For those that don't know, my favorite pony is in trouble.

Derpy Hooves.


For those unaware, recent controversy has erupted. Apparently a few people found "Derpy" to be offensive and demanded the Hub remove her episode, "The Last Roundup", from the iTunes store. They did.

The episode was put back up today. Derpy's name has been erased. They fixed her "derpy" eyes. They gave her a new voice. All because her prior portrayal was "too offensive".

And that's terrible. For a show about "love and tolerance", how can people seriously say that a character with a slight disability isn't allowed to exist until she's "fixed" of that disability? What kind of hypocritical message is that?

Beyond that, some of my favorite characters in cartoon history are "offensively" named. Derpy was one of my favorites partially for that reason.

(she was in good company)

Anyway, I'm staunchly anti-censorship and BS "political correctness" anyway, but if you like Ponies and you like Derpy, I'd suggest signing the petition to keep her as she is, beloved for who she is, a character that doesn't NEED fixing and a character that became beloved BECAUSE of her unique differences.

Save Derpy

Thank you and good night.

I signed it. Seriously, some people are such jackasses. Derpy's a goof, not handicapped, and even if she was, who cares?

Then count me as a "jackass". Look, the old character is obviously based on a mental retardation stereotype. Cartoon characters like this certainly aren't anything new but it definitely doesn't deserve a free pass. Whether or not that's cute to you is irrelevant. The new version looks like they went in another stereotypical direction and have now made her "Derpiness" more "air-headedness". So, she went from "MR" to "dumb blonde".

Let me put it in perspective:

If there were ponies based on blatant racial stereotypes this wouldn't even be a debate.

New Ponies:

- "Slanty": Complete with buck teeth and narrow slanted eyes that speaks in broken English with a Chinese accent. (Watch about 20 secs in for reference.

- "Darky": Complete with stereotypical Sambo characteristics that talks in Jive and has a fondness for watermelon and fried chicken.

Here's what a lot of you all seem to forget. This "Derpy" business might not bother you because you're an ADULT watching it and presumambly can recognize the humor in the character WITHOUT believing that it's ok to laugh at MR people. You HAVE that context. Children, who the show is aimed at, DO NOT have that context. If you're 6 and you watch Derpy bumble around all cross-eyed then the show teaches you that it's OK to laugh at it. So, that MR kid that sits next to you in your first-grade class just became a walking punchline. You call him "Derpy" because he reminds you of your favorite pony.
All that said...I can accept "Old Derpy" if the show actually makes an effort to teach acceptance of her bumbling in the actions of the other ponies. I honestly don't watch the show so, if they are quick to forgive and stand beside Derpy when she does something stereotypically reckless as a result of her "Derpiness" then that would be the show taking responsibility for introducing a stereotypically driven character and making the decisive effort to TEACH the lack of context I mentioned earlier.

Actually, the voice actress for Derpy, Tabitha, said she based Derpy's voice on a young neighbor boy she knew who was klutzy and talked slow, but was by no means retarded. The shows creators have overwhelming said she was created to be "silly" and "clumsy" but NOT retarded. This has been confirmed by the show's creators, the animators, and storyboard artists. She was never, ever, ever meant to be based on mental retardation. Ever.

Even then, there are PLENTY of characters that act more "retarded" than her, both in other shows and even in MLP itself.






I don't see how that's an improvement... especially considering her "Derpiness" was the reason we loved her. Like the "goofiness" in "Goofy" and the "daffiness" in "Daffy".




Oh really?


You DO realize that cross-eyes is in absolutely no way whatsoever related to retardation, right? In fact, I'll answer your question head on.

Straight from the mouth of a mother of two daughters on the Amazon DVD page for the show: "Out of the episodes on here, I'd say my kids like the same one as most bronies would pick, The Last Roundup. And oddly enough, for the same scene. They find it hysterical that Derpy is so klutzy and the town hall is falling apart."

