Extreme Examples of Censorship

[Siam Sam]

I am thinking specifically of Katy Perry. Her song "Hot and Cold" comes with a delightful music video, but in the line "Like a bitch -- I would know," the word "bitch" is bleeped out in the MTV video. It is NOT bleeped out on local Thai radio. We have MTV Taiwan piped into our unit, and they seem to be the ones doing the censoring, not Thailand. When the song is played on local radio, the word "bitch" is not deleted.

But what I find especially funny is I just listened to an MTV (Taiwan, remember) music-video award ceremony -- they have SO many awards -- and any time her song "I Kissed a Girl" was mentioned, the word "girl" was deleted. What the ...? It was just "I Kissed a (silence)." This was made funnier by the fact that not only did Katy Perry's song actually win whatever award in it's category (and it's a good song), but she was the host of the ceremony. And they bleeped the word "girl"!

I find this bizarre. Any other examples?

[RealityChuck]

There seemed to be at least an informal censorship of the word "flick" under the Comics Code. It may not have been part of the code, but there are cases of writers being told not to use the word. The reason? Comics dialog is written in ALL CAPS: FLICK. And if there's not enough space between the second and third letter . . . .

[Larry Mudd]

The first time I saw The Breakfast Club, it was U.S. broadcast TV, in one of those awful dubbed-for-U.S.-TV-sensibilities versions, where you automatically "correct" the weirdly-substituted profanity in your head as you go along.

One of Bender's line was redubbed as "Eat my [socks]!" so naturally I imagined that the censored word was "shit."

Imagine my surprise when I saw it on video years later, and found out that the offending word was "shorts."

Shorts.

"Won't somebody think of the children?!"

[Siam Sam]

I recall an adult-movie theater in Lubbock, Texas, called the Flick way back when. The local news outlets would feature it from time to time during Christian protests or censorship stories or what have you, and the cameramen always seemed to shoot the Flick sign enough from the side that it looked like the Fuck.

But with this Katy Perry song/video, they're bleeping the word "girl'." What the ... ?

[TheVioletCreep]

I remember watching The Sopranos on A&E, the censorship, I guess, was justified, but they used the most inane things to cover it up.

Tony and Paulie talking about something that escapes me at the moment:

Paulie: "...and now I got a freakin' hat on!"

Are they serious?

[De La Rue]

But with this Katy Perry song/video, they're bleeping the word "girl'." What the ... ?

Extreme homophobia? Extreme paranoia about offending the delicate MTV audience?

[Siam Sam]

I recall an adult-movie theater in Lubbock, Texas, called the Flick way back when. The local news outlets would feature it from time to time during Christian protests or censorship stories or what have you, and the cameramen always seemed to shoot the Flick sign enough from the side that it looked like the Fuck.

But with this Katy Perry song/video, they're bleeping the word "girl'." What the ... ?

Side Memory: I recall driving past the Flick years ago and seeing Upright Christians picketing the place. It being summer and my car window rolled down, I spontaneously belted out: "Your mothers suck cocks in Hell!" (Perhaps you can see why I left West Texas.) It was not until after my spontaneous scream that I even noticed some police officers keeping watch on the proceedings. They did not come roaring after me, but in my vivid imagination I envisioned myself having to explain to a cop: "No, officer, I didn't mean YOUR mother sucked cocks in Hell. It's all those other people, their mothers all suck cocks in hell."

[Art Rock]

In Singapore Mr. Bean was censored for TV. The scene (Back to school) where you can see the back of a nude female model (waist up) was apparently too shocking.

[Alan Bird]

I remember watching The Sopranos on A&E, the censorship, I guess, was justified, but they used the most inane things to cover it up.

Tony and Paulie talking about something that escapes me at the moment:

Paulie: "...and now I got a freakin' hat on!"

Are they serious?

I frickin' know. Or the time one bad-ass said "How about I shove this up your (obviously dubbed) nose?!!" WTF??

[TheVioletCreep]

Haha, it's absolutely dreadful.

[Grumman]

Before Bethesda modified the game, it was going to be a crime to sell or import Fallout 3 in Australia, with a penalty of up to 10 years in jail. The reason? Depictions of drug use.

[Steve MB]

There seemed to be at least an informal censorship of the word "flick" under the Comics Code. It may not have been part of the code, but there are cases of writers being told not to use the word. The reason? Comics dialog is written in ALL CAPS: FLICK. And if there's not enough space between the second and third letter . . . .

I presume you don't see characters named "Clint" either....

[Student Driver]

I could talk about how my Christian elementary/high school routinely stapled/glued shut sections of books that discussed science that hinted at an earth older than a few thousand years, and inked over smut like photos of the Venus de Milo, but that seems a bit off the path of the thread.

I thought the censorship of the word "suicidal" on Sean Kingston's "Beautiful Girl" was pretty lame, since it's a pretty integral part of the chorus (again, only on MTV, radio stations had no problem with it). Not sure if it's extreme, but considering how the chorus is sung relatively slowly, it sounds ridiculous to have long stretches of silence. (Wikipedia's article on MTV censorship (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_on_MTV) claims it was replaced with the words "in denial," but everytime I heard it, it was just nothing.

