Overshadowed by Controversy

There are some well-known works that gathered controversy throughout the years, and there are also famously controversial works in which the controversy, whether rightful or not, would overshadow most other aspects. Which isn't to say that works in the latter category have no other redeeming factor, just that most people would know little else aside from the controversial aspects.

Bad reviews alone do not make a controversial moment, and in fact some works can be well-regarded by critics and those who watched, read or played the work, and not all works listed here are either laughably bad or just downright terrible. Plot-related twists are generally not what makes up the category either, even if such cases are subjective and arguable. The major qualifier is that the works would be known beyond the fans of a particular genre that there's little knowledge of some other parts of a work to the general public.

Controversies can be a result of the following:
 * Moral Guardians (be they politicians or groups)
 * Unfortunate Implications
 * Public cat-fights between the creator and the media, critics, public, or all three (such as Dear Negative Reader rants).
 * Deceptive or offensive marketing

See also Dancing Bear, Just Here for Godzilla, Mainstream Obscurity, and Watch It for the Meme. Compare No Such Thing as Bad Publicity. When a whole genre gets held under controversy, it would become The New Rock and Roll.

Please be cautious about editing this page. It isn't supposed to imply that there's no other redeeming factor for the works on this list.

Film

 * The Brown Bunny is a film known mostly for being booed harshly at the Cannes Film Festival and the subsequent media catfight between Roger Ebert and the director. The film was later Recut and given a wide release, and Ebert gave the recut a three star review.
 * Cannibal Holocaust was notorious to a degree that it forced director Ruggero Deodato and the actors to explain that nobody died in production and the gore was just special effects. There is still a great deal of controversy to this day relating to the cruelty against animals.
 * Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ had sparked protests from religious groups worldwide, including the infamous attack at a Paris cinema where the use of Molotov cocktails injured 13 patrons and brought the theater under heavy repairs for the next three years.
 * Claimed by many to be the reason behind the failure of the 2016 Ghostbusters movie. The combination of Base Breaker premise and the terrible trailer actually hurt the film less than the marketing campaign that tried to make the negative initial reception to be all about mysogyny and the ensuing social media controversy that make people opt out of seeing the film entirely.
 * Despite being a seminal feature film on its own merit, The Birth of a Nation gained notoriety for reviving the Ku Klux Klan in 1915. African-American rights groups such as the NACCP protested the film and called it to be banned for its denigrating portrayal of blacks, though regardless of any hot-button debates the film generated and the monster it indirectly created, the film is still highly regarded by film critics and scholars alike.
 * D.W. Griffith later produced Intolerance in response to said criticisms, though Griffith felt he had nothing to apologize for with the racist portrayals in his earlier epic.

Literature

 * Fanny Hill is well known for having been a subject of obscenity tests and for having been banned in America from inception until a 1966 Supreme Court case ruled that the book has redeeming social value. When it was published in 1748, it got the author arrested on obscenity charges.
 * Lolita is unfortunately more famous for the controversy that surrounds it than the actual content and quality of the novel: Vladimir Nabokov went through many publishers who refused to publish it, and after it was published, it was banned in many places for being "pornographic" or "an instruction manual for paedophilia" (which it is not). Even for people who aren't familiar with the history of the book, a lot of the covers/jackets make it look like erotica. It also gave rise to the term "loli" or "lolicon", which are taboo words in their own right; Google won't auto-complete them if you try to search for those terms, and would attempt to block out anything remotely resembling paedophilia. TV Tropes reflexively banned it in counterfeit moral outrage during their purge of revenue-threatening material after The Second Google Incident, and only restored its page when they realized that leaving it censored was worse for their image than having it on the wiki.
 * The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie is recalled more for the ensuing fatwa declared on the author by the Ayatollah Khomeini, and for the fallout from that incident, than for the novel itself.
 * The Uncle Remus stories are a group of actual fables told by slaves and former slaves in the American South, making them a valuable cultural resource. However, though once popular, they are now nearly unknown. Compiler and editor Joel Chandler Harris' fictional character who tells the stories, Uncle Remus, was written as an elderly ex-slave who was basically content to continue to work for a white family. The implied racism is now almost all that is known of the stories. The fables themselves, taken out of the Remus context, are stories about animals using their wiles to trick each other, and man, in order to survive. Unlike Aesop's fables, they are not meant to be morally instructive, but are a commentary on man resorting to animal-like behaviors in desperate circumstances.
 * Uncle Toms Cabin had a controversy that the publication of this book inspired over slavery, particularly in the years leading up to the American Civil War. However, few people have actually read the book.

