- Hello, everyone.
Today on Banned Episodes,
I'm going to be showing you how to install
real teeth into children's toys.
(cackling)
(record scratching)
Oh, I'm on the wrong channel.
We all have our favorite TV shows
and we probably share many of the same;
you know, those really popular shows
that most of us have binged almost every episode of?
But it might surprise you to learn
that several of the shows that you're very familiar with
have episodes that you've never seen
because they've been outright banned from ever being shown.
Some even belong to shows
that you thought were completely innocent. (laughing)
Prepare to be freaked out.
(unsettling accordion music)
(explosions booming)
Here are 10 banned episodes of TV shows
you're not allowed to watch.
Number 10 is Mr. Rogers.
♪ It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood ♪
Hello everyone, it's Mr. Rogers.
Today, we're going to be talking about bombs!
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
was an iconic children's television program,
which ran for several decades
and became a staple of North American family viewing.
However, this did not stop the show
from courting controversy.
In one instance, a number of episodes
were banned after their first broadcast.
Specifically, episodes 1521 to 1525 were broadcast
between November 7th and November 11th of 1983.
That week's episodes explored the fear of war, bombs,
and why conflict broke out between people.
Fred Rogers dealt with the sensitive topics
in his usual caring way,
but many people felt that he unnecessarily exposed children
to the very real fears of the Cold War
between America and the Soviet Union at the time.
"You know, kids, today we're talking about bombs.
"You know what happens when one hits your family?
"They all die.
"Can you spell bomb?"
The episodes were obviously banned later on
and only shown one more time, 15 years later.
Number nine is South Park.
Okay, this might not surprise you.
South Park has been embroiled in several controversies
throughout its run.
Between episodes 200 and 201, that led to a ban.
In episode 200, fictional versions of celebrities
who have been attacked by the show throughout the years
descend upon the town and attempt to sue it.
The celebrities, led by a cartoon Tom Cruise,
agreed to stop it if the town can get
the Prophet Muhammad to meet with them.
Uh-oh.
The follow-up episode, which continued the story,
was heavily censored.
Images of the Prophet Muhammad were covered over
and parts of the show were edited.
You can probably guess why.
It was because a number of radical organizations
threatened violence over a depiction
of the Prophet Muhammad.
While a version of the episode was shown,
the original intended episode was banned
against the wishes of the show's makers.
Personally, I'm completely against censorship,
unless, of course, it affects demonetization,
in which case, I kinda have to.
A man's gotta make a living!
After all, I can't show something like this. (laughing)
Look at that. (laughing)
That'll never be shown. (laughing)
Number eight is Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a TV show in the '90s
which followed a teenage girl and her adventures
as a vampire slayer at night.
It was extremely popular and remains so to this day.
However, that didn't stop from having a few episodes banned.
Why, is it because they sucked? (laughing)
It's a vampire joke.
The most striking of these episodes was Earshot.
This was supposed to be the 18th episode of the third season
and was to air in April of 1999.
However, the episode deals with a fellow student of Buffy's
who is plotting to kill
as many students as he can at his school.
Just a few days before the airing of the episode,
the Columbine High School massacre took place,
and so the episode was temporarily banned,
even before it appeared.
The producers felt that it might upset
the victims' families, understandably so.
The episode was much, much later broadcast,
but it's most likely that you've never seen it.
Number seven are The Simpsons.
While Buffy the Vampire Slayer's episode
was banned before it aired,
an episode of The Simpsons was banned after,
but for similar reasons.
It was a 1997 episode of the show,
which dealt with the Simpsons family traveling to New York.
There, they look for a family car
which had been driven by drunken friend Barney Gumble
and parked outside the World Trade Center.
Large sections of the episode
deal with Homer's prejudice against New York,
but it wasn't for this reason
that the episode was later banned.
It was because, unbelievably, some of the episode's jokes
took place in and around the World Trade Center.
After the attacks of September 11, 2001,
when the World Trade Center was unfortunately destroyed,
the episode was removed from syndication
so as to not cause any more offense.
But believe it or not,
you can actually still find this episode online
if you look for it.
Number six is The X-Files.
An episode of The X-Files was banned
for exploring traumatic real-life issues.
This is surprising, considering that The X-Files
normally deals with supernatural or paranormal phenomena.
But in the case of the episode Home,
the show tackled the controversial subject of, uh, incest.
It was aired on October 11th, 1996,
but there was severe backlash against the episode,
with many feeling that it caused
unnecessary trauma to those watching
who may have been victims of incest themselves.
The creepy realism of the episode led to it being pulled.
It was never broadcast on FOX again,
though other channels have since broadcast the episode,
but very rarely.
