Watch a play. Go mountain climbing. Entertainment services cater to a wide variety of interests, but for some, that is simply not anywhere near enough. If you’re hunting for the ultimate thrill, no matter how strange, awesome or extreme, you’ve just struck gold. Here’s the definitive rundown of 10 outrageous entertainment options that will push your comfort zone, rewrite your bucket list, and maybe even give you a new perspective on life (or death).

10 Outrageous Entertainment Experiences Overview

10 Attend Your Own Funeral

For roughly $3,000 you can stage a full‑blown funeral ceremony, complete with somber music, tasteful décor, and a casket that holds… you. The service is attended by a hand‑picked crowd of mourners who reflect the various facets of your life. You’ll sit in the audience, watch the closed casket, listen to a minister’s eulogy, and watch a mock burial unfold. The package bundles a professionally crafted obituary and a remembrance session where guests share stories about your impact on the world. Expect a cocktail of emotions—perhaps a touch of melancholy, a fresh outlook on existence, or even a sudden surge of purpose. After all, you can only die twice.

9 Spend a Night in the Morgue

If a funeral isn’t eerie enough, you can upgrade to an overnight stay in a morgue for about $2,000. After a faux accidental death, you’ll be slipped into a body bag—complete with an optional ID tag—then escorted to a chilling mortuary. The deluxe option includes a personal mortician’s inspection, commentary on the “cause of death,” and a full set of mock medical records. You’ll receive a fabricated death certificate and a notice‑of‑passing letter for your next‑of‑kin, plus the unsettling experience of hearing officials make phone calls to inform loved ones of your “passing” before you even set foot inside.

8 Simulated Kidnap Experience

A French outfit called Ultime Réalité offers a full‑scale, simulated kidnapping for $1,000‑$3,000. After signing a waiver and a detailed terms‑of‑reference form, you’ll be stalked for 5‑7 days. Then, men in black will ambush you, thrust you into a vehicle, and deposit you in a secret holding cell or undisclosed location. Depending on the package you choose, you may be interrogated, robbed, threatened, or even held for a mock ransom. A negotiator might join the scene to discuss terms. The captivity can last up to 11 harrowing hours before you’re finally “released” back to safety.

7 Manhunt Adventure

If being kidnapped feels too passive, try the high‑octane manhunt package for about $2,000. You can elect to be the fugitive on the run or the bounty hunter in hot pursuit. The chase spans rugged terrain, open water, bustling city streets, and remote wilderness. Whether you’re dodging capture or hunting down a mock drug lord, the adrenaline rush of a real‑life cat‑and‑mouse game is unmatched. It’s the kind of experience that makes you feel like the star of an action blockbuster—only the stakes are your own heart rate.

6 Russian Fighter Pilot Experience

The ultimate aerial thrill comes from FlyFighterJet.com. For $16,000 you’ll climb aboard a Russian MiG‑29 Fulcrum and soar to the edge of space—over 72,000 feet. You’ll get a chance to actually control the jet, feeling the raw power of Mach‑2 speeds as you execute vertical rolls and a heart‑stopping hammerhead stall. The flight culminates in a low‑altitude, high‑speed pass over the Russian countryside. The package includes a comprehensive medical clearance and a handshake with a top‑ranked Russian fighter ace. Talk about a bucket‑list check‑off.

5 Night Dive with Manta Rays

Ready to face the ocean’s gentle giants? For a dive with 20‑foot manta rays—also known as devilfish—you’ll plunge into their natural habitat, flashlight in hand. These massive, wing‑like creatures glide past, sometimes brushing you as they feed on the tiny fish attracted to your beam. While they’re not predators of humans, they do possess massive mouths and teeth, so expect a respectful distance as they swirl around you. It’s an unforgettable underwater ballet that will leave you both humbled and exhilarated.

4 Formula 1 Racing Experience

If standard sports thrills don’t cut it, strap yourself into a 900‑horsepower Formula 1 car for just $600. You’ll take the driver’s seat of a single‑seater machine once piloted by legends like Michael Schumacher and Mario Andretti. After a quick safety briefing, you’ll roar around the track at speeds exceeding 200 mph, carving through corners with G‑forces that would make even the hardiest roller‑coaster fan’s stomach churn. It’s a high‑risk, high‑reward experience that puts you squarely in the cockpit of motorsport history.

3 Extreme Ironing Challenge

When you think ironing can’t get any more extreme, think again. Extreme Ironing International, born in New Zealand in 1999, turns the mundane act of smoothing shirts into a daredevil sport. For a modest fee, participants can iron while perched on a kayak, hanging off cliffs, wake‑boarding, or even sky‑diving. Ironing boards are strapped to rooftops, boulders, and moving vehicles, and competitors must press a shirt perfectly flat while battling wind, water, or altitude. It’s a bizarre blend of domestic precision and adrenaline‑pumping spectacle that has even seen enthusiasts ironing beside snarling crocodiles.

