History Main / MoralGuardians

* When TBS standards and practices ordered Wrestling/VinceRusso to cut down on the violence in WCW, he responded by repackaging the former West Hollywood Blondes (Lodi and Lenny Lane) as a Right To Censor ripoff called Standards & Practices as a TakeThat against TBS. The twist was that S&P secretly loved the sex and violence they supposedly opposed, and that's why their valet Ms. Hancock (Wrestling/StacyKeibler) would do sexy dances on the commentary desk while Lodi and Lenny "censored" the ring. This lasted about a month, with Ms. Hancock becoming the SmurfetteBreakout and Lodi and Lenny getting taken off TV and getting repackaged yet again.

* The newest ''MedalOfHonor'' game has been banned from stores on military bases for allowing gamers to play as the Taliban. While this is a question of sensitivity, you could play as ''Nazis'' in the previous installments. This may be a case of TooSoon.

* When TBS standards and practices ordered Wrestling/VinceRusso to cut down on the violence in WCW, he responded by repackaging the former West Hollywood Blondes (Lodi and Lenny Lane) as a Right To Censor ripoff called Standards & Practices as a TakeThat against TBS. The twist was that S&P secretly loved the sex and violence they supposedly opposed, and that's why their valet Ms. Hancock (Stacy Keibler) would do sexy dances on the commentary desk while Lodi and Lenny "censored" the ring. This lasted about a month, with Ms. Hancock becoming the SmurfetteBreakout and Lodi and Lenny getting taken off TV and getting repackaged yet again.

* [[http://www.familyfriendlygaming.com/ Family Friendly Gaming]], a review website that attempts to analyze video games and other media "from a family-friendly (read: conservative Christian) perspective." Short of [[NewMediaAreEvil downright demonizing the media itself]], Family Friendly Gaming follows many of the guidelines of the stereotypical Moral Guardian. Of special note is [[http://www.familyfriendlygaming.com/Reviews/2008/Strong%20Bads%20Cool%20Game%20for%20Attractive%20People.html the review]] for ''VideoGame/StrongBadsCoolGameForAttractivePeople'', where it becomes increasingly obvious that the reviewer has never heard of ''HomestarRunner''.

* Japanese people claimed that ''LightNovel/OreNoImoutoGaKonnaNiKawaiiWakeGaNai'''s Kirino Kousaka was a bad role model for younger children because she is a 12-year-old person who collected eroge games.

* Music/{{Eels}}' ''Daisies Of The Galaxy'' was a fairly unlikely target for this sort of controversy: When promotional copies were given out at an event at the Democratic National Convention, both a New York Post article and the official site for GeorgeWBush's election typified it as "a compact disc clearly marketed towards children containing offensive language". The evidence it was being "marketed towards children" was that the cover art was [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids drawn in a style reminiscent of a children's storybook]], while the main things that were cited as offensive were the song title "It's A Motherfucker" and the lyric "when I grow up I'll be an angry little whore" (from "Tiger In My Tank"). In reality, the album is pretty tame for having a Parental Advisory sticker: "It's A Motherfucker" is a song about missing someone that happens to have the album's PrecisionFStrike, and in context the phrase "angry little whore" was clearly being taken entirely too literally.

* The innocuously-named [[http://www.movieguide.org/ MovieGuide.org]] is a "[Christian] family guide to movies and entertainment," and can make for some [[SarcasmMode fairly entertaining]] [[ForTheLulz reading]]--unsurprisingly, they strictly condemn anything that seems to support "immoral behavior," "political correctness" (they objected to the identity of the bomber in ''SourceCode'', for example--and they haaaated ''Inside Job'') or a "humanist" worldview, and particularly anything containing "Pagan" (i.e., anything other than Christian) themes. They're also given to [[UnfortunateImplications occasional racism]], like in their review of ''[[Literature/{{Twilight}} Eclipse]]'' in which they repeatedly refer to "[[TheyJustDidntCare Jakob]]" as "Indian" (although they praise the story's "strong moral values," such as the 'no sex before marriage' theme), not to mention more-than-incidental homophobia. It's worth a read.

* In an example of a {{fandom}} developing these from within, the FurryFandom contains groups such as the now-disbanded Burned Furs and Improved Anthropomorphics, anthropomorphic enthusiasts who believe the community has been corrupted with many of its members' obsession with risqué media, and promote a "cleansing" of the fandom to a more pure, unadulterated state. Unlike many of the above, they aren't usually taken seriously, and their attempts at changing the fandom generally don't have much impact.

