The Donald Duck ‘Hot Ones’ is great … so why not give credit where it’s due?

Ahead of Donald Duck’s appearance on Hot Ones, the biggest question on the internet’s mind was, “If a duck eats chicken wings, is it cannibalism?” Fortunately, someone thought of this beforehand, and Donald snacked on cauliflower wings.

After the episode dropped on YouTube, a different—and much more serious—question started spreading across social media: Where are the animators’ credits?

That question brought to the forefront something rather peculiar about Hot Ones‘ videos on YouTube. It’s not just the animators. No credits are viewable from the video itself or its YouTube page. There’s no mention of credits in the video description, as is the norm for most YouTube channels. The video itself also lacks end credits. That means it’s not just the animators who aren’t getting credited. The cameramen, the make-up artists, the caterers who absolutely exist … Not even Sean Evans, the host.

The information is available on IMDb—not for the animators, but for the crew. Still, there are no names listed anywhere on the video.

A pivotal moment for animators

The call for the animators to be credited for Donald Duck’s Hot Ones appearance doesn’t come in a bubble. We’re currently in a critical moment for the animation industry. The Animation Guild (TAG) recently began negotiations for a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) on August 12. If they fall through, a strike feels inevitable.

The animation industry in the U.S. is rough at the moment. There’s massive unemployment as companies shutter studios, the threat of AI replacing these workers, and companies canceling or “disappearing” animated content at a rapid clip. So these negotiations are critical. To get a sense of how the industry is currently faring in the U.S., did you know that Cartoon Network, as we knew it in our childhoods, is effectively dead? Its studios were shut down, and its website no longer exists—it now redirects to Max.

This is the environment in which people are calling for the animators to be credited for the Hot Ones episode. It’s a huge resume boost, for one—which is incredibly helpful during a time of massive unemployment in the industry. Furthermore, the episode looks fantastic, and I want to know who to praise. Making an animated duck eat a real cauliflower wing is hard work.

If people are worried about shattering the illusion that Donald Duck was there, perhaps a compromise is to be cute about it. You could credit Donald’s “makeup artist,” “wardrobe consultant,” and/or “hair dresser.” But the bottom line is that people should be credited for their work.