2 Sahara Desert Marathon

For the truly masochistic athlete, the Sahara Desert Marathon is the ultimate test of will. Applicants pay a $4,000 fee to run over 250 km across Morocco’s blistering dunes and rocky terrain—one of the planet’s five most extreme desert environments. Temperatures can soar above 135 °F, and the relentless sand pulls at every step. Preparation often spans three years, and the race has claimed lives; two participants perished in 2007 due to heat exhaustion and strain. Surviving—and finishing—this marathon is a badge of honor few can claim.

1 Antarctic Ocean Kayaking

For $16,000, you can paddle your way through the icy waters of Antarctica. Travelers launch from Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost tip of South America, and are ferried to the edge of the Antarctic ice sheets. Once there, you’ll brave sub‑zero air—down to minus 70 °F—and frigid, wave‑tossed seas. Maneuvering a vulnerable kayak amid shifting ice floes, you’ll navigate frozen passages while keeping an eye out for the occasional leopard seal that could decide to give you a close‑up encounter. It’s a raw, unforgiving adventure that tests both skill and nerve.

Whether you crave a surreal brush with mortality, the roar of a jet engine, or the silence of an Antarctic kayak, these ten off‑the‑wall entertainment options prove that the world is brimming with experiences that are as outrageous as they are unforgettable. Which one will you dare to try?

When we examine the dark side of human amusement, the top 10 horrific ways animals were used for entertainment emerge as a chilling reminder of past cruelty. Across centuries, beasts of all shapes and sizes were forced into spectacles that prioritized thrills over welfare. Though modern sensibilities now balk at such cruelty, these grisly traditions still echo in the annals of history.

Top 10 Horrific Practices in History

10 Cat Burning

The medieval mindset in Europe painted cats as symbols of witchcraft and evil, making their public immolation an oddly accepted pastime. In Paris, a massive pyre was erected on Saint John’s Eve, specifically to roast dozens of felines—sometimes even a fox—while royalty watched and later feasted on the charred remains.

While France saw frequent cat‑burning festivals, England’s occurrences were rarer yet still notable. During a celebration marking the 119th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth I’s coronation, an effigy of Pope Innocent XI paraded through London’s streets, its belly packed with live cats. When the effigy ignited, the screeching felines were said to echo the devil’s whispers.

9 The Cave of Dogs

The Phlegraean Fields of Italy concealed a macabre tourist attraction known as the Cave of Dogs, where a volcanic fissure released carbon‑dioxide that pooled in the cave’s lowest chamber. This invisible gas rendered the space unbreathable for small creatures, effectively turning the cave into a lethal trap.

Visitors from antiquity onward, noted by Pliny the Elder, would stage a grim “experiment”: they forced a dog’s head into the CO₂‑laden zone until it passed out, then tossed the unconscious animal into the nearby lake to revive it. Mark Twain, ever the satirist, claimed he would go further—holding the dog by its hind legs until it suffocated, reviving it in the water, and finally ending its life in the gas. Twain later admitted he never actually brought a dog, framing the whole episode as dark humor.

8 Cock‑throwing

In England, a raucous tradition called “cock‑throwing” saw a live chicken tethered to a pillar while participants hurled specially crafted sticks at it. The event typically unfolded on Shrove Tuesday, a day when social restraints loosened enough for apprentices and laborers to indulge in rowdy pastimes.

Sometimes the game was pure sport; other times it doubled as gambling. Participants paid a fee to hurl their sticks—if a throw delivered a lethal blow, the victor kept the carcass for a meal. Should the bird’s legs be broken or it become incapacitated, it would be hoisted on a pole to continue the contest. In cases where the chicken was knocked free, a frantic scramble ensued to catch it, with the catcher claiming the bird as a prize.

7 The Bear Gardens

During Shakespeare’s era, the Bear Gardens rivaled the great theatres, offering blood‑sport that pitted massive bears against packs of ferocious dogs. These spectacles drew crowds from all walks of life, even royalty; Elizabeth I attended, and King James I later showcased exotic beasts like lions and polar bears from the royal menagerie.

Bears were shackled to a post within a pit, forcing them to break free before confronting the attacking dogs. Since procuring a bear was costly, the fights usually halted once enough dogs lay dead, allowing the bear to survive for future bouts and, in some cases, achieve minor celebrity status.

Beyond bears, the Gardens featured a menagerie of other animals: a chimpanzee mounted on a horse that spectators loved to watch shriek as it was assaulted, and bulls that tossed dogs into the air with their horns—each act designed to elicit gasps and cheers from the audience.

6 Goose Pulling

Originating in 17th‑century Europe, goose pulling involved suspending a live goose by its legs while mounted riders raced beneath, attempting to wrench the bird’s head off. To heighten the challenge, oil was slicked onto the goose’s neck, making it slippery and increasing its frantic thrashing.

The sport quickly attracted condemnation for its brutality, yet it persisted, even crossing the Atlantic to the United States. Over time, the practice waned, and modern variants now employ geese that have been humanely euthanized by veterinarians—a compromise that still provokes animal‑rights protests.

