Rob Long explains:

For decades, comedy writers have puzzled over a mystery: Why is Mickey Mouse more famous than Bugs Bunny? Mickey isn’t funny or interesting. He cannot produce an anvil or a Carmen Miranda hat out of the air. All in all, his “good mouse” act is a toothless, nice-guy bore. ... And yet Mickey is the superstar, while Bugs is the comic character actor. Mickey is nice. Bugs is funny. You cannot, obviously, be both. ... A truly great parody—in the grand Bugs Bunny tradition—is an arrow aimed straight at the puffed-up and smug, gently but firmly mean-spirited.

What about Mickey's awesome corporate power?