--- title: My Little Pony Funny or Die parody explains income inequality description: The real world's a little darker than Ponyland canonical: https://time.com/3534295/my-little-pony-parody-income-inequality/ author: Eliza Berman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-23T18:50:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:56:12.119Z og:title: This 'My Little Pony' Parody Explains Income Inequality og:description: The real world's a little darker than Ponyland og:url: https://time.com/3534295/my-little-pony-parody-income-inequality/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This 'My Little Pony' Parody Explains Income Inequality twitter:description: The real world's a little darker than Ponyland twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # This 'My Little Pony' Parody Explains Income Inequality > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement.  by [Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Oct 23, 2014 6:50 PM UTC  by [Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Oct 23, 2014 6:50 PM UTC In a typical episode of the 1980s cartoon _My Little Pony_, Flutter Ponies and Baby Sea Ponies work together to defeat the evil magicians and sinister woodland creatures that seek to disrupt their cheerful way of life. But unlike the goblins and trolls that plagued Ponyland, rising inequality in the U.S. is very real and, in the words of a new Funny or Die parody video, “the crucial political and economic challenge of our age.” “The Unbelievably Sweet Alpacas” is the brainchild of director Adam McKay, co-founder of Funny or Die and co-writer of movies like _Anchorman_ and _Talladega Nights_. McKay was enlisted by the [We the Economy](https://wetheeconomy.com/) project, which seeks to “drive awareness and establish a better understanding of the U.S. economy” through a diverse collection of 20 short films. In the six-minute animated video, three alpacas, voiced by Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph and Sarah Silverman, visit the lollipop factory to receive their job assignments after graduation. What they find at the factory stands in stark contrast to the theme song in the opening credits, which suggests that if you “just do your best and play by the rules, you’ll have social mobility, Porsches and jewels.” Instead, the alpacas find that nepotism, uneven access to quality education, market forces and government regulations have more to do with job prospects than good old work ethic. The video’s use of a simple allows for a simple explanation of the problem, while its satirical bent injects it with an appropriately acerbic tone. “Hey, I just noticed something!” exclaims a lollipop voiced by Billy Eichner. “You three perfectly represent the economic trends of the last 40 years!” This isn’t Funny or Die’s first use of parody to communicate a social message. Back in July, [Kristen Bell starred in a spoof](http://time.com/3030481/kristin-bell-mary-poppins-funny-or-die/) that had Mary Poppins quitting her nanny gig in protest of the too-low minimum wage. As for a solution, raising the minimum wage, both videos hint, would be a good place to start. 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