* Mary Whitehouse, now deceased, was 'honoured' by comedians Newman and Baddiel, who ironically named their 1990s sketch/stand-up series ''TheMaryWhitehouseExperience''.

* [[http://www.google.com/search?q=%2B%22The+Pulling+Report%22 Patricia Pulling]], mother of Irving "Bink" Pulling (who committed suicide on June 8, 1982), alleged that her son's suicide was caused by roleplaying games, a common accusation of the time (Irving Pulling was noted to be having troubles fitting in at school, and wrote "Life is a Joke" on a blackboard at school shortly before his suicide). Pulling tried to sue the principal of the high school her son attended, then got a private investigator certificate and formed B.A.D.D. (Bothered About {{Dungeons and Dragons}}), testified as a self-proclaimed expert in "occult" and D&D, and riding [[http://www.google.com/search?q=%2B%22satanic+day+care+center%22 a wave of "cult crimes" scare]], produced handouts for police that contained erroneous or outright false statements (such as claiming that 8% of Richmond, Virginia citizens were Satanists; she came to this conclusion by estimating 4% of teens and 4% of adults, [[YouFailStatisticsForever and adding the result]]. And a list of fantasy role-playing games, some of which weren't fantasy, or role-playing games, or at all). She has an objection to ''Tunnels and Trolls'' that it used rolls of [[NumberOfTheBeast three six-sided]] dice, so here must be something Satanic. Somehow she was allowed to get away with everything up to unauthorized and re-edited reprinting of newspapers articles and even was hired to give testimony in a court of law. Pulling died of cancer in 1997, and the anti-RPG backlash more or less died with her.

* Lampooned in these [[http://s1.subirimagenes.com/otros/464993humano-se-nace-090.jpg two]] [[http://blogs.20minutos.es/madrereciente/files/bg_8530360.jpg strips]] by cartoonist ''{{Quino}}''.

* RayBradbury's {{dystopia}}n [[{{Literature}} novel]] ''{{Fahrenheit 451}}'' blamed these people for the slow chipping away at free speech that led to all books being banned. Naturally, the book has found itself challenged as often as ''Franchise/HarryPotter'', never mind the irony in banning a book about book banning.

* ''TheLastHurrah'' features Roger Sugrue, an upwardly-mobile, Harvard-educated Roman Catholic who pesters the Cardinal and makes it his personal business to decide what is and is not acceptable behavior for other Roman Catholics. The Cardinal, while he mostly agrees with Sugrue's assessment of such situations, nonetheless finds Sugrue to be an [[{{Jerkass}} obnoxious ass]] in person.

* The subject of the short story ''Ado'', which focuses on a GenreSavvy, DeadpanSnarker schoolteacher who wants to have the class read ''{{Hamlet}}''. In this particular story, there's a moral group for just about everything, and they file complaints on lines in the story... resulting in it being cut down to about two out-of-context lines that the class is allowed to read. It also ''heavily'' implies that it's the ''[[NotSoDifferent Moral Guardians themselves]]'' that are damaging children - there's a student whose parents actively protest, and she uses the protests to simply go outside and tan and avoid schoolwork. She's quite BookDumb as she can't spell anything, and [[HypocriticalHumor despises having to edit her signs later due to the protests of another group, wondering where "free speech" went]].
* In ''Midnight'' by JacquelineWilson, the heroine is a huge fan of a fantasy author/artist named Casper Dream. She mentions that his first book, about a fairy which appears in smoke clouds, was banned from shops because Moral Guardians were concerned that it encouraged children to smoke.

* Beautifully summarized in the first episode of ''BarneyMiller''. Barney's son comes in with a toy gun yelling "Bang", just as Barney is locking up his own gun in a cupboard. Barney gives him a short lecture about firearms being dangerous, gives him a toy truck to play with instead, and the kid holds it up and goes "Bang". Later he does the same thing with a slice of pizza.
* ''TheMuppetShow'':

* ''ABitOfFryAndLaurie'':

* Parodied on ''TheYoungOnes'' in a sketch that pokes fun at the boys-school series ''GrangeHill'':

* Referenced in an episode of ''{{Bottom}}''. After losing their television, Richie and Eddie decide to spend the evening playing chess instead which ends up in the usual mindless violence. As he's smashing Richie's head into the fridge, Eddie takes a moment to {{Break the fourth wall}} and point out to moral guardians who think that tv causes violence that in fact this particularly bout of violence is due to a lack of TV.

