Why Did The British Panic Over Ninja Turtles? - Eddache 

- Oh no! They sent a ninja assassin to get me! - You got it wrong, I'm actually a Hero Assassin - Oh, thank goodness *Muffled noises of hero violence*

Who would’ve guessed the British were so terrified of freaking Ninjas.

"video nasties" is literally the most british thing i have ever heard

I find the censorship of nunchucks hilarious since they’re terribly ineffective weapons in real life

so in short, british people hate ninjas because of morbius

"I actually don't need to see, visually, what I know is in that film" What a completely normal thing to think, censoring content based on a name and description. Screw context

It's nice to see someone do a full deep dive into the paranoia caused by Thatcher. The Hillsborough disaster was so prevalent and sickening that Liverpool and the rest of the North still hold massive resentment to the police force to this day. The 97th death happened a few decades after the disaster, and that led leaders to campaign for the Hillsborough law. So thank you for handling the Hillsborough disaster in such a respectful way, Eddie.

In the mid 90s a drain down my street got blocked and the local fire crew come out to help clear it. It turned out to be a pizza box and one of the fireman said to me “those bloody turtles need to put their rubbish in the bin!“ I’ve never forgotten that as I was Turtle mad at the time. 😆

This is a cautionary tale, and a reminder that trying to appeal to moral crusaders is ultimately a fruitless effort. Sadly, people still haven't learned this lesson.

I learned so much in this one! Great video, dude! 👍

The sad thing is that moral panic is still a thing today. It's not just the Ninja Turt-- Uh, I mean... Hero Turtles... But it's also happened with other shows before like SpongeBob (notably when the Parents Television Council went full butthurt mode over the "Sailor Mouth" episode). If some idiot politician or moral guardian has a beef with me over my work, I'd say that it's their problem and not mine, and then tell them to shut the fuck up.

what I found funny about Mary Whitehouse was that some shows like Doctor Who found her complaints to be quite good as it gave the show more attention. One show in particular The Goodies tried to piss Whitehouse off by basing an entire episode on her, because to her, The Goodies was a clean show that didn't do anything risqué.

"One of the things about the turtles is that they’re all supposed to be relatable to the point where you feel as if you’ve got a little bit of every one of them in your personality. That’s why they’re so cool, is because you can see little bits of yourself in all of them." - Master Splinter

Mary Whitehouse is one of those people who you really can't believe existed until you read about her. Imagine what she'd think of modern video games or modern movies!

So basically, anything kids like is dangerous and everything bad can be blamed on them

I appreciate the restraint edd has for not making an among us joke when mentioning sus and instead calling it out as a racist policy

As a non-British person but also a Doctor Who fan, "why would the British panic over turtles?" Mary Whitehouse. Ah, say no more.

I hate how they changed Mikeys nunchucks. The whole point is that each of their weapons have deeper meaning in something they need to learn. The difficult to use nunchucks were giving to him to teach him to stay focused as the most talented, but goofiest and most scatterbrained turtle.

TMNT teaches to not judge a book by its cover, do good & do no evil, bad guys don’t win, and there are mutants living in NYC sewers. I don’t see this as a moral panic as an American. These strong messages are a good lesson for a child to grow up with and for Godsakes it is only a fictional TV show.

By the way, Pigs by Pink Floyd was partially written about Mary Whitehouse, making fun of her for wanting to ban (amongst other things), the movie Lisztomania, an absurdist masterpiece that featured such delightful scenes as the titular 19th century composer riding gigantic phallic objects, and legendary keyboardist Rick Wakeman as a viking pissing on a fireplace.

I've lived in the UK my whole life and never watched TMNT as it didn't interest me, but I think my brothers watched it sometimes and it was obviously very well known so I was definitely aware of it, but I had absolutely no idea that the name was changed here. I've never once heard someone refer to it as Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. :/

Aww poo, I was literally half way through writing a script about this exact same topic too! :(

I can actually feel the psychological effects left over from the video nasty days. It freaked my dad out to such an extent that he blamed my night terrors on the TV I was watching. Now I have a certain amount of anxiety passed on to me whenever my kids watch something slightly unsettling. Thanks Mary

This was something I learnt quite recently! A coworker said "Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo and Raphael - oh, I guess you're a bit too young to know them right?" I told them it was the Ninja turtles and he laughed and said it was the Hero Turtles for him growing up! I had no idea :o

on a side note, Eddie doesn't realise the absolute can of worms The Brain of Morbius opened in the Doctor Who community recently.

