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Political Correctness Gone Mad (view source)

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Alternatively, along the same lines, a governmental authority (often a local council) is accused of being over-zealous to the point of parody in trying to avoid offense to minority groups - not unlike the [[Culture Police]] but in the other direction. [[Kotobagari|Certain words or phrases are said to have been "banned"]], as if Chipping Sodbury Borough Council has any effective power over the English Language or, indeed, ''anything''.
 
[[Politically -Correct History]] is a specific variant where [[Common Knowledge]] historical accounts are treated as [[Fanon]] to avoid [[Unfortunate Implications]] such as [[Values Dissonance]] or having to explain [[Aluminum Christmas Trees]].
 
Usually, a range of urban myths are presented as examples of [[Political Correctness Gone Mad]], such as ...
* Blackboards in school being renamed "Chalkboards" to avoid offending black people. A lot of them are green, which would be a much more logical reason to change the name. The marker variant, called a "Whiteboard", remains untouched. (Although, some do call them "Wipeboards", [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin|as you can wipe the writing off.]])
* Some schools having a "holiday tree" every [[You Mean "Xmas"|"Winter Holiday Season,"]] or even more drastic...
* City councils banning Christmas to avoid offending Jews, Muslims, Pagans, and other religious/non-religious folk<ref>This is perpetuated by [[Daily Mail]] and [[The Sun]] newspapers but has, in fact, never happened.</ref>
* Manholes being renamed "Personnel Access Units" [[Freud Was Right|to avoid offending women.]]
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All of this is especially ironic, considering that Political Correctness took on its contemporary meaning when the radical left began using it as a [[Self-Deprecation|self-aware joke]] about the intrusion of Academic (the capital "A" ''is'' required) feminist and socialist argot into their everyday lives. Expect most of those invoking [[Mars and Venus Gender Contrast]] to imply, if not state outright, that they're taking a brave stand against this trope in the name of [[Truth in Television]].
 
A slightly more realistic example is the occasional habit of making up false etymologies for innocuous phrases that supposedly have "unenlightened" origins. For example the claim that [http://www.snopes.com/language/offense/crowbar.asp crowbars] were so named after the "Jim Crow" character and came from their use by slaves <ref>It predates the use of "Jim Crow" as a slur by centuries and comes from the phrase "crow's foot bar" which itself came from its shape.</ref>. "Xmas" is another common target by those decrying the [[You Mean "Xmas"|"taking Christ out of Christmas."]] Xmas as a term dates back over a thousand years; the "X" comes from the Greek letter "Chi", which was the first letter in the Greek word for "Christ". [[Song of the South|"Tar baby"]] is an especially unfortunate victim, since it originated in an African-American folktale, and since became a common expression for [[Artifact of Attraction|"an attractive nuisance"]] or [[Sticky Situation|"a sticky problem"]].
 