* Roger Waters, lyricist of PinkFloyd, savagely attacked Mary Whitehouse in a verse of "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" -

* AmandaPalmer's song "Guitar Hero" parodies the idea of a school shooting being inspired by a video game. Particularly, well, GuitarHero. The song shows how easily any game can be compared to real life violence (with the help of some IncrediblyLamePun lines such as "It's a hit!" and "There's people screaming, just like they should / but you don't even know if you're good..."). Extra poignant because Amanda actually lost some of her friends during a school shooting - she just refuses to blame it on any part of pop culture.

* "The Morality Squad" is a song by ''{{GWAR}}'' about a squad of Moral Guardians who attempt to destroy the band for being obscene. Part of the lyrics can be found on the quotes page.

* In ''CalvinAndHobbes'' Calvin [[http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1985/12/30 finds some of their reports]] "very disturbing" -- where's all the terrible stuff he's supposed to be seeing?
* Hilariously subverted in one ''BloomCounty'' series: Opus' girlfriend's mother (who never liked him to begin with) sics the local priest on him, hoping to get some outrage because Opus is part of a death metal band. But the priest turns out to be a very nice fellow with an excellent sense of humor, and he actually ''likes'' Opus' music (saying of the song "Let's Guillotine Grandma", "Something to slip into the hymns next Sunday!"). The end of the series shows the mother very upset as the priest tries to gently calm her down.
* ''FoxTrot'':

* ''{{Zits}}'' brings this up occasionally, usually with Jeremy's parents, Walt and Connie, filling the roles.

* The ''Hot Coffee'' incident was spoofed by ''[[JakAndDaxter Jak X]]'': the unlockable Hot Coffee video features [[spoiler: Daxter and Tess drinking coffee, before Daxter looks at the screen and asks, "[[WhyAreYouLookingAtMeLikeThat What]]?"]]

* Given quite a TakeThat in ''PhineasAndFerb''. In one episode taking place in a BadFuture, it is revealed that Moral Guardians essentially ''destroyed society'' by going to KnightTemplar extremes and eliminating all traces of fun and creativity.
* Parodied by ''HouseOfMouse'', which featured the Censor Monkeys... who, at one point, received [[DropTheCow a safe to the head]]. The safe was dropped after the monkeys decided that disguising the violence with novelty sounds was an acceptable compromise. When the safe hit, it sounded like a squeaky toy being squished. One of them even opens the safe and sticks his arm out to show everyone they're ok.

* ''{{ReBoot}}'', [[RunningGag in yet another parody]], made fun of this in the episode ''Talent Night.'' While auditions are being made for Enzo's birthday party, a binome named Emma rejects everything but the BSNP song, which spells out the nature of this trope while set to the tune of YMCA.

* The TV broadcast of ''AxisPowersHetalia'' was canceled due to a few very vocal South Korean busybodies taking umbrage at the portrayal of their country and characterizing it as a right-wing political tract; thanks to MisplacedNationalism, this has led to some truly ''nasty'' anti-Korean backlash from some fans. Korea wasn't scheduled to show up in the anime anyway!

* Japanese people claimed that [[OreNoImoutoGaKonnaNiKawaiiWakeGaNai Kirino Kousaka]] was a bad role model for younger children because she is a 12-year-old person who collected eroge games.
* GoNagai has, unsurprisingly, always been a favorite target of the PTA and other moral guardians, right from the start when his first major series, ''Harenchi Gakuen'', became a nation-wide hit. They even went as far as having ShounenJump, the magazine in which ''Harenchi Gakuen'' was serialized, banned in certain parts of Japan. When ShounenJump finally gave in to the pressure and decided to cancel the series, Nagai took [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome revenge in his own way]] by having all the characters [[TakeThatCritics viciously killed by the PTA]].

It got to the point where a ''{{Spider-Man}}'' strip based around Harry Osborn overdosing had to be published without CCA approval, even though it dealt ''entirely with the negative effects of drugs'', and had been requested by the U.S. ''Drug Enforcement Administration''. This event is often pointed to as the beginning of the CCA's downfall. A series of drastic standards-changes followed, but it was already apparent that the CCA was unnecessary and soon their approval was not necessary for a comic to hit shelves. In January 2011, DC Comics and Archie Comics, the last two publishers participating in the Code, withdrew.

