Explain this to me...

[Dark Jaguar]

Now, I don't think there's a "use by" date where jokes about the 9/11 terror attacks become acceptable. However, I've noticed that there's something weird online. The mere mention that the trade center towers used to EXIST is now considered offensive, to the point where if they are even SHOWN in old movies and TV episodes, they get censored out or people will react with the same wincing tone normally reserved for those outdated racist Looney Toons episodes.

What gives? I mean, even the creators of the Simpsons say their joke about "putting all the jerks in tower 1" in an episode is "regrettable", as though it's somehow retroactively offensive. Am I missing something?

[A Black Falcon]

I think the answer to this is fairly simple; for many people it'll probably always be "too soon" to remind them of 9/11.

[Dark Jaguar]

So just showing the trade center in an old movie is too much of a painful reminder, because it brings up memories of what will happen? Hmm, I think I can understand that, but still, it seems a bit much to demand that old scenes depicting them, from BEFORE it ever happened, get censored out.

[A Black Falcon]

I agree that censoring old things would be wrong, yes. It's a bit weird to see them in things, but it shouldn't be censored of course.

On a related note... http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1059867

It is a weird design, so I can see why so many of the reactions go straight towards 9/11. I wonder if this tower actually gets built...

[Dark Jaguar]

That looks like some sort of... staircase to paradise.

[Sacred Jellybean]

I thought they edited the towers out of old movies so that they didn't seem dated. Didn't they have to digitally erase them from the first Spiderman? *shrug*

I didn't know such a topic was controversial, but maybe I'm hanging out with the wrong crowd.

eyesore

Ewww.

[Dark Jaguar]

With the first Spiderman (and Metal Gear Solid 2) the editing made sense. Both of those were being made before the attack, but were released after it, and it was a good call to make those edits considering what had just happened. I'm not sure that removing the towers for the sake of "modernizing" an old movie makes sense. Old movies will always be old. It would be like trying to edit Back to the Future part 2 to make it seem like it isn't dated, and realizing you'd basically have to remove pretty much everything that made the future interesting in that movie.

[A Black Falcon]

Ewww.

Yeah, that building is definitely weird looking...

[Dark Jaguar]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Walk_(2015_film)

This movie is getting some big controversy because it shows the trade center, mainly on various forums (I think the majority of those thinking it's in poor taste are a younger crowd actually, those who's first memories are from a time after 9/11). I'm just not sure that's justified. It's a movie about a past event that actually happened. Is it really such a controversial thing to acknowledge on film that the trade center existed at some point in history? I mean, at SOME point we're going to have to be able to actually acknowledge the towers existed, or our country is never going to be able to move on.

Mind you, I do get SOME of the controversy. This movie shows the people doing the high wire act as basically breaking into the place to do their stunt. They never actually got permission, they snuck in with a bunch of tools and took advantage of the trusting nature of the workers there to do it. The director didn't help when he says no one does "anarchistically benevolent" things like this any more, calling people today "boring". I'm not sure I would go that far. Personally, I think "pranks" for example need to just go away. However, maybe he's got a point. Maybe people in general are too caught up in safety and what could go wrong. Then again, I'm a careful person by nature, so I couldn't say.

[Great Rumbler]

I watched a documentary about that guy and what he did was really incredible.

[A Black Falcon]

I didn't know another movie about this was made, interesting. I saw this 2009 one about that same event: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_on_Wire in theaters when it released. It was good, I think. It was a bit weird to see the towers in a movie as they were, but it was an interesting movie for sure.