- 11 months ago
America's history is full of moments where creative expression and historical truth have been challenged. Join us as we explore instances when films, TV shows, books, and even historical institutions faced attempts to silence or alter their content. From classic literature deemed too "smutty" for schools to pop songs edited for broadcast and beloved cartoons forced to change their image, the line between protecting audiences and outright censorship has often been blurred. Discover the controversies that sparked outrage and defined eras of American media.
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00:00Hello Coco, speaking to you, it's those two things no one else but me.
00:06She's Betty.
00:07Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're exploring the most notorious incidents when works of entertainment, art, and more were censored or banned within the United States of America.
00:17The American Library Association says it tracked nearly 1,600 book challenges or removals last year, the most ever recorded.
00:26The Works of William Shakespeare, 16th and 17th Centuries
00:31To be or not to be, that is the question.
00:42Whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
00:48Considered one of the most influential English writers in history, Shakespeare's plays and sonnets have been taught in schools for centuries.
00:56For some, his Old English poetic style is hard to understand.
01:00For others, apparently, it's filled with smut.
01:03Come, come, you wasp. If faith, you are too angry.
01:07If I be waspish, best beware my sting.
01:10My remedy, then, is to pluck it out.
01:13Ha! I, if the fool could find where it lies.
01:16Who knows not where a wasp doth wear his sting in his tail?
01:20In his tongue.
01:21Whose tongue?
01:22Yours, if you talk of tails and so, farewell.
01:25With the 2022 introduction of the Florida Parental Rights and Education Act, better known as the Don't Say Gay Bill, this allowed the state schools to censor the raunchier aspects of the Bard's works.
01:37Instead of whole texts being taught, only extracts would be used.
01:42This, understandably, sparked fears among teachers as large portions of context and history would be swept under the literary carpet.
01:50Yet, this wasn't the first time Shakespeare's works were under fire.
01:54In 2014, they were banned from Texan prisons.
01:57For I am all the subjects that you have.
02:00Which first was my own king!
02:03But here you stymie me in this hard rock.
02:06While you do keep from me the rest of the island.
02:08The one with the lesbian wedding.
02:10Friends.
02:11I've got some news.
02:12It's about us.
02:14Oh, you and me?
02:15Uh, no.
02:16Susan and me.
02:17The other us.
02:18In 1996, the TV landscape changed forever.
02:22After ABC aired an episode of Roseanne, which showed a same-sex marriage, friends followed suit with the nuptials between Carol and Susan.
02:31You know, nothing makes God happier than when two people, any two people, come together in love.
02:37Friends, family, we're gathered here today to join Carol and Susan in holy matrimony.
02:43While history tends to focus on the positives, that wasn't the full story.
02:47The actors, Jane Sibbett and Jessica Hecht, even stated later that they couldn't kiss during the ceremony.
02:53Yet, that wasn't enough for some, who wanted the mere thought of women marrying erased.
02:58My parents called this afternoon to say they weren't coming.
03:01Oh my God.
03:02I mean, I knew they were having trouble with this whole thing, but they're my parents.
03:06I mean, they're supposed to give me away and everything.
03:08Two TV stations, KJAC-TV in Port Arthur, Texas, and WLIO in Lima, Ohio, weren't happy.
03:16They claimed the episode didn't meet the standards of good taste in their communities, so they refused to air it.
03:23This action was condemned by the gay and lesbian alliance against defamation.
03:27Look, do you love her?
03:29And you don't have to be too emphatic about this.
03:34Of course I do.
03:35Well then that's it.
03:37And if George and Adelaide can't accept that, then the hell with them.
03:40If You Seek Amy
03:41Britney Spears
03:43Puns may sometimes be met with groans, but they've been used for centuries, including by William Shakespeare.
03:56Yet, when Spears did one for her 2009 single, If You Seek Amy, some moms and parents groups were livid.
04:04Parents are outraged and are pushing to get this thing yanked, or at least limited, to after 10 p.m. when profane songs are allowed to be played.
04:12But do they have a case?
04:13The controversy stems from the title and lyrics, which, if spoken slowly, bear a resemblance to a phrase about adult intimacy.