It is bizarre hearing UK conservatives going on about free speech and cancel culture these days when it was literally them who heavily advocated for censorship and were constantly passing damning blame onto the entertainment industry way back in the 70s and 80s. It's only free speech to them if it's something they agree with I guess :') excellent video!

These videos are so well researched and you really just *get* the cultural background to these things - well done good man

They came here to save the NES. No, seriously, IIRC the TMNT actually helped NES sales in the UK because there was pretty much no game crash over here so the ZX Spectrum and the Master System dominated 80s British gaming, so the NES Ninja Turtles game helped Nintendo sell a few more consoles over here. (18/11/2023 edit:That Surfshark bit sure hits different now with the Online Safety Bill)

Cant spell nunchucks without “none”

Honestly, comming from latinoamerica I will always be interested in these topics, for the sheer contrast in tolerance for violence even around that time. UK with TMNT: Ninja is to violent of a word, use hero instead LatinA with OG Dragonball: There is a scene were the protagonist uses his attack to shoot himself THROUGH the big bad? Thats f*-king awsome! The kids will love it!

Thankfully by the time the TMNT 2003 series started. The turtles were actually allowed to be ninjas and the title stayed the same. Which I find especially funny since that series went dark in some places.

As a proud Liverpudlian, I cannot overstate how thankful I am for your mention of the Hillsborough disaster. You were 100 percent respectful and factual about what happened, which means an awful lot. Similarly, thank you for standing up for trans rights at the end there. We're the current conservative scape goat and it's always nice to see people with a platform standing up to them.

I applaud you for making all the chapter titles singable to the tmnt theme song 👍

12:31 GET OUT OF MY HEAD GET OUT OF MY HEAD GET OUT OF MY HEAD GET OUT OF MY HEAD GET OUT OF MY HEAD GET OUT OF MY HEAD GET OUT OF MY HEAD GET OUT OF MY HEAD GET

As a British TMNT and Power Rangers fan kid in the 90s, I am SO glad that my parents were always so cool about not buying into moral panics about any fiction I watched- they just respected that I wasn't dumb enough to get any bad influence from anything I watched. To the point where, as a tiny little kid, whenever I was left in the bath by myself, to make sure that I was safe while she was off doing other things, my Mum would occasionally shout out through the house "Turtle!", to which I would have to yell back: "Power!" in response so she knew I was safe in the water. She'd always come running upstairs to check on me if I didn't hear her. I always felt safe and involved. Good times.

Man, I had no idea that a simple and seemingly ridiculous name change for the Ninja Turtles had its roots in moral panics over the content in Movies and Television, and British politics regarding that.

5:58 «Mankind knew they couldn’t change society, so instead of reflecting on themselves, they blamed the beasts. But they found beauty in the lives of beasts, and couldn’t lie to themselves about it.» - Guilty Gear Strive: Smell of the Game

The only thing i could find from the UK is one dude had some type of japanese sword, someone broke into his house, the homw owner told him to leave, and the assailent WALKED INTO THE SWORD KILLING HIMSELF. So the only person to die from a 'Ninja Weapon' literally was so intoxicated, he didnt realise it would kill him. The only person to actually use such a weapon to kill someone, was half self defense, half happenstance.

These people were right ! Here in France TMNT was not censored and so every kids were killing each others with Katana during recess. i'm one of the only survivors of my school.

“Oi mate, you got a loicence for those nunchucks?!”

i have slight memory of the turtlemania panic and definitely the ongoing VIOLENCE IN KIDS MEDIA panic, but god that salonella panic hits me so hard because THAT has left long-term issues with me i will never get over. raw egg is poison and i cannot get past that

And this is why the laws around banned weapons in the UK make zero logical sense. It's completely legal for an adult to buy a massive sword, a machete, or a battle axe. But ninja throwing stars, hand & foot spikes, and spikes on a chain are illegal. As if any of those have ever been the weapon of choice for actual criminals 🤣 The majority of knife crime is committed by very basic cheap knives such as kitchen knives, but because of the panic, it's the ninja weapons that are illegal.

20:46 Eddache The based king 👑

If the UK thought that the Ninja Turtles were too "violent", imagine the hysteria that Dragon Ball Z could've caused if the moral panic was still around at that time.

