12 Controversial Movies That Never Got Released

10. Ernest & Bertram

The Premise: An 8-minute short film in which Sesame Street's Bert and Ernie have been outed as gay by Variety magazine, causing Miss Piggy to break off her relationship with Bert. From there, the pair examine the nature of their relationship and Ernie comes to realise that he does feel that way about Bert. However, when Bert rejects him, Ernie walks into his bedroom and shoots himself dead. The short ends with Bert cradling Ernie's naked corpse, as a Sesame Street-esque announcer declares that "today's story was brought to you by the letter 'y'" (as in, why!?), as well as "the number one", before a cover of Harry Nilson's One (Is The Loneliest Number) plays through the credits. Why It Never Got Released: After it enjoyed moderate success at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival and played at a few other festivals, the Sesame Workshop slapped the filmmakers with a cease and desist order on the basis of copyright infringement, though it was no doubt because they perceived the depiction of Bert and Ernie as gay as potentially damaging to their brand. Even so, a bootleg copy of the movie found its way onto YouTube a few years later, and it's actually pretty great.
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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.