Overzealous religious fanatics tried to turn the Satanic Panic into a new McCarthyism for the 80s, but they failed because anybody with a brain could see that Pampers, the Smurfs and Mr. Ed were not a threat to their immortal soul.
But in 1986 evangelists Greg Hudson and Jim Brown presented their evidence anyway, claiming Mr. Ed had been corrupting innocent souls for the Lord of Darkness by using its theme song as a subliminal tool for recruitment.
They claimed that when you played the theme song backwards it sounded like the singer was saying "The Source is Satan" and "Someone heard this song for Satan".
As if that bit of jackassery wasn't enough- Proctor & Gamble got caught up in the Satanic Panic when it was decided their beautiful logo, which dated back to 1882, featured Satanic symbols.
P&G had to hold a press conference to deny claims they were donating to a Satanic Church and set up a toll free phone line to assure people there was nothing Satanic about their logo.
In the end they removed their awesome Art Nouveau logo to avoid further problems with the Panic crowd.
Next stop- those totally sinister Smurfs cartoons!
Cartoon obsessed crackpot Phil Phillips joined pastor Gary Greenwald to battle those treacherous toons on Turmoil in the Toybox, claiming the Smurfs, with Thundercats, He-Man and Rainbow Brite were a gateway to corruption aimed at children.
The Smurfs were said to be a depiction of dead homosexuals, the Thundercats and He-Man were inspired by "heathen gods", and Rainbow Brite has a pentagram on her cheek- the mark of pure evil.
See The Devil Made Them Do It: 8 Examples Of Satanic Panic In The '80s here
(not that I remember that decade so fondly)
but one of these days one of us needs to find the antivirus to uproot the human species
Giving witness to Evil supports Evil.