10 Debated Acts of Animal Cruelty

5 Geek Show

The term “geek” once described a fool, and in the late 1800s to early 1900s carnival stages, a “geek” was a tormented performer who chased animals across a ring, biting off their heads for the audience’s amusement. These acts were often filled with addicts, as the “geeks” were typically paid in alcohol or narcotics, perpetuating their own degradation.

Some notorious geeks added extra flair: Eeka, a celebrated female geek, combined her brutal head‑biting with snake‑charming, branding herself a “wild girl.” As public awareness of animal cruelty grew, the grotesque spectacle fell out of favor, and the once‑popular bite‑off act faded from mainstream entertainment.

4 Cannibal Holocaust

The shock‑value film “Cannibal Holocaust” sparked legal turmoil when its director faced charges of animal cruelty and even murder. While the murder accusations collapsed after a newspaper’s false claim that the on‑screen victims were real, the animal‑killing scenes held up in court.

Production involved the actual slaughter of a large turtle and two monkeys—each filmed twice—followed by the crew consuming the remains. Despite the director’s defense that the animals were eaten, authorities deemed the killings a gratuitous act for cinematic effect, resulting in a fine for animal cruelty.

3 Kots Kaal Pato

Kots Kaal Pato, a traditional festival in Citilcum, Yucatán, once featured pinatas stuffed with live creatures—typically iguanas or opossums— which participants would beat mercilessly until death. The ritual, linked to rain‑making superstitions, also included a duck hung by its feet on a wooden frame, with competitors racing to tear its head off.

When animal‑rights activists raised concerns, local authorities teamed up with the Catholic Church to ban the cruel practices. Today, the festival continues without harming live animals, reflecting a shift toward more humane celebrations.

2 Badger Baiting

Badger baiting, a once‑popular UK blood‑sport, involved releasing a trained dog into a badger’s set‑up burrow to attack the animal. Even when both participants survived, injuries were often severe enough to require euthanasia. The practice was outlawed in 1835, yet it never fully vanished and has seen a disturbing resurgence in recent years.

Modern incidents typically begin when a badger is discovered—either by baiters or a farmer—prompting dogs to be set upon it. Baiters dig into the burrow, forcing the dogs to savage the creature. Undercover investigations have exposed networks breeding dogs solely for badger fighting, leading to arrests and jail sentences for those convicted of cruelty.

1 Animal Crush Porn

Animal crush pornography represents a grotesque niche where viewers derive sexual gratification from watching women in lingerie violently torture and kill animals. The genre, infamous for its name derived from videos of kittens being crushed, has expanded to include boiling, blow‑torching, disemboweling, and stabbing animals with stilettos—any cruelty imaginable.

These videos proliferate on the dark web, where the illegal nature of animal cruelty shields them from mainstream detection. While some participants appear to act voluntarily, investigations have uncovered cases where the women were victims of trafficking, coerced into filming under threat to their own lives.

When you think of “10 offensive things” that were once celebrated as fun, you quickly realize that what tickled one crowd could horrify another. History is littered with pastimes that, by today’s standards, would be outright scandalous. Below we dive into ten such spectacles, each a reminder that cultural norms evolve—sometimes dramatically.

10 Offensive Things: A Glimpse Into Past Entertainment

10 Sation

In the wake of the Industrial Revolution, late‑19th‑century London stood out as one of the most economically polarized metropolises of the Western world. The twilight years of the Victorian age saw East London swamped with working‑class residents, Irish migrants, Eastern Europeans, and Jewish newcomers, all packed into cramped tenements.

Meanwhile, affluent citizens lived just a short carriage ride away, and newspaper accounts of the squalid conditions sparked a morbid curiosity. While a handful ventured out of genuine philanthropy, the majority were thrill‑seekers, donning disguises to spend a night or two among the destitute, treating the experience as a voyeuristic holiday.

By 1884, the craze crossed the Atlantic. The New York Times ran a headline proclaiming, “A Fashionable London Mania Reaches New‑York. Slumming Parties to be the Rage This Winter.” For decades, well‑to‑do white New Yorkers toured Harlem, Chinatown, the Lower East Side, and other impoverished districts. Today the phenomenon lives on under the monikers “poorism” and “poverty porn,” sparking endless debate over whether such tours educate or merely indulge schadenfreude.

9 The Original Drive‑By Shooting

After the Civil War, the United States turned its gaze westward, intent on clearing the path for expansion. A brutal strategy emerged: annihilate the bison, a keystone of many Native American cultures, thereby stripping tribes of their primary food source.

Within a few short years, the once‑abundant herds were driven to the brink of extinction. Fashionable bison pelts spurred a hunting frenzy, and by the 1880s more than 5,000 men were employed in the wholesale slaughter of whole herds. The accompanying image captures the grim aftermath in stark detail.