Silly, clumsy characters have existed for YEARS and have been very popular and very funny. Steve Urkel was a walking catastrophe. DeeDee in Dexter's Lab destroyed everything she touched. Homer Simpson's intelligence and incompetence is a constant source of humor nearly 20 years later.

Are you going to tell me that "Looney Tunes" should be banned for having cartoon characters act like, well, LUNATICS? (that's where the "looney" comes from)?

Do you also realize that "Derpy" doesn't mean "retarded"? "Derp" means "failing, a mistake, to act silly", and a gazillion other definitions not related to mentally handicapped individuals.


Except for a few things; the show teaches kids to LOVE and TOLERATE those that are different than you. If a kid makes fun of a mentally handicapped person, that's the parents' responsibility to address, not the show's, not any more than Animaniacs taught kids to sexually harass blonde nurses or Freakazoid to laugh at fat, stupid cops or Pokemon to force kids to make their pets kill each other.

Beyond that, even IF the character was retarded (and for the umpteenth time, she was NOT), it could've been a great opportunity to show them accept her for who she is, to love her despite her problems. To "fix" her is to say she was WRONG to be like that in the first place. That's an infinitely worse lesson to preach.

And, yes, I have a 10-year-old cousin who loves Derpy. She loves all the ponies (bought me a Fluttershy toy), and she loves Derpy for being, well, Derpy. She makes her smile. She thinks she's so funny and awesome and cool, just like Goofy, just like Wacko, just like CLUMSY Smurf (he exists).


Derpy has been in the series since episode 1. She's been around causing clumsy things to happen for nearly 50 episodes now. And she continues to be loved, accepted, and treated exactly the same as every other pony in the show.

For the record, however, she has displayed zero instances of retardation. None at all. Just clumsiness. If anything, she's an example of Amblyopia (derped eyes), which is something one of my best friends has (and he loves Derpy too... )

Again, some of the most beloved characters ever have "offensive" names by that logic. "Daffy" means "crazy", "Wacko" means "mentally unhinged", "Dopey" means "stupid, inane", Goofy means "ridiculous, silly", and "Ditzy" means "easily confused". All those characters exist without problems... because they AREN'T problems. Neither is Derpy. Not unless someone MAKES a problem out of it.

Yesterday before I got zapped as fuck, my friends were discussing my love for the ponies and said it's probably just a fad. I told them that we'll only know if the fandom exists beyond this year.

I find it may be possible, but my insistence on searching everything ponies (when it comes time for a visual anecdote) and genuine enthusiasm for each new episode says it isn't so.

While I may never buy a toy (because, why?) or write a fanfic I really like the show and the writing, animation style and voice talent behind the series. I really want a pony themed t-shirt, but nothing gaudy.

I think I'll still be all over it because the fandom is awesome with comics, original animations, video games and parodies (hotdiggedydemon). I rarely see such quality and care put into fanmade anything before now.

Here's to hoping any breaks in the series don't leave me uninterested like so many shows before.

Also, apologies if I've rambled in this post. I'm recovering from a world spinning intoxicated night.

Of course, I should never have doubted Garlador to be here to enlighten us about this whole issue with Derpy. He was also here to bring us knowledge of characters far more "offensive" than Derpy. About the current situation with Derpy: Some nutjobs have nothing better to do than police the media. I have nothing more to say, Garly already has taken care of that.

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Perhaps. There are those who jumped in because they thought it was the next cool thing, but they'll eventually leave. The people who truly believe in this fandom will stay for a looooong while after the series ends.

I don't go out to watch a new episode as soon as it airs, I watch it some time later. Regardless, I still enjoy the episodes and appreciate the effort put into them.

I don't know, buying some toys feels awfully tempting.

Indeed, all the art and other things created by the bronies is amazing.

The bronies born of season 1 have survived the whole summer of 2011 without any new pony episodes. So we should be fine when season 2 ends.

Yeah, I didn't jump in to be cool. I ended up liking what I was watching, like I fell into King of The Hill. Some things are just well put together.