The really strange thing that your video didn’t touch on was how the Hero Turtles edit affected all of the Europe. I mean, it would make sense: the UK is a big market, but they have weird broadcasting regulations, whatever. But the British edit hit most of the European market for some reason. Notably, in Ireland, the show was broadcast before the UK (for some strange reason, Ireland was the first in Europe to broadcast new episodes for most of the show’s original run) and the first season ran, unedited and as they were originally broadcast, under the Ninja Turtles name there. Cut to the following season, and Ireland (like most of Europe) is broadcasting the show under the Hero Turtles banner with all of the British edits. So bizarre.

Moral panics are the fucking worst. It's clear scapegoating for political points, yet it works because the general masses aren't that bright.

Thanks for this information! I'm from Belgium, and we also had that change from `Ninja' to 'Hero' Turtles; growing up in the eighties/early nineties, I figured there was some kind of difference in franchises between the two - kind of like 'Ghostbusters' and 'The Real Ghostbusters' - but turns out they were pretty much the same thing except for the censorship. Christ on a bike, these gosh-darn puritans... With all of the demonetization and bans on RU-vid and social media nowadays, as well as the rise of right-wing populism pretty much everywhere in the world, I really feel like it's making a very annoying comeback. Just recently, I went through my Facebook timeline, and wanted to repost a DailyMotion music video I'd shared twelve years ago ('You Are the One' by Adanowsky and Devendra Banhart, fyi - lovely song). It featured some very mild nudity, and it was allowed on Facebook back then - but now it not only got taken down immediately; I also received an extremely unfriendly warning to get banned if I ever tried something like that again - like a proverbial slap on the fingers. Honestly, I thought that rude reaction was far more 'offensive' than anything I wanted to share. Back to the Middle Ages, I guess...

I had a girl friend at the time from a family my mom used to babysit for, whose moms was from the UK. Which was great, because a lot of American media reached the continent through Britain. By the time the Turtles became a hot commodity here, the merch was already starting to go on sale in the UK, and this woman didn't buy into the moral panic enough to refrain from getting me the occasional gift from across the pond. I did end up calling them Hero Turtles for most of my childhood though.

It blows my mind adults thought people where actually running around throwing shurikens as apposed to carrying something more easier to use like literally any other stabbing tool. Where exactly were kids even going to obtain this ninja weaponry to begin?・_・

Plus, British had a valid reasons to place each rating systems in movies. I don’t think they need to censor things. Because of artistic freedom. While it depend’s on everyone’s mental health if they can handle the movies or not. If they can’t handle movies like that. They might have to ignore it.

I remember first seeing the TMHT renaming on TV. Thought it was a new season thing growing up.

The fact that the ad read was enjoyable to watch speaks volumes to your quality as a content creator. Looking forward to the next one :)

5:19 It's neither 'adults' nor 'dogs'. He said 'dolts'. Now, I'm not saying this guy is completely right, but the danger posed by stupid people should not be underestimated.

So the word Ninja was..... too violent? What about guns in Disney cartoons?

"I believe they even affect dogs as well"-wait what?🤔

"Kids today are so sensitive!" 80s conservatives:

That is the best sponsorship ever that advises not to get the product.

“Fun” fact, the song Electric Avenue by Eddie Grant is about the as mentioned Brixton Riots.

Imagine the panic if Naruto aired in the 80s and was shown on British TV

The dogs guy straight up admitted to biased research lol

"I wouldn't let them at any age" wow does that guy have control issues...

older generation thinking movies are making kids violent due the content in them? sounds a bit familiar doesn't it

Sometimes, it feels so weird how easy it is to generate a moral panic. All you need is at least _one_ person going around asking "but what about the children???" and suddenly everyone panics

The ninja hysteria has a lot in common with the satanic-panic. To this day there's still a lot of places with weird and bizarre "anti-ninja" laws. Shuriken's, are still banned in Washington state and British Columbia IIRC.

This is hands down the best commercial integration of a VPN I've had the pleasure of seeing. And I've seen hundreds.

after watching this im glad i was born in the early 2000's. my siblings keep asking me if i know what things like a floppy disk or a Walkman is, but that thats barrable considering how things like this happened. edit: didn't see the last bit, holy fuck i forgot society is still terrible.

