It's truly amazing what our society finds acceptable nowadays.
HBO got its start as a cable network that would show unedited movies which were often skin-flicks and softcore pornography, and now airs shows like Game of Thrones with gratuitous sexual scenes, violence, and language.
But you know what is just too far for the folks over at HBO?
Smoking.
They have taken iconic movie posters which feature smoking and edited out the cigarettes.
Before:
After:
Now I guess Warren Beatty is just holding up a peace sign in front of his mouth?
How absolutely ludicrous.
Here's another before:
And after:
The poses become comically stupid when the smoke is removed.
But don't worry, you can find all sorts of sexually explicit material on HBO Max. But you won't see Paul Newman smoking on a movie poster anymore.
From the New York Post:
In a bizarre move spotted by film buffs on social media, HBO Max has been censoring cigarettes from select iconic movie posters that it displays on its streaming site.
Angry movie fans took to Twitter to reveal the missing smokes on HBO Max's feeds, which appeared to be scrubbed from iconic movie posters for Robert Altman's "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" as well as "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean."
In the photoshopped posters, stars Warren Beatty and Paul Newman no longer hold cigarettes between their fingers but instead appear to be posing — bizarrely — with digits raised, staring off into the distance.
Why are we like this as a society?
What's the point of this bizarre censorship? Is smoking the ONLY sin our society recognizes anymore?
Smoking tobacco, that is. I'm sure if it was a joint they'd have left it in.
Here's even more examples:
Absolutely insane.
As the New York Post points out, HBO Max is enduring lots of problems now, the least of which have to do with smoking on movie posters.
Execs at HBO Max's new parent company Warner Bros. Discovery have been furiously making changes as they work to combine the HBO Max streaming service with Discovery+, home to TLC, Food Network and Animal Planet.
They are also working to cull $3 billion in costs by 2024 – a promise CEO David Zaslav made to investors after the $43 billion mega-merger between Discovery and Warner Media closed earlier this year.
If they're looking to cut costs, may I suggest they start in the Photoshop department?
P.S. Now check out our latest video 👇