Even more chilling was the advent of “hunting by rail.” Railroad companies advertised the thrill of shooting bison from moving trains, a practice that turned the plains into a moving shooting gallery. When herds crossed the tracks, hunters could slow or stop the train and unleash a barrage of bullets, leaving a trail of lifeless beasts in their wake.

8 Insult To Injury: Wild West Shows

Powerful narratives are often penned by victors, and the turn‑of‑the‑century traveling Wild West Shows epitomized this truth. After driving Native peoples into destitution, showmen like “Buffalo Bill” Cody turned their suffering into a staged spectacle, forcing them to reenact fictionalized versions of white conquest and Indigenous savagery.

By the 1880s the frontier was officially “tamed.” Indigenous peoples were corralled onto barren reservations far removed from their ancestral homelands, eroding traditional ways of life and economic stability.

With few employment options left, some Native Americans were lured onto the road, performing heavily white‑washed caricatures of themselves. Audiences were fed a narrative of “Indians” as violent, lawless brutes vanquished by noble white heroes, cementing racist tropes that persisted well into the early 20th century. Even celebrated figures like Sitting Bull and Geronimo were co‑opted into these shows, often under the banner of “the worst Indian that ever lived.”

7 The Little Things That Thrill

Dreamland, alongside Steeplechase and Luna Park, formed the triumvirate of Coney Island’s original amusement parks. Operating from 1904 to 1911, Dreamland dazzled visitors with a million glowing bulbs and attractions ranging from a Venetian gondola ride to a simulated Alpine trek complete with icy breezes.

Yet among its many spectacles lay Lilliputia, a miniature European village populated by roughly 300 individuals of short stature. Dubbed the now‑offensive “Midget City,” the settlement featured half‑sized homes, furniture, and even a stable of tiny horses, all designed for the gawking public.

These performers, recruited from sideshows nationwide, entertained crowds through circus acts, theatrical productions, and operas. The beachside location even offered a sand stretch where the diminutive sunbathers lounged beside the tiniest lifeguard chairs imaginable. By today’s standards, displaying little‑people as a living exhibit would ignite massive outrage.

6 A Star Is Born: Preemie Voyeurism

Dreamland’s oddities didn’t stop at Lilliputia. A short walk away lay a sideshow where premature infants were kept alive inside state‑of‑the‑art incubators—a novel invention by Dr. Martin Couney.

Couney discovered that the cost of operating these life‑saving devices was prohibitive for hospitals. To fund the venture, he charged curious onlookers an extra 25 cents per baby (about $7 today), turning the incubator room into a paid attraction.

When the exhibit opened in 1903, premature infants were widely considered hopeless cases. Couney’s incubators proved otherwise, demonstrating that with proper care, even the most fragile newborns could thrive. Though the medical community frowned upon the spectacle, the incubators survived the 1911 Dreamland fire and operated until 1943, ultimately reshaping neonatal care.

5 The Amazing (And Disgusting) Pervasiveness Of Blackface Performances

Given America’s troubled racial past, the rise of blackface minstrelsy—white performers painting their faces black and exaggerating caricatures—might seem unsurprising. What truly astonishes is how deeply entrenched and long‑lasting this form of entertainment became.

The earliest minstrel troupes appeared in 1830s New York, with actors donning tattered costumes and blackened faces made from shoe polish. Their acts painted Black people as lazy, ignorant, hyper‑sexualized thieves, with the recurring “Jim Crow” character later lending its name to oppressive post‑Civil War laws.

One might assume such offensiveness would limit its reach, but blackface persisted well into the 20th century, leaping from stage to silver screen. Films with titles like Wooing and Wedding of a Coon and Coon Town Suffragettes proliferated, while characters like Stepin Fetchit and Sleep ’n Eat cemented the stereotype in popular culture.

Even Hollywood’s brightest stars—Bing Crosby, Milton Berle, Fred Astaire, Shirley Temple, Judy Garland, and future President Ronald Reagan—appeared in productions featuring blackface, underscoring its mainstream acceptance at the time.

4 Will Foxtrot For Food: The Great Depression’s Dancing Destitute

Dance marathons began in the mid‑1920s as lighthearted endurance contests, where couples competed to see who could Charleston, Jitterbug, or Lindy Hop the longest for a cash prize.

When the 1929 stock market crash ushered in the Great Depression, the stakes turned deadly serious. With unemployment soaring above 25 %, many participants saw the marathon prize as their only hope for sustenance, turning a playful contest into a grim survival game reminiscent of The Hunger Games.

Well‑to‑do spectators paid admission merely to watch the exhausted duos outlast one another, often taking brief naps in each other’s arms as the event stretched over days, even weeks. Organizers kept the dancers fed as long as they kept moving, turning the audience’s schadenfreude into a public spectacle that eventually prompted several states to ban the practice.

3 #MePew: The Sex Offender Skunk

Cartoons have never shied away from questionable behavior—think Elmer Fudd hunting Bugs Bunny or Homer Simpson’s occasional mischief. Yet the most egregious example of forced romance comes from the beloved skunk Pepe Le Pew.

