Censorship is weird, and an assortment of tidbits
Yes, I'm going to pimp my contest again. Deal with it. Ask anyone: Scurvy Dogs is worth the money, and I'm giving it away.
For those of you who come here for comics-related stuff, I'll now be doing that over at Comics Should Be Good. They invited me to join, and I figured, "What the hell." Check it out - it's always good, and Gail Simone might drop by!
For those of you who don't come by here for comics-related stuff, well, it won't be here anymore. Now you don't have to skip that!
Anyway, moving on, I was watching "Legally Blonde" over the weekend (don't ask). It was on TBS, and I expect a fair deal of censorship on network and regular cable stations - I even have no problem with it, now that I'm a father. While I wait with Mia at night for Krys to get everything ready to put her to sleep (save your bile; we have a very good separation of duties worked out, so she's not doing all the work), I like to put on the television, because what the hell else am I going to do? Since I live outside of the Eastern Time Zone, things are on earlier, including some of the stuff that might be telecast a little later because of "mature" themes, meaning cursing! So I don't care if TBS or the networks or USA censors things a little - I don't want to be sitting there with Mia and have someone start dropping f-bombs at 6.45 in the evening. However, this weekend's showing of "Legally Blonde" struck me as weird, because TBS, at least, is wildly inconsistent with what they censor.
As various times throughout the movie, the characters say things that I was surprised they didn't cut. Jennifer Coolidge says something about her ex-boyfriend following his pecker to another woman. Someone else calls another character a prick. And Ali Larter, in the most egregious example, tells the lawyer defending her for murder that he should have seen her dead husband's dick, meaning that although he was 60 and she was 26, the sex was wild monkey sex.
Now, this is surprising enough, but when you consider that when TBS - the same exact station! - shows "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery" (the funny, first movie, not the two god-awful sequels), they cannot allow the word "penis" to slip in - as in, Swedish Penis Enlarger. It's such a funny part of the movie, yet they neuter it (sorry - I couldn't resist). It's the technical term, people! Now, I understand why they censor it - that's not at issue - but why do they censor that and not Ali Larter talking about how her husband had a big dick and kept her screaming in the bedroom? It's bizarre.
Other stuff: via Greg Morrow's blog, we get 13 things that do not make sense (in a scientific way). Interesting reading.
Lots of people talking about the Terry Schiavo case, better than I can do. Go to Slate.com for an excellent article about it. The link is courtesy of Chris Galdieri, who also has an interesting reaction to the Republicans suddenly calling her by her maiden name.
For those of you who come here for comics-related stuff, I'll now be doing that over at Comics Should Be Good. They invited me to join, and I figured, "What the hell." Check it out - it's always good, and Gail Simone might drop by!
For those of you who don't come by here for comics-related stuff, well, it won't be here anymore. Now you don't have to skip that!
Anyway, moving on, I was watching "Legally Blonde" over the weekend (don't ask). It was on TBS, and I expect a fair deal of censorship on network and regular cable stations - I even have no problem with it, now that I'm a father. While I wait with Mia at night for Krys to get everything ready to put her to sleep (save your bile; we have a very good separation of duties worked out, so she's not doing all the work), I like to put on the television, because what the hell else am I going to do? Since I live outside of the Eastern Time Zone, things are on earlier, including some of the stuff that might be telecast a little later because of "mature" themes, meaning cursing! So I don't care if TBS or the networks or USA censors things a little - I don't want to be sitting there with Mia and have someone start dropping f-bombs at 6.45 in the evening. However, this weekend's showing of "Legally Blonde" struck me as weird, because TBS, at least, is wildly inconsistent with what they censor.
As various times throughout the movie, the characters say things that I was surprised they didn't cut. Jennifer Coolidge says something about her ex-boyfriend following his pecker to another woman. Someone else calls another character a prick. And Ali Larter, in the most egregious example, tells the lawyer defending her for murder that he should have seen her dead husband's dick, meaning that although he was 60 and she was 26, the sex was wild monkey sex.
Now, this is surprising enough, but when you consider that when TBS - the same exact station! - shows "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery" (the funny, first movie, not the two god-awful sequels), they cannot allow the word "penis" to slip in - as in, Swedish Penis Enlarger. It's such a funny part of the movie, yet they neuter it (sorry - I couldn't resist). It's the technical term, people! Now, I understand why they censor it - that's not at issue - but why do they censor that and not Ali Larter talking about how her husband had a big dick and kept her screaming in the bedroom? It's bizarre.
Other stuff: via Greg Morrow's blog, we get 13 things that do not make sense (in a scientific way). Interesting reading.
Lots of people talking about the Terry Schiavo case, better than I can do. Go to Slate.com for an excellent article about it. The link is courtesy of Chris Galdieri, who also has an interesting reaction to the Republicans suddenly calling her by her maiden name.
posted by Greg | 2:55 PM
3 Comments:
The thing that confuses me is a word like asshole or a phrase like "God damn." I'm not surprised THAT they are censored, but WHAT is censored. They bleep out "hole", but keep "ass." They bleep out "God", but not "damn." Why aren't they bleeping out the actual curse words?!?
I didn't have cable until about 4 months ago, but one of the first things I noticed was that TBS had gotten weird...you'll hear things in a noonhour commercial that 5 years ago would have been bleeped out in a movie playing at midnight.
It's not that the content is so much more racy than that of other networks(since 99% of the content came from other networks), it's just the fact that it's playing on TBS.
And no more Full House reruns?!? WTF?!?
Yeah, I love that they don't bleep out the actual curse word. I'm sure with some of the stations, it's a whole "not-taking-the-Lord's-name-in-vain" thing. Weird.
As for the slackening in what gets through - that's been going on for a while. TBS has gotten weird.
Post a Comment
<< Home