Great art is always thought-provoking. But when it comes to music videos being simply provoking is more than enough. Ever since the launch of MTV in the mid-80s, many artists tried to push the boundaries of what was acceptable to show on TV and used the medium to make fun of society’s taboos; make political statements or just stroll on the screen completely naked.

Let’s remember some of the most controversial music videos of all time. Just don’t tell your mother we showed you.

Prodigy – "Smack My Bitch Up" (1997)

The king of all the most scandalous videos, a quintessential '90s product and basically the reason everyone wanted to nab Jonas Akerlund for their videos ever since, from Lady Gaga to Maroon 5.

This music video is a dizzying journey through the seedy London nightclub scene and includes everything you would expect from a raunchy late-90s party: sexual harassment, vomiting, alcohol, drugs and a sort-of-twist ending, where the protagonist is revealed to be a woman. It was all too much even by MTV standards, so the video was only rotated for about two weeks and only after midnight before getting banned for good. It did top MTV’s Most Controversial Videos list — the only time the unedited version was shown on the music channel.