While Elmer Fudd might earn a nod for his relentless pursuit of a rabbit, Pepe’s relentless chase of Penelope the Pussycat crosses the line into outright interspecies assault. Since his debut in 1945, children have watched this odorous suitor stalk and harass Penelope, with the gag persisting through Merrie Melodies episodes until 1962.

It’s unfair to judge early‑20th‑century animators by today’s standards, but the fact that audiences repeatedly found a cartoonized rapist amusing reveals a troubling cultural blind spot.

2 Flipper: Not Really Smiling

Before SeaWorld’s controversial orca shows, America’s living rooms were filled with the heroic dolphin Flipper, a television star from 1964 to 1967 who apparently saved drowning victims, caught crooks, and even performed aerial stunts.

In reality, the “Flipper” we saw was a handful of trained dolphins, and the iconic opening scene featured a frozen dolphin tossed from a helicopter. The series’ bright veneer concealed a darker truth: one of the dolphins, Kathy, chose to end her life in 1970, a heartbreaking act that highlighted the mental anguish captive marine mammals can experience.

Trainer Ric O’Barry later chronicled Kathy’s “depression” and became a leading marine‑mammal rights activist, publishing the memoir Behind the Dolphin Smile in 1988. The show’s legacy serves as a reminder to scrutinize animal entertainment for ethical concerns.

1 Funky Cold Rohypnol

Music has long perpetuated misogyny, from dated holiday standards like “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” to modern tracks that objectify women. Yet perhaps no song is as disturbingly explicit about non‑consensual behavior as Tone Loc’s 1989 hit “Funky Cold Medina.”

The narrative follows a smooth‑talking gentleman who, after learning a “secret” from a bar patron, spikes women’s drinks with a mysterious potion—essentially a roofie—to secure a quick hookup. The lyrics brag, “Put a little Medina in your glass, and the girls will come real quick,” glorifying drug‑facilitated assault.

Ironically, the song’s climax reveals the plan backfiring: the protagonist discovers his intended lover is, in fact, a man. The twist underscores the absurdity and danger of the protagonist’s misguided tactics.

Beyond the shocking storyline, the track stands as a cultural artifact of how normalized such predatory behavior once seemed, challenging listeners to confront uncomfortable truths about past popular music.

Christopher Dale, a seasoned op‑ed writer featured in outlets like Salon, The Daily Beast, and NY Daily News, explores these themes in his work on society, politics, and sobriety. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisDaleWriter.

10 celebrities who began their careers in adult entertainment have, against the odds, managed to break into mainstream fame. While the two worlds usually sit apart, a handful of bold performers have proved that a risqué start doesn’t preclude a lasting Hollywood legacy. Below we count down ten such personalities, from character actors to legendary directors, who swapped silk sheets for silver screens.

10 Celebrities Who Transitioned From Adult Entertainment to Mainstream Stardom

10 Larry Hankin

Chances are you haven’t heard the name Larry Hankin, even though his résumé boasts more than a hundred credits stretching back to the late 1960s. He’s popped up in iconic series like Breaking Bad and snagged memorable guest spots on classics such as Seinfeld and Friends. Remarkably, he shares a unique trifecta with Bryan Cranston: appearing on Malcolm in the Middle, Seinfeld, and Breaking Bad. His film work is equally impressive, sharing the screen with legends like Clint Eastwood and delivering laughs in hits like Billy Madison.

One of his earliest forays into the moving‑image world was a non‑sexual part in the 1977 adult picture China de Sade. Directed by noted pornographer Charles Webb, the film follows a Chinese spy (played by Linda Wong) who becomes tangled with a sadistic den. Hankin appears under the pseudonym Lance Hunt, portraying an agent. Details about how he landed the gig are scarce, but he isn’t the sole future mainstream actor to have slipped into a golden‑age porn flick in a non‑explicit role.

9 James Hong

James Hong’s career reads like a master class in versatility, with over 400 acting credits to his name. He’s perhaps best remembered as the menacing Lo Pan in John Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China and for a standout guest turn on Seinfeld. Younger viewers may recognize his voice work in animated hits like Jackie Chan Adventures and Kung Fu Panda. His on‑screen résumé is as diverse as it gets.

Among his countless roles, Hong slipped into a non‑sex part in the 1974 adult film China Girl, credited as Y.C. Chan. The movie featured golden‑age starlet Annette Haven, though little is known about Hong’s involvement. Curiously, in 1987 he appeared in an unrelated feature also titled China Girl. By the time he took the 1974 role, Hong had already been acting for two decades, and that same year he popped up as a butler in the acclaimed classic Chinatown.

8 Simon Rex

Simon Rex may not dominate household conversations, but he’s carved a respectable niche as a comedic actor. MTV viewers of the ’90s likely recall his stint as a VJ, and today he’s better known for roles on shows like What I Like About You and in the Scary Movie franchise. A more recent wave of fame arrived via short‑form platforms such as Vine.

