed against Anheuser-Busch, parent company of the Bud Light beer brand. The primary culprit was Alissa Heinerscheid, a Harvard graduate hired on as Vice-President of Bud Light, with some peculiar and unorthodox visions about where the company should go. Her most infamous decision was to cut a sponsorship deal with Dylvan Mulvaney, a biological male whose claim to fame is his signature stereotypical and bigoted female cosplay routine, much to the chagrin of female America.
The backlash was nothing short of Biblical. Bud Light sales tanked astronomically, resulting in an eye-popping $27 billion dollar drop in market value by the month of May. Originally, the fever was expected to die off within a week or two, but as the months dragged on, even Bud Light suppliers were voicing their anguish over dry sales and a near-universal rejection of the brand. While some establishments sought to buck the boycott by openly supporting Bud Light, they quickly changed their tune after suffering similar drops in patronage.
Bolstered by this success, the incident would go on to spark several ancillary boycotts against entities like Target, who ran LGBTQ sales campaigns featuring products with Satanic themes, and calls for murder and violence against anti-trans opponents, resulting in similar sales drops and negative P.R. This would eventually force many companies to rethink getting involved in political and social culture wars at the expense of fiduciary duty, sending a clear message that corporate Wokeness would no longer be tolerated.
PREDICTIONS FOR 2024
As more and more people on the moderate Left, Centrist and Right-wing aisles band together in common partnership, so too will the cultural stranglehold of the radical microcosm loosen and slip. All the major signs that revealed themselves in 2023 signal a continued and powerful counterattack against these institutions, especially given the large-scale rejection of Left-wing initiatives and ideology. Meanwhile, hot properties like Amazon’s Reacher series continue to push culture back to the realm of normalcy, little by agonizing little.
One thing is for certain, however – as the Woke continue to lose power and influence, they will respond in desperation by ramping up their attacks in a last-ditch bid to remain in control of our pop culture institutions. The efforts will prove futile, though it will give us a treasure trove of things to laugh about when we revisit the most hilarious Woke pop culture fails of 2024.
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