Disney Playhouse Cartoon Interrupted with Hardcore Porn

Pornagraphy Replaces Handy Manny Show on the Disney Channel

A. Hermitt
A. Hermitt, Yahoo! Contributor Network
May 2, 2007 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."
This is a parent's worst nightmare. If you can, imagine yourself cleaning the kitchen adjacent to the family room where your child is watching the Disney Channel. Then you hear the words "What are they doing?" You look toward the T.V. and for about five eternally long seconds, your brain is disconnected from your eyes as you try to make sense of what is playing on the screen. "Oh my Goodness!!", you shout as your brain tells you a truth you cannot possibly fathom. Just three feet from your child who is looking to you for an answer, while pointing to the screen, are two adults on the television in an explicit sex scene. Your mind's eye goes blind. You are rendered deaf and dumb.

Well, hundreds of families had this exact experience or something very close to it on Tuesday when the Handy Mandy cartoon was replaced with pornography. The programming mishap was limited to Comcast in an isolated local New Jersey Facility. It was aired to families in and around Middlesex New Jersey.

Paul Dunleavy, a parent who was interviewed described the scene as "disgusting" and "full-on" sex with "two people doing their thing". He continued saying, "It wasn't something you'd expect to see on Cinemax, never mind Disney." The parents claim the child is extremely upset, and thinks he did something wrong. They are hoping he is not scarred for life because of what he saw. Of course they never answered his question as they say they will "have to find a way to discuss it with him" if he asks them any questions.

Someone at Comcast has put these parents in a difficult position, as they will certainly have to find a way to explain the pornography to their preschoolers as well as their reaction to it. A quick-thinking parent would have grabbed the remote and turned the channel while explaining that they were watching some complicated medical procedure. Other parents would blankly say, "I don't know". Others would run around screaming and waving their hands. Still others would tell the truth. Regardless of how parents have and will explain this to their kids, I do not envy their task thanks to what appears to be a prankster's actions at the local cable network.

Hopefully, the culprit will be found, and prosecuted for endangerment of children, and that this will not happen again. But of course, we know there are no guarantees.

(The source of this story was originally reported by the New York Daily News, and also posted at mickeynews.com as a press release)

Published by A. Hermitt

Andrea Hermitt is an artist by nature and an educator by necessity. As a homeschooling mom of 10 years, she stays current in all things educational, and cutting edge to help her homeschool her children, and...   View profile

More from

47 Comments

Post a Comment
  • Sammyjrfrommex 8/5/2010

    it happen in Mexico

  • Sammyjrfrommex 8/5/2010

    Helo i now this post have a while but it happen the same with me, we were seeing plahouse disney with my sister yesterday and it randomly change to a hardcore porn.

  • Tony 6/5/2009

    Sex is the most natural thing in the world, without mankind is gone, we all participate in it in one form or another, yet the bible thumper's call it blasphemy and a abhorrence they they go to bed and screw each other, but it's ok to show rape, murder, war on tv and the big screen but the mere mention of the work fornication makes for a censorship

  • James Blake 1/14/2008

    Good God... Call the porn police!! A child saw four seconds of his own future instinctual animal impulse!! How will we ever recover? What must we do so that the child does not grow up to be a deranged pedophilic sociopath? Perhaps it is too late... He is beyond redemption... Just lock the "exposed" children up in a facility for the insane until they finally die out, and let's take better precautions for next time around... Perhaps a combination of blinders and electro-shock therapy with porn stimuli triggering 400 volts up poor Billy's ass... Grow up, prudes.

  • Jenna 6/27/2007

    I cannot believe the posts that make pornography seem innocuous. Pornography is something even adults should not indulge in. It is poison for the mind. Images that cannot be erased from your mind. Age has nothing to do with it. I would be mortified to find that kind of content on any show that I watch. I am dismayed at the lackidaisical and immoral attitude that has become so prevalent in our society.

  • Err0r 6/3/2007

    Lol! This should be comical in the least. However, a few seconds of porn isn't going to destroy any childs mind. Hell you'll be lucky in these times to find teachers that won't molest your kid. Porn is a thing of the past in this day and age. LoL. Just relax, tell your kids two images accidentally meshed on the screen and move on with life. :D Stay neighborly!

  • Jeanne Marie Kerns 5/11/2007

    In all honesty it is not a big deal.. So what the kids saw a few minutes of porn.. The age group that sees that shows does not even know what porn is...It was a mistake and people need to loosen up..

  • Liz Brown 5/9/2007

    Ok guys, do you seriously think a kid will be scarred for life by seeing a few seconds of porn? How many people accidently walked in on their parents and are fully functional (for the most part anyways:)? I would be upset, but I would not over react to the point that my child felt guilty for something that obviously was not his/her fault. And Donna, maybe I missed part of the conversation, but there is a huge difference between a child "accidently" seeing a few seconds of porn and sexual abuse. You are speaking on two different levels of mentality.

  • Tweak 5/9/2007

    A couple seconds of sex isn't going to scar any child. The parents over-reacting is what the child will most likely remember. We are the only country that shelters children from the real world, and especially anything sexual. Everybody wonders why we have so many sexual predators and such in this country. Nice article though. Sorry for the rant.

  • vic_elor 5/6/2007

    I'm sure this isn't the first or last time this will happen... possibly the last time it will happen on the disney channel though. lol

Displaying Comments
Next »

To comment, please sign in to your Yahoo! account, or sign up for a new account.