04:21Radio stations in the U.S. began editing the song by bleeping the expression and even changing its title to If You Seek Amy.
04:28The Parents Television Council threatened stations with indecency complaints for playing the track during the day.
04:35As such, Spears created a radio edit of the tune.
04:38However, during her tours, the original risque version would return.
04:42Super Mario Kart
04:50Super Mario Kart
04:52Sometimes it's not governments or activist groups causing censorship of material.
04:57Sometimes, it's another branch of the same company doing it.
05:00You know what? What do they know, huh?
05:03That's not just them.
05:05My whole lives, everyone's telling us we can't do this, we can't do that.
05:08In the Japanese release of 1992's Super Mario Kart, Bowser and Peach celebrated winning races by drinking from champagne bottles, while Donkey Kong Jr. recklessly threw his around.
05:19When it was released in the U.S., Nintendo of America changed it to make the characters not drink or be as dangerous with the bottles.
05:27At the time, the company had heavy rules in place to avoid issues during localization.
05:32Mario Kart
05:34You saved my life.
05:35Yeah, well, I won't tell anyone.
05:38Good, please don't.
05:39Another classic video game censoring was 1985's Ice Climbers.
05:44In Japan, the characters would beat up seals.
05:47However, due to the controversial practice of seal clubbing in the U.S., they were changed to the toppy.
05:53I'll be your best friend forever.
05:55And I'll take care of you always.
05:59Mouse, Art Spiegelman
06:01It's funny because most people think of comic book as meaning simplified and simple, and my whole notion is that it's a medium that allows for a great deal of complexity.
06:09First published in Raw magazine from 1980 to 1991, the last year saw Mouse released as a collection.
06:16It took the literary world by storm as Spiegelman's work became the first graphic novel to win a Pulitzer Prize.
06:23The plot involved Spiegelman talking to his father about his experience in Germany during World War II, with Jews shown as mice and German soldiers as cats.
06:32In 2022, the McMinn County School Board in Tennessee voted to remove the book from its libraries, citing the use of rough language and nudity as the reason.
06:42If your problem with discussions about the Holocaust are bad words and nudity, I'm just not sure you're getting the point.
06:49I agree, which is why I'm still trying to go, how did this exactly happen?
06:56If the members wanted Mouse to be forgotten, they caused the opposite.
07:01Alongside activist groups handing out copies, purchases of Mouse sent it to number one on Amazon's books and graphic novels charts.
07:08A store that normally sells video games, board games, and comic books was surprised when a famous actor donated copies of the graphic novel Mouse.
07:16What was even more surprising? How quickly they ran out of them.
07:19The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
07:21Oh, well, the rule that I set myself for The Handmaid's Tale was that nothing goes in this that doesn't have a precedent somewhere in history or in real life right now.
07:32As one of the most important modern writers around, Atwood's work often warns readers about societal changes on the horizon.
07:39However, others seemingly don't want you to hear her warning.
07:43Atwood's 1985 novel The Handmaid's Tale has been one of the most challenged books in the U.S.
07:49Often citing its explicit and emotional content, the work has been banned from schools in Florida, Missouri, and several other states, prompting Atwood to dramatically release an unburnable version in 2022.
08:11This isn't the only book by the Canadian author to draw ire in the States.
08:16Oryx and Crake has also been prohibited in school libraries, including in Virginia and Texas for its sensitive material.
08:23I was just wondering if you could translate something for me. I think it's Latin.
08:28Nullite De Bastardas Carburendorum?
08:34Why did you hear that?
08:37Does it mean something?
08:40Ecstasy and the Haze Code
08:42Made in Czechoslovakia, the erotic drama Ecstasy involves the main character leaving her uninterested husband and finding a new younger lover.
08:51It also featured some brief nudity.
08:53The girl's mammaries, which are quite large and prominent, are shockingly uncovered.
09:00For this reason, I have concluded the picture appeals only to prurient interest and should be denied the Motion Picture Association's seal of approval.
09:08The U.S. distributor tried to get into the country in 1935 only for it to be blocked by the customs service.
09:15It didn't help that the Catholic Legion of Decency condemned it.
09:19The Legion had something called the Legion Pledge and you have 20 million Catholics at mass and at Knights of Columbus meetings would stand up, raise their hand and pledge on their immortal soul that they would not attend motion pictures that the church deemed unworthy and unholy.
09:39The distributor then lobbied the Haze Code staff for 10 months to let it be shown.
09:44Eventually, it was allowed with heavy edits in 1936.
09:48The Haze Code, also known as the Motion Picture Production Code, was the moral sensor of the film industry.
09:54The policy came into effect on films released on or after July 1, 1934 and lasted for nearly 30 years.
10:02Since the studios could no longer control what was shown, it opened up the floodgates for independent and European films, neither of which needed to abide by the code.
10:10The PCA quietly existed until 1967 when the Motion Picture Association of America took over and American film switched over to a rating system.
10:18Betty Boop
10:28After her debut in 1930, Betty became one of the most beloved cartoon characters in history.
10:36With her large head, sultry attitude and jazz-age flapper's attire, she was soon starring in many animated shorts from the Fleischer Studios.
10:44Yet upon the introduction of the Haze Code, everything changed.
10:48In the mid-1930s, Betty underwent a metamorphosis.
11:00Gone were the flapper dresses and scandalous clothing.
11:03Instead, Betty appeared as more of a homebody, even mothering children while wearing longer, less form-fitting clothing.
11:11Even her winking and shaking hips were too much for the code, forcing her emotes' removal.
11:16This saw a decline in Betty's popularity, as other cartoon characters who hadn't had a drastic change took off.
11:23All by myself in the morning, all by myself in the night.
11:34Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut
11:37It's time for me to be dead for a little while, and then live again.
11:43With Vonnegut having been an imprisoned soldier during World War II, he used his experience to write Slaughterhouse-Five,
11:50which explored the war and PTSD with a dash of science fiction.
11:54However, this important book wasn't safe from the U.S. censors.
11:59How long will they keep us here?
12:01I don't know.
12:02You are here, you have always been here, and you will always be here.
12:07In 1973, after a teacher wanted to read the book to their students,
12:11the principal literally shoved copies of it into the school's lit furnace.
12:16Even in more recent years, Slaughterhouse-Five has been banned in schools in Tennessee and Texas.
12:22Another work whose censors didn't understand the irony of restricting it was George Orwell's 1984.
12:28The novel, which explores totalitarianism, was one of many prohibited in Iowa schools in 2023.
12:35However, in 2025, the ban was blocked by a judge for being unconstitutional.
12:40How do we make as strong a system as possible that will kind of hold up against any bad weather that we encounter?
12:47And I guess we all didn't think that we were responsible for building the system, but I think the moment we're in tells us that we are.
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13:09Removing Mentions of Slavery from the Smithsonian
13:13President Trump is ordering a review of America's museums in an attempt to get rid of exhibits he doesn't like.
13:20He's specifically targeting the world's largest museum complex.
13:24The Smithsonian Institution is one of the most respected educational and research facilities in the U.S.
13:30As such, you really need them not to shy away from being honest about the country's history, no matter how deplorable.
13:37In 2025, Donald Trump wanted to change that.
13:41The president's latest complaints about exhibits on slavery come as the administration tries to overhaul how American history is taught by criticizing
13:50or even threatening to withhold funding from schools that offer curricula like the impacts of slavery.
13:56The president issued an executive order that allowed his administration to look at the Smithsonian's exhibitions
14:02to review how it has displayed slavery, which was too woke for them for showing how bad slavery was.
14:09This brings to mind another instance of government interference at Idaho's Lewis Clark State College in 2023.
14:16With the school hosting an event on medical care, administrators removed art that showcased reproductive rights,
14:22citing the state legislature's opposition to public funds being used towards terminations.
14:28It's an attempt to silence people's perspectives and it doesn't allow people to create their own opinions about their own life.
14:36And I feel like because it violates free speech, you know, there was a potential there to take a stance against this law.
14:46Is censorship always bad when it comes to media, art, and entertainment? Or are there justified uses? Let us know below!
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