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35 Pop-Culture Happenings of Yesteryear That Weren’t Cool Then and Aren’t Cool Now

Problematic pieces of pop culture (man, we wish the word ‘culture’ started with a P)

35 Pop-Culture Happenings of Yesteryear That Weren’t Cool Then and Aren’t Cool Now

November 03, 2024

People like to say that everyone got so sensitive all of a sudden, but wild concepts like acceptance, gender equality and consent have actually been around for a long time. So you can say that these pop-culture staples were cool back then all you want, but we assure you, they were garnering some serious head shakes and eye rolls decades ago.

Get on board, Uncle Larry!

35

American Beauty

... TELL US NOW. AMERICAN BEAUTY The award-winning movie stars Kevin Spacey pining after an underage person. Nina J. says it definitely doesn't hold up because it feels like, especially when you watched it as an underage girl, that those creepy guys are cool and if they assault you, you're going to be guilty. CRACKED.COM — Source

34

Superbad

SETH'S CRACKED ENTIRE PLOT IS DATE RAPE. SUPERBAD His master plan is to get Emma Stone's character drunk enough to sleep with him. When he discovers she doesn't drink, he whines, gets grabby, and vomits on her. Worse, he seems to be practicing for a string of similar assaults in college. — Source

33

Friends

35 Pop-Culture Happenings of Yesteryear That Weren’t Cool Then and Aren’t Cool Now

32

Tyler the Creator

Turns out, the United Kingdom banned Tyler the Creator from their country. The issue was Tyler's lyrics from 2009 and 2011, which the UK says are homophobic and intolerant. CRACKED.COM — Source: 15 Celebs We Didn’t Know Got Banned From Other Countries

31

Looney Tunes

Adult jokes in children's movies Looney Tunes Yosemite sam In 1995's Carrotblanca, Looney Tunes got what it always lacked - a homophobic prison rape joke! CRACKED.COM — Source

30

Elliot Page

ELLIOT PAGE REGRETS A SCENE IN JUNO. There's a line in the film where his character rejects the name Madison for the baby because it's a little gay. Page has regretted that line since, and even omitted it during a table read years later. It wasn't something I totally registered at the time, but, of course, now that I'm older I do. So many movies I loved as a kid are just rampant with homophobia and transphobia and biphobia, and I'm not excusing it by any means. CRACKED.COM

29

Alison Brie

Alison Brie regrets voicing a Vietnamese-American on Bojack Horseman. In hindsight, I wish that I didn't voice the character of Diane Nguyen, she said. Her thinking at the time was that the world of animation is different. CRACKED.COM

28

Viola Davis

VIOLA DAVIS REGRETS HER ROLE IN THE HELP. The actress said that her part in the 2011 film feels like she betrayed herself and her people because the film was created in the filter and the cesspool of systemic racism. She said that the movie was catering to a white audience only, and didn't show them who Black people really were. CRACKED COM

27

Rooney Mara

ROONEY MARA REGRETS PLAYING TIGER LILY IN PAN. The movie not only (sorry) panned, but it was also a major talking point in the conversation about Hollywood's trend to whitewash movies. Mara said she felt embarrassed to be part of it. I really hate, hate, hate that I am on that side of the whitewashing conversation. I really do. I don't ever want to be on that side of it again. I can understand why people were upset and frustrated. CRACKED.COM — Entertainment Tonight

26

Audi

35 Pop-Culture Happenings of Yesteryear That Weren’t Cool Then and Aren’t Cool Now — Source: 29 Companies That Ran Unbelievably Dumb Promotions

25

Will Smith

Fallen Celebrities Then vs. Now WILL SMITH is a rap and screen legend. SOME WEIRDLY SEXIST DRIVE TO PROTECT WOMEN ended up backfiring, though, and he sabotaged the Oscar ceremony that should have been his crowning achievement. CRACKED.COM — Source

24

Rudy Giuliani

PD NFD When Rudy Giuliani made a cameo in the Adam Sandler movie Anger Management, he was a fairly beloved figure thanks to his actions following 9/11. Now, though, he's the lunatic with the spray-on hair who did a press conference outside a dildo store. CRACKED

23

Lance Armstrong

The message of Lance Armstrong's cameo in Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story was more than slightly undermined when it was revealed that, rather than the heroic champion the world thought he was, he was on industrial amounts of performance-enhancing drugs. CRACKED

22

Any Fat Suit Character

CRACKED ANY FAT SUIT CHARACTER. In 2018, Netflix's Insatiable sparked outrage with yet another fat suit trope, and with examples like Monica Geller, Gwyneth Paltrow in Shallow Hal, and Schmidt from New Girl, it's easy to see why caricaturing people for a laugh is problematic. - - - surgical lubrica sterile bacterios NET WT - NOT 8 USE . — Fluffy Kitten Party / E Online

21

Ace Ventura

CRACKED EINHORN IS FINKLE. FINKLE IS EINHORN. ACE VENTURA: PET DETECTIVE Problematic, yes, but this isn't a righteous look how far we've come critique. Story-wise, the reveal of Einhorn's bulge tucked between her legs was shock value, leagues above the rest of the movie's tone. Was it really needed to tell a stolen dolphin story? — Slant Magazine / Mirror

20

Country Bear Jamboree

CRACKED COUNTRY BEAR JAMBOREE Disney's Country Bear Jamboree, which features animatronic animals singing, playing instruments, and dancing, has been (rightly) seen as offensive because some of the songs contain lyrics that stereotype Native Americans as savages. — The CA Paper / Wide Open Country