Again, you can find this episode online
if you're that twisted. (laughing)
If you are, you're weird.
Number five is Beavis and Butthead.
First off, Beavis and Butthead courted controversy
on an episode-by-episode basis.
The gross-out humor, combined with constant sexual innuendo,
often left the makers of Beavis and Butthead
in hot water with censors.
But while the show continued to push boundaries,
one of its episode was banned outright.
In the episode Comedians,
Beavis and Butthead became stand-up comedians
and fail in a hilarious fashion.
Angered at their failure, they decide to set the comedy club
in which they performed in, um, on fire.
However, it was reported soon after
that a five-year-old had watched the episode
and, believe it or not, decided to set his home on fire.
They tried to air it again after that,
but (laughing) that didn't go so well.
It has since been banned pretty much forever.
Number four is The Twilight Zone.
Rod Sterling's The Twilight Zone
was broadcast throughout the 1960s.
You remember the theme?
("Twilight Zone Theme")
It's widely considered
one of the greatest television series ever made.
But while it explored social issues
through science-fiction and dark fantasy,
one episode became a little too much
for audiences at the time.
The episode was called The Encounter.
This was just 20 years
after the end of the Second World War,
and there were still some very real problems
in how Japanese-Americans were being treated.
The Encounter explored these difficulties
by placing a young Japanese American
and a war veteran in a locked attic together.
They need to work through their issues,
but a third unseen force is at play:
the ghosts of the past and perhaps a literal one.
These forces push both men into a bloody racist conflict.
And for that reason,
the episode wasn't aired again until 2016.
Man, that must've been really controversial at the time
with all the racism going on.
Good thing we've evolved to the point
where racism doesn't exist anymore in the year 2018.
Huh?
Number three is Peppa Pig.
(shrieking) Peppa Pig!
Peppa Pig seems like an unlikely show to cause offense,
but one episode was particularly dangerous
and had to be banned.
In that episode, Peppa Pig is frightened by a small spider.
She soon learns that that spider can't hurt her.
Oh, isn't that lovely?
So, she reiterates the nice message to the audience
that spiders are small
and children shouldn't be scared of them.
Oh, that's not offensive, right? (laughing)
The thing is, what you see in the United Kingdom,
where the show is made,
that spiders aren't really dangerous at all.
There are only a few species
which can actually bite a human,
and even then the bite is about as bad as a bee sting.
Now, here's where the problem comes in.
In Australia, where the show is also aired,
there are several small spiders which are absolutely deadly,
so teaching kids that they shouldn't be wary of them
is not a good idea.
For that reason, the episode was banned
and never shown in Australia.
Again, you can see it online,
just don't watch it if you're Australia.
Not for kiddos!
Number two is Sesame Street.
Again, you wouldn't think a show as popular as Sesame Street
would have a banned episode.
But in 1976, an episode of the show
traumatized many of its younger viewers.
In the episode, actress Margaret Hamilton was a guest star.
Margaret was most famous
for her depiction of the Wicked Witch of the West
in the classic film The Wizard of Oz.
In this particular episode of Sesame Street,
she reprises that role dressed as the witch
and sneering at the muppets on Sesame Street.
Her performance was so convincing
that many children who had sat down
to watch the normally benign Sesame Street
were traumatized by what they saw.
(cackling)
See, wasn't that scary?
A backlash followed and, as a result,
parents flooded the show's makers with letters of complaint.
The episode was soon removed from syndication
and so far has never been included again.
Again, if you wanna watch it, you can; it's online.
You can fly, my pretties!
(laughing)
And number one is Seinfeld.
Some consider Seinfeld
to be the greatest sitcom of all time,
but it also had an episode
that was so controversial it was banned.
In the 1998 episode, the characters of Seinfeld
find themselves stuck in a traffic jam.
The reason for the backed-up traffic is a celebration
of the annual Puerto Rico Parade in New York.
Kramer, played by Michael Richards,
at one point accidentally sets a Puerto Rico flag on fire
and then stomps it out in front of shocked onlookers.
He also makes a number of comments about Puerto Rico itself.
Many felt that the episode
showed Puerto Ricans in a bad light.
Seinfeld's network, NBC, soon apologized
and, for the next four years,
the episode was banned from being ever aired.
Eventually, the episode was shown again in 2002,
but it remains controversial to this day.
Man, Kramer, AKA Michael Richards doing something racist?
(laughing) That's never happened before.
There's definitely no video evidence of that
on YouTube right now of him doing a standup routine.
Racist.
But, no, that never existed.
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And that's it; take care, guys.
I'll see you in the next video; buh-bye now!