Parodies typically involve stylized [[Newspeak]] used in random areas the original does not cover as well as blatant [[Windmill|Windmills]].
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* The majority of comic books in the mid 50's suffered a lot from this, with the [[Comics Code|Comics Code Authority]]. After [[Moral Guardian]] Fredric Wertham published his book on "Seduction of the Innocent", public reaction was so strong it led to the founding of the CCA. Their job was to pre-approve every comic book before release. The topics banned were such that many genres became obsolete, in particular the horror and action genres. [[Donald Duck]] had to wear a shirt even when swimming, or a towel when he was out of the shower, even though he is uncovered below the waist at all other times. Amongst the banned themes were blood, mortal danger, [[Red Scare|communism, Russians]], [[Reptiles Are Abhorrent|snakes]] and more. This period has left its stamp forever and even today comics retain some of these policies.
* Marvel Comics stopped working with the Comics Code Authority for a while after they refused to approve an anti-drug comic on the basis that the comic had drugs in it.<ref>something similar to the ''Der Fuhrer's Face'' fiasco, seeing as you have to show something if you want to say it's wrong.</ref> Something the government would have done nothing about because it was ''their idea''.
* [[Marvel Comics]]' [[Black Panther]] once changed his name to "Black Leopard" to avoid association with the actual [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Panthers:Black Panthers|Black Panthers]]. Of course, this was in 1972, when the latter were active, but still. It was changed back very quickly because in the Marvel Universe the Black Panther is a name that goes back ''centuries'' and BP pointed out that he wasn't going to let himself be defined by a group of people he disagreed with anyway.
* After [[Infinite Crisis]], the [[DC Comics]] Christmas one shot was going to be named "Infinite Christmas". It was solicited and advertised as such, but when it actually came out it was called "Infinite Holiday", pretty much eradicating the original pun.
* In the Uncanny X-Men graphic novel ''God Loves, Man Kills'', Kitty's dance teacher Stevie Hunter attempts to keep Kitty from beating up a boy who'd called her a "mutie lover" (not knowing that Kitty herself was a mutant), by telling Kitty that "they're just words." Kitty immediately throws Stevie's seeming hypocrisy in her face, asking her if she'd be so calm had the boy called Kitty a "nigger lover." This is the second time Kitty has used the [[Berserk Button|N-word]] to highlight hypocrisy and Xenophobia. Both examples got a lot of flak and continue to do so, where a number of readers objected to the use of the word ''even if it was to make a point about tolerance''. (Admittedly, part of said objections were disquiet with explicitly equating fictional prejudice and fictional slurs with real-life prejudice and real life slurs, instead of leaving them in the realm of subtext.)
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== Video Games ==
* The [[Pokémon]] Jynx was originally designed with black "skin" and is based on a combination of a Japanese spirit called a [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Yama-uba yama-uba] and [http[wikipedia://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganguro |ganguro women]]. A woman named Carole Boston Weatherford complained about Jynx's racial offensiveness since they resemble the golliwog, a racist caricature, so Jynx has since been redesigned to be purple. Complaints about the changes still persist.
* Players of ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' used to be able to get a pet Maine Coon cat until a small but extremely vocal group of players whined to have it removed. When other players pointed out that Maine Coon was a ''real life'' breed of cat and not racist in any way (they're so big legend has it the breed was created by interbreeding with raccoons), the other side refused to admit defeat and instead pointed out that "There's no Maine in Azeroth!" End result, the pet was renamed and is now a Black Tabby. (note: it ''never'' looked like a Maine Coon even before the change, so it was an odd choice of name in the first place. Probably NOT why people complained about it, though)
** The developers also "[[Executive Meddling|chose]]" to change the name of the weapon "The Nicker" to "The Blackrock Slicer" because the former name was [[Mondegreen|enough]] to create a hurricane of racist jokes among the vocal and stupid members of the community. Originally it was called that because it was a two-handed battle axe with a blade in the shape of an oversized razor blade; the joke being that getting cut with it was like nicking yourself shaving, only much worse.
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== Web Examples ==
 
* In 2010, Microsoft banned someone from [[X Box]] Live because he (truthfully) identified his home location as Fort Gay, West Virginia ([http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Gay:Fort Gay,_West_Virginia West Virginia|the town's actual name]]). Fortunately, they retracted the ban after the town representatives spoke up. They also banned someone for entering "Dick Wood" into the name field of their [[X Box]] Live account. His name is, in fact, Richard Wood. No word on if they ever rescinded the ban, or if he's just barred from their service because they find his name objectionable.
* Some of the examples on the pages for [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop]], [[Unfortunate Implications]], and other related tropes can dip into this when people start reading too deeply into things. [[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgment|Please don't list anything specific, alright]]?
* The online comics community scans_daily is probably more famed for this than for anything else, with a long list of rules that is dedicated almost solely to how not to offend anybody (and thus get banned), with the rules for posting comics as almost an afterthought.
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* Due to multiple unfortunate coincidences, Derpy's original portrayal in the ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' episode [[My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic (Animation)/Recap/S2 E14 The Last Roundup|"The Last Roundup"]] unintentionally ended up being easy to see as being offensive. Due to complaints after it aired, the episode was [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2CRjPO73Dg given] an [[Orwellian Retcon]]: Rainbow Dash uses a less harsh tone of voice with Derpy, [[All There in The Script|Derpy's name isn't mentioned]], Derpy's eyes are less googly, and [[The Other Darrin|Derpy has a different voice]]. Even more people complained, and there were everything from petitions to open letters just to try and undo changes to one minute's worth of footage in this single episode.
** When the show's Canadian broadcaster [[Treehouse TV]] airs the episodes [[My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic (Animation)/Recap/S1 E6 Boast Busters|"Boast Busters"]], "[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)/Recap/S1 E12 Call of the Cutie|"Call of the Cutie"]], and [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)/Recap/S1 E25 Party of One|"Party of One"]], all instances of the word "loser" are [http://img705.imageshack.us/flvplayer.swf?f=Mxz5 replaced] with [[This Trope Is Bleep|silence]]. For older viewers, this has the opposite effect of its obvious censorship intentions, since it leads them to mentally insert a derogatory word of choice automatically when they don't hear the actual (rather benign) word.
* Disney's ''[[Pocahontas]]'' is often accused of this, but it actually wasn't that bad - although it did feature a ''very'' bowdlerized [[Politically -Correct History]] (albeit with a [[Politically-Incorrect Villain]]), for a story that claims to be based on real events.
 