* Many film critics decried ''TheWindThatShakesTheBarley'', a film sympathetic to the Irish Revolution, as anti-British propaganda, often without having even seen it. One such Moral Guardian even went so far as to compare the film to ''[[GodwinsLaw Triumph of the Will]]''. As a result, quite a few English theatres refused to screen it. Although the film portrays the Black-And-Tan soldiers in a very poor light, any historian will tell you that yes, that's pretty accurate, and no, ''Barley'' is not propaganda.

* The Australian Family Association is also responsible for many movie bans. Other than its requisite gay-bashing, it tried to get the OFLC to ban ''[[NineSongs 9 Songs]]'', ''AnatomyOfHell'', ''{{Irreversible}}'', ''MysteriousSkin'' and ''Film/{{Shortbus}}''. It was actually successful with ''Film/BaiseMoi'' and ''Film/KenPark''.
* [[http://www.commonsensemedia.org/ CommonSenseMedia.org]] are usually pretty good about not going overboard and giving people information to decide for themselves, but it was incredibly funny when they listed all the throat-slashing, rape, burning death, and a [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking steamy kiss]] in ''Film/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet''. Also, they spent more time talking about the religious themes hinted at on the {{Evanescence}} album ''Fallen'' (apparently it might offend militant atheists or something) then the fact that most Evanescence songs are rather creepy - and that "Tourniquet" is about suicide and "Haunted" is about being stalked and raped! That's right, kids, it's perfectly okay for you to listen to songs about death, suicide, and rape, but we'll make sure you don't hear any awful religious talk!

* Fans of Pixar's ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory'' trilogy wanted it to be the only trilogy on RottenTomatoes to have gotten a perfect 100% fresh rating across all three films, and when ''Toy Story 3'' ended up being epic it looked like it would go this way. Then the film recieved two negative reviews bumping it down to a 99. While one was almost immediately written off as a troll that needed to get banned, the other was, you guessed it, a moral guardian that based his bad review on the fact he thought the film was too intense for its G rating.

* Many grocery stores stopped selling the holiday-only Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavor "Schweddy Balls" (derived from the infamous Christmas ''[[SaturdayNightLive SNL]]'' sketch on the season 24 episode hosted by Alec Baldwin) because it was deemed too offensive to be viewed (and presumably eaten) by children by some groups, who campaigned to have it pulled from store shelves.

* "Warriors for Innocence", a volunteer-based [[{{Paedohunt}} anti-pedophilia]] group who made news by encouraging Livejournal to temporarily ban over 500 accounts and communities, ranging from age-playing and incest fetish groups to child molestation ''victim'' communities to groups discussing fanfiction or ''{{Lolita}}'' to otherwise completely innocuous accounts who just happened to have the kind of buzzwords they were looking for in the profile. A complete summary of the event, termed "Strikethrough '07" (for the way that banned journals have a strike through their names) can be found [[http://wiki.fandomwank.com/index.php/Strikethrough2007 here.]]

* ''AmericaTheBook'' was banned from Wal-Mart for containing cut-out paper dolls of naked Supreme Court Justices. The reader was encouraged to cut out their robes and restore their dignity. Jon Stewart's first book, ''Naked Pictures Of Famous People'', was also criticized for having [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin naked Abe Lincoln]] on the front, and some later editions of the book have text-only covers.

* ''FatherTed'' was subject to criticism from those who viewed it as Anti-Irish. Many of these guardians were English people of Irish descent, a fact GrahamLinehan thought to be a Wallbanger. Many also felt that the Catholic Church in Ireland was portrayed in a bad light. Gleefully parodied with their protest of an obscene film (The page image above) which only makes the film more popular.

* This was one of the major reasons MTV's version of ''{{Skins}}'' was canceled. People were going onto forums and speaking out against it as "child pornography". The actors were never filmed below the waist, and the most "explicit" form of "sex" shown was dry-humping.
* ''RoundTheTwist'' was almost banned in its home country Australia at the time of its premiere because it contained a lot of things deemed HarmfulToMinors, such as death, nudity (including references to genitalia), underwear, incest (KissingUnderTheInfluence), mild sex references (and one episode -- "Lucky Lips" -- centered on a magic tube of lipstick that attracts females... and not just human females, either), and your typical gross-out humor staples (body odor, ToiletHumor [both urination and defecation] and plenty of vomit). It also had trouble being exported to Britain because of such subject matter.

