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5 times movies were banned for the silliest reasons

<p>Sometimes films are banned for poor taste, extreme themes, or literal pornographic content. Other times, films are banned for ridiculous reasons. These are their stories.</p> <p><strong>1. <em>E.T. The Extra-Terrestria</em></strong><em>l</em></p> <p><a href="http://www.ifc.com/shows/the-spoils-before-dying/blog/2015/06/10-movies-that-were-banned-for-crazy-reasons" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>Apparently</strong></span></a>, the governments of Norway, Finland, and Sweden worried that <em>E.T.</em> film portrays adults in such a bad light that if children were allowed to see it, it would provoke a full-scale revolt. The Swedish Board of Film Censorship banned anyone under the age of 12 from seeing the film in cinemas when it was released.</p> <p><strong>2. <em>Back to the Future</em></strong></p> <p>The much loved time travel romp is beloved around the world, not least of all because Michael J Fox is just so damn fun to watch. Unless you’re in China, that is, where any kind of time travel plot is outright banned from the country.</p> <p><strong>3. <em>The Interview</em></strong></p> <p>Written by Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg (the same guys who wrote comedy hits <em>Superbad, This Is the End</em>, and<em> Pineapple Express</em>) <em>The Interview</em> was always going to be edgy and hilarious. Little did anyone realise just how much trouble the film would prove to be as it neared release. The film is about a TV talk show host and his producer who are recruited by the US government to travel to North Korea and assassinate Kim Jong-un. Strangely, the North Korean dictator and his government didn’t see the humour in the film’s plot, and had hackers break into Sony’s computer networks. The regime also threatened violence against any American movie theatre screening the film, which worried most theatre chain enough that the film was shunted sideways into an unglamorous video-on-demand release.</p> <p><strong>4. <em>Wonder Woman</em></strong></p> <p>Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman was the superhero 2017 desperately needed, and the worldwide box office and reviews reflected how joyously she was welcomed in just about every corner of the globe. One notable exception to this was Lebanon, where the film was officially banned by the nation’s government. The reason? Because of the war between the two countries, Lebanon bans its residents from having contact with Israel’s people or products. Star Gal Gadot is Israeli, meaning that the film was a no-show.</p> <p><strong>5. <em>Beauty and the Beast</em> (2017 version)</strong></p> <p>While there are those of us who could have done without this (perfectly fine) remake, some Disney fans (and professional angry-about-everything-ers) balked when director Bill Condon announced that the film would feature Disney’s first “exclusively gay moment” in a feature film. The news was met with mixed reactions from the LGBTQI community (which we won’t go into here), but with pure venom from some conservatives who believe that this constituted a direct attack on their right to see a young white woman fall in love with a violent beast without being exposed to gayness at the same time. As a result, at least one cinema, in Alabama, refused to screen the film when it was released.</p> <p><em>Image credit: Getty / Instagram</em></p>

Movies

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Pet owners share their animal’s silliest moments

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Pets have a way of bringing joy and humour during the most mundane moments. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">One fellow pet lover decided to spread the joy by asking other pet owners on Twitter the following question:</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“What is the funniest thing a pet of yours has ever done? This is just a straight up-prompt tweet and I am quite confident we'll be glad of it. Pics encouraged, particularly if relevant to the story.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Nicole Cliffe, who wrote the tweet, wasn’t expecting the amount of replies and photos she received.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Thousands of pet owners were quick to share photos of their animals.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">One user said that their dog didn’t like their new friend trying to kiss her.</span></p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"> <p dir="ltr">Bizzy freaked out when her pal Leo tried to kiss her. <a href="https://t.co/tyaMZMUYPI">pic.twitter.com/tyaMZMUYPI</a></p> — Maris Kreizman (@mariskreizman) <a href="https://twitter.com/mariskreizman/status/1112080603116118017?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 30, 2019</a></blockquote> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Another dog owner explained that their dog believed that a tennis ball tree existed in their life.</span></p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"> <p dir="ltr">After a tennis ball stuck in our lemon tree fell in front of her, my dog believed with all her doggie heart that the lemon tree was a tennis ball tree. She spent hours staring, waiting for the next ball to ripen and fall. Occasionally she would catch a lemon instead-DISAPPOINTED!</p> — Calamity (@Calamityeyes) <a href="https://twitter.com/Calamityeyes/status/1112077804919648256?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 30, 2019</a></blockquote> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Another follower said that their cat refuses to eat dinner without his hat on.</span></p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"> <p dir="ltr">Every night, Knute has to put on his chow-chow hat before he will eat its contents. <a href="https://t.co/DdnpZm7GPa">pic.twitter.com/DdnpZm7GPa</a></p> — Charles Louis Richter (@richterscale) <a href="https://twitter.com/richterscale/status/1112096019599278080?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 30, 2019</a></blockquote> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Last but not least, one follower explained the story of the time her dogs and cats worked together to get what they both wanted.</span></p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> <p dir="ltr">I swear this is true:<br /><br />Cats couldn’t open the door, always wanted outside. Dogs could open the door, no interest in going outside.<br /><br />One morning there’s commotion. I go look: door's open, cats frolicking in snow. Dogs eating biscuits from the box knocked off the top of the fridge.</p> — Elizabeth Sampat (@twoscooters) <a href="https://twitter.com/twoscooters/status/1112079274897494016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 30, 2019</a></blockquote> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Has your pet done anything funny like this? Let us know in the comments.</span></p>

Family & Pets

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Travel agents share silliest complaints from travellers

<p><span>Holiday goers save up all year for their annual break so it is no surprise that when things go wrong, they like to let everyone know.</span></p> <p><span>Travel agents receive a variety of complaints from tourists who wish to highlight the hiccups they encountered during their trip.</span></p> <p><span>It is expected that people will complain about shabby hotels and long delays, but sometimes the complaints can be quite ridiculous, like one traveller who complained that they were disappointed to find every restaurant serving curry in India.</span></p> <p><span>Twitter page Holiday Complaints has shared the most ridiculous complaints made by travellers.</span></p> <p><span>1. “On my holiday to Goa in India, I was disgusted to find that almost every restaurant served curry. I don’t like spicy food at all.”</span></p> <p><span>2. “No one told us there would be fish in the sea. The children were startled.”</span></p> <p><span>3. We had to cut our trip short to Yellowstone because we were informed that they don’t cage the animals at night for our protection.”</span></p> <p><span>4. “Topless sunbathing on the beach should be banned. The holiday was ruined as my husband spent all day looking at other women.”</span></p> <p><span>5. “The beach had too many fat people. It was gross.”</span></p> <p><span>6. “We went to a Mexican restaurant in Rome and the waiter was Italian. You said Italy was the best place for an authentic food experience.”</span></p> <p><span>7. "It rained. We didn't know it ever rained in Spain."</span></p> <p><span>8. “Why doesn’t everyone speak English? We went to Spain and no one understood English. We will never go back there again.”</span></p> <p><span>9. "It was expected that you tipped the waiters even though the hotel was all-inclusive."</span></p> <p><span>10. “The water in the Gulf of Mexico was too salty. No one told me that there was going to be salt in the water. It was gross.”</span></p> <p><span>11. “It’s lazy of the local shopkeepers to close in the afternoons. I often needed to buy things during ‘siesta’ time — this should be banned.”</span></p> <p><span>12. “You said the town was next to a volcano, but we went and there was no lava. I’m pretty sure it was just a mountain.”</span></p>

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