‘Good for kids, very funny for adults’: Disney’s Bluey is so popular a ‘lost episode’ about flatulence is being released

Bluey, a Disney cartoon about a family of Australian dogs, has struck a chord with viewers young and old alike – and contains jokes that only adults pick up on

The show has grown so popular that Disney will release, later this year, an unedited episode that it banned because of jokes about flatulence

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Bluey, an animated series about a playful family of Australian cattle dogs has become such a hit that Disney will release an episode that it had banned. Photo: Ludo Studio

Published: 5:15pm, 2 Oct 2022

Bluey, an animated series about a playful family of Australian cattle dogs, has become Disney’s first hit children’s show of the streaming television era.

The programme, which began airing on the Disney Junior cable channel and the Disney+ streaming service in 2019, surged in popularity last month when the third season came out.

Bluey briefly passed long-time kids streaming leader CoComelon, which airs on Netflix, generating more than 900 million minutes of viewing the week of August 8 alone, according to television ratings data.

The show has grown so popular, Disney will release later this year an unedited episode that it banned because of jokes about flatulence. The company had to give audiences a chance to get used to the Bluey characters, and the show’s sense of humour, before putting it on its channels.

Disney will release later this year an unedited episode of Bluey that it banned because of jokes about flatulence. Photo: Ludo Studio

A kids’ hit is a financial feast – for the studios that make them, the networks that carry them and for companies that sell plush toys and other knick-knacks. Licensed merchandise sales of all kinds hit a record US$316 billion globally last year, with entertainment characters being the largest piece.