Overshadowed by Controversy: Difference between revisions

 

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* The ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' episode "Dennō Senshi Porigon", more commonly referred to as "Electric Soldier Porygon", went down in history as the anime episode that led to over 600 Japanese children being hospitalised for seizures and resulted in regulations imposed on subsequent animated programmes. The controversy [[Misblamed|extended]] to Porygon itself, even though the species, an artificial Pokémon developed using programming code, ''had nothing to do with the incident at all''; the flashing pattern was due to an exploding missile detonated by Pikachu's lightning attack. Regardless, Porygon has never been featured in any anime episode since.

* [[4Kids! Entertainment]] is more infamous for their numerous unnecessary changes to the anime series they localised, often bordering on [[Macekre]]. Not to mention that 4Kids! half-heartedly attempts to make the series more appealing to Western audiences by removing any traces of Japanese culture from their source materials.

* Nobuhiro Watsuki's fame as the writer behind the manga and anime series ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'' turned to infamy when police raided his home and found DVDs containing [[Paedo Hunt|child pornography]] in his office. Watsuki would return to pen the manga after paying a fine, with both his and the series' reputation tainted greatly as a result of his sexual deviancy (likely combined with his punishment amounting to a slap on the wrist in the eyes of many).<ref>[https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/11/22/national/crime-legal/rurouni-kenshin-cartoonist-referred-prosecutors-possession-child-porn/#.WhYziNSLRIc 'Rurouni Kenshin' cartoonist referred to prosecutors over possession of child porn]</ref>

 

* ''[[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.

* The 1946 Disney film ''[[Song of the South]]'' based on the equally controversial ''Uncle Remus'' stories became better known for its racist caricatures of black people in a plantation than for "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah", the film's animated sequences and Splash Mountain. Such was the film's notoriety that Disney, in an effort to maintain its family-friendly image, wanted little or nothing to do with the film. It permanently locked it up the Disney vault as well as outright declining to release it on their Disney+ service; said animated portions from the film were however made available in their ''Disney Sing-Along Songs'' releases, and the film as a whole is released on home video in various European and Asian countries. The controversy also spilled over (pun not intended) to the [[Splash Mountain]] ride, which will be retooled into a ''[[Princess and The Frog]]''-themed ride amid the George Floyd protests as many have came to view the ride's theme to be of poor taste in light of civil rights and racism controversies.

 

* ''[[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 (even though it has also been used in a legitimate, non-paedophilic context e.g. those so-called "[[Elegant Gothic Lolita|Lolita fashions]]" popular with some cosplayers); [[Google]] won't auto-complete them if you try to search for those terms, and would attempt to block out anything remotely resembling paedophilia, occasionally warning users that such content can and will land them a jail sentence. [[TV Tropes]] reflexively banned it in counterfeit moral outrage during their [[Think of the Advertisers!|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. It also didn't help that the underground Tor site ''Lolita City'', which was seized by the FBI for hosting child pornography, was named after the novel.

* ''[[Uncle Tom's Cabin]]'' had an ongoing 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. At the time of release, the outrage was from the Confederacy side because of the very overt anti-slavery theme of the book; on years after the war, the controversy was because of the belief that the book was actually racist instead of [[Fair for Its Day]] on its condemnation of slavery, not helped by actually racist creators using the names of the black characters from the book to name [[Uncle Tomfoolery|Afro-American characters who acted silly and subservient to whites]] in [[Minstrel Shows]] when the book characters were not like that.

 

* Most people associate ''[[Toddlers and Tiaras]]'' with the arguably [[wikipedia:Child beauty pageant#Criticism|exploitative and creepy nature]] of child beauty pageants (said controversies have led France to [[Banned in China|ban]] beauty contests for minors under 13). The episode where one child contestant was made to dress up like [[Julia Roberts]]' [[Squick|prostitute]] character in ''[[Pretty Woman]]'' unsurprisingly courted controversy, and so does the case of one stage mum making her young daughter's chest resemble that of [[Dolly Parton]] and another mother asking her daughter to smoke fake cigarettes on stage.