* The Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) were the infamous self-appointed moral crusaders against any kind of fun in music in the 1980s, formed by Tipper Gore and other wives of influential people when she was scandalized by lyrics to the {{Prince}} song "[[PurpleRain Darling Nikki]]" (a full account of the history behind the PMRC is given on Jello Biafra's spoken word recording [[http://www.emusic.com/album/Jello-Biafra-High-Priest-Of-Harmful-Matter-Tales-From-The-Tria-MP3-Download/10739423.html High Priest of Harmful Matter]]). Their aim was soon set at the LA glam scene and metal in general, but although they lost influence, many others eventually took up the moral crusade against metal music, with equally stupid arguments ranging from a (false) accusation of backward lyrics in Judas Priest songs to blaming the recent Virginia Tech killings on the fact that the killer wrote a play which had the same name as a Music/GunsNRoses song. Many metal bands have written songs about the PMRC and censorship -- Music/{{Megadeth}} in particular have written several. Even more infamous was the day the PMRC called Dee Snider, front man for TwistedSister, to testify, expecting him to make himself look foolish and further promote their cause. Snider showed up still in makeup from the previous night's show, hair teased and huge, dressed in ripped and torn clothing, possibly even hungover, with his notes in a crumpled wad. However, appearances are deceiving: Dee Snider is a very literate and eloquent man, with a strong sense of the poetic. He proceeded to verbally abuse the entire PMRC, up to and including implications that Tipper Gore was a closet sadomasochist, visibly angering Al Gore to the point of near incoherence. This was possibly the most epic defeat ever handed to the PMRC.

* The verse "Superman that ho" of SouljaBoy's hit "Crank Dat" was thought to be about a depraved sex act. This caused lots of backlash from Moral Guardians everywhere thinking the song was promoting sexual acts. Turns out, that that's not what he intended ''and'' the meaning is based on an UrbanLegend anyway.
* {{Eels}}' ''Daisies Of The Galaxy'' was a fairly unlikely target for this sort of controversy: When promotional copies were given out at an event at the Democratic National Convention, both a New York Post article and the official site for GeorgeWBush's election typified it as "a compact disc clearly marketed towards children containing offensive language". The evidence it was being "marketed towards children" was that the cover art was [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids drawn in a style reminiscent of a children's storybook]], while the main things that were cited as offensive were the song title "It's A Motherfucker" and the lyric "when I grow up I'll be an angry little whore" (from "Tiger In My Tank"). In reality, the album is pretty tame for having a Parental Advisory sticker: "It's A Motherfucker" is a song about missing someone that happens to have the album's PrecisionFStrike, and in context the phrase "angry little whore" was clearly being taken entirely too literally.

* Theatre has a long history of being banned or closed in the Christian world for reasons of immorality. JohnCalvin and UsefulNotes/OliverCromwell come to mind, as do most Puritan sects, but most forms of theatre (Church commissioned morality play being the exception) were banned throughout most of the MiddleAges. Arguments explaining why theatre is evil and/or useless go back at least as far as Plato, and the opposition dates back at least as far as Aristotle.

* [[http://www.lionlamb.org/ The Lion and Lamb Project]] is the counterpart for children's toys. The main problem with their crusade against immoral toys is the massive lack of research involved in their tirades; the group constantly claims that various toys were marketed at children simply because of the "Ages 3 and Up" approval rating on all toys (which is the result of a ''safety test,'' not a demographic statement). They went straight into CowboyBebopAtHisComputer territory by claiming that a ''{{Transformers}}'' toyline was clearly designed to tie in to ''Film/TheMatrix'' despite the fact that the two franchises have no corporate connection and only shared the unimportant background premise of a background BigBad draining energy from living beings. Their lists of "recommended" toys make it clear that they think that toys are never, ever made for anybody older than 4 or so despite the blatant pandering to collectors' markets in many toylines. Their website has not been updated in years, possibly due to the increasing irrelevance of physical toys.

