This century was, hands down, a total circus of celeb scandals: Chris Brown’s assault on Rihanna, Harvey Weinstein’s sexual misconduct, Ariana Grande and her doughnut-licking incident, Taylor Swift and Kanye West’s feud, Ellen Degeneres’ maltreatment of employees, and about a gazillion more. 

However, the media is also known for blowing things out of proportion, so today, we’re going to focus solely on overhyped controversies that surrounded our beloved (or not) stars!

More info: Reddit

#1

When the female soccer player won and took off her shirt, and had a sports bra under it. My God, you would have thought all of the world just witness their first look at a stomach

Image credits: Creepy_Society5958

“Reddit, what outrage over a celebrity was way overblown?” – a netizen who goes by u/vantae-bts recently took to one of the platform’s most informative and thought-provoking communities, inviting its members to share famous celeb dramas that really weren’t that big of a deal. The thread garnered nearly 11K upvotes as well as 12.1K comments containing some pretty interesting answers.

Now, it’s your lucky day because Bored Panda has managed to get through to the author and pose them a couple of questions!

The OP is a college student in the US who was inspired to post the question online after having a conversation with their mom about the outrage. BP then asked the web user to shoot back and answer their own question, to which they replied: “I’m thinking the Britney Spears and Madonna kiss.”

#2

Britney Spears when she had her meltdowns. The woman was bullied and harassed at such an insane level, it would make anyone snap.

Image credits: Elle12881

For those of you who don’t know or perhaps had not yet been born when the “scandal” occurred, u/vantae-bts is talking about the famous on-stage kiss Madonna shared with Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera during the performance of one of her biggest hits, “Like a Virgin,” at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards. 

Due to the rather conservative views in the early noughties and the fact that public display of affection, let alone a same-sex one, was fairly uncommon on TV, the smooch sparked quite a stir and gripped the headlines for weeks! 

#3

Monica Lewinsky- America did her dirty.

Image credits: Letsgosomewherenice

#4

Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction.

Image credits: ripplerider

We hope that you’ve enjoyed this interesting collection of celeb scandals that folks online believe were blown way out of proportion! Let us know which one you agree with the most, and don’t hesitate to add your own examples in the comments section down below.

#5

People were angrier at Billie Eilish mouthing an anti Asian slur from a Tyler the creator song when she was 15, than actually being angry at Tyler the Creator for ADDING THAT SLUR INTO THE SONG in the first place.

Image credits: carissadraws

#6

The Chicks (formerly Dixie Chicks) and the whole thing with George W Bush

Image credits: anon

#7

Any female celeb who was shamed for existing. Anne Hathaway when paparazzi took and published an up-skirt photo when she was exiting a car. Miley Cyrus for legally smoking salvia with her friends in her home, or when a world famous photographer took a photo that the media deemed whore-ish, despite it not being her idea and she was a kid AND was covered. Brittani Spears for being a human and not perfect, etc. the media is hard af on women for just being human.

Image credits: ODB247

#8

Simone Biles not being able to perform at the Olympics.

Fox News got outraged over an athlete, who was having issues and couldn’t perform

I remember people crying about how she “stole” from other athletes who would have otherwise taken her spot. “There’s a young woman who could have gone to the Olympics if *she* didn’t want to do her job!”

I also vaguely remember when people screamed about her taking adderall. Which she was prescribed, and wasn’t taking it as a PED.

Also, keeping up with the US women’s gymnastics – when people got up in arms ahout Gabby Douglas not putting her hand over her heart for the national anthem. Bro, she represented your country, she clearly isn’t anti-American

Image credits: marilern1987

#9

George Michael being asked by an undercover cop if he wants to see his thing, he said sure. So everyone found out he was gay and that was a huge no no. Gay meant pervert back then. Really sad and he never recovered mentally. Pisses me off. Just wasn’t fair.

Image credits: has2give

#10

Kaepernick kneeling

Image credits: cadcamm99

#11

Obama being distracted and [not returning a salute](https://youtu.be/Np7lObaDiBk) from a Marine while boarding Marine One, despite immediately going back down the stairs to acknowledge the guy and shake his hand.

Idiots at the time claimed the pilot wouldn’t let him board, as if any serving officer would end their career disrespecting the Commander in Chief who as a civilian was under no obligation to return a salute in the first place.

Also the time Obama did salute, but had a coffee cup in his hand.

Image credits: cruiserman_80

#12

Obama’s brown suit

Image credits: magicmann2614

#13

Remember when Lizzo played that glass flute and ~~racists~~ conservatives lost their s**t because she was “disrespecting the history” or some nonsense?