** Perhaps the best known of these contestants was Alana Thompson, who went under the stage name Honey Boo Boo and eventually was the subject of the [[Reality Show]] ''[[Here Comes Honey Boo-Boo]]''. On top of what amounts to abusive practices on part of her mother such as feeding her with "Go-Go Juice" – an [[Gargle Blaster|unhealthy cocktail of Red Bull and Mountain Dew]] – it was later revealed that Alana's mother, June Shannon, had a relationship with a convicted [[Paedo Hunt|sex offender]] Mark McDaniel, which led to ''Here Comes Honey Boo-Boo'' being cancelled. Alana and her mother's notoriety as ''Toddlers'' participants and in their own spin-off show also earned them [[Snark Bait]] status, often becoming the butt of parodies such as those in ''[[South Park]]'' and internet memes, portraying them as low-brow, white trash scum as a commentary on reality television and what went wrong with American society.

* For a while, Peruvian talk show Laura Bozzo was just as known for the trashy talk shows she hosted (which was often compared to Springer's) as she was for her legal problems, because she was accused of being part of a corruption network during Alberto Fujimori's government and being closely associated with Vladimir Montesinos, Fujimori's infamous main assessor.

 

* 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 [[Values Dissonance|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.

* [[Marilyn Manson]] is arguably one of the most controversial artists of all time, largely due to his no-holds-barred, shock rocker stage persona. Manson, born Brian Hugh Warner, gained notoriety for what advocacy groups called as anti-religious, [[Hollywood Satanism|satanic]] and/or sexually explicit music, as well as the Manson band's outlandish behaviour on- and off-stage. These concerns crystallised in the late 90s when Manson and his band was implicated in the [[Columbine]] massacre, where conservatives blamed the band and their music as a corrupting influence on the youth and accused them of inciting youths to hate and discord, and sensationalist news outlets cashed in on the tragedy through headlines such as "Killers Worshipped Rock Freak Manson" and "Devil-Worshipping Maniac Told Kids To Kill"; the Columbine shooters reportedly ''hated'' Manson, however and dismissed them as a sell-out and a poseur, instead preferring [[KMFDM]] and [[Rammstein]] which the killers ''did'' listen to. Mounting pressure from [[Moral Guardians]] forced Manson to cancel their tours during the time, though he maintained that music, movies, books or video games were not to blame. He later wrote an op-ed piece for ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' called "Columbine: Whose Fault Is It?", accusing the mainstream media of being irresponsible for giving undue weight to coverage of violent events all for the sake of TV ratings and commercials while overlooking genuine societal issues, and condemning America's gun obsession as well as the National Rifle Association's influence on the government.

* Another musician associated with Trump and the Republican Party, [[Ted Nugent]] is a psychedelic rock and hard rock musician known less for his music than his controversial views and misogyny; it seems he never met a right-wing controversy he wouldn't promote. Although, this is indeed reflected in his music, including some notorious songs that portray rape and statutory rape in a positive light. He has so many albums with [[Contemptible Cover]]s that [https://www.houstonpress.com/music/ted-nugents-top-10-tasteless-album-covers-6782331 at least one newspaper] was able to compile a top 10 list of them. (Be warned, this link has no illustrations, but looking up the covers may require Brain Bleach.) A gun rights activist, he has spoken out against the survivors of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting who became gun control activists, calling them "mushy brained children" and stating that "the evidence is irrefutable: They have no soul.” He has been in trouble for poaching more than once, is believed to hold [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canned_hunt “canned hunts”] on his own estate, referred to Heidi Prescott of the Fund for Animals as a "worthless whore" and a "shallow slut", asking "who needs to club a seal, when you can club Heidi?" (This resulted in a lawsuit ruled in Prescott’s favor where he was ordered to pay $75K in damages.) A staunch conservative and [[Conspiracy Theorist]], he claimed President [[Barack Obama]] and his Secretary of State [[Hillary Clinton]], "should be tried for treason & hung”. Among other attacks directed at the, he shared a video of Facebook with depiction of Clinton being shot by her 2016 Democratic presidential primary opponent, Bernie Sanders, commenting "I got your guncontrol [sic] right here bitch.” (At least one of these comments also got him in hot water with the Secret Service, and caused Fort Knox to cancel one of his concerts scheduled to be held there.) Recently (as of 2020) he claimed the [[COVID-19 pandemic]] was a hoax and a lie, recanting this opinion only after ''testing positive for it himself'' in April of 2021.