Music

 * The Sex Pistols are mostly known for trying to play "God Save The Queen" from a barge during the Queen's Jubilee after being prohibited from playing the song on land. Much of the bad press was intentional.
 * The 1944 song "Baby, It's Cold Outside" was initially a Christmas staple due to its winter setting, only for some modern audiences to view it as trivialising date rape. Said negative reaction was however criticised as an example of Political Correctness Gone Mad, and public consensus has it that the song shouldn't be banned for its (alleged) content.
 * A number of songs gained notoriety for this due to their purported backwards messages. An often-cited example of this was Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" and more recently "Asereje" by Las Ketchup, both being alleged by conservative Christian groups to have sinister messages when played backwards. Some artists actually do this deliberately either to satirise the moral panic as in the case of "Weird Al" Yankovic, or as an Easter Egg.
 * An early example comes from Styx's 1983 album Kilroy Was Here, which advertised that it had back-masked "messages" in its songs -- things like the motto off the Great Seal of the United States.
 * Discussion of Michael Jackson's life and career wouldn't be complete without the tabloid headlines ascribed to him such as his eccentric habits like his pet chimpanzee Bubbles, unfounded rumours of him sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber, and of course the child molestation accusations peppered towards him. Perception of him softened when he died in 2009, with the very same media who made a Butt Monkey of him now revering Jackson as a pop icon and trendsetter. The 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland brought back the paedophiliac accusations against him however, though this was arguably overshadowed with the likes of R. Kelly.
 * Milli Vanilli became better known for the lip-syncing scandal they got caught up with, which utterly destroyed any and all hope for them to make a comeback. The ensuing controversy took its toll on Rob Pilatus, who turned to drugs and crime as a result of mounting pressure from all the negative press they got after they were exposed as frauds and their Grammy was withdrawn.
 * R. Kelly's career was wiped out overnight after reports surfaced of him running a sex cult and engaging in inappropriate affairs with underage girls. Many of Kelly's collaborators such as Lady Gaga, Jay-Z and Céline Dion wanted nothing to do with him, and RCA Records dropped him publicly.

New Media

 * Evony, a browser-based, allegedly free strategy game, is more known for its infamous advertising campaign and false promises of boobs than for anything else. On top of that, the publishers have been accused of plagiarism, spamming and distributing spyware, and they tried to sue a British blogger for libel for pointing it out (which backfired predictably.

