Animaniacs Reboot Episode Briefly Removed From Hulu After NSFW Blunder

The sixth episode of Hulu's reboot of The Animaniacs disappeared briefly from the streaming [...]

By Russ Burlingame

The sixth episode of Hulu's reboot of The Animaniacs disappeared briefly from the streaming service earlier this week, and was returned a few hours later with some minor modifications. During a "PInky and the Brain" segment, the episode had included a fake onscreen phone number and address for viewers in-universe to reach out to The Brain. Unfortunately for Hulu, the phone number wasn't as fake as they thought, and was in fact the number of a phone sex hotline. The episode disappeared, prompting questions and speculation on social media, and then reappeared later in the day, with the address and phone number removed in an almost comically slapdash way.

It isn't yet clear whether the episode will stay that way long term. It's entirely possible that they will do a better job at cleaning it up and fixing the joke, but that it wasn't plausible to spend a lot of time on the project on short notice the week of Thanksgiving.

You can see a side-by-side comparison of the shots below (don't call the number, obviously. Or...do, but only if you're over 18 and don't say we didn't warn you).

During a recent interview, ComicBook.com asked Futurama veteran Maurice LaMarche, who plays The Brain, what he could bring to the table, in terms of teaching people how to handle being un-cancelled?

"Tress [MacNeille] and I both have done that dance a couple of times," LaMarche laughed. "The only advice that I hope came through, not in my words but in my attitude, was gratitude. I don't think I need to show these guys how to be grateful. We know how lucky we are to be back doing this amazing thing. The thing was literally the happiest experience of my entire animated career."

Animaniacs returned last week, with a renewal that will last at least two seasons on the streaming network. It has a 79% fresh rating from both critics and audiences as of this writing. The original series, which ran from 1993 until 1998, was such a fan favorite that during the intervening 20+ years, the stars constantly got asked about the possibility of a revival.

"I'm the cynic of the group," LaMarche told us. "I always said if they bring it back, they'll do a bunch of celebrity stunt casting. Peter Dinklage will play the Brain, Russell Brand will play Pinky. It renewed my faith in humanity, and certainly in Steven Spielberg, which I never lost of course, but Steven pitched the show, saying nobody else can play the characters except for our original voices."

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