The local "RAWK" station loves to play Everlast's "What It's Like," but the song's cut to ribbons: the vulgarity gets snipped, references to drinking or doing drugs are gone, anything hinting at violence gets replaced with sound effects. Thing is, the entire song is about people who drink, do drugs, or have violence affect their lives, so you get a little unlistenable bleep/sound-effect-fest, some of his lecturing chorus, and then some censored chorus lines to segue into the next bleep/sound-effect-fest.

[Siam Sam]

I am suddenly reminded of A Bridge Too Far. I recall seeing the original version on HBO way back when, with Elliot Gould sent up ahead to make sure a bridge was still intact during WWII. It was. But suddenly, right before him, it was blown up real good by the Nazis. He was hopping mad: "Fuck! Shit! Motherfucker! Bastard," etc., he said.

At about the same time, one of the major US networks also ran it, and suddenly Elliot Gould was saying: "Gosh! Darn! Golly!" Etc.

[Biffy the Elephant Shrew]

One of the most popular songs on Doctor Demento's show in the late '70s was Frank Zappa's "Titties and Beer." He started out playing it with, IIRC, four bleeps in it, censoring out only the particularly rude words. The radio station management must have slipped him a memo, though, because he switched to a version that was bleeped to within an inch of its life, including a bleep of the word "whore," and every instance of the word "titties," which accounts for a couple of dozen bleeps right there. The good Doctor couldn't even say the name of the song on the air, and took to announcing it as "Beep-ies and Beer."

[Scissorjack]

I presume you don't see characters named "Clint" either....

Nope. "Slick" neither. Although writer John Wagner had fun with the convention in an old Judge Dredd strip, where the villain was named Slick Dickens...

[WoodenTaco]

In the Big Lebowski, John Goodman's character, Walter, gets enraged at a kid, Larry Sellers, and screams "This is what happens, Larry, when you fuck a stranger in the ASS!" John Goodman bellows this over a dozen times, breaking what he believes to be Larry's car with a golf club, repeating over and over "This is what happens, Larry! This is what happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass!"
In the censored version they play on TV here, he instead screams "This is what happens when you meet a stranger in the Alps!"

[mobo85]

Dinah Shore wanted Tennessee Ernie Ford to appear on her show, but the sponsor, Chevrolet, refused, due to the fact that his last name was also the name of one of their major competitors. Ford was eventually allowed to appear on the show, and Shore had a bit of fun at the fears of the sponsors, jokingly introducing him as "Tennessee Ernie Chevrolet."

A similar instance involved a made-for-TV adaptation of Judgment at Nuremburg. Due to the fact that the show was sponsored by the American Gas Corporation, references to gas chambers were not allowed in the program. MAD Magazine poked fun at this with a feature about what it would be like if similar historical instances were overseen by corporate sponsors in the same way, leading to such occurences as Galileo discovering the Baby Ruth and a show about the FBI introduced by J. Edgar Electrolux (the latter of which got MAD in trouble with the real humorless director).

[Face Intentionally Left Blank]

In the Big Lebowski, John Goodman's character, Walter, gets enraged at a kid, Larry Sellers, and screams "This is what happens, Larry, when you fuck a stranger in the ASS!" John Goodman bellows this over a dozen times, breaking what he believes to be Larry's car with a golf club, repeating over and over "This is what happens, Larry! This is what happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass!"
In the censored version they play on TV here, he instead screams "This is what happens when you meet a stranger in the Alps!"

The censored version, while not in any way true to the original vision of the scene, sounds hilariously better to me. :D

[Sage Rat]

iTunes has the word "suck" swapped out with asterisks in their descriptions.

Here's the synopsis of the Mythbusters episode, Sinking Titanic:

Find out if a sinking ship will s**k passengers down as it goes under.

Glad we're protecting the young (who wouldn't even be aware that something "sucking" means "sucks dick", and simply think it means that it's "not good.")

[Kamino Neko]

I presume you don't see characters named "Clint" either....

In fact, you did - Avengers member Hawkeye/Goliath/Ronin - introduced as a villain in 1964, and joined the Avengers in 1965 - is named Clint Barton, and they were never particularly reluctant to use his real name.

[Captain Socks]

iTunes also has this selection from Quiet Riot: "C*m on Feel the Noize"

[Alessan]

The first time the Blues Brothers was shown on Israeli TV, back in 1985 or so, they cut out the entire James Brown scene. You know, the scene in the church.

Whenver people say that things have been growing worse in this country from a freedom-of-religion standpoint, I remind them of this.

[Peter Morris]

Melon Farmer

[Bryan Ekers]

"Hand me the keys, you fuzzy sock-sucker."


(actually from a parody of network censorship)

[PoorYorick]

This is similar to Wooden Taco's post. I watched Fargo on AMC the other night. Since when does the word "fruit" even vaguely substitute for "fuck" in any lexicon in the world? When Steve Bescemi (if I remember the scene) yells "What the fruit?!" after getting shot, it kind of takes me out of the movie. C'mon, just bleep the fruiting word; we all know what it's fruiting supposed to be. It's less distracting than fruiting replacing it with something kinda sorta phonetically similar.

