History Main / MoralGuardians

* ''VideoGame/IdolManager'': Such people are possible sources of scandals. For instance, a politician might directly name the song as the cause of uptake in behavior they don't approve of among young people.

* 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 Music/{{Prince}} song "[[Film/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 Music/TwistedSister, to testify, expecting him to make himself look foolish and further promote their cause. Snider showed up dressed in ripped and torn clothing, 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 eloquently 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. He also finally managed to come off as more respectful than the comittee members themselves, when he pushed back on their referring to Tripper Gore as "Senator Gore's wife" and insisted on referring to her by her name, effectively underscoring the point he made about being against sexism. This was possibly the most epic defeat ever handed to the PMRC.

** 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]] pedophile serial killer. Of course, browsers should still display their site's galleries of scantily-dressed young women.

'''Jeremy:''' You mean like, "[[Music/BobDylan Lay Lady Lay]]", "[[Music/TheBeatles Lucy in the Sky]]", "[[Music/JimiHendrix Purple Haze]]", "[[Music/TheRollingStones Brown Sugar]]"?\\

* In a delightfully caustic TakeThat to the good decade or so of Moral Guardians complaining in the franchise's history, the villains in ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' are a gang known as Team Plasma, a polarizing group that aims to forcibly separate people from their Pokémon for the same reasons as real Moral Guardians intend with pretty much everything. For good measure, they're dressed as [[VisualPun literal]] [[KnightTemplar Knights Templar]] and their logo resembles the [[SigilSpam Chi Rho]]. They're almost entirely {{hypocrite}}s; [[spoiler:[[WellIntentionedExtremist only one of them, their PuppetKing leader N Harmonia, has any actual altruism behind this motives]]. [[TheManBehindTheMan The leader who is actually pulling the strings]], Ghestis, intends to use Pokémon to dominate a world where no one else is allowed to use them, and the [[{{Mook}} grunts]] are just [[KickTheDog casually cruel]] and support Ghetsis' intentions.]]

** Parodied to the point of deconstruction when, after Maggie hits Homer with a mallet--seriously injuring him--after seeing the same thing on "Itchy and Scratchy", Marge leads a movement to get violence in cartoons banned. They succeed in getting "Itchey and Scratchy" pulled off the air, but then the group objects to Michelango's ''David'' touring the city because of its nudity. Marge, a lover of fine art, is not offended by the statue and she thinks children ''should'' see it up close because it's a masterpiece. On a television interview, she is challenged with regards to the hypocrisy of calling for the banning of one form of expression that is found objectionable and not another; as she's unable to answer, her protest is reversed.

* What the PTC is to television, the [[http://www.capalert.com/ Childcare Action Project]] (usually called by its acronym CAP) is to movies (with the exception of "effective".). Its founder, Tom Carder, appears to have chosen a [[FunWithAcronyms pretentious acronym]] first and then built a rating system around that: "WISDOM," which divides the sins of movies into the categories "Wanton violence/crime", "Impudence/hate", "Sexual immorality", "Drugs/alcohol", "Offense to God", and "Murder/suicide". He then goes on to be incredibly verbose in justifying his system, with charts, no less. Note that whenever a score by his system goes ''completely against common sense'', he, without exception, calls it "proof of the objectivity" of his system. He has a long, detailed explanation for watching movies that are rated as being only appropriate for adults. It basically amounts to "a few parents might take their kids to R-rated movies and I know better than them (and everyone else)".

* 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 Music/{{Prince}} song "[[Film/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 Music/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 eloquently 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. He also finally managed to come off as more respectful than the comittee members themselves, when he pushed back on their referring to Tripper Gore as "Senator Gore's wife" and insisted on referring to her by her name, effectively underscoring the point he made about being against sexism. This was possibly the most epic defeat ever handed to the PMRC.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'': '''[[UpToEleven HOO BOY, where do we begin]]?''' The show basically ''reveled'' in insulting Moral Guardians at every given moment. This show, with its ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes''-style humor, came out at a time when Moral Guardians started to grow rampant when it came to cartoons with said style, and considering how this show loves to poke fun of society...

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'': '''[[UpToEleven HOO BOY, where do we begin]]?''' The show basically ''loved'' to insult Moral Guardians at every given moment. This show, with its ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes''-style humor, came out at a time when Moral Guardians started to grow rampant when it came to cartoons with said style, and considering how this show loves to poke fun of society...

* 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 ''[[Film/NineSongs 9 Songs]]'', ''Film/AnatomyOfHell'', ''Film/{{Irreversible}}'', ''Film/MysteriousSkin'' and ''Film/{{Shortbus}}''. It was actually successful with ''Film/BaiseMoi'' and ''Film/KenPark''.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'': '''[[UpToEleven HOO BOY, where do we begin]]?''' This show, with its ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes''-style humor, came out at a time when Moral Guardians started to grow rampant when it came to cartoons with said style, and considering how this show loves to poke fun of society...

* ''Manga/StoryOfADumbPrefectAndHighSchoolGirlWithInappropriateSkirtLength'': The High School Public Morals Committee, especially Vice President Kogori, is opposed to any "inappropriate student relationships". To Kogori that means pretty much any relationships or physical contact, while Sakuradaimon tries to rationalize that if the couple is really in love, the relationship can't be inappropriate ([[spoiler:partially to justify his relationship with Poemu]]). When the school cultural festival announces its main event will be a prom-style dance, Kogori acts like a DrillSergeantNasty to the committee, charging them with preventing anything "impure" from happening (like *gasp* couples holding hands).

* Naturally, ''Website/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!

