diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 4e0f5b9..9832373 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -39,7 +39,6 @@ Suggests:
     curl,
     jsonlite,
     knitr,
-    multicolor,
     rmarkdown,
     testthat
 RoxygenNote: 7.2.3
diff --git a/R/say.r b/R/say.r
index 344f80e..94d47d8 100644
--- a/R/say.r
+++ b/R/say.r
@@ -77,21 +77,6 @@
 #' say()
 #' say("what")
 #' say('time')
-#' 
-#' if (requireNamespace("multicolor", quietly=TRUE) && 
-#' requireNamespace("jsonlite", quietly=TRUE)) {
-#' say("meow", "cat", what_color = "blue")
-#' say('time', "poop", by_color = "cyan", what_color = "pink")
-#'
-#' library(jsonlite)
-#' say("hello world",
-#'     by = "hypnotoad",
-#'     what_color = c("royalblue1", "tomato2"),
-#'     by_color = c("rainbow", "rainbow"))
-#' say("whats up",
-#'     what_color = crayon::cyan$bgMagenta,
-#'     by_color = c("salmon1", "springgreen"))
-#' }
 #'
 #' say("who you callin chicken", "chicken")
 #' say("ain't that some shit", "poop")
@@ -219,8 +204,9 @@ say <- function(what="Hello world!", by="cat",
         c <- crayon::make_style(c)
         out <- c(txt)
       } else if (length(c) >= 1) {
-        out <- multicolor::multi_color(txt, c,
-                                       type = "string")
+        stop("this functionality requires multicolor, which is temporarily not on CRAN")
+        # out <- multicolor::multi_color(txt, c,
+        #                                type = "string")
       }
     }
     return(out)
diff --git a/R/utils.R b/R/utils.R
index 509a2cd..07610d9 100644
--- a/R/utils.R
+++ b/R/utils.R
@@ -6,10 +6,11 @@ check_color <- function(clr) {
   
   if (all(inherits(clr, "character"))) {
     if (length(clr) > 1 || clr == "rainbow") {
-      check4pkg("multicolor")
+      # check4pkg("multicolor")
       
       # Change "rainbow" into roygbiv
-      clr <- multicolor::insert_rainbow(clr)
+      # clr <- multicolor::insert_rainbow(clr)
+      clr <- cowsay_insert_rainbow(clr)
       
       if (!all(is.character(clr))) {
         stop("If color arguments have > length 1, all colors must be of class character",
@@ -19,3 +20,16 @@ check_color <- function(clr) {
   }
   return(clr)
 }
+
+cowsay_insert_rainbow <- function(clr) {
+  if (inherits(clr, "crayon")) {
+    return(clr)
+  }
+  else if (any(clr == "rainbow")) {
+    rb_idx <- which(clr == "rainbow")
+    clr[rb_idx] <- list(c("red", "orange", "yellow", "green",
+      "blue", "purple"))
+    clr <- unlist(clr)
+  }
+  return(clr)
+}
diff --git a/man/say.Rd b/man/say.Rd
index 8a3f7e2..63364ae 100644
--- a/man/say.Rd
+++ b/man/say.Rd
@@ -107,21 +107,6 @@ say()
 say("what")
 say('time')
 
-if (requireNamespace("multicolor", quietly=TRUE) && 
-requireNamespace("jsonlite", quietly=TRUE)) {
-say("meow", "cat", what_color = "blue")
-say('time', "poop", by_color = "cyan", what_color = "pink")
-
-library(jsonlite)
-say("hello world",
-    by = "hypnotoad",
-    what_color = c("royalblue1", "tomato2"),
-    by_color = c("rainbow", "rainbow"))
-say("whats up",
-    what_color = crayon::cyan$bgMagenta,
-    by_color = c("salmon1", "springgreen"))
-}
-
 say("who you callin chicken", "chicken")
 say("ain't that some shit", "poop")
 say("icanhazpdf?", "cat")
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-say.R b/tests/testthat/test-say.R
index f4ac840..cbf35f6 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-say.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-say.R
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ test_that("say types works as expected", {
 })
 
 test_that("say works with multicolor", {
-  skip_if_not_installed("multicolor")
+  # skip_if_not_installed("multicolor")
 
   expect_equal(
     length(suppressMessages(say("foo", by_color = "cyan"))) + 1,
@@ -26,30 +26,33 @@ test_that("say works with multicolor", {
     say(what = "rms", by = "rms", type = "print")
   )
   
