And then it all changed, and Yauch was the first to take it all back. On 1994’s “Sure Shot,” MCA pulled the plug on the characters that made them famous: “I wanna say a little something that’s long overdue, the disrespect to women has got to be through. To all the mothers and the sisters and the wives and friends, I wanna offer my love and respect to the end.” The band didn’t limit themselves to a single apology. (Popchips, you listening?) The band spent their career gently deflating their penis balloon, even taking on other bands when necessary. In 1998, the band asked The Prodigy not to play “Smack My B*tch Up” at the Reading Festival. (The band was not receptive to this input.) Yauch sent a clarifying e-mail to the NME after the event: “We are in the process of learning from our mistakes, and feel that some of the things we did in the past that we thought were a joke ended up having lasting negative effects.”