It's still crazy to me that The Sun is still so popular. It's fucking horrible how those people have a platform to talk so much shit to people of the public, there's so many newspapers that are better and aren't biased as shit bruh

It’s insane how the UK had this moral panic for films but if you look at the age rating for Watership Down… it’s for ALL AGES.

Me being a dog I was really affected by this video

The respectful manner taken for the Hillsborough Disaster explanation cannot be unsold. Thank you Eddie.

Margaret Thatcher: *hates football hooligans* Games Workshop: *names the leader of the faction based on football hooligans after her*

I told my nephews (9 and 11) about this and they burst out laughing hysterically. I told them the parent and Christian groups back then were complete morons who ruined good shows with their interference.

Does this mean SUS was a racial slur? Geez, among us lobbies are worse than COD.

“Movies don’t create psychos. Movies make Psychos more creative!” William Loomis

Immensely disappointed the segment “Bruce Lee vs. Margaret Thatcher” didn’t involve a kung-fu fight in the afterlife.

England: We can’t allow TMNT to be here in our beloved country. Also England: Full English is totally ok to have over here and ok to exist as well. Me: Gotta love the consistency and logic there.

Conservatives: Cancel Culture is out of control!!! Also Conservatives:

One of the most violent empires in history: "It's movies and ninjas that cause all the violence in our society!" Talk about losing the plot.

As an American, it fills me with relief to see someone else acting stupid for once.

So is anybody else going to acknowledge the fact that *1984,* of all years, is the year that age ratings were implemented in movies allowing for more freedom of expression for film makers?

The "Video Nasties" sound likes what happened in the 1960s to comic books and the panic from the parents and politicians

its called teach your kid common sense, and they wont do stupid things. ive literally ALWAYS had a knife collection, including throwing stars, swords, and just cool looking pointy things, EVEN AS A KID, that was my hobby, because my dad actually taught me how to handle weapons safely, ive literally NEVER gotten hurt by them, and have prevented others from hurting themselves on them.....its not hard AT ALL....all it takes is common frikkin sense....

I'm realy surprised you restrained from using the Simpsons "Won't somebody PLEASE think of the children?" Clip for any of the Moral Panic mentions being about protecting kids. It's so spot on and obviously such a common tactic in America but I didn't realise how much the Tories use that tactic here too. The moral of this video? Punch every Tory, All cops are bastards, and protect trans rights.

Protecting children is such a common excuse for disallowing people to view or do things you don't like. I'm sick of it. :(

"BECOME AN GAY??" is my favorite part of the whole video

i say Reginald! those turtles are calling them self's ninjas yes i dare say they are James? but their not ninjas we know what ninjas its a bad word like pro skater(yes really?) Cause We are BRITISH of the 1980s they are hero turtles cause BRITISH

I absolutely love this tittle, it’s so good to be back in time and replay those golden arcade games. You have an amazing channel friend, keep bringing those memories up, let us never let this generation forget the evolution of games to this date. You channel has a new supporter now.

Next UK news report: "Sex tape blamed for North Korean bombing"

is classic thing of "something popular with the kids is the cause of something bad in society". also the "Tea time brutality for tots" really got me a laugh for sound unitentionally funny

Since when is Doctor Who a kids’ show? “Teatime brutality for tots”? You mean plot-important violence in an adult sci-if series?

As soon as you said "Mary Whitehouse" I felt stupid. I should have known she'd be involved.

12:31 I can't believe there was a law in the UK called the "sus" law.

As a side note, when the 2003 cartoon series came about, it kept its title and the turtles were allowed to be ninjas. I'm curious, what changed the UK at that point in time?

Honestly most of the animated iterations of the Ninja Turtles were introduced in the last 10 years, because of the amount of SDCC shorts in 2016. And then there’s Batman vs TMNT as a bonus!

My Biology textbook is about 25 years old and has a picture of a biologist wearing a shirt that says Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. I didn't know about this whole thing, so I assumed it was a bootleg.

This is an excellent video. The editing and sound design are on point along with the great script.

Imagine if she was alive to see “Winnie The Pooh:blood and honey”

No Eddie this is all wrong. Don't you remember in 1975 when an elite squad of ninja turtles was sent to overthrow the British government? Its no wonder they'd want to cover it up at the time, with us still reeling from TMNT coup!

This video actually inspired my dissertation at Uni

Wow just for her to publicly admit to have NEVER ACTUALLY SEEN a “video nasty” and how “[they] didn’t need to see the content of the film” to KNOW the content of it is SO ignorant