19

Peter Sellers

PETER SELLERS was not woke for his last movie. FIENDISH PLOT OF DR. FU MANCHU GRACKED.COM Sellers plays five roles, almost all based on ethnic stereotypes that were problematic even in 1980. Fu Manchu searches for eternal life in the movie, poignant considering Sellers' death shortly after filming. — Source

18

Disney Remakes

Disney Remakes Then vs. Now From problematic themes to glossing over the problems Since hindsight's 2020, we can say the whole Princess trope is icky, while still acknowledging the films as classics. Moreover, non-canon films like Moana, Tangled, or Frozen feature complex and badass female characters, while the canon itself only gets a shallow layer of girlbossy pandering, which just makes the original issues stand out even more. CRACKED.COM — Source: Collider
Image Credit: Walt Disney Pictures

17

Fresh Prince Lyrics

Cringey lyrics from the '80s DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince Parents Just Don't Understand And this girl's hand was steadily moving up my thigh. She had opened up three buttons on her shirt so far. I almost had a heart attack that day. Come to find out the girl was a twelve-year-old runaway. Will Smith was 20 when this was released, and even if the song was about his younger self, he picks up this girl while driving his car. Do we need to keep listing reasons this is problematic?! CRACKED — Source

16

Dr. Dolittle

Hugh Lofting THE VOYAGES OF DOCTOR DOLITTLE HUCH LOFTINC The original Doctor Dolittle story included a subplot about Prince Bumpo, an African noble whom the good Doctor graciously bleaches white SO he can marry a princess.

15

The Triumph of Civic Virtue

NEWYORK'S TRIUMPH OF CIVIC VIRTUE IS PROBLEMATIC, AT BEST. Even in 1922, Triumph of Civic Virtue was seen as sexist, and sparked protests at its City

14

Peter Pan

DISNEY'S CLASSIC PETER PAN (1953) Not only did the What Made the Red Man Red song represent Native Americans as dumb dancing fools, but it actually

13

Rugrats

Rugrats spoofed a highly sexualized psychological thriller. CRACKED G COM In Season 3, Episode 25, Cradle Attraction, a new girl stalks Chuckie in the same manner as Alex (Glenn Close) with Dan (Michael Douglas) in Fatal Attraction. They even replicate a shot from the film. — Screenrant

12

Helga’s Mom on ‘Hey, Arnold!’

Helga's mom was a boozehound. HEY, ARNOLD! CRACKED.COM Helga's mother on Hey, Arnold! routinely slurred her words, and could barely stay awake. Her many community service bids had adults thinking possible DUl's. — Diply / Buzzfeed

11

Ariana Grande

Ariana Grande demeans mental health. VICTORIOUS CRACKED.COM On Victorious, Cat (Ariana Grande) jokingly states, Doctors don't even know what's wrong with me, and, My brother's going back to the clinic tonight. Не could be there for a while. — Yahoo / Fandom

10

Pocahontas

THE HISTORICAL POCAHONTAS WAS TEN YEARS OLD ... AND WAS NOT IN LOVE WITH JOHN SMITH. The fake love story was mostly propagated by Smith's own journals and kept alive by Western culture as a tidy example of nice Native American / colonial fraternization. CRACKED.COM — Source

9

Amy Schumer

AMY SCHUMER realized that she has influence. About her old joke, I used to date Hispanic guys, but now I prefer consensual, she said, I played a dumb white girl onstage. Once I realized I had more eyes and ears on me and had an influence I stopped telling jokes like that. I am evolving as an artist. I am taking responsibility and hope I haven't hurt anyone. I apologize if I did. CRACKED — Source

8

Virgin Jokes

This guy is a virgin so he lacks basic knowledge of human anatomy. Also since he's not getting laid he is a total loser. And naive. VIRGIN 40 THE YEAR-OLD AMERICAN PIE It's a wrap! When are we filming? Hopefully never. CRACKED.COM — Source

7

iCarly

iCarly referenced that BDSM movie. Shade a Nifty Bhades Shades of beg of Beige CRACKED.COM A Season 5 episode shows Guppy (an 8 year old boy) staring wide eyed at the novel, Nifty Shades of Beige - a direct spoof of the BDSM laden Fifty Shades of Grey. — Diply / iCarly Fandom

6

David Letterman

COMEDY DE NERD David Letterman publicly said he felt bad about making fun of Monica Lewinsky. It happened in 2014, after he'd read an essay in Vanity Fair in which she wrote about how humiliated she'd been by the whole scandal. CRACKED.COM — Source

5

Family Guy

COMEDY DEL NERD Seth MacFarlane says Family Guy wouldn't do the JFK Pez Dispenser joke today. Here's the joke: A kid gets the head of his new John F. Kennedy pez Dispenser blown off, then says Good thing I still have my Bobby Kennedy pez Dispenser. CRACKED.COM — Source

4

Eddie Murphy

COMEDY NERD Eddie Murphy says that his old jokes, from 1987's Raw, make him cringe. I was a young guy processing a broken heart, you know, kind of an asshole, he said, even though Raw basically made him a star. CRACKED.COM — Source

3

Sabrina Jalees

COMEDY DEL NERD Sabrina Jalees used embarrassing material about race as a teenager. She'd make jokes like I'm like a coconut: Brown on the outside, white on the inside! Now, she finds that sad and weird and self-hating. CRACKED.COM — Source

2

Trevor Noah

COMEDY DE NERD Trevor Noah thinks the old tweets that got him in trouble were... stupid. The way he put it is that the slightly younger Noah who'd written those Twitter jokes way back when was actually just being idiotic. CRACKED.COM — Source

1

Old People Jokes

Old people are bumbling idiots who can't stop sh*tting themselves and breaking their hips after climbing a set Of stairs. Hilarious! Hollywood activ

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