Two weeks after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the satirical newspaper The Onion published its first issue since postponing publication in the immediate aftermath of the deadliest attack ever on the United States.
With headlines such as “U.S. vows to defeat whoever it is we’re at war with” and “Not knowing what else to do, woman bakes American-flag cake,” the Sept. 26, 2001 issue of The Onion was widely praised for threading the needle between tragedy and comedy in the raw, emotional aftermath of 9/11.
A few days later, at the Friars Club roast of Hugh Hefner in New York City, comedian Gilbert Gottfried walked to the microphone and launched into a joke about his flight to California later that night. His punchline prompted gasps and boos and one man shouting “Too soon!” from the audience.
In pop culture, the impact of the Sept. 11 attacks has reverberated down the years since 2,977 people died when four hijacked airliners crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and a field near the town of Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Movies, television, music – no corner of pop culture was left unaffected by the immensity of 9/11 and the grief and sorrow, fear and anger that rippled outward from the attacks in the years that followed.
The year after: Music
Songwriters were quick to respond through art to the terrible scenes that filled television screens around the world from the moment CNN broke into its regular programming at 8:49 a.m. Eastern time to announce that a plane had hit one of the Twin Towers.
Chris Martin of Coldplay sat down at his piano that day to write “Politik,” its chorus pleading, “Open up your eyes,” over and over. The band recorded it two days later on Sept. 13, 2001, and it opened Coldplay’s second album, “A Rush of Blood to the Head,” a few months later.
Future My Chemical Romance singer-songwriter Gerard Way was on a ferry from New Jersey to his internship at Cartoon Network in Manhattan when the first plane hit. Watching the horror of the towers collapsing led him to go home and write the first-ever My Chem song, “Skylines and Turnstiles,” with lyrics such as “Steel corpses stretch out towards an ending sun / Scorched and black, it reaches in and tears your flesh apart.”
Musicians also quickly gathered for all-star concerts as tributes and fundraisers for the dead and injured, first responders, and cities still reeling from the attacks. “America: A Tribute to Heroes” was broadcast live on ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox on Sept. 21, 2001, with performances by stars such as Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Faith Hill, U2, Billy Joel and Willie Nelson.
“The Concert for New York City” on Oct. 20 was organized by Paul McCartney and included David Bowie, the Who, Elton John, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, Billy Joel again, and Adam Sandler, who worked a few insults about Osama bin Laden into his performance as Operaman.
“United We Stand: What More Can I Give” was held a night later in Washington, D.C., led by Michael Jackson with stars such as Rod Stewart, Mariah Carey, Carole King, Backstreet Boys, Pink, ‘NSYNC, and more.
On the radio, DJs and programmers shied away from songs that might trigger listeners. Lee Greenwood‘s patriotic chestnut “God Bless the U.S.A.” went into heavy rotation on many stations.
Clear Channel, then the largest owner of radio stations in the U.S., issued a list of songs to consider avoiding including R.E.M.’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine),” Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” and the Guns N’ Roses cover version, Talking Heads’ “Burning Down the House,” and every single song by Rage Against the Machine.
As a new year arrived, U2 delivered a moving tribute to the United States during its halftime performance at Super Bowl XXXVI. Singer Bono opened his jacket at the end of “Beautiful Day” to reveal an American flag lining. As the band played “Where the Streets Have No Name,” the names of those who died in the attacks scrolled on video screens inside the Superdome in New Orleans.
With more time, more artists wrote, recorded and released songs inspired by 9/11. Country star Alan Jackson premiered his new song, “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning),” on the CMA Awards on Nov. 7, 2001, and included it on his 2002 album.
Springsteen’s 2002 album “The Rising” addressed the attacks directly on several songs. Neil Young’s “Let’s Roll” was inspired by the words of one of the passengers on United Flight 93 rallying others to attack the hijackers in the cockpit.
And Toby Keith‘s “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue” (The Angry American),” released in May 2002, gave voice to the anger and desire to strike back that many felt.
The year after: On screen
For four days after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Big 4 television broadcasters preempted regular programming to cover the news around the clock. Late-night talk shows and sitcoms were off the air even longer.
But slowly, the networks and cable channels returned to the new normal.
David Letterman was first of the late-night hosts to come back, bringing back “Late Night with David Letterman” on Sept. 17, 2001, albeit with a much more somber tone – no joke-filled monologue, just Letterman at his desk, speaking from the heart, at one point saying, “If you live to be a thousand years old, will [what happened] make any sense to you? Will that make any goddamn sense?”
That same day, “Politically Incorrect” host Bill Maher stirred controversy when he said the United States, shooting missiles at bin Laden’s compound from thousands of miles away, was more cowardly than the 9/11 hijackers.
“Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, it’s not cowardly,” he said. Months later, when ABC canceled the series, Maher said he believed it stemmed from that comment.
TV series such as “The West Wing” and “Third Watch” rushed to write new episodes to reflect current events.