Before any of that, the 18‑year‑old was juggling a busboy job while caring for his girlfriend’s child. When rent became a nightmare, his partner—already involved in the adult industry—arranged a few solo‑masturbation shoots for him. Those videos, credited under the name Sebastian (a moniker given by the director), remain his sole adult‑film credits, later resurfacing only in compilation reels.

7 Sibel Kekilli

When Game of Thrones exploded onto screens in 2011, it turned many supporting players into global names. German actress Sibel Kekilli earned a recurring spot as Shae across the first four seasons, appearing in twenty episodes. The series’ reputation for explicit content made it unsurprising that it tapped talent with adult‑film backgrounds.

What sets Kekilli apart is that she had already left the porn world behind. Her adult‑film stint lasted a brief six‑month window between 2001 and 2002, after which a casting director discovered her in a shopping mall. That encounter led to a leading role in the German drama Head‑On. The exposure, however, also resulted in her past being publicly exposed, prompting her parents to cut ties. Nevertheless, a string of successful roles eventually secured her a place in the fantasy epic.

6 Wes Craven

Horror aficionado Wes Craven burst onto the cinematic scene with the controversial Last House on the Left, later cementing his legacy through franchises like Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream. He even stepped outside terror for the musical drama Music of the Heart, which earned Meryl Streep an Oscar nomination.

Before his horror fame, Craven plunged into the adult‑film arena, directing several titles under assorted pseudonyms and occasionally appearing in non‑sex roles. His earliest adult credit dates to 1972’s It Happened In Hollywood. Between that debut and The Hills Have Eyes, he added two more adult projects to his résumé, even directing a 1975 feature under the alias Abe Snake. This background explains why prolific porn director‑actor Fred J. Lincoln appeared as a villain in Craven’s first mainstream movie.

5 Francis Ford Coppola

Francis Ford Coppola stands among the most revered directors of his generation, with masterpieces like The Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now under his belt. By the time he amassed Academy and Golden Globe accolades, many forget that his early twenties were marked by financial desperation.

Armed with a meager $10, Coppola turned to the “skin‑flick” market to survive. He raised $3,000 to write and direct the short The Peeper, starring Playboy model Marli Renfro. Distribution proved tricky, prompting him to splice his short with another Renfro nudie western titled The Wide Open Spaces, birthing the soft‑core comedy Tonight For Sure. He later stitched together yet another cut‑and‑paste effort, producing the 3‑D skin flick The Bellboy and the Playgirls. Coppola has never shied away from admitting these early porn‑adjacent projects were the only way he could break into filmmaking.

4 Shel Silverstein

For anyone who grew up with The Giving Tree or a pocketful of whimsical poems, Shel Silverstein is a household name. It’s therefore a surprise that his first major publishing break came via the adult arena.

Silverstein contributed cartoons to Playboy, not just as an occasional guest but as a leading artist beginning in 1957. The magazine dispatched him worldwide for a series titled “Shel Silverstein Visits,” where his sketches often featured the poet himself in decidedly adult scenarios—think bathtub orgies and haggling with sex workers. While the humor remained unmistakably his, the content was a far cry from the child‑friendly verses that would later define his legacy.

3 Cameron Diaz

Modeling since she was sixteen, Cameron Diaz first captured audiences as the leading lady in the 1994 smash The Mask. Subsequent blockbusters like Charlie’s Angels cemented her star power. Yet, before any of that, a 19‑year‑old Diaz posed for a topless S & M leather lingerie shoot, producing both photos and a video.

In 2003, photographer John Rutter attempted to blackmail her, demanding $3.5 million to keep the material from surfacing, threatening to sell it otherwise. Refusing to pay, Diaz sued him. Despite legal battles, the images eventually leaked onto a Russian site under the title “She’s No Angel,” a clear play on her Charlie’s Angels fame. Rutter was later convicted of grand theft, forgery, and perjury, receiving a three‑year prison sentence.

2 Jackie Chan

Jackie Chan needs little introduction. Whether you know him from Hong Kong cinema or Hollywood blockbusters, his résumé reads like a legend’s. Early in his career, though, Chan’s name briefly appeared on a porn‑type credit.

In 1975, still an uncredited extra and stuntman, Chan took a role in the Hong Kong sex‑comedy All in the Family. Though the film barely qualifies as softcore, Chan himself has labeled the experience pornographic, noting it featured his sole on‑screen sex scene—a daring departure from the family‑friendly action that would later define him. By 1978, his breakthrough arrived with Drunken Master, and the rest, as they say, is history.

1 Sylvester Stallone

Sylvester Stallone’s name is now synonymous with box‑office dominance, but his early days were anything but glamorous. After being evicted, he found himself homeless, sleeping in a bus station, and desperate for cash.

In that bleak moment, a casting notice for the softcore feature The Party at Kitty and Stud’s caught his eye. With few options left, Stallone took the $200 paycheck for a two‑day shoot rather than risk robbery. The film, initially a low‑budget adult flick, later tried to cash in on his rising fame by re‑branding it as The Italian Stallion, even splicing in hardcore scenes that weren’t originally there.