* The Welsh metal band [[Lostprophets]] saw its reputation plummet to the ground when former lead vocalist Ian Watkins was charged with possession of child pornography and attempted rape of an ''infant'' in 2012. As a result of this disturbing felony, not only were the band's works pulled from circulation, the remaining members left the group as [[Old Shame|they wanted nothing to do]] with Watkins, later reforming as [[No Devotion]]. The ensuing controversy spilled over to the pop band [[Steps]] when a member [[Name's the Same|whose name is also Ian Watkins]] (though he goes by the stage name "H") was mistaken for the now-disgraced Lostprophets vocalist and began receiving hate mail from those who blindly accused him of paedophilia as a result of his name.

 

== Toys ==

* The Entertech line of water guns boasted "The look! The feel! The sound, so real!" on their commercials in reference to its close resemblance to actual firearms, on top of them being far more powerful than the cheap hand-powered squirt guns played by children. While not the first toy guns to closely replicate their real-life counterparts, this selling point unfortunately led to its scandalous downfall, no thanks to highly publicised incidents of children getting shot and killed by police officers who mistook the Entertech toys for actual guns, as well as real criminals utilising Entertech guns in bank robberies. This led legislators to impose stricter rules on the manufacture and sale of toy weapons, specifically the Federal Toy Gun Law requiring them to be visually distinct from real guns by giving them a blaze orange colour. This controversy spilled over (pun not intended) to the NES Zapper, which while made to more closely resemble a ''[[Star Wars]]''-esque futuristic blaster gun than an actual pistol to begin with when it was first released to coincide with the NES's North American debut in 1985, was re-released in 1989 with an orange colour scheme to comply with federal gun safety laws.

 

* ''[[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 exploiting the 7800's graphical capabilities to display more realistic smut.

** The developers of the game even tried to release a new [[Perspective Flip]] version of the game with Custer as the victim, only to find two wrongs ''definitely'' did not make it right.

* Due to [[Values Dissonance]] over the portrayal of teenagers in Japan compared to in the West (e.g. age of consent and [[Ephebophilia]] concerns), the 2011 [[Nintendo 3DS]] game ''[[Dead or Alive (franchise)|Dead or Alive:]] [[Super Title 64 Advance|Dimensions]]'' courted controversy in Scandinavia when a Swedish internet user pointed out that three of the characters in the game, namely Kasumi, Koroke and Ayane, are under the age of 18, and the game's photo mode allowed any character–including the ones in question–to be viewed from any angle, even those considered lascivious. As such, ''Dimensions'' wasn't released in Sweden and other Scandinavian countries, and had its PG age rating revoked in Australia, only for Nintendo to re-submit the game and was granted an M rating instead.

 

* ''[[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!"

* ''[[Any Bonds Today?]]'' was a 1942 [[Propaganda Piece|propaganda film]] commissioned by the United States Department of the Treasury to Warner Bros.; it would later be known more for its [[Values Dissonance]] in the form of Bugs Bunny donning a blackface than the film encouraging Americans at the time to buy war bonds and contribute to the Allied military effort.

