These days it seems that every show on television is engaged in an arms race to see which can
pull off the most shocking moments.
Oh, your main character beat a stroke victim to death with an aluminum chair?
No problem, we'll just have one of our characters feed a baby to feral dogs!
Needless to say, sometimes these shows went too far.
Here's a look at some TV shows that seriously crossed the line.
Game of Thrones
Many TV critics point to The Sopranos as the show that ushered in the new era of shock
television.
But Tony Soprano's got nothing on George R.R. Martin.
What The Sopranos started, Game of Thrones brought to its logical conclusion with its
infamous Red Wedding sequence at the end of season three in 2013.
In case you've somehow forgotten, that bit began with a pregnant woman being stabbed
repeatedly in the abdomen, and ended with half of the cast hacked to bloody ribbons
in graphic detail to the horror of the audience.
"Aahhh!
Aahhh!
Aaahh!!"
Perhaps the most shocking thing?
The bloodshed merely spurred the show to new heights of popularity and spawned a wave of
imitators across television.
Thanks, HBO!
Heil Honey, I'm Home!
If you've never heard of this incredibly ill-advised 1990 sitcom from the BBC, rest assured: this
is an actual thing that actually happened on actual television.
In an attempt to parody the too-perfect lives routinely portrayed by American sitcoms, Heil
Honey, I'm Home! cast an unusual couple in the lead roles: Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun.
"Well let me tell you something Mr. Schicklgruber!"
The even wackier twist?
Their annoying neighbors are Jewish!
"Oh I get it!
I get jokes hahahahaha!"
Maybe the craziest thing about Heil Honey, I'm Home!
Is that someone actually thought it was a good idea.
Audiences, however, disagreed, and after one episode, the series was immediately cancelled.
Politically Incorrect
Bill Maher has made his career out of saying what's on his mind regardless of whether it
runs counter to popular sentiment.
In fact, that's exactly when he seems to enjoy himself the most.
"I love Halloween.
As far as holidays go that celebrate ghosts and mythical beings, it ranks right up there
Christmas."
But even for a show called Politically Incorrect, Maher went too far in September of 2001, when
he refuted a claim that the terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center were cowards.
"We have been the cowards, lobbing cruise missiles from 2000 miles away, that's cowardly.
Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you wants about it, not cowardly."
Sponsors and viewers left the show in droves.
ABC finally cancelled it a few short months later.
South Park
Matt Stone and Trey Parker have a long and glorious history of infuriating all the right
people.
But sometimes even they go a little too far.
For example, the infamous 2005 South Park episode "Bloody Mary," which involves Randy
believing his alcoholism can only be cured by a statue of the Virgin Mary that is bleeding
from its...butt.
It's really not all that hard to see why some people were a little bit offended.
And by some people, we mean almost everyone.
And by a little bit offended, we mean really, really angry.
Luckily, Stone and Parker didn't learn their lesson.
Otherwise we would never have gotten The Book of Mormon.
The Littlest Groom
Fox seems really fond of mocking their own reality show contestants, as shows like Joe
Millionaire proved.
But they took things too far with 2004's The Littlest Groom, which was a dating competition
where a little person had to choose from a batch of female love interests comprised of
both little women and women of average height.
Which would he pick when it came down to it?
Does size really matter?
The fact that Fox thought these were appropriate questions to ask in the form of an entire,
Bachelor-style dating show says it all.
The public was not amused, and only two episodes were produced.
Tiny Toons
Dude, bet you weren't expecting Tiny Toons to make this list!
But then again, viewers of the hit kids' cartoon series weren't expecting what they got in
1991 either, when the segment "One Beer" aired.
"A cold one!"
"You mean..."
"That's beer!"
That's because "One Beer" featured three of the show's adorable Looney Tunes tykes finding
a beer, getting hammered, and driving a car off a cliff to their deaths.
It was probably meant to be a parody of the then-recent hit film Thelma & Louise, but
having a bunch of kiddie cartoon characters get drunk and commit suicide is pretty much
the definition of going too far.
The episode was pulled from repeats after viewers flooded Warner Bros. with complaints.
"Ahhh who needs em.
Bunch of hoity toity goodie goodies!"
(buuurrrppppp)
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