From that humble softcore start, Stallone vaulted to Oscar‑nominated status within a few years, eventually becoming the only actor to headline a #1 box‑office movie in five different decades. He also dabbled in theater, portraying a telephone repairman in the off‑Broadway erotic play Score, a role he never reprised for the 1974 film adaptation.

The People’s Republic of China and its dominant party, the Chinese Communist Party, can be  trickier to place on the political compass than it might seem. While it’s famous for state-owned businesses, in 2019 the National Bureau of Statistics reported that 84% of its businesses are privately owned, which was part of a 78% uptick since 2013.

While it’s far enough to the left on social issues that there is a 95.1% healthcare coverage rate as of 2013 (in America it’s closer to 91.5% as of 2018), it also is very unfriendly to LGBTQ rights, and we’ll see examples of this shortly. Wherever it fits in terms of economics and social issues, when it comes to published media, the People’s Republic of China does not pull punches. From sports to esports to broadcasts, nothing is too seemingly innocuous or too influential to escape government controls. 

10. Red Dawn Changes

Today the 1984 John Milius film Red Dawn is considered a bit campy and implausible, if nuanced in its anti-war message, but still it struck a sufficient chord with audiences that it was a box office hit and resonated enough that a major military operation was named after it for America’s disastrous War in Iraq. Even pretty naive moviegoers in the 1980s could feel how implausible it would be for a nation as large as the USA to fall to the USSR through conventional warfare, even with Mexico and Cuba’s help. The Cuban Missile Crisis was all the evidence anyone needed that nuclear deterrence made any such war unthinkable. But when the film was remade in 2012, changes that were made to please the PRC made the original look like a model of plausibility. 

From pressure by the Chinese market, the invaders in the remake were changed from China to North Korea. About the only way anyone could claim this change makes the least sense would be because North Korea has a standing army of roughly 1.2 million troops, but how the nation would get them on US soil when it’s a country whose biggest military accomplishment in recent years is that its missiles can reach Japan is a question the movie doesn’t come close to answering believably. This probably wasn’t the sole reason the remake was a box office failure, but it couldn’t have helped.     

9. Overruling Warner Brothers

In 2018 Legendary Entertainment, which as of 2016 was owned by Chinese Communist Party member Wang Jianlin, partnered with Warner Brothers Studios. While it has generally been a very lucrative arrangement. Still in 2021 the partners began a bitter argument over the distribution of Godzilla Vs. Kong. Warner Brothers planned to release it directly to HBO Max, a decision which was arrived at without consulting Legendary Entertainment. 

Not only did Godzilla Vs Kong turn out to be simultaneously released in theaters and on HBO Max, but only after HBO Max agreed to pay $250 million for it. The film went on to make $442 worldwide, which made it the one of the first box office smashes since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. It went to show that not all decisions made under the direction of the CCP don’t work out. 

8. The Apology

He may be a 17-time world champion wrestler, but John Cena decided in 2021 that he wasn’t about to tussle with the wrath of mainland China or his fans there. During an announcement regarding the theatrical distribution of Fast 9, Cena referred to Taiwan, with its infamously contentious relationship with China, as “the first nation” that the movie would be screened in. This went against the narrative the People’s Republic of China is insisting that Taiwan is as much part of China as Hawaii is a state in the USA, or at least as much as Guam is a US territory. 

Cena took to the Chinese site Weibo and recorded an apology video, speaking in the Mandarin Chinese he’d spent years learning. To date, there haven’t been any further significant developments and the movie went on to considerable box office success in China and Taiwan. It’s still one of the most uncomfortable reactions to pressure from a foreign power leading to kowtowing from professional wrestling since the WWE endorsed the nation of Saudi Arabia.   

7. The Looper Rewrite

2012 was really the year that the Chinese government made its influence felt on American screenplays. Under Dan Mintz of Dynamic Marketing Group’s direction, Rian Johnson’s screenplay for the film Looper was rewritten so that a scene set in Paris, France in the distant future of 2074 was moved to Shanghai. This was to ensure that the film got around the PRC’s foreign film limits for theatrical distribution. 

It’s also worth noting that DMG also guided the script from including any cultural stereotypes and cliches (street lanterns, “Chinatown” architecture, and so on). A failure to do so was disastrous for Men in Black 3, which was barred from theatrical distribution in China. Considering that Looper grossed more in China than it did domestically, that could have cost the sci-fi sequel dearly indeed.

6. Mulan Issues 

Mulan was one of the most critically-panned films of 2020, with even second generation critics such as Walter Chaw tearing it a new one for being simultaneously pandering, shallow, and dull. But truly, the greatest issue many had with the film was offscreen. And for certain authority figures, that didn’t leave the issue nearly out of sight or out of mind enough. 