Video Games

 * Custer's Revenge was an unauthorized third-party game for the Atari 2600 in 1982. It gathered quite a bit of negative attention, particularly from feminist and Native American groups, as the objective involved raping an Indian woman. From the next generation of consoles onward, manufacturers require approval for games to be released on their machines, enforced by various Copy Protection and Digital Rights Management schemes to lock out unlicensed games. In Atari's case, the Atari 7800 employed a mandatory code signing mechanism where all licensed 7800 games had to be digitally signed by Atari for them to boot, following concerns by Atari about pornographic video game developers abusing the 7800's graphical capabilities to display more realistic smut.
 * Daikatana, aside from its years spent in development hell, picked up controversy over its advertising campaign, which stated that "John Romero's about to make you his bitch." The game has mostly been forgotten aside from the aforementioned campaign and the negative press that brought Romero's development career down with it.
 * The Manhunt series was best known for its premise of being about a convict being forced to take part in snuff films (the gameplay was mostly stealth based, with elements of Survival Horror). The first game was given mixed reviews, with some marking it down for the Gorn and others praising it for its atmosphere, the sequel received average reviews across the board and the series was mostly forgotten. It got to the point that even Rockstar Games employees themselves felt uneasy about the game's subject matter. Former R* employee Jeff Williams stated "there was almost a mutiny at the company over that game", and while it was "Rockstar North's pet project" most Rockstar staffers wanted nothing to do with it; Grand Theft Auto gets a free pass as mass slaughter isn't mandatory to play through the game, and had a somewhat lighter tone to it, being more of a satirical commentary on American society compared to Manhunt's snuff film simulation.
 * The Postal series is well-known for being a common target for Moral Guardians to campaign against video game violence. Footage from Postal 2 was featured in the 2003 Black Eyed Peas protest song "Where Is The Love", implying the band's contempt for media violence.
 * Taking Doom and Mortal Kombat's place as the poster child for video game obscenity controversies is Grand Theft Auto especially in the 2000s when Grand Theft Auto III first came out, though the first game in the series did gain some notoriety in the UK thanks to a PR campaign by Max Clifford (who ironically would be controversial in his own right due to his rather inappropriate interactions with minors). Moral Guardians and authorities alike singled out the game and blamed it for causing real-world violence, which led to bans in a number of countries and certain versions of the games censored to appease ratings bureaus like in Australia and Germany.
 * Vice City attracted racism accusations when Haitian-American groups took umbrage at a mission involving a Cuban-Haitian gang war, the latter serving as the villains. Haitian Centers Council and Haitian Americans for Human Rights staged protests in New York City over complaints about how the game portrayed Haitians in an unflattering right, with the mission "Cannon Fodder" having a genocidal-sounding objective "KILL ALL THE HAITIANS!!" and other dialogue by Umberto Robina expressing grave hatred towards the gang. While Take-Two Interactive argued that the dialogue and objectives should be taken within the context of the game, the company relented and had subsequent releases of the game altered to remove any references to the Haitian gangs.
 * Besides wanton violence, GTA's sexual content also came under intense scrutiny, most notably the (previously) Dummied Out "Hot Coffee" minigame where CJ engages in casual sexual intercourse with a number of women. The minigame, which was discovered and re-enabled by Dutch software engineer Patrick Wildenborg, sparked significant controversy especially in the United States, where now-disbarred lawyer Jack Thompson and senator Hillary Clinton campaigned against the game and called for stringent ESRB regulations.
 * Unsurprisingly, Grand Theft Auto V courted controversy, this time over its portrayal of women and a torture sequence carried out by Trevor Philips to an Azerbaijani individual who is believed to have links with terrorists. Politicans, advocacy groups and even video game journalists deemed the mission in poor taste. Asked about performing the torture sequence, Trevor's actor Steven Ogg said that he treated it like "just another day at the office", and was focused more on not making mistakes during filming than the scene's ethics. The sequence was censored in the Japanese release due to the country having more stringent guidelines. As for the portrayal of women, certain commentators remarked how females were unfairly treated ingame, one of them being GameSpot journalist Carolyn Petit. Adding to the complication was that the game was released at the time when the Gamergate controversy was taking place; the less said about the latter, the better.
 * On top of the series being the butt of numerous controversies and lawsuits, it was reported that series co-writer Dan Houser cited changing sociopolitical attitudes as the reason why he left the company, as he felt increasingly uneasy with satirising modern American society without attracting controversy or offending anyone.
