Elon Musk, a leading, or at least the loudest, voice in the recent campaign against Netflix centering on the 2022-2023 animated series Dead End: Paranormal Park apparently supports a stated effort by Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) to have Netflix officials appear before a to-be-determined congressional committee to answer questions on the streamer’s transgender representations.
At issue is a cartoon trans character that appeared in Dead End (the show was canceled in 2023 but existing episodes remains on the streamer). A clip of the character has gone viral in recent days, drawing criticism from right-wing commentators and MAGA supporters, Musk included. Some are calling for a ban on Netflix.
Appearing on conservative Benny Johnson’s podcast yesterday, Burchett, a member of the DOGE subcommittee of which Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is chair, said he favored a committee investigation of the matter, though wasn’t sure what committee would handle it.
“Here’s what I want to do on this one,” Burchett said, “because the First Amendment and all that is involved in it, of course, but let’s get on it. I’m going to follow up with my folks after we get off, and we’ll call them and say, which committee can they be brought in front of? I think what we have to look at, who regulates the FCC, and since it’s cable, does that count? I don’t know. I don’t know enough about it, but they need to be brought in. We need to find out what their agenda is and why they’re pushing this stuff. Because from what I understand, that little cartoon is apparently the number one rated cartoon they have on on their show. I haven’t seen it. It looks kind of like claymation or something, I’m not really sure.”
Burchett continued that the animated series “is recruiting, it is grooming, it is the worst of the worst.”
Today, Musk, who is estranged from his 21-year-old trans daughter Vivian Jenna Wilson, reposted a clip of Burchett from the podcast with the comment, “Good.”
Musk also reposted an X users post about a character on the Netflix animated series Strawberry Shortcake, who both the poster and Musk refer to as a “Transberry.” The character in question is likely Raisin Cane, who in the 2022 episode “Berry in the Big City” was revealed to be non-binary and using the pronouns they/them.
Deadline was unable to reach a Netflix spokesperson for comment.
Earlier this week, Hamish Steele, the creator of Dead End: Paranormal Park, informed his followers on BlueSky that he would be taking a social media break due to “extremely nasty weird homophobic and antisemitic emails” he was receiving. “I will just say today is much much worse and I am going to basically be on the down low for the foreseeable.” he wrote.
The FCC regulates broadcasting, but it has limited authority over cable and next-to-no oversight over streaming. But the Trump administration has sought to exert leverage over corporations that have business with the federal government, warning them over such things as diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
In March, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos said that he had dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, but denied that he felt pressure in programming. “No. We program exactly the same,” Sarandos said at a Paley Media Council event.
-Ted Johnson contributed to this report
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