Image credits: VVillyD

#14

Remember when Jessica Simpson wore that hideous outfit and every news outlet everywhere talked about how huge she was and how much weight she had gained and she was like 105 lbs? Yet everyone was outraged that she was so “huge” and not that these crazies were calling a 105lb woman “huge”…

Image credits: goldlion0806

#15

The controversy about Meghan Markle being mixed.

So f*****g what?

Image credits: TheMegatrizzle

#16

Michael Phelps ripping a bong

Image credits: Tshimanga21

#17

No doubt that Martha Stewart was accused of insider trading and put in prison, yet every politician in Washington become millionaires from insider information. The amount she made was minuscule compared.

Image credits: minigopher

#18

Miley Cyrus choosing to go rated R/NSFW years after starring in Hannah Montana.

Image credits: gutsplatter

#19

Charlie Chaplin was labelled a Communist and was told his re-entry to the United States would be subject to investigation into his political views. Charlie just decided never to come back to America. Once the documents became unsealed, it was revealed government officials had nothing on him despite publicly stating they did.

Image credits: smilysmilysmooch

#20

Al franken resigned because a conservative woman lied about the circumstances surrounding a photo they both took in jest. He was sacrificed on the altar of me too to shame the republicans for supporting trump in the wake of credible allegations.

Image credits: otter111a

#21

Elizabeth Olson not tweeting or acknowledging it in social media after Chadwick Boseman died.

Image credits: QuailPuzzled1286

#22

Jenna ortega taking a cigarette and drinking wine

Image credits: Familiar_Ad3128

#23

Any of them getting canceled for saying 1 bad word 10+ years ago.

Image credits: warlordwinters

#24

Canadian snowboarder who gold in the men’s giant slalom event at the 1998 Winter Olympics. The IOC initially stripped him of the medal due to a failed drug test for cannabis use but overruled by an appeals court two days later, resulting in the medal being restored.

Image credits: 2cats2hats

#25

The recent incident where a 19 yr old NBA player’s body guard shoved Britney Spear’s hand away when she tried to get his attention.

The player got bombarded with hate from her fans when he literally didn’t do a thing haha

#26

The majorty of Kpop Idols’ issues and “scandals” whatsoever (ex. Smoking, dating, crying at a friend’s funeral, etc.)

Image credits: BlueKiss1230

#27

Roky Erickson, lead singer of the 13th Floor Elevators, got put in a psych ward for possessing a single joint in 1969 Austin, Texas. He was subject to electroshock “treatment” in these facilities for 4 years. His mental state deteriorated greatly over this time frame. Based on the information that is out there, it’s pretty safe to say that this incident drastically lowered his long term quality of life. He was 22 years old when he was sent to the first facility.

Image credits: CalligrapherMurky844

#28

I will never understand why Taylor Swift was SO hated after kanye claimed she lied about the phone call (she didn’t aswell). I’ve seen a mural of her saying 1989-2016, people wanted her dead/ to pretend she died. It’s insane. Even if kanye was right, all she would have done was lie…

Image credits: slytherin-d-t

#29

The weird outrage 20 years later about Hilary Swank portraying Brandon Teena.

#30

David Bowie saying he was BiSexual in an interview. It really ended up hurting his career in the U.S.

Image credits: BassAce6913

#31

Aziz Ansari’s bad date

Image credits: KenyaLaray

#32

The Dude You’re Getting a Dell guy being a stoner. I mean, duh. I could see that from a mile away.

Image credits: That_Weird_Girl_107

#33

Backsight-Foreskin wrote:

 

Howard Dean’s scream. He was giving a talk to motivate his campaign workers.

 

DropZealousideal4309 added:

 

Was looking for this. A little extra context that illustrates how stupid the whole dust-up was, from Wikipedia:

“The Dean scream, was a speech delivered by Vermont governor Howard Dean on January 19, 2004 at the Val-Air Ballroom in West Des Moines, Iowa. That night, the presidential candidate had just lost the Iowa caucus to John Kerry and wanted to reassure his supporters. He listed states he would win to a raucous audience before screaming “Yeah!” Within four days, it was broadcast 633 times on national news networks and cable channels. The audio used in the airings of the scream was from Dean’s unidirectional microphone, which decreased the volume of the background noise to the point where only Dean’s voice was audible; this did not reflect the actual volume of the room that night, as the crowd was extremely loud.”

So they soloed his damn mic and then broadcast it ad nauseum until he was dead and buried. Great reporting, [jerks].

Image credits: Backsight-Foreskin

#34

Eddie Murphy and the sex worker. Huge scandal at the time but in retrospect.. who cares?

Image credits: lordsummerisleswig

#35

I always thought the public reaction/outrage over Body Count’s “Cop Killer” song was overblown and ridiculous, even if Ice-T did eventually end up pulling the song from the album