* The original ''{{Manhunt}}'' received much controversy over how the game practically reveled in the violence the player could commit. This led to the game being banned in several countries. The sequel received the same treatment, including such notable names as UsefulNotes/HillaryRodhamClinton and Jack Thompson attempting to get the game restricted in the United States. The game still had to be recut because the ESRB gave the first cut an Adults Only rating, thus leading to retailers refusing to carry it and Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft all denying the games release on their platforms. Even after the M-rated cut made it shelves, the same moral guardians sought to have the game re-rated and pulled from store shelves. The game's sequel, ''Manhunt 2'', was actually banned in Ireland and in the UK; though without any kind of controversy associated with the sequel, at least not on a level comparable to that of the original.
* The guardians had another video game field day with ''CallOfDuty: ModernWarfare 2''. More precisely, the [[WhamEpisode Wham Level]] "No Russian", where you play as a CIA agent going undercover with terrorists massacring an entire airport. Predictably, they took the level out of context and claimed the whole game to be a terrorism simulator on that alone. The twist is, putting the stage within context is a gigantic spoiler... one that would make the guardians' heads '''implode''': [[spoiler: The whole massacre was planned by the true BigBad, US Army General Shepherd, as the beginning of his utterly vile, corrupt and insane BatmanGambit to begin a horrific war between America and Russia so that ''he can instill total American supremacy upon the world'' and get his name down in history as a (false) war hero.]]\\

* The Church of England criticised the PlayStation3 game ''VideoGame/{{Resistance}}: Fall of Man'', which included a gunfight in Manchester Cathedral. Amusingly, when the Church demanded that Insomniac change the game to ''not'' depict Manchester Cathedral, Insomniac reportedly ''laughed at them'', and began pointing out the numerous other things that the Church did ''not'' have a problem with, including the ''violent depictions of murder''. The Church was, sadly, not suitably chastised. Also funny: the Church's argument was--at least in part--that Insomniac ''didn't get their permission'', which made the whole thing look more like a copyright dispute than a case of moral outrage. (Needless to say, having been built in 1215, Manchester Cathedral isn't subject to copyright of any kind.)

** The Daily Mail has also spearheaded a campaign to "Ban Internet Porn", restricting "porn" at the ISP level but not actually [[YouKeepUsingThatWord specifying exactly what they want to ban]] other than implying that all porn is extreme, underage or bestiality and [[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2140962/Sara-Payne-backs-block-online-porn-says-images-encourage-perverts-turn-fantasies-reality.html watching porn turns you into a]] [[CompleteMonster pedophile serial killer]]. Of course, browsers should still display their site's galleries of [[MoralDissonance scantily-dressed young women]].

* Theatre has a long history of being banned or closed in the Christian world for reasons of immorality. JohnCalvin and OliverCromwell come to mind, as do most Puritan sects, but most forms of theatre (Church commissioned morality play being the exception) were banned throughout most of the MiddleAges. Arguments explaining why theatre is evil and/or useless go back at least as far as Plato, and the opposition dates back at least as far as Aristotle.

* This happened in the late 1990s with "{{Hentai}} FREE", which basically served as a way for ten-year-old fangirls to assure their parents and brag to themselves that their ''SailorMoon'' fan site had nothing to do with [[RippedFromTheHeadlines those horrid articles]] about some boy in elementary school getting caught with hentai from the library.
* In 1997, ''SailorMoon Stars'' was dubbed in Italy. Also in 1997, Italian "psychologist" Vera Slepoy said "Sailor Moon makes little boys gay". Cue the Sailor Starlights (an alien boy band who [[GenderBender revert to their true female forms]] to fight) becoming six people instead of three -- with the alien boy band now calling on their [[HalfIdenticalTwin twin sisters]] to fight. Even more interesting is the fact that due to this butchering [[WhyFandomCantHaveNiceThings the series was subsequently banned in Italy for the next ten years]] ''[[WhyFandomCantHaveNiceThings by the author herself!]]''

* ''HeartcatchPrettyCure'': The Kokoro no Tane birth sequence had to be cleaned up in later episodes, because people complained that the fairies looked like they were wetting themselves doing it.

* [[http://www.parentstv.org/ The Parents Television Council]] is a conservative, nonpartisan group that has gone after a large number of targets since its founding in 1995. Almost every single current primetime network series has been given the highest possible rating on their website. In their mind, [[SexIsEvil if a show has any form of sexual content in it, it's automatically pornographic]]. The group is almost singlehandedly (it has some help from the [[CulturePolice American Family Association]]) responsible for the recent tightening of "decency" regulations for broadcast TV in the wake of the Janet Jackson "wardrobe malfunction" at the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show, better known as "[[{{Scandalgate}} Nipplegate]]". They've been known to take special aim at anyone who shows what they consider insufficient respect to conservative Protestant Christianity, and are currently intensifying efforts to bring cable TV under the same kind of regulation as broadcast. They have a strong lobby in Washington, and have been known to use {{astroturf}}ing methods in their campaigns to censor and suppress content of which they disapprove. The PTC's favorite targets for indecent content on TV: all three of SethMacFarlane's cartoons (especially ''FamilyGuy'').

