Culture

15 Movies and TV Shows Altered After 9/11

By Patrick Coyne

September 5, 2021

The September 11th attacks changed everything – including many films and TV shows from the early 2000s. Here are 15 that were altered as a direct result of 9/11.

2001 World Series: The MLB 2001 season finale was originally scripted as a healing moment for New York, with the Yankees clinching the title over the Diamondbacks. However, Arizona outfielder Luiz Gonzalez went rogue, improvising a game-winning single and declaring “I hate America and everyone in it!” on national television.

Saturday Night Live: During a much needed moment of levity in the show’s first episode after 9/11, executive producer Lorne Michaels asked then New York mayor Rudy Guiliani “can we still be funny?” To which he responded “No, you may not. Never again. I’m sorry.” This explains why every SNL episode from the past twenty years has strictly been 90 minutes of Lorne Michaels pleading “Please let us be funny now, New York’s daddy.”

Phineas and Ferb: The destruction of the Twin Towers had a devastating impact on the New York region’s environment. But it wasn’t all bad! After tons of waste polluted the East River, scientists discovered a horribly mutated, sentient duck begging joggers and cyclists to squash him to death. This poor creature would go on to inspire the character Perry the Platypus on Disney’s “Phineas and Ferb.”

Spider-Man: A teaser for Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man” originally featured the titular web head swinging between The Twin Towers. However, this was removed after an American intelligence report revealed Osama Bin Laden originally planned to sneak into a Stark Industries lab and provoke a radioactive spider into biting him. Laden only switched to airplanes upon learning comic books aren’t real life.

WWE: With Islamophobia at an all time high in 2001, Word Wrestling Entertainment continued it’s uninterrupted, multi-decade run of trotting out horribly racist, Middle Eastern characters.

Stuart Little: Filmed during the summer of 2001, “Stuart Little” was the first of many New York-based films to digitally remove the World Trade Center. But the filmmakers took it a step further by adding several lines of dialogue insisting The Twin Towers never existed, including “hey, remember last September when nothing tragic occurred? Welp, off to rodent school” and “the phrase ‘9/11 was an inside job’ means nothing to anyone in this universe.”

Frozen: Look, we don’t have all the pieces worked out just yet, but we’re like 90 percent sure Anna from “Frozen” is supposed to be George W. Bush.

Glitter: The Mariah Carey vehicle “Glitter” had all the makings of a late summer hit. That is until it was revealed that Carey once collaborated with former rapper-turned-Deputy Emir of Al-Qeda Ayman al-Zawahiri. Their song, “Honey (Death to America Remix)” was released as a B-side in 1994. While it was once quite common for pop stars to collaborate with terrorists and enemies of the United States, the movie proved too stark of a reminder for a shell shocked nation.

MadTV: “MadTV” probably did a 9/11 tribute thing, right? I mean, probably. Anybody see it?

The Lone Gunman: In a shocking coincidence, an early episode of this “X-files” spin-off featured a terrorist plot to fly planes into skyscrapers. But, while that sounds cool and interesting, most of this show is just nerd shit.

America: A Tribute to Heroes: Airing simultaneously across every major broadcast network, this 9/11 tribute concert was created as a direct result of 9/11.

Frasier: While the majority of in-production shows and movies rushed to remove anything that might remind viewers of the recent tragedy, “Frasier” was the only show to digitally add an alarming amount of Twin Towers images to every new episode. The culmination of which was an hour-long special in which Niles Crane stood on his balcony and repeatedly screamed “never forget!” at the towers, despite the show being set in Seattle and not New York.

Tags

#lists

This article is satirical. The Hard Times is a punk/hardcore satire site. All content should be considered parody and entertainment purposes only.