MAGA influencers are rage-quitting Netflix this week, melting down over an animated kids’ series that features a transgender teen hero and a haunted theme park full of demons, humor, and heart. The show, Dead End: Paranormal Park, has become the latest target in the culture wars after right-wing figures accused Netflix of “indoctrination” and demanded boycotts.
The uproar began when Libs of TikTok highlighted clips from the show and resurfaced old social media posts from creator Hamish Steele. Elon Musk quickly jumped into the fray, calling Steele a “groomer” in a post on X, which sent the outrage machine into overdrive. Within hours, MAGA influencers were flooding X with posts declaring their cancellation of the streaming service and blasting it as “woke garbage.”
“Who actually watches Netflix at this point?” conservative commentator Nick Sortor posted. “It’s a bunch of woke garbage. Is it a bunch of chronically unemployed leftists in LA or something?” Another influencer, Gunther Eagleman, simply wrote, “Cancel Netflix,” as screenshots of canceled subscriptions began circulating online.
For those unfamiliar, Dead End: Paranormal Park isn’t a new release. The series premiered on Netflix in June 2022, released a second season later that year, and was canceled in early 2023. It’s based on Hamish Steele’s graphic novel series DeadEndia and has built a small but devoted fanbase for its mix of queer representation, supernatural adventures, and humor.
The show follows Barney, a gay transgender teenager who takes a job at Phoenix Parks, a haunted theme park, to escape his difficult home life. Alongside his best friend Norma, a Pakistani-American teen with anxiety, and his talking pug Pugsley, Barney faces off against demons and supernatural villains while navigating friendship, identity, and growing up. Barney is voiced by Zach Barack, a transgender actor, and the show openly explores LGBTQ themes in a way that has resonated with many viewers.
Critics of the boycott point out that Dead End: Paranormal Park is hardly radical, describing it as a lighthearted, Scooby-Doo-style adventure with a modern twist. Parents who supported the show praised it for offering positive representation while still delivering spooky, kid-friendly fun. But for many on the right, the inclusion of a transgender protagonist was enough to trigger calls for a boycott.
The outrage escalated further when Libs of TikTok resurfaced old social media posts allegedly showing Steele mocking conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s death. Steele has denied celebrating anyone’s death, but the renewed focus on those posts gave Musk and others more ammunition to attack both Steele and Netflix.
Ironically, the show has already been canceled by Netflix, but that hasn’t stopped it from being thrust into the center of a political firestorm in 2025. For MAGA influencers, the fight isn’t really about Dead End: Paranormal Park itself; it’s about using it as a symbol in the larger battle over cultural representation in media.
What started as a show about friendship and fighting demons has turned into a proxy war over identity politics, streaming platforms, and who gets to shape kids’ entertainment. And for Netflix, this isn’t the first time its programming has sparked a political uproar, and it almost certainly won’t be the last.