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* The main schtick of Dean Pelton on ''[[Community (TV)|Community]]'' (aside from being not-so [[Ambiguously Gay]]) is going overboard with political correctness. In the first Christmas episode he wishes people a "Merry Happy" and in the second, the college has designated "religious expression zones" with Christmas trees and menorahs cordoned off with yellow tape.
** In an attempt to create a school mascot with no features anyone could identify as stereotypically of a specific race, they ended up with a grey skinned, [[Uncanny Valley]] dwelling horror known as the "Greendale Human Being."
* In the ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' new series episode "The Shakespeare Code", [[William Shakespeare]] tries to hit on Martha, but ends up offending her when he calls her a "gorgeous Blackamoor lady". In response to this, the Doctor explains to him that she comes from a fictitious "[[Marx Brothers|Freedonia]]" involving a lot of [[Political Correctness Gone Mad]].
* One [[Saturday Night Live (TV)|MacGruber]] skit involved MacGruber being sent to learn about being racially sensitive after accidentally insulting an assistant, an African-American guy. MacGruber takes it so much to heart, he can't even say the names of ''colors'' like black or yellow (an insulting name for Asian people). Unfortunately, [[It Got Worse|that's not the end of it.]]
* ''[[Almost Live]]'' did a lot of good-natured sending up of political correctness, especially as it related to Seattle's liberal reputation and culture. One such [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udxh5mPsZw4 sketch is linked here].
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* In the first ''[[Harry Potter (Literature)|Harry Potter]]'' book, Uncle Vernon is presented as a ''Mail'' reader and makes some comments indicating a reactionary viewpoint.
* In the book version of ''[[Layer Cake]]'', one chapter shows the protagonist at a barbershop with his con artist friend, who is pretending to be plummy aristocrat "Lord Hugo". In this persona, he expresses some very "Mailesque" views (reinstating national service, complaining about giving Hong Kong back to the "slope heads", etc.) and hearty endorsement from both the other patrons and the staff. At the same time, the protagonist is pretending to be a South American footballer who doesn't speak English and is addressed to his face as a dago and similar ethnic slurs.
* Harry [[Flashman]] is an interesting case. He subverts [[Politically -Correct History]] through being a man of views typical to his kind: extremely racist and politically incorrect, speaking of what we would consider unambiguously good individuals like anti-slavery activists as crazy liberals. However, the author [[Writer On Board|increasingly uses him to point out the follies of the above as the series progresses]].
* Granted, he lived before political correctness existed, but [[Bulldog Drummond|Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond]] is definitely one of the most reactionary heroes in Edwardian mystery/suspense, even though he was written in an already pretty reactionary time. Drummond was fond of flogging communist villains to an inch of their lives and these villains tended to be Jewish intellectuals. In one encyclopedia of mystery fiction, the editor posits that were Drummond an actual person he would likely have become a committed Black Shirt during the 1930s and 40s.
* The ''[[Discworld]]'' books feature a few jokes depicting people who [[Fantastic Racism|object to the increasing numbers of non-humans in Ankh-Morpork]] as ill-informed buffoons at best.
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** Subverted when Adam gets interested in endurance stunts, and has himself crucified in the park. Exactly zero people care.
* A season two episode of ''[[Rescue Me]]'' Kenny insults Laura, the only female firefighter in the house. After her complaint to HQ, the firehouse is subjected to sensitivity training, complete with condescending instructor and even-more condescending video. On the instructor's question of "So what did we learn today?" Gavin's first answer is "only white people can be racist?" The fire crew then launch into a mockery of the entire sensitivity program.
* From ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'':
{{quote| '''Shakespeare:''' "Who are you, exactly, and, more to the point, who is this gorgeous blackamoor lady?"<br />
'''Martha (British, of Ghanaian and Iranian descent):''' "What did you say?"<br />
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[[Category:Good Is Dumb]]
[[Category:Politics Tropes]]
[[Category:Political Correctness Gone Mad]][[Category:Pages with comment tags]]
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