4Kids Entertainment is one of the main themes that the series makes fun of. Early in the series a running joke was to mock the horrible dubbing of the actual Yu-Gi-Oh! series. In Season 2 4Kids was the real antagonist directly acting against the characters. Throughout the series the characters believe 4Kids to be the censor of all things good. One thing that they censor are guns, which cause some characters to think they are using magical invisible guns. Some of the characters such as Marik believe it to be the cruelest and most ruthless organization known to man. In Cr@psule Monsters they want to capture Yami for usage in a "crappy spin-off show".
In "Single White Shemale", Marik talks about a prophecy that refers to 4Kids and that they will cause the end of the world. At the end of the episode, it is shown that 4Kids is aware of this prophecy, and that the downfall of Youtube.com is somehow crucial to their plans. In "Final Deathstination", when Yami Bakura says Disney, it is cut to 4Kids. They react to Bakura saying "the forbidden word" (Disney) by thinking about canceling Yu-Gi-Oh. They then say that there were specific instructions from their boss (Noah Kaiba) to not cancel it until the end of Season 2. Everybody stands up and says "Down with Disney! All hail 4Kids!" This may have a relation to the prophecy in episode 37, for Disney being the world's largest media conglomerate and the prey for 4Kids to usurp for when they take over the world.
In "Requiem For A Nyeh", Bakura revealed Melvin was an operative of 4Kids attempting to get the show canceled. In "Melvin'd", the two dueled to determine if the series would be canceled or not. Melvin won, thus "ending" the show. However, the ending to the episode revealed Noah and the Big Five as members of 4Kids planning to move ahead with their plans for Yugi and his friends, setting the six of them up as the villains in Season Three. This is further implied when Noah inquires on what to do about Yugi and his friends and Noah mocking Seto's catchphrase.