 * Mafia III's social commentary sits right smack in the middle of the civil rights and racism issues the US is facing in recent years, especially with its portrayal of The Klan, Confederate apologists and racist Southeners as Acceptable Targets. Needless to say, said right-wing bigots took to Steam to review-bomb the game.
 * In a similar vein to Postal, Hatred became so reviled by even video game journalists and some gamers that it was initially rejected from Steam due to its gratuitous and no-holds-barred brand of sociopathic violence, only for Gabe Newell to apologise and have it re-listed. Epic Games reportedly sought to disassociate themselves from the issue by requesting to have the Unreal Engine logo removed from marketing material. (While the Unreal series is known for its graphic violence, it is rooted more in science-fiction fantasies rather than real-world apathy towards people.)
 * Night Trap was one of the video games that contributed to the creation of the ESRB ratings in the United States. An infamous bathroom scene in particular was what led to intense Senate hearings with proponents of the ban saying it glorified violence toward women, while many of them admitted they hadn't played the game. In reality the supposedly-offensive scenes were rather mild in comparison to R-rated films, and was done more as a campy tribute to B-movie horror titles. The 25th Anniversary re-release was given a milder T rating as a result.
 * Besides Night Trap, Mortal Kombat was the scapegoat of parents and politicians for its visceral violence and subject matter. Mortal Kombat's digitised sprites based on footage from live actors made for what was at the time photorealistic violence which Encyclopedia Britannica described as "delighted young players but disturbed parents." Both games ultimately served as the catalyst for what is now the Entertainment Software Ratings Board.
 * Doom not only courted controversy for its gore and occult imagery, it also came under fire (pun not intended) for being associated with a number of school shootings in the United States, most notably the Columbine massacre where Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 13 people and injured 24 others. It didn't help that Harris and Klebold were avid players of the game and made WADs themselves (though contrary to sensationalist reports, the "Harris levels" were not at all based on the Columbine High School's layout and did not contain sprites of the school's students and faculty), and that Harris said that the killing would be "like playing Doom", and "it'll be like the LA riots, the Oklahoma bombing, World War II, Vietnam, Duke Nukem and Doom all mixed together", and that his shotgun was "straight out of the game". Upset by the mainstream media's stereotyping of video game players as degenerate youth, the Doom community distanced themselves from the shooters and defended themselves and the game from any sort of direct responsibility. Prominent Doomworld community members Javier "Dukrous" Heredia and Scott "Covaro" Cover both explained their side of the story to news media (in Covaro's case during a round-table talk with Bill and Hillary Clinton), contending that the community is comprised of law-abiding citizens and would not in any way emulate the actions depicted in the games. Much of the controversy concerning Doom has died out though, as the usual moral guardians have moved on to the next scapegoat, despite the recent entries in the series being arguably more visceral.
 * The Atari 2600 game Dragster was a short but sweet game by Activision, which simulated drag racing in as far as what the hardware of the time could muster. It became better remembered in recent years as the game that now-disgraced player Todd Rogers claimed to have a 5.51 second time; subsequent analysis of the game's assembly code and revelations about Rogers' dubious records led Twin Galaxies to permanently ban him from their leaderboards, as well as the Guinness Book of World Records to strip him of his titles.

Western Animation

 * Coonskin, Ralph Bakshi's satirical Blaxploitation reimagining of the Uncle Remus tales. The Rev. Al Sharpton famously criticized the film without even seeing it, saying, "I don't got to see shit; I can smell shit!"

Real Life

 * A particular style of shoe sold by C. & J. Clark, one of the largest shoe manufacturing firms in the UK, became this when an angry mother made a rant not just about how easily worn out the "Dolly Babe" Mary Jane school shoes were, but the shoes' name itself being "sexist" and "promoting gender stereotypes" with its overly feminine design–a lavender heart-print insole and a heart-shaped charm on the toebox. Not helping matters was that the "Dolly Babes" were compared unfavourably to the football-themed "Leader" shoes for boys, also made by the same company. Serious Business ensued, and as a result Clarks issued an apology, stating that it wasn't their intention to offend, and withdrew the shoes in question from sale; they did briefly re-release the style under the name "Movello Lo" presumably to clear out existing inventory, though. They would later commit to designing and selling "gender-neutral" school shoes, which presumably also had a side-effect of being more acceptable in certain schools where dress codes are stringently observed.