About

You're Watching Disney Channel refers to a popular catchphrase, "phrasal template" and parodies inspired by the Disney Channel's mid-2000s bumpers and advertisements.

Origin

In the early 2000s, the Disney Channel began airing brief advertisement for the network, alerting the viewer what channel they were watching. In the ads (shown below), a Disney Channel star would say, "Hi, I'm X, and you're watching the Disney Channel." The actor would the draw the Disney Channel's mouse ears logo with a wand as a CGI one would digitally be added to the video.

The earliest parody of the phrase occured on March 17th, 2009 by Twitter^[8] user @being_brianne. They tweeted (shown below) "Owen: I'm Owen Keene and you're watching Disney Channel! Ailish: Yeah! Ailish Channel!"

Spread

On November 30th, 2010, YouTuber ^[9] zeroxtad
posted "You're watching disney channel parody." The post (shown below) received more than 43,000 views in seven years.

On November 12th, 2012, The Meta Picture published a picture (shown below) of the Disney Channel bumper screen and logo with the caption "I've always wanted to say 'I'm _____ and you're watching the Disney Channel.'"

On November 15th, 2016, Twitter ^[1] user @hollylikeablvd tweeted several videos of outtakes of Disney Channel stars filming the commercials. The most popular featured Raven Samone (shown below). In less than one year, the post received more than 30,000 retweets and 40,000 likes.

The following day, BuzzFeed ^[3] published a list of the tweets.

Less than month later, on December 7th, Twitter^[2] user @memeprovider posted a picture of the template for the commercials with the caption "Hey, it's my will to live and you're watching Disney Channel." The post (shown below, left) received more than 5,000 retweets and 12,000 likes in less than a year.

That day, Redditor ^[4] Senor_Roscoe posted a parody of the commercials with musician Stevie Wonder, who happens to be blind. The picture shows Wonder standing and scribles where the mouse ears should be. The image is captioned "Hi, I'm Stevie Wonder, and you're watching the Disney Channel." The post (shown below, right) received more than 400 points (81% upvoted) and 15 comments.

On December 10th, Instagram ^[5] user @BetaSalmon posted several variations of the meme. The first featured rapper Kanye West and the caption "HI MY NAME IS KANYE WEST AND I AM A GENIUS, AN ICON, A DRAGON, AND YOU'RE WATCHING THE KANYE CHANNEL." The post (shown below, left) received more than 4,000 likes in one year.

The second post^[6] featured First Lady Melania Trump and referenced her alleged plagiarism of former First Lady Michelle Obama. The post (shown below, center) had the caption "This is Michelle Obama and you're watching the Disney Channel." The post received more than 10,000 likes.

The final post featured Jerry Seinfeld and the caption "I'M JERRY SEINFELD AND WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH THE DISNEY CHANNEL? IS IT A NETWORK? IS IT AIRPLANE FOOD? I DON'T KNOW!" The post (shown below, right) received more than 3,000 likes.

TikTok

On May 14th, 2019, TikTok users began using sound clip from the Disney bumpers to draw out Mickey Mouse and/or a message using the sequin or chrome brush feature. TikTok user @adyldup uploaded a video in which they draw out mouse ears and then reveal the message "i hate myself" (shown below, left). The video gained over 155,300 likes in three days. That same day @JadenSprinz uploaded a video to include an abstract shape which gained over 6,000 likes in a three days. @zaccthesnacc also uploaded a variation that reveals an Avengers: Endgame spoiler (shown below, right). The video accumulated over 2,200 likes in three days.

Various Examples

Search Internet

External References