Fact Check: Did Cartoon Network air a video of pyramid-masked men abusing babies? Mike Diva's PreBirth controversy explored

Dom Lucre, an X (formerly Twitter) user, posted a video on August 12 and claimed that it depicted babies getting physically abused by men wearing pyramid maks. Lucre wrote that the video was part of a commercial aired on Adult Swim, a programming block broadcast by Cartoon Network on November 12, 2018.

A community note was added to Dom Lucre’s post, stating that the video was from a short film titled PreBirth made by special effect artist and film director Mika Diva. Mike made the short for one of the episodes of Off the Air, a show that was broadcasted on Adult Swim.

The community note further mentioned that Adult Swim originally aired the video sometime during the end of October 2018, but that it was never aired on the children’s block on Cartoon Network. The creator, Mike Diva, posted the video on his YouTube channel on the date mentioned by Lucre.

However, Dom Lucre's claim is somewhat true that the controversial video of pyramid-masked men abusing newborn babies was aired on Cartoon Network, albeit on an adult's programming block.

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Internet users remained divided following the surfacing of a video that showed pyramid-masked men abusing babies

Part of the adult audience who have a knack for surrealism, conceptual art, and visualizations with VFX liked Mike Diva's PreBirth and praised the overall presentation of the video on YouTube. However, some X users found it very disturbing. They criticized the video and even associated Mike's art with satanism, witchcraft, and the Illuminati.

One of the people who commented under Dom Lucre's post on X told him that Adult Swim's content is like this only, which is why this one video should not particularly surprise him.

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Mike Diva's past response to the PreBirth controversy

Back in 2020, the video was shared by some people on X, where they condemned Mike claiming that he promoted art representing witchcraft and babies being mistreated.

Mike Diva responded to the criticism by addressing the critics as "Qanon Karens" and wrote that Adult Swim was trending because these people got infuriated over a video he made about pyramids portrayed as men playing drums using CGI babies. He added that though he was being accused of being a member of the Illuminati, he does not condone using CGI babies to play the drums

Mike Diva's response to "PreBirth" controversy. (Image via Twitter/@mikediva)

Adult Swim also seemed to have addressed the criticism back then. They tweeted that the program gave a "friendly reminder" to the viewers and told them that certain content on Adult Swim might fall under the 'mature' tag which, which some viewers might find unsuitable to watch.

Adult Swim's tweet cautioned viewers. (Image via Twitter/@adultswim)

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Types of shows featured on Adult Swim

Adult Swim typically features stylistically diverse live-action and animated shows, short films, mockumentaries, sketch comedies, syndicated series, and original action series and comedies for the adult audience.

The majority of the shows on this Cartoon Network block are transgressive, aesthetically experimental, surrealist, and improvised in nature. Adult Swim has also teamed up with various studios, which are noted for their productions in shock and absurd comedy.

The adult-oriented programming block airs on Cartoon Network in a separate time slot, i.e., from 7 pm until 6 am ET/PT in the US. Despite its different slots, Adult Swim shows are aired on Cartoon Network, the same channel where children's shows are also aired.

Due to this factor, the airing of PreBirth, where animated babies were being used as musical instruments by those pyramid-masked men, appeared disturbing to many audiences.