A total of 78 seconds of the live action remake were filmed in Xinjiang Province, near the much-publicized re-education camps Uyghur Muslims were held in. As per domestic policy, the production had been required to partner with a local film company to shoot and distribute in China. Eight government agencies were thanked in the film’s credits. But what many found hardest to ignore was when star Liu Yifei made a statement in support of the police crackdowns in Hong Kong. It’s like the production couldn’t decide if it was more important to be a financial or a public relations disaster.

5. Sports Aren’t Safe

It’s not just athletes like John Cena with his innocent gaffe who have to worry about Chinese backlash. On October 4, 2019, long before Liu Yifei spoke in favor of the Hong Kong crackdowns, then-Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted in support of the protestors. This gained an especially high amount of attention as the NBA had a number of exhibition games going on in China at the time, and it had turned out that a NBA training camp had been built near the Xinjiang internment camps. LeBron James was called upon to comment, and on October 9 he said that Morey’s tweet was poorly timed and that he had made the tweet without fully educating himself on the issue. This was felt to be so subservient to the PRC that LeBron James was dragged for it years later when tweeted that another police officer would be held accountable after Derek Chauvin’s conviction. 

The day after LeBron James’s comment, it was noted that ESPN had a broadcast which featured a map of China. Sharp-eyed viewers noted that Taiwan was included in the highlighted area despite the controversy regarding its sovereignty. ESPN did not comment on the use of the map, leaving many to assume the worst.       

4. The Celebrity Crackdowns

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfYs7uvsbU4

Celebrity culture might seem too immaterial of an industry for the PRC to regulate very firmly, but there certainly have been a number of efforts in that direction recently. Beginning on June 8, 2017, a large number of celebrity news blogs and social media accounts were shut down. There was little consideration for backlash from banning accounts of size and influence: One gossip account by a Zhuo Wei had more than seven million followers and still went down. 

The PRC also cracked down on attempts to use social media influence to manipulate children for financial purposes. For example in May 2021 the reality program Youth Without You was shut down by the government because it was found that the show was secretly pushing products by the show’s sponsors on its young audience. Music groups such as Panda Boys have had to change their designation to “children’s art trope” for being too young to not appeal mainly to children. Imagine One Direction being told that they were too young and thus couldn’t advertise themselves as a “boy band.”  

On August 27, 2021, The Guardian reported that the PRC had banned sites which ranked celebrities by popularity. The justification largely boiled down to claims that such sites were creating too much fan rivalry and leading to intolerable amounts of online bullying, particularly among impressionable youth. There’s no explanation needed for why we here strongly object to any effort which bans lists! 

3. Gaming Restrictions

On September 1, 2021, it was reported that the PRC would be limiting the number of hours of online gaming that those under 18 could undertake to three per week. Or rather, per weekend since it’s only one hour per day Friday through Sunday, specifically from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. There would be time carved out for public holidays too, though you’d think that would be when the PRC would most want kids to be with their families or communities instead of trying to do 360 no scope headshots.  Penalties would only be inflicted on the companies instead of the underage players, which seemed like it would make massive workarounds almost inevitable. 

While this might have seemed out of the blue and arbitrary for many Westerners, for Chinese children it was more an escalation than an out of the blue restriction. On April 10, 2020, China banned the online game Animal Crossing. Apparently deciding that didn’t go nearly far enough, on April 16 of that year, the ban expanded to include all online games including zombies, doomsday, ghosts, and evil in general. All game chat rooms and customizations were to be strictly monitored. Anti-gaming advocate Jack Thompson must be feeling at least a little envious.  

2. Nanfu Wong’s Career

As far as the world of documentary filmmaking goes, the PRC probably has no higher profile and cutting critic than Nanfu Wong. In 2019, she released a documentary on the disastrous One Child policy called One Child Nation. The film won the prestigious Grand Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and yet Chinese media censored all references to it being shortlisted for an Academy Award. 

Apparently deciding that wasn’t provocative enough, in 2021, she released In the Same Breath, which went in depth about how the PRC bungled the initial containment of Covid-19, how it arrested doctors that tried to warn the public, how it downplayed the spread and the human cost. In response, not only was Wong threatened by the government, but her family which lived in China. Even during the production her crews would follow around activists and get arrested. As Adam Johnston said in his review of her latest film, presumably she’ll never go back to China again. 

1. No “Girly Guns” on TV

For those who aren’t keeping up to date on Chinese slurs, “girly guns” is a phrase for effeminate men. On September 1, 2021, the National Radio and TV Administration announced that such men were to be banned as part of an effort to remove “abnormal aesthetics” from the national media. AP News speculated that this was intended to blunt the influence that music stars from Japan and South Korea were having.

In something of a callback to our third entry, on September 9, the PRC ordered gaming companies such as Tencent to remove all effeminate content from their games. Considering that games such as Fortnite intentionally included such male characters to appeal to a broader audience and discourage a culture of harassment (albeit it with reportedly limited success in terms of the latter) this could prove especially disastrous for the gaming giant. 

Dustin Koski can be followed on Twitter, though not so much in China since the site is blocked there.