50 Interesting Things Countries Have Banned For Various Reasons

Alaska, Hawaii, Maine, and Vermont have banned billboard advertising.

2. Monty Python's Life of Brian was banned in Norway and subsequently marketed in Sweden as "The film so funny that it was banned in Norway."

3. The Indian Government banned the use of dolphins for commercial entertainment, calling them ‘non-human persons’, and declaring that it would be morally unacceptable to capture them for entertainment.

4. Homework was considered hugely controversial in the 1800s and early 1900s, when physicians crusaded against it, in 1901, California even banned homework for anyone under the age of 15.

5. During the Vietnam War, the U.S. carried out Operation Popeye, a "cloud-seeding" mission to stimulate clouds in Vietnam to increase rainfall and lengthen the monsoon season. After the operation was declassified in 1974, the United Nations banned the weaponization of weather.

Within hours of its release in 1993, the video game DOOM was banned from numerous university networks as a rush of players overwhelmed their systems with deathmatches.

7. Talking drums were used in Africa for centuries to transmit messages over long distances by mimicking speech. When these were brought to America during the slave trade, they were banned because slaves used them to transmit messages their masters couldn't decipher.

8. During World War 2, Russian soldiers took “heat pills” that kept them warm in the winter; however, they would also lose weight despite eating well. 2,4-dinitrophenol spikes metabolic rate as potential energy is lost as heat—it is banned as a weight loss aid in the US as an overdose can cook people to death.

9. Witches are banned from flying above 150 meters in the landlocked African nation of Eswatini. Any witch caught flying their broomstick above the limit faces arrest and a hefty R500,000 fine according to the country’s civil aviation authority. There is no penalty for flying below 150 meters.

10. In 2007 when Minnesota passed an anti-smoking law that banned smoking in public buildings, there was a line that said only actors who had to smoke were allowed to do so. Thus, the Barnacles Bar declared that everyone in the bar is an actor in a live performance.

The mobile game "Send Me to Heaven" involves throwing your phone as high in the air as you can. The creator said he made it with the hope of destroying as many iPhones as possible, but Apple banned it from the App Store.

12. When the US navy banned alcohol on ships in July 1914, they held one last massive party and invited ships from several nations to help drink the last of the booze. Many of the participants in the party would become enemies weeks later when World War 1 broke out.

13. Lucy's Law bans pet shops and dealers in England from selling puppies and kittens. It was named after Lucy, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel who developed fused hips, a curved spine, bald patches and epilepsy after years of mistreatment in the puppy farming system.

14. Most Americans aren't aware of blackcurrant flavor (one of the most popular soft drink and confection flavors in the world) due to a ban on the plant in the 1900s because of its role in spreading disease among white pines, a principal industry of the growing American republic.

15. In 1993 there was a proposal by a private company to build a giant advertising billboard in outer space that would appear roughly the same size and brightness as the moon. The project didn't meet funding and inspired a bill to ban all advertisements in outer space.

Wheelchair athletes with spinal injuries will sometimes intentionally injure themselves on the lower body (e.g. break a toe), causing their bodies to respond by raising blood pressure and enhancing their performance. This practice has been banned as cheating.

17. Chicken produced in the USA has been banned in the EU since 1997 as it is washed in a strong chlorine solution. Chlorine washing is popular in the USA due to poor hygiene standards in abattoirs.

18. Mackinac Island, Michigan is culturally preserved in time and has banned motorized vehicles for over 100 years. Most of the travel on the island is done by horse-drawn carriages and bikes.

19. In 2015, a statue of 'homeless Jesus' sleeping on a bench was installed in Orlando where the homeless are banned from sleeping on benches.

20. Christmas is banned in North Korea and instead of Christmas, the birthday of Kim Jong-suk (grandmother of the current supreme leader of North Korea) is celebrated on Christmas eve. However, some North Korean Christian believers still celebrate Christmas in secret.

Jeans have been banned in North Korea for years because they are considered a symbol of U.S. imperialism.

22. In 1942 the song "Deep in the Heart of Texas" was banned by BBC during working hours on the grounds that its infectious melody might cause wartime factory-hands to neglect their tools while they clapped in time with the song.

23. Teff, the staple food crop of Ethiopia, is a highly nutritious "superfood" like quinoa. After US and European health food trends created a huge demand for quinoa, prices skyrocketed in Bolivia, where it is a staple food. Fearing their own food shortage, Ethiopia banned the export of teff in 2006.

24. The state of Kuwait is banned from the Olympics due to government legislation that permits the state to interfere in elections of sporting organizations. As a result, Kuwaiti athletes compete as independent athletes under the Olympic Flag instead of their own flag.

25. In 1669, King Louis XIV banned pointed, sharp knives in an attempt to reduce violence, and that's why table knives are dull and rounded today.