30 Rock did blackface four times. FOUR.
1.
In one of the animated “blooper reels” at the end of Toy Story 2, “Stinky Pete” — the villain of the movie, who’s voiced by Kelsey Grammer — asks two Barbie dolls if they’re “truly identical” and offers them a role in Toy Story 3…but under the implications that he’ll get “something” from them in return. In 2019, this scene was cut from all future releases of Toy Story 2.
2.
The Breakfast Club stars Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy, along with producer Michelle Manning, teamed up to get director John Hughes to cut a scene with “gratuitous female nudity.”
The scene in question featured the members of the Breakfast Club spying on an attractive gym teacher while she was changing. Karen Leigh Hopkins was cast as the gym teacher before Ringwald, Sheedy, and Manning advocated cutting the scene altogether.
Hughes then replaced the gym teacher with a janitor, who was originally played by Rick Moranis. However, thwhen Moranis played the character as a “Russian caricature,” he was fired and replaced by John Kapelos.
3.
In Friends, the plot of “The One Where Rachel Tells Ross” was originally supposed to be a lot different, but after the tragic events of 9/11, the editors scrambled to make last-minute changes.
The core storyline, however, remained the same: Chandler and Monica go on their honeymoon only to watch another couple of honeymooners get every perk instead of them, including getting upgraded to first-class as well as a nicer room once they arrived at the hotel. But according to Insider, the original version had it so Chandler and Monica never even made it to the hotel at all.
The writers had it that Chandler made a joke about bombs in the airport which then got them detained. After they were released from the interrogation room, Monica would then yell at Joey and Phoebe over the phone, getting them detained yet again. This episode was supposed to air about a month after 9/11, so this subplot was cut in the wake of the terrorist attack.
4.
13 Reasons Why was always controversial — it was both praised for openly discussing mental illness, but also for wrongfully glorifying suicide. One study even indicated that teenaged suicide drastically increased following the show’s release.
Before airing the show’s third season, Netflix decided to retroactively remove the scene showing Hannah Baker killing herself in the first season. Now, it just cuts to her parents finding her. Netflix also released a statement saying they discussed the matter with medical experts before ultimately deciding to edit out the scene.
5.
Years after their original airing, Tina Fey — the creator of the Emmy Award-winning show 30 Rock — insisted on removing several racially insensitive episodes from streaming services. The first was Season 3, Episode 2 where characters Jenna Maroney and Tracy Jordan have an argument over whether it was harder to be a white woman or a Black man. This led them to perform a “social experiment” where they both dressed up in drag — with Tracy in white face and Jenna in blackface.
6.
Then, in Season 5, Episode 4 — one of the series’ “Live Show” specials — they had Dr. Drew Baird, the handsome-yet-stupid doctor played by Jon Hamm, lose both of his hands and consequently receive a hand transplant from a Black man from death row. His hands then try to strangle him.
7.
Next, there was Season 5, Episode 10 where Jenna Maroney dressed up as Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Lynn Swann for a 2010s-themed New Year’s Eve party. Jenna went as “Black Swan(n).”
8.
And lastly out of the 30 Rock examples, Season 6, Episode 19 included a scene that’s meant to criticize TV’s historic use of blackface. Jon Hamm appears in a clip of Alfie and Amos, a fake 1950s sitcom where the actor playing Alfie (Tracy Morgan) becomes more and more disgusted by his costar’s “stereotypical” portrayal of a Black character.
9.
In the Sex and the City Season 1 episode, “The Monogamists,” Charlotte — according to Vanity Fair — had a storyline where she was dating a guy who was adamant about her giving him blowjobs. He also had a golden retriever who’d always watch them in the bedroom, which freaked Charlotte out. She went on to leave him, but ultimately had a change of heart, went back, and saw the dog going down on him. Yeah…this scene was scrapped.
10.
After shooting a scene in The Predator where Steven Wilder Striegel’s character hit on her, Munn found out that he was a registered sex offender and no one working on the film had been told. She went on to file a complaint with 20th Century Fox. Prior to filming, Striegel had spent six months in jail for attempting to lure a minor into a sexual relationship.
Director Shane Black — who did know of Striegel’s conviction — later issued a statement claiming that he cast Striegel in an attempt to “help a friend.” Black also claimed that he was unaware of the extent of the charges, which led Striegel to call his bluff in his own personal statement. Striegel’s one scene was then cut from The Predator.
11.
Although this scene appeared in the book version of It, the visual of Pennywise actually eating a baby was too graphic to translate to film. In the alleged scene — that was found in full on Reddit — Pennywise tortures a woman and her baby. Comments Bill Skarsgård made about a disturbing scene in the film suggest at least part of it was shot, but thankfully it didn’t make it into the final movie.
12.
In Horrible Bosses 2, Jennifer Aniston’s character had a cut scene where she took advantage of Charlie Day’s character while he was in a coma.
When Conan O’Brien interviewed Aniston about the movie, he asked why she thought the scene didn’t make the final cut. “It was kind of, not even mutual, you know?” she responded. “I’m not gonna say it.”
13.
In an attempt to bring to light a classic time traveler predicament, one of Deadpool 2‘s post-credit scenes featured Deadpool meeting infant Hitler. Deadpool questions what he should do, and the scene ends with him reaching into the crib before it cuts to black.
While the scene was cut from the film, the extended “Super Duper Cut” revealed that Deadpool only picks up the baby and proceeds to change his diaper.
In one scene, Otika can be seen rolling out a red carpet for Bacchus, the God Wine, and Sunflower polishes the hooves of a white centaurette. Disney edited out the characters in 1969 — the same year that President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act.
15.
According to Steve-O’s episode of Hot Ones’ Truth or Dab show, several stunts were too awful to include in the final cuts of Jackass. The first one — “Box Down Stairs” — featured Johnny Knoxville sealing himself in a big cardboard box (with a couple pillows for “padding”) before getting pushed down cement stairs. Steve-O called it “violent as hell.”
16.
The second involved Knoxville shooting himself with a handgun.
Joe Scarnici / Getty Images
17.
And the third saw Knoxville announce, “I’m Johnny Knoxville and I’m going to get hit by a car real soon.” I think you can guess what happened next. When he was asked what the hell he was thinking, Knoxville replied, “I wore two pairs of jeans so I’d be safe.”
18.
And finally, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark director André Øvredal ultimately decided to cut a scene where Harold, a vengeful scarecrow, tore a character’s skin off.
Øvredal told Slate, “Everybody I talked to who has a relationship to these books, they remember going to the Scholastic school fair and fighting over the books in the library when they were kids and discovering and reading them under the sheets in the bed. It just would be so unfair to the books if we made an ugly, ugly horror movie. That can sometimes be amazing and I love that myself, but that was never the meaning of this movie.”