On Oct. 3, less than a month later, “The West Wing” broadcast an episode in which a high school tour group was locked down in the White House due to a terrorism-related scare, giving the show’s regular characters a chance to talk about terrorism, its causes, and how to address it.
“Third Watch,” a drama about New York City police, fire, and emergency services workers, aired a documentary-style episode on Oct. 15 with real-life NYC first responders talking about what happened. That was followed over the next two weeks with a return to the fictional storytelling with one episode taking place on Sept. 10 and ending with the attacks, and another picking up the characters’ stories in the aftermath.
The animated comedy “South Park” did an episode about 9/11 on Nov. 7, 2001. At the start of “Osama bin Laden Has Farty Pants,” Cartman, Kenny, Kyle and Stan wear gas masks at the bus stop as protection against anthrax. They end up trying to return a goat named Stevie Nicks to Afghanistan – forget it, Jake, it’s South Park – and find themselves in bin Laden’s cave. There, Cartman tricks bin Laden that a stick of dynamite is a microphone, and U.S. soldiers shoot him dead.
One day before that, the TV thriller series “24” premiered on Fox. Starring Kiefer Sutherland as counterterrorism agent Jack Bauer, the series had already started shooting months before 9/11, but its message of stopping terrorism by any means necessary resonated with viewers in the shellshocked aftermath of the attacks.
TV series and movies alike took other steps to soften the possibility of triggering viewers with unintended 9/11 references. Often, images and references to the World Trade Center towers were scrubbed over the next few years.
“The Sopranos” and “Sex and the City” had once featured shots of the towers. No more. Movies as disparate as “Spider-Man,” “Zoolander,” “Men in Black II,” and “Stuart Little II,” removed or replaced similar images.
And a new 20th anniversary release of “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” changed the line in a Halloween scene from “You’re not going as a terrorist!” to “You’re not going as a hippie!” In later releases, the original line was restored.
With filmmaking’s longer lead times, it took longer for 9/11 to reach the big screen. Spike Lee’s “25th Hour,” which arrived in theaters at the end of 2002, may have been the first to address the attacks on New York City, a change made by Lee and David Benioff, who adapted his 2001 novel “The 25th Hour.”
By 2004, more films were arriving. Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11” won the top prize at Cannes for his critique of the Bush Administration’s response to 9/11 and invasion of Iraq, passage of the Patriot Act, and other decisions.
That same year, Disney Channel aired an original movie for young viewers about 9/11. “Tiger Cruise,” which starred Bill Pullman as a naval officer and the late Hayden Panettiere as his daughter, told the story of an aircraft carrier cruise for family and friends that was underway when the attacks hit.
Two years later, two of the most acclaimed movies based on real-life events of 9/11 arrived in theaters.
Director Paul Greengrass’s “United 93” told the story of the passengers on the plane who discovered the plot in midair and decided to fight back. Greengrass was nominated for best director, the film for best editing, at the Academy Awards. It won those same categories at the BAFTAs.
“World Trade Center” focused on a handful of NYPD officers who rushed into the towers and were trapped when the building collapsed. It was directed by Oliver Stone, with Nicolas Cage and Michael Peña as the two who survived.
In later years
In time, pop culture and 9/11 found a kind of equilibrium. It wasn’t as risky a topic to address, though it still packed a powerful punch in many cases.
In 2004, Larry David’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” became one of the first TV comedies to use the attacks for humor. In “The Survivor,” Larry discovers that the rabbi he and Cheryl have hired to renew their vows considers the death of his brother-in-law one of the Sept. 11 deaths, even though he died after being run over by a bike messenger on the Upper West Side. True to form, Larry can’t stop himself, and things spin out of control.
That same year, FX’s “Rescue Me” debuted with a mix of drama and comedy in the TV series set in a post-9/11 world in which Denis Leary’s firefighter Tommy struggles with the loss of his firefighter cousin Jimmy at the World Trade Center, with Jimmy often visiting Tommy from the beyond for conversations in his dreams.
The Axis of Evil Comedy Tour, launched in November 2005 by four Middle Eastern comics, marked another step forward in the post-9/11 world. Even as anti-Muslim discrimination soared after Sept. 11, comedians Ahmed Ahmed, Maz Jobrani, Aron Kader, and Dean Obeidallah, whose ancestry is Egyptian, Iranian and Palestinian, used their experiences in the United States after 9/11 for comedy.
In one sense, the rise of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has its roots in a post-9/11 world. In 2008’s “Iron Man,” the first of the modern-era Marvels, Tony Stark is ambushed and captured by a terrorist group in Afghanistan. While in captivity, Stark, played by Robert Downey Jr., creates his prototype armored suit and escapes.
That’s clearly a 9/11-inspired scenario. And in the MCU, hints of that continue over the movies that follow, whether directly in the conflicts the Avengers and others find themselves in embroiled in, or as obliquely as the buildings crashing down, the dust that blankets the cityscape, an eerie reminder of the real-life scenes we all remember all too well.