Bronies 4 Life

Hey look, it's Smoke!

Applejack says 'Get over here!' when she uses her lasso special.

I need this game now.

SAVE THE DERPS YOU MOTHER****ERS!!!!!!

The amount of people who have signed the petition is steadily rising. At the moment of the making of this post, 41,783 people have signed the petition.

Official response to the Derpy Hooves fiasco.

I think it's a great response. Much more candid than I expected. In truth, I was always on the fence about Derpy getting speaking lines since I think she worked very well as the silent clown ala Dopey from Snow White. Making her speak, as fun as it was, took away some of that character. But, truthfully, if I had to pick, her new voice actually is closer to how I would have expected her to sound in the first place, even though her initial voice is perfectly amusing in its own right, although arguably in more of a South Park way. And as much as I think FiM's writing style and comedic timing matches South Park's, they aren't the same show.

I figure the best case scenario is to continue using Derpy in her original silent form and simply never mention her name again. No need to retcon her name and no worries about pissing anybody off on either side. Outside of having two different versions of The Last Roundup, where the only meaningful difference is her voice, there won't be much of a change to the canon.

If I'm sympathetic to anybody it's Hasbro. They still seem unsure of how to handle the phenomenon. They seem to want to pursue it but doing so too aggressively can end up poisoning the product as a whole. As much as the fans may think they want more Derpy being Derpy and maybe even an expanded role for her (or any fanon character for that matter), there's often real value in limiting the fans' input. Shoutouts are great but it has to be a controlled environment where they don't actually become what the show is about.

After all, bronies didn't become fans of the fanon. They became fans of the original show. It's a hard line to tow for Hasbro, I'm sure, when there's such a lucrative market to appeal to but one that can't be allowed to mutate the product into something unrecognizable. I don't think any of us really want to see a drunk Berry Punch or a time traveling Dr. Hooves getting their own subplots. It sounds better on paper than it would realistically turn out.

I don't think giving Doctor Whooves his own sub-plot and all that other stuff about the popular background ponies would turn out that well either. But maybe just little references, like having The Doctor go into a blue box (TARDIS) in the background, while the scene focuses on a main pony and in the next shot of that area, the blue box is not there. But I don't know if doing that would be a good idea either, so maybe don't do that. I do know for sure it would cause a sh**storm to ensue among the Bronies and the fans of Doctor Who.

So, is the whole situation around Derpy Hooves resolved now?

Why has no one discussed "Putting Your Hoof Down"?

Awesome episode and it almost made me sad. Seeing Flutters yell at Pinkie and Rarity (of all ponies) was a bit disheartening.

It all worked out though and the fact that it led to some Hulk references made it all cake.

Iron Will was surprisingly likable (like-able?) and I'd love to see more of him. He broke the fourth wall (causing Rarity & Pinkie to do the same under confusion) and pulled off some Johnny Bravo tier posing, including a shuffle for some reason. He was all funny.

The complete absence of Apple Jack, Rainbow and Twilight rubbed me the wrong way, but I got over it due to the sheer awesomeness of the episode itself.

I look forward to more Flutter-centric episodes in the future.

Completely unrelated to any of this: Ricky Smiley = Unfunny

Well you see, I'm a quiet kind of guy. Not really preferring to speak much. That, and I'm also not really that good with doing reviewing sort of stuff.

I agree with you on all points. Heh, I remember Johnny Bravo. (Barely remember much, been so long since I've watched that. I should watch Johnny Bravo again sometime.)

I hear episode 22 is a Fluttershy episode.

Hurricane Fluttershy. Correct.

I imagine a Hurricane Fluttershy would spin and make a continuous *squee* noise.

That sounds adorable. ^-^

Until it manages to put your squishy human body through a brick wall. Impossibru!

Quick Photoshop work.



Twilight? Twilight!? TWILIGHT!

^ GREY FOX!

Which CMC is your favorite, guys?

Sweetie Belle! Voice cracks are adorable!

Scootaloo of course.

^ Stalker.