* [[Looney Tunes]] character Pepé Le Pew gained notoriety in recent years as his dogged pursuit of love–to which other characters express revulsion largely due to his unpleasant odour–did not age well with modern audiences who viewed Pepé's actions as "normalising rape culture". Linda Jones-Clough, daughter of Pepé's creator [[Chuck Jones]], disagrees with the contemporary assessment however, as she opined that in no way was Chuck Jones intent on depicting a sexual predator, but to poke fun as screenwriter Tedd Pierce's "ladies' man" status and his then-lack of success with romancing women at the time. Nonetheless, Warner Bros. announced that Pepé had been cut from ''[[Space Jam A New Legacy]]'', and would no longer be included in its current Looney Tunes roster.

 

* A particular style of shoe sold by C. & J. Clark, one of the largest shoe manufacturing firms in the UK, became this<ref>[https://www.bbc.com/news/business-40916607 Clarks in sexism row over Dolly Babe girls' shoe - BBC News]</ref> when an angry mother made a rant not just about how easily worn out the "Dolly Babe" Mary Jane school shoes were, but the [[Political Correctness Gone Mad|shoes' name itself]] being "sexist" and "promoting gender stereotypes" with its [[All Women Love Shoes|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<ref>[https://www.charlesclinkard.co.uk/girls-c23/school-shoes-c71/cla-dolly-babe-jnr-p23607 Clarks Movello Lo Junior Girls School Shoes]</ref> the style [[Same Face, Different Name|under the name]] "Movello Lo"<ref>[https://www.mumzworld.com/en/clarks-movello-lo Clarks - Movello Lo]</ref> 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. It's not that Clarks hasn't come up with anything appealing to girls in recent years though, like the "Etch Bright" shoes for girls with its sparkly purple insole and star accents,<ref>[https://www.clarks.co.uk/c/Etch-Bright-Kid/p/26151125 Etch Bright Kid Black Patent]</ref> or the "Sea Shimmer" Mary Janes with a prominent mermaid theme,<ref>[https://www.clarks.co.uk/c/Sea-Shimmer-Kid/p/26155543 Sea Shimmer Kid Black Patent]</ref> but by then people may have forgotten about the sexism row with the shoemaker and moved on to the next scapegoat.

** British supermarket chain Tesco wasn't spared from a similar controversy either, when a range of school shoes got slammed by a teacher<ref>[https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-4777936/Teacher-slams-Tesco-selling-sexist-school-shoes.html Teacher slams Tesco for selling 'sexist' school shoes]</ref> for its alleged use of gender stereotypes most especially the "sensitive soles" on the girls' shoes with a pink butterfly design on the soles in question. Surprising they didn't take their aim at Italian children's footwear brand Lelli Kelly for selling girls' shoes with gaudy and flamboyantly feminine, if not infantile, designs, which has become something of a [[Snark Bait|running joke]] for those in the UK who have been subjected to cringe-worthy commercials promoting said brand.

* Wernher von Braun remains a polarising figure in the aerospace industry, as while his contributions to space engineering and rocket science are of no small matter, such as being the principal architect of the Saturn V super heavy-lift launch vehicle that propelled the Apollo spacecraft to the Moon, his association with the Nazis (of whom he developed the V-2 rocket for), particularly the SS, was something he couldn't easily shake off even after his death. One science- and engineering-oriented Gymnasium in Friedberg, Bavaria was renamed in response to calls for von Braun's name to be removed, especially in 2012 when a concentration camp survivor named David Salz denounced von Braun and called for the school to "do everything to make this name disappear from this school". Though to von Braun's credit, he explained that he defected to the Americans instead of the Soviets as a result of his desire to share his knowledge of rocket science to those who followed the [[Bible]], perhaps in atonement for what he did with the V-2.

* McDonalds's former mascot "Mac Tonight", used in the 1980s to increase dinner sales in California branches, now became infamous as a symbol co-opted by the far right for its series of racist memes advocating racism, white supremacy, antisemitism, neo-Nazism, terrorism, race war and genocide, after being previously satirised on the humour website [[YTMND]].

 

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