Mickey Mouse Slicing Bread Thinly

Submission 5,307

Part of a series on Reaction Images. [View Related Entries]

About

Mickey Mouse Slicing Bread Thinly refers to an exploitable reaction image and video of Mickey Mouse slicing a loaf of bread so thin that it's transparent on his knife and serving it to Goofy. The clip comes from the 1947 animated short parody Mickey and the Beanstalk and became the subject of memes as early as 2014 on Reddit, becoming increasingly popular over the following years through image macros to convey poverty or greed in a comedic way.

Origin

In 1947, the animated short Mickey and the Beanstalk was released, a parody of the story of Jack and the Beanstalk featuring the characters Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy. In one scene, a starving Mickey slices a loaf of bread so thin that it appears transparent on his knife and flutters down to Goofy's plate when Mickey serves him in an attempt to make the loaf last longer (shown below).^[1]^[2]

On March 22nd, 2014, Redditor u/PizzaRehab posted a GIF of the scene to /r/funny,^[3] titling the post, "Being on a diet," garnering over 2,800 upvotes in nine years (shown below). This is the earliest known meme to use the scene.

Spread

The video became increasingly popular as a meme over the following years. On October 23rd, 2018, X^[4] user @jcl_prproj posted the GIF under a caption reading, "Me: 'Let’s get this bread!' My employer:," garnering over 212,000 likes in five years (shown below). On December 19th, X^[5] user @Gingerhazing posted, "Everyone in the world knows that shot from the Mickey Mouse Jack and the Beanstalk where they slice off a thin piece of bread and it’s transparent. We’re born with it in our souls," garnering over 7,600 likes in the same span of time.

On October 6th, 2019, Redditor u/MyNameGifOreilly posted a video to /r/gifsthatkeepongiving,^[6] seemingly originally by now-deleted TikToker @_fanfandashun, showing someone recreating the scene, garnering over 68,100 upvotes in four years (reupload shown below). On May 30th, 2020, the original scene was uploaded to /r/oddlysatisfying,^[7] garnering over 1,600 upvotes in three years.

On August 23rd, 2022, X^[8] user @JomiAdeniran posted a meme using an image from the scene about proposed student loan forgiveness in the U.S., garnering over 3,300 likes in a year (shown below, left). On November 24th, u/XFalzar posted a version of the meme to /r/whenthe^[9] captioned, "Shigeru Miyamoto's family after I pirate a 30 year old game," referencing Nintendo's tendency to crack down on piracy, garnering over 47,500 upvotes in a year (shown below, right).

On October 25th, 2023, X^[10] user @ShitpostGate posted a version of the meme ironically portraying people who went to trade school instead of gender studies as living in poverty, garnering over 34,000 likes in a day (shown below).