The most glaring example is Roald Dahl’s Charlie and The Chocolate Factory. The Ooompa Loompas were originally African pygmies. When groups complained, Dahl changed them to white skinned, golden-brown haired people from fictiona lLoompaland And Quentin Blake likewise changed is drawings of them.
Tom Paxton’s lovely song about suicide “Now That I’ve Taken my Life” included the lyric
For the solid gold women are standing in line,
And dangling a solid gold key.
The very best hostesses pour me my wine,
Introducing their daughters to me.
That creepy idea was later changed to: to
For the solid gold winners are standing in line
And dangling a solid gold key
They take me to dinner they pour me my wine
They ask very little of me
They changed the lyrics of Arabian Nights after the theatrical release of Aladdin from “where they cut off your ear if they don’t like your face” to “where it’s flat and immense and the heat is intense”
pretty obvious cut since the new line sounds so different to the rest of the song
Just searched for the song on Spotify. The number two song starts with those lyrics. The number one song was a completely different song (“Let’s Do It Again”).
The Bobbsey Twins got rewritten in the 1960s, in some places to update technology but also to update how the black characters were portrayed (Dinah and Sam).
And speaking of Cole Porter, the movie version of “Kiss Me, Kate” found “Too Darned Hot” too darned hot, and turned it into a wordless dance. “Brush Up Your Shakespeare” was significantly cut also.
The Nancy Drew reissues from the late '50s - early '60s eliminated a lot of the racist villains, and paused the action for Nancy to go to church every Sunday - something she never did in the old version.
Charlie Daniels has revised several of his songs to eliminate drug references and/or swearing. Think that is more due to him finding religion than political correctness though
Officer Krupke from West Side Story: The stage version had this line (horrors!):
My father is a bastard
My ma’s an S.O.B.
My grandpa’s always plastered
My grandma pushes tea
The movie version changed them to:
My daddy beats my mommy
My mommy clobbers me
My grandpa is a Commie
My grandma pushes tea
Stephen Sondheim’s contribution to saving the youth of the world from hearing those naughty words!
In 2002 when ET was re-released, the government agents holding guns and rifles when the kids on bikes start flying, were changed to holding walkie talkies.
“Lola” by the Kinks was rerecorded to remove offensive language: the word “Coca-Cola” was changed to “cherry cola” (the BBC wouldn’t allow the mention of any commercial product).
The same reason “stealing clothes from Marks & Sparks” was changed to “stealing clothes from unmarked cars” in “All the Young Dudes.” Nothing to do with political correctness, though.
W.S. Gilbert’s lyrics for “The Mikado” contain the n-word a couple of times, but more in reference to black-faced minstrels than actual Africans … or so I’ve heard. In modern performances, those lines are usually changed to “a banjo serenader” and “painted with vigor”.
I haven’t seen a recent copy of Just So Stories, so I don’t know if the Ethiopian’s remark at the end of “How the Leopard Got His Spots” has been reworded. (He originally said, “Oh, plain black’s best for a n-----”.)