** "Valuable Lesson" involves two television executives (one being a Creator/WallaceShawn caricature) interrupting an otherwise normal Warner cartoon about them harassing UsefulNotes/AtillaTheHun and taking them to two test rooms where they observe kids watching this show and other kids watching an {{Expy}} of ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs''.

* [[http://www.cuttingedge.org/News/hpmain.html Cutting Edge Ministries]], home of the most massively convoluted ''Literature/HarryPotter'' Moral Guardianship ever. This is the site that drew some sort of evil monstrous connection between Harry's green eyes, green icing on a birthday cake, green ink on an invitation, Professor [=McGonagall's=] green cloak, and the unsourced assertion that green "is Satan's favorite color".

* The UK has former politician Keith Vaz MP, a man of [[SarcasmMode sublime intellect]], [[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1162213/Keith-Vaz-damning-letter-How-senior-Labour-MP-abused-position-help-crooked-lawyer-court.html unimpeachable]] [[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1319919/Vaz-was-made-a-minister-after-Hinduja-brothers-lobbied-Blair.html personal]] [[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/3123394/Keith-Vaz-to-face-sleaze-investigation.html integrity]], a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Vaz#Rushdie_Affair champion of free speech]] and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Vaz#Leicester_IRA_attack common sense]]. ({{beat}}) Hang on...

* The original ''VideoGame/{{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 shelves, the same moral guardians sought to have the game re-rated and pulled from store shelves. Meanwhile, the game was [[BannedInChina banned in New Zealand and Australia]] and was given the film rating of R in the Canadian province of Ontario,[[note]]Ontario's R rating is equivalent to the American NC-17 rating; in other words, the game cannot legally be sold or rented to those under the age of 18 years in Ontario; the American R rating is equivalent to Ontario's 18A rating[[/note]]. The game's sequel, ''Manhunt 2'', was actually [[BannedInChina 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.

* Because of the ShoutOut to the [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic brony fanbase]] where they had Derpy speak, [[http://tinyurl.com/77bg9j7 parents think the writers were making fun of disabled people]]. "The Last Roundup" has already been pulled from the iTunes store and possibly from the Hub's rotation. Early in February of 2012, all of the "Derpy" merchandise at We Love Fine was renamed to either "Ditzy" or some generic name. Hasbro was apparently pressuring WLF to take them down, as well as having Apple take "The Last Roundup" off of iTunes. In mid-to-late February of 2012, "The Last Roundup" was put back up onto iTunes store, but Derpy has an entirely different voice and her eyes are no longer screwed up, and Rainbow Dash doesn't name her anymore.

* ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'': Sam's parents, Jeremy and Pamela Manson, are stereotypical conservative parents, who protest against things they find "objectionable, immoral, or obnoxious". This puts them at odds against Sam, because not only is she a goth who is into the things they loathe (such as Circus Gothica), but she's also friends with the son of two eccentric ghost hunters.

[[folder:Film]]

* Fans of Pixar's ''Franchise/ToyStory'' (at the time) trilogy wanted it to be the only trilogy on Website/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 received two negative reviews bumping it down to a 99. While the one by Armond White was almost immediately written off as a troll that needed to get banned, the other was, you guessed it, a moral guardian, Cole Smithey, who based his bad review on his opinion that the film was too intense for its G rating.

[[AC:Film]]

People, [[StrawmanPolitical stereotypically]] either conservative HolierThanThou Bible thumpers or PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad liberals, who believe that children — or people in general, but ''especially'' [[ThinkOfTheChildren children]] — shouldn't be exposed to what they consider to be [[FamilyUnfriendlyViolence excessive violence]], [[HeteronormativeCrusader "perverted" minorities]], [[SexIsEvil sex]], [[ClusterFBomb foul language]], [[StrawFeminist alleged support for the "patriarchy"]], [[FlawlessToken any negative depiction of somebody in an ethnic minority]], [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking laziness]], etc. The exact mix of what they object to varies from group to group, but in any case, expect them to be portrayed as {{Indubitably Uninteresting Individual}}s who despise anything others find to be fun and exciting.

** ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut'': For those who haven't heard the song "Blame Canada", the last two lines. "We must blame them and cause a fuss before somebody thinks of blaming us!" In response to them [[DontExplainTheJoke allowing their children to see a movie with copious use of the F-word, then blaming Canada for their kids being disrespectful and foul-mouthed.]]

* 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 Music/{{Prince}} song "[[Film/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 Music/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 release of ''VideoGame/{{Bully}}'' on the [=PS2=] (renamed ''Canis Canem Edit'' in the UK, at least in part over this fuss) was accompanied by a "ban this game" campaign led by disgraced former Cabinet Minister Keith Vaz. This mainly occurred during the game's development, as upon release such detractors were left with egg on their face when ''Bully'' turned out to be fairly wholesome, due to the fact that the path to victory is playing morally, being a good student and taking down the titular bullies. This was pretty much what caused the Jack Thompson media flareup to finally die down. ''Bully: Scholarship Edition'' has since been released in the UK under its original title.

'''Student:''' Oh, come on, sir, don't be silly! Why, ''we're'' the only kids in Britain who never say "f--" {cut to next scene}

** 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]] pedophile serial killer. Of course, browsers should still display their site's galleries of [[MoralDissonance scantily-dressed young women]].

* Believe it or not, even '''''VideoGame/Portal2''''' has been the target of Moral Guardians, with claims that it is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUQYrdgIJuI offensive]] [[ButNotTooEvil to adopted children]], somehow completely ignoring that the entire point is that the obvious antagonists -- who also make fat jokes -- are the ones making the claims.