Fruit 'em.

ETA: I thought this was parodied rather cleverly in Johnny Dangerously: ice hole, cork sucker, bastich, etc.

[jayjay]

ETA: I thought this was parodied rather cleverly in Johnny Dangerously: ice hole, cork sucker, bastich, etc.

Fargin' icehole, ya bastich!

[Achren]

In A Few Good Men: "FORGET YOU!"
It'd work if it wasn't a close-up shot, where it's clear Jack Nicholson is saying a two syllable phrase and not a three.

Also While You Were Sleeping on some non-cable network, where they dubbed over all the Yiddish words with English ones, using a different person.

[jackdavinci]

What I find amusing is how being used to censorship in certain contexts makes it so weird when something isn't censored when you expect it to be. Some examples:

1) Network television has slowly eroded it's list of what it considers to be profanity such that it was surprising to hear "bitch" on Moonlighting and "dick" on more recent teen dramas.

2) Some cable dramas use profanity, but usually you expect them in pay for cable series, and usually if they are used they are used often. Then there are commercial cable stations that otherwise seem like network shows (The Closer) and so can use profanity, but only use it occasionally when it makes story sense, and not to show off or create a gritty atmosphere like pay for cable. What's funny is that this is how profanity should probably be handled everywhere - just the amount that the context would permit in real life situations - yet because of the contrasting extreme of all or nothing on tv, realistic use come across as seeming awkward.

3) Some tv series live on as either a movie (X-files) or DVD (Stargate SG-1) and take advantage of the new medium to use some colorful words they couldn't before.

I also find amusing the stories that Clinton's testimony forced networks to redefine some of their policies.

[An Gadaí]

When Cam'ron's "Hey Ma" track was popular on music channels here they used to beep out the word "pipe" in the line, "I lay the pipe." It actually just made the line seem dirtier.

[Mister Armageddon]

There's a radio edit of "Paper Planes" by MIA that changes the sound of gunfire to something that sounds more like a balloon being popped. Also for some reason her vocals are doubled, and poorly at that.

[BrassyPhrase]

The censored version, while not in any way true to the original vision of the scene, sounds hilariously better to me. :D

This reminds me of how funny The Blues Brothers can be when cut for tv.

The scene where Elmo and Jake are in little kids desks and The Penguin is describing what's going on.

Jake: (non edited) Well, I guess you're up shit creek.

Edited:

"I guess you're up THE creek"

His repitition of 'shit creek' leads to getting whacked with a ruler. But up "THE creek" just makes it look like "Nuns Gone Nuts" or something.

I love that movie and I think laugh harder at the cut version.

[BrassyPhrase]

iTunes also has this selection from Quiet Riot: "C*m on Feel the Noize"

Also everyone whispered about how "Girls, rock your boys" was "Girls, suck the boys" back in high school.

[Cyberhwk]

Our local newspaper lets you comment on stories or letters to the editor. You can't say "sex."

[Rayne Man]

This may be an urban legend, but I have heard that on the American version of the Antiques Roadshow the "naughty bits" on nude paintings and sculptures are pixillated. Is that true?

[even sven]

Here in China, on Skype, I can't type "Fuck." Just that word. "Shit" is fine. "Asshole" is fine. But if I type "Fuck", or even a clever variant of it, my entire comment disappears into the ether.

I thought the censorship of the word "suicidal" on Sean Kingston's "Beautiful Girl" was pretty lame, since it's a pretty integral part of the chorus (again, only on MTV, radio stations had no problem with it). Not sure if it's extreme, but considering how the chorus is sung relatively slowly, it sounds ridiculous to have long stretches of silence.

This was really bizarre, especially given the amount of homocide being sung about songs that could be found on the same stations. Like, it's okay for me to shoot somebody else, by not myself? :confused:

[Tanaqui]

I once made the mistake of renting Pedro Almodavar's "Bad Education" from Blockbuster. They actually MOSAIC-ED out one sex scene. If you are going to butcher a scene like that, why not just cut it? Making it blurry is not going to make it any less obvious what happened. Some might disagree that that is extreme enough but it still pisses me off... It was not only useless, but annoying. Jesus H. Christ. This was not Brown Bunny! Gael García Bernal wasn't actually sucking anyone's dick! There was no penis involved! Was a porno mosaic really necessary? It wasn't even being shown on television! It was a movie from motherfucking Blockbuster for the comfort of my own home! And the only reason that movie was even given an NC17 rating anyways was because of THE CROSSDRESSING GAY OH NO but that bullshit is a whole 'nother thread.

[Tapioca Dextrin]

I once saw Love Actually on a plane. The story about the stand in porn actors was completely missing.

[mrpayday]

Public Enemy's song "Anti-Nigger Machine " got all the "niggers" beeped out on Australian TV. Which probably defeated the purpose of the song.

However Repo Man has been shown uncut lately rather than the extremely humorous censored version.

[TommyTutone]

The wonderful song 'Hash Pipe' by Weezer, had Hash silenced out of the song and on the video info at the start of the song, when it was played on MTV. Wouldn't it make more sense