Overshadowed By Controversy Cleanup

Yeah, the song that's basically "if you attempt a (implied to be politically motivated) riot where we live, we will kill you" getting exactly the response it expected is just inherently controversial. At least "Rich Men North of Richmond," which has similar upheaval, has a more Uncertain Audience and even the singer dissuaded some of the audience it got.

As for "Baby Koopa is Crying," that was my entry and I know about it because Rubber Ross's videos got DMCA'd because of it, and that's how it got more exposure and backlash. I think OBC would suit it, because nobody would care if it didn't cause grief for these Youtubers.

Actually I think that there is a valid example for Small Town, that being the courthouse that appeared in the music video was a historical lynching site. Unlike the song's lyrics this doesn't seem to be intentional based on Aldean's response, as he didn't bother checking the history of the building before filming.

But does that overshadow the main intended controversy of the song's lyrics?

I'd say yes, before the music video the song wasn't that popular and was mostly ignored, but once the video came out people discussed the lynching courthouse and thus the video was pulled, which eventually led to many people discussing the song and it reaching number one due to people outraged that the video was pulled.

But again, the song was meant to be confrontational, so the video is just following suit. It was supposed to cause controversy from the start.

I can see a case for the video given what’s stated in this thread, but it’s also very hard to know for sure if it was intentional or not given the intentionally provocative nature of the song. Probably an edit war waiting to happen so best to just consider the song intentionally controversial and leave it out of OBC consideration.

I've heard the discussion about the song, and I never heard the thing about the courthouse.

While the courthouse being related to lynchings is a massive yikes, I don't think it overshadows the song (which we've established was always controversial).

Overshadowed requires it be a minor or out of work part that overshadows. What was the issue in question?

Also, from OvershadowedByControversy.Western Animation:

• Outside of the animation community, Infinity Train is largely best known for how it ended up getting royally Screwed by the Network — namely, it was removed from Max with zero warning to even the creators after the Warner Bros/Discovery merger, its entire social media presence was scrubbed from both Cartoon Network and HBO's accounts, and the official soundtrack and DVD releases of the first two seasons were pulled (although the DVDs were later brought back thanks to backlash). This, alongside a number of other high-profile removals from Max, led to controversy over the poor treatment of creators by production companies in the streaming era, controversy which would later become a major factor in the 2023 WGA strikes happening. Does it count if this doesn't overshadow the work within the fandom? (I don't believe anyone outside fans single this work out for that.)
• While well-received in itself, the third season of The Owl House cannot be talked about without bringing up how it was massively Screwed by the Network, being cut from 13 20-minutes long episodes to just three, 40-minutes each. Allegedly a single executive suddenly decided the show "doesn't fit Disney brand", which, in light of the show's emphasis on diversity, LGBTQ inclusivity and criticism of religious zealotry, got a lot of backlash. Cannot be talked about, maybe, but not sure if it's overshadowing the rest of the work as opposed to just controversy.

Neither are valid; those controversies certainly do exist, but they absolutely haven't overshadowed the shows themselves.

I agree. In any case, those controversies are overshadowing the networks for canceling those shows, not the shows themselves.

Saying they overshadow the companies that did those things is a huge overstatement. I personally see a case for those shows as their status as Screwed by the Network is a major point of discussion around those shows. But if I’m overruled that’s fine.

Edited by DDRMASTERM on Jan 31st 2024 at 1:53:54 PM

I can see the argument for Infinity Train since I mostly hear it brought up as a key example of Screwed by the Network and I don't actually know about its plot, but I may be biased because I've seen Owl House and not Infinity Train.

I could see a similar argument for Inside Job (2021) though, because even in that shows fan spaces, more people seem to complain about the circumstances of the cancellation rather than make genuine fan content and commentary.

Edited by mightymewtron on Jan 31st 2024 at 12:12:08 PM

I found this entry on the YMMV page for Avengers: Age of Ultron:

Now, the film has definitely been criticized for how Natasha was written in the movie, and I can definitely pin-point Age of Ultron as the moment when Joss Whedon lost his "feminist credentials". But, I don't think these elements overshadow the entire film. The film is still a bit controversial, but there's plenty of moments people talk about without bringing up the Black Widow. The introduction of Wanda and Vision, Ultron himself, the contributions the film paved for Phase Three of the MCU, etc, etc. Even when people criticize the film, it's usually not the first thing people bring up from what I've seen.

So, I'm thinking the entry should be cut. Any additional thoughts?

I agree. Seems like a cut.

Agree; reads more like a misplaced Unfortunate Implications entry.

I didn't even know there was even a line like that in the movie. Granted, I'm not an MCU fan, but people don't bring it up either. I thinks it's more known as The One With… Ultron.

Yeah, not a huge MCU fan here, but I think the controversy about the line has died down since then.

Yeah definitely isn’t something that gets brought up much these days (nor does the film as whole, it’s basically the redheaded stepchild of the Crisis Crossover films)

Found these entries on Poppy Playtime:

• Overshadowed by Controversy:
  • In December of 2021, MOB Games announced on Twitter the release of a set of NFTs^note "Non-fungible tokens", a type of cryptocurrency that is a non-interchangeable unit of data that can be sold or traded, which have become extremely controversial because of the harm their energy requirements cause to the environment and the fact that they create artificial scarcity to promote the release of Chapter 2. This move was met with immediate backlash from the fanbase, with most being upset that the NFTs contained more lore than the game itself at the time, and MOB Games deleted the tweet soon after. Even after MOB Games issued an apology, most may have never heard of the game if it weren't for what some have called an unnecessary business move.
  • Adding to the NFTs debacle, the game is chained to larger controversy revolving around MOB Games' business practices. Things like the company's focus on selling merch and making movie deals over producing more content for the game itself, alongside largely unrelated criticism toward the web series the company helps produce, has left the game itself with a sour reputation more due to its association than anything else.
  • Yet another controversy emerged when YouTuber Ekrcoaster alleged that Poppy Playtime had plagiarized his own game, Venge. Then it was revealed that the latter had been bullied in the past by MOB Games' CEO and his brother, largely via Animation Sins, a CinemaSins parody created by Mob Entertainment. Said bullying was so bad that Ekrcoaster was almost driven to suicide and had to go through psychological therapy.

I recall the NFT controversy, but the entry even notes that the devs quickly walked it back. I'm not sure how widespread the controversy of the other two entries are, but the second point at least feels outdated and I haven't heard of the last incident at all. The third installment of the game just released to quite a bit of hype, so I'm doubtful that any of this has actually overshadowed the series in the long run.

Those are just your standard controversies; none of them seem to have dragged down the game with it. Cut ‘em all.

I think Poppy is more well known for being a shameless cashgrab meant to exploit the kid friendly horror trend than for it's actual contents but I don't think it counts. I was quite disturbed to see small children with merchandise from this game tbh.

Alright, cutting.

In my experience (as someone only vaguely familiar with the game), I've seen the NFT controversy brought up nearly always when the game is mentioned. Hell, The Stupendium added a note to their Poppy Playtime song to clarify that they don't support NFTs.

Just giving my experience.

Edited by DoktorvonEurotrash on Feb 4th 2024 at 2:11:52 AM

I only know about the NFT stuff in passing but really my knowledge extends to watching people play sometimes.

I Dunno. I normally just see let's plays of this like most people do and I've never heard of this till it came up on this site.