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Post by quirkysmirky on Apr 7, 2004 21:13:02 GMT -5
I just read the post from awhile ago about bleeping out or replacing curse words in movies. It is something that I have also noticed and wondered about. Why are some offensive things censored while others are not? One troubling one that I noticed is that often racial slurs are not bleeped out on TV, while other curse words are. This happens a lot in music also: When some artists use violent images in their lyrics (which are often just metaphors for something completely unrelated to violence anyway) they are considered bad/evil/etc., yet some artists with violent lyrics are not.
However, I do agree with the person who said in the other thread that sometimes it is amusing when TV stations change the words in movies. Once I was watching "The Great Outdoors" on USA, and during the part where everyone is telling each other to "go blow it out your ass" the station dubbed it over as "go blow it out your kazoo." Maybe that's just an old phrase that I've never heard, but it still made me laugh. The best, though, was on TBS when they were showing "Dumb and Dumber." I don't remember the exact words, but it was in the part toward the end when the guys are tied to the bed. Anyway, they replaced the word "ass" with the word "sandwich." It something along the lines of, "I'm going to kick your sandwich." I just realized that this probably isn't too funny since I don't remember what the line was, but trust me, it was funny when I watched it.
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Post by quirkysmirky on Apr 7, 2004 21:18:31 GMT -5
Another funny one is on network TV when people say "asshole." On network, you can say "ass" but you can't say "asshole", which I've noticed from my many hours of obsessively watching television. So, when they show a movie or something on network TV and a character says "asshole," they leave in the "ass" but they bleep out the "hole". I laugh a lot whenever I hear assbleep on TV.
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Post by Merky Boku on Apr 7, 2004 23:28:34 GMT -5
Censors are f**king pussies!
They're just doing their job, the question is why do stations feel pressured by sponsors (who want the approval of the viewers) when the viewers just want to hear some relentless profanity? I'll tell you why, 57 year old white Christians with nothing better to do than write letters everytime they almost have a thought in their head. They don't know why they do it and then everyone else has to follow from there. As always, the small WASP minority runs the show for no apparent reason.
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Post by Oh yeah I forgot on Apr 7, 2004 23:34:00 GMT -5
Jessica, Welcome to the MSUFA webboard. Thanks for deciding to contribute.  Stick around. |
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Post by Seany-D on Apr 8, 2004 12:03:49 GMT -5
I think the question here is: why censor? I don't mean that in the "why bother" sense, but why does the media censor words from a broadcast? If it is to keep folks from being offended, then it seems as if they are talking from both sides of their mouth if words like "cocksucker" are not allowed, but "goombah" or "wetback" are permissible. It seems that the words that are censored are not based on racism/semism/pick an -ism, but solely on bodily functions/formication or blasphemy. George Carlin sure got it right when he started on the Seven Words You Cannot Say on TV (the original seven were supposedly shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits). Of course, context is important ... "I would like to urinate upon your breasts before copulating with you via your rectum" contains legal words, but the context would not make them suitable for an ABC Afterschool Special, even if R. Kelly were the star of the show. So, to get back on point, if the purpose to censor is to keep from offending, then drawing the line seems arbitrary, and a lot on broadcast TV now is certainly offensive. If it is to keep tender ears from picking up foul language, again, the line is drawn poorly now, but where does one draw the line? Oddly enough, the white-haired old men who are responsible for keeping up the censorship must find it tough to keep up with current slang. Skeet skeet skeet!!!
Visual censorship is another thing altogether. While I would not recommend airing brazen copulation on primetime TV, particularly if it involves Barbara Walters and Hugh Downs, a breast is just a breast. Why is a tit offensive? I honestly don't understand the tits = sex thing in American society. And it seems the nipple is the trigger ... as long as you don't see nipple, you're OK spilling huge amounts of cleavage out of your designer dress with wonder bra. Yet I can wander the streets of East Lansing with my shirt off, nipples exposed to the fresh air of Michigan, and the only result would be that of the local population wishing the hell I'd put my shirt back on ... or work out more.
The ultimate censor should still be the parent, as I would not want my goddaughter rattling off words she overhears ... kids pick up language from context. It's permissible to teach a 10 year old, say, that the f-bomb is a word, but not permissible in church, while the 4 year old would tend to hear it and drop f-bombs indiscriminately. While it's funny, I can tell you from experience it only means that one needs to watch one's language lest you get slapped in the head by said toddler's mommy.
Sean "grocery store language should not be used around kids" Davis
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Stick around.