Overshadowed by Controversy: Difference between revisions
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* 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. [[Shirley Temple]] later recalled in her memoirs about Griffith's controversial views on black people, specifically on how uncomfortable he was seeing a little white girl performing alongside a black tap dancer.
* ''[[The Passion of the Christ]]'' became more well known for its gratuitously visceral portrayal of [[Jesus]]' passion and death as well as accusations of anti-Semitism than [[Mel Gibson]]'s efforts at a period-accurate retelling of the crucifixion. The film's violence also caused controversy in the Philippines when the Movie and Television Rating and Classification Board reportedly gave the film a dubious PG-13 rating due to its religious content (especially as the Philippines is predominantly Catholic), and it didn't help that some French bishops were also disturbed by the portrayal as a "distortion of Christian teaching."
== 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.
* ''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.
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* 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 (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 [[Paedo Hunt|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 and the larger #MeToo movement.
* [[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.
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== 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
* ''[[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)|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 and Softer|lighter]] tone to it, being more of a satirical commentary on American society compared to ''Manhunt''{{'}}s snuff film simulation.
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