* ''The Sun'', a British tabloid newspaper, is well known for this. In 2008 it led a successful campaign to force social networking site Facebook to remove an application which allowed users to virtually "shank" (knife) friends. It also led a moral crusade in 1992 against the horror movie ''[[{{Film/ChildsPlay}} Child's Play 3]]'' which, it was argued, was responsible for the murder of 2-year-old James Bulger because the family of one of the 10-year-old killers had rented the movie shortly beforehand. Police could find no evidence of this and said so in a press statement, but the newspaper led a nationwide campaign for anyone with a copy of the film to destroy it and for shopkeepers to remove it from shelves. ''Child's Play 3'' was later suggested as a possible inspiration for another murder, which allowed ''The Sun'' to say "See? We were right."

* Yes, that's right. A few months ago, a "fandom secret" image circulated {{Tumblr}} claiming that [[YouFailLogicForever somehow]], ''{{Homestuck}}'' glorifies and encourages an unhealthy lifestyle of [[{{Hypocrite}} internet use]], [[HateDumb and it deserves to be rebelled against]]. Thankfully it's pretty much restricted to just the one image with no ([[ParanoiaFuel known]]) large concerted effort against the series, and everyone - including several members of ''Homestuck'''s art and music teams - just took the piss out of the claims mercilessly.

* The ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' series is a repeated target of Moral Guardians. Several entries have been denied release internationally, including in parts of Japan. This came to a particularly explosive head in ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas San Andreas]]'' when hackers discovered a [[DummiedOut disabled sex minigame]] (dubbed "Hot Coffee") that led to Jack Thompson (again) patrolling the media with his anti-gaming theories, as well as facetime from numerous lawmakers including Senator HillaryClinton, who proposed laws to restrict the sales of certain games. Clinton and Thompson even appeared together several times to fight against the game.

* The original ''{{Manhunt}}'' received much controversy over how the game practically reveled in the violence the player could commit. This led to the game being banned in several countries. The sequel received the same treatment, including such notable names as HillaryClinton and Jack Thompson attempting to get the game restricted in the United States. The game still had to be recut because the ESRB gave the first cut an Adults Only rating, thus leading to retailers refusing to carry it and Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft all denying the games release on their platforms. Even after the M-rated cut made it shelves, the same moral guardians sought to have the game re-rated and pulled from store shelves. The game's sequel, ''Manhunt 2'', was actually banned in Ireland and in the UK; though without any kind of controversy associated with the sequel, at least not on a level comparable to that of the original.

* ''Left4Dead 2'' was given an R18+ rating in Australia for, among other reasons "high-impact violence" and "piles of bodies lay about the environment". The problem with this? ''Australia does not have an R18+ rating for games,'' meaning that any game which would rate over an MA15+ is "Refused Classification". Valve submitted a censored version of the game to the classification board, which was eventually passed with an MA-15 rating. The amount of censoring required is so ridiculous though, that at times it looks like a completely different game. Valve had also resubmitted the original for reconsideration, but it was just given another dose of refused classification. In a case of third time's the charm, they were finally able to get an uncensored version released there.

* Parodied in the ''TimeSquad'' episode "Child's Play," in which Creator/WilliamShakespeare is under the control of a stereotypical greedy agent who forces him to write plays for children and Larry 3000 intervenes relentlessly to prevent "imitable acts" and anything that could scare or traumatize kids from appearing onstage. The joke works on multiple levels: 1) The show itself lives and breathes on a ''very'' Machiavellian moral code. 2) The entire episode plays out as either a meta-commentary on the mediocrity that results from moralistic ExecutiveMeddling (as shown with Larry) and the need to make kids' shows MerchandiseDriven (as shown with the greedy executive) or a personal view of how Dave Wasson [[hottip:*: the creator of Time Squad]] felt his show was being handled (which led to how it got ScrewedByTheNetwork), and 3) The Larry 3000 (the Moral Guardian for this episode) is '''''exactly''''' the [[CampGay kind]] [[{{Lust}} of]] [[TheHedonist character]] that ''real'' Moral Guardians would find objectionable.

* ''KamenRiderAmazon'' was canceled because of the Moral Guardians, apparently due to the fact that fights would end with the [[MonsterOfTheWeek monster]] [[RealityEnsues losing a limb or lots of blood]] as opposed to blowing up.