-  expect_equal(
-    say(what = "I'm a rare Irish buffalo", 
-        by = "buffalo", 
-        what_color = "pink", 
-        by_color = c("green", "white", "orange")),
-    say(what = "I'm a rare Irish buffalo", 
-        by = "buffalo",
-        type = "print")
-  )
+  # TODO: undo comments when multicolor comes back
+  # expect_equal(
+  #   say(what = "I'm a rare Irish buffalo", 
+  #       by = "buffalo", 
+  #       what_color = "pink", 
+  #       by_color = c("green", "white", "orange")),
+  #   say(what = "I'm a rare Irish buffalo", 
+  #       by = "buffalo",
+  #       type = "print")
+  # )
   
-  expect_equal(
-    say("I'm not dying, you're dying", "yoda",
-        what_color = "green",
-        by_color = colors()),
-    say("I'm not dying, you're dying", "yoda",
-        type = "print")
-  )
+  # TODO: undo comments when multicolor comes back
+  # expect_equal(
+  #   say("I'm not dying, you're dying", "yoda",
+  #       what_color = "green",
+  #       by_color = colors()),
+  #   say("I'm not dying, you're dying", "yoda",
+  #       type = "print")
+  # )
 
-  expect_equal(
-    say("asdfghjkl;'", "chicken",
-          what_color = blue,
-          by_color = c("rainbow", colors()[sample(100, 1)], "rainbow")),
-    say("asdfghjkl;'", "chicken", type = "print")
-  )
+  # TODO: undo comments when multicolor comes back
+  # expect_equal(
+  #   say("asdfghjkl;'", "chicken",
+  #         what_color = blue,
+  #         by_color = c("rainbow", colors()[sample(100, 1)], "rainbow")),
+  #   say("asdfghjkl;'", "chicken", type = "print")
+  # )
 
   skip_if(!crayon::has_color(), message = "Shouldn't fail if colors can't be applied.")
   expect_error(
diff --git a/vignettes/cowsay.Rmd b/vignettes/cowsay.Rmd
index 8497289..015082d 100644
--- a/vignettes/cowsay.Rmd
+++ b/vignettes/cowsay.Rmd
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ vignette: >
 ---
 
 ```{r echo=FALSE}
-has_multicolor <- requireNamespace("multicolor", quietly = TRUE)
+# has_multicolor <- requireNamespace("multicolor", quietly = TRUE)
 knitr::opts_chunk$set(
   comment = "#>",
   collapse = TRUE
@@ -104,68 +104,3 @@ String
 say("hello world", by = "cow", type = "string")
 ```
 
-
-## Add color
-
-```{r eval = has_multicolor}
-library(jsonlite)
-library(multicolor)
-```
-
-
-We rely on the [`crayon`](https://github.com/r-lib/crayon) package for color and the [`multicolor`](https://github.com/aedobbyn/multicolor) package for multiple colors. The arguments you supply to `what_color` and `by_color` can be strings -- either the color name or a hex value -- or a [function of class `crayon`](https://github.com/r-lib/crayon#styles).
-
-
-```{r eval = has_multicolor}
-say(what = "fortune",
-    by = "rabbit",
-    what_color = "#FF4500",
-    by_color = "red")
-```
-
-
-`colors()` are all supported as are any `rgb` values that evaluate to a string. Supplying multiple colors for `what_color` or `by_color` is allowed, as long as they're in a character vector. "rainbow" is also allowed.
-
-```{r eval = has_multicolor}
-# make a vector of animals safe to use on windows in case vignette built on windows
-not_on_windows <- c('shortcat','longcat','fish','signbunny','stretchycat',
-  'anxiouscat','longtailcat','grumpycat','mushroom')
-names_safe <- names(animals)[!names(animals) %in% not_on_windows]
-```
-
-```{r eval = has_multicolor}
-say(what = "fortune", 
-    by = sample(names_safe, 1),
-    what_color = rgb(.1, .2, .3),
-    by_color = sample(colors(), 5),
-    type = "message")
-```
-
-
-```{r eval = has_multicolor}
-say(what = "fortune", 
-    by = sample(names_safe, 1),
-    what_color = rgb(.1, .2, .3),
-    by_color = sample(colors(), 5),
-    type = "message")
-```
-
-`"rainbow"` is the same as `c("red", "orange", "yellow", "green", "blue", "purple")`. Saves you a bit of typing.
-
-```{r eval = has_multicolor}
-say(what = "foobar",
-    by = "shark",
-    what_color = "rainbow",
-    by_color = c("rainbow", "rainbow", "rainbow"))
-```
-
-The main advantage of using `crayon` functions instead of color strings is the ability to combine styles together.
-
-```{r eval = has_multicolor}
-library(crayon)
-
-say(what = "fortune",
-    by = "egret",
-    what_color = bgBlue$white$italic,
-    by_color = bold$green)
-```