* PowerRangers has been fighting this since Day 1. People were complaining that the shows violent content was encouraging children to hurt themselves, and a rumor began that a kid died while he was playing Power Rangers with his friends (in fact, many countries censored or simply refused to broadcast the show because of this; in a cute twist of irony, until 2011 the only place where the show was still outright ''banned'' was New Zealand, where it's been filmed since 2002). Nowadays, with the internet and violent video games, ''Power Rangers'' looks rather quaint by comparison, so Moral Guardians tend to just live and let live.

* GilmoreGirls was originally developed through Family Friendly Programming Forum’s (FFPF), and continued to receive funding from them. (Hence the The “Changes Everything” ad campaign.) How many shows can say they got approval from both the FFPF and NOW's Primetime Report?
* ''{{Father Ted}}'' was subject to criticism from those who viewed it as Anti-Irish. Many of these guardians were English people of Irish descent, a fact GrahamLinehan thought to be a Wallbanger. Many also felt that the Catholic Church in Ireland was portrayed in a bad light. Gleefully parodied with their protest of an obscene film (The page image above) which only makes the film more popular.

* ''{{Glee}}'' has been getting a surprising amount of flak by Moral Guardians. While the show never tried to be shy about risque content, its similarities to [[HighSchoolMusical a popular film series aimed at children]] led a lot of people to initially (and some still do) believe the show was targeting children. Some of the particularly ridiculous criticisms were over risque magazine photoshoots featuring the actors who played teenage characters, even likening it to "pedophilia"... Even though the actors in question were in their mid-twenties when they did the photos! Pretty much all the criticism of the show's "inappropriate" content come from people who don't realize that the show is made for older teens and young adults.

* A supermarket in Arkansas caught some flack when they [[http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2011/01/magazine-cover-with-elton-johns-baby-too-controversial-arkansas used their "family shield"]] to cover a magazine cover that had EltonJohn, his husband [[HasTwoMommies and their new infant son]] in order "protect young shoppers", but eventually reversed their decision when they received complaints.

* RayBradbury's {{dystopia}}n [[{{Literature}} novel]] ''{{Fahrenheit 451}}'' blamed these people for the slow chipping away at free speech that led to all books being banned. Naturally, the book has found itself challenged as often as ''HarryPotter'', never mind the irony in banning a book about book banning.

* [[ComicsCode The Comics Code Authority]]. In the early 1950s, Dr. Frederic Wertham published a book called ''The Seduction of the Innocent'', which was about how comic books were corrupting the youth at the time, which he backed up with many ''anecdotes''. The agency [[{{Bowdlerise}} sanitized American comics to an absurd point]], so much that questioning authority and scary creatures were banned, and drugs and disabled people could not even be ''mentioned''.\\

* Parodied in {{The Abridging of Haruhi Suzumiya}} (episode 2).

* Naturally, ''TheOnion'' has parodied Moral Guardians more than once, as well as the science of "psychology" excuses as a whole: "[[http://origin.theonion.com/content/node/30883 U.S. Children Still Traumatized One Year After Seeing Partially Exposed Breast On TV]]". To think -- some of them weren't even one year old... oh, the horror!

* [[SmugSnake Stephen Conroy]], the current Australian Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (ie. [[CaptainObvious head government internet guy]]) has made plans, approved by the Federal Government which he is a part of, to force mandatory censorship on the Internet at the ISP level for ''all'' Internet users in Australia, in which the government gets to ''decide what is appropriate and what isn't''. Even worse, ''what is and isn't blocked will be kept secret'' (as a guide, it's very similar what China and Iran have in place). This ''despite'' the fact that every test conducted thus far has shown blanket filters to be complete pants when it comes to actually achieving anything, and almost unanimous, vitriolic opposition to the idea on all fronts. Following the 2010 Election, the filter is as DeadAsDisco. The Labor Party could only remain in power by creating a coalition government with three Independent and one Greens MP. As all four of these men oppose the filter, and the Liberal/National Coalition has remained steadfast in their opposition to the filter, it's not even going to make it to the Senate. Hasn't stop Conroy talking about it every chance he can get.

* The Australian Family Association is also responsible for many movie bans. Other than its requisite gay-bashing, it tried to get the OFLC to ban ''[[NineSongs 9 Songs]]'', ''AnatomyOfHell'', ''{{Irreversible}}'', ''MysteriousSkin'' and ''Film/{{Shortbus}}''. It was actually successful with ''Film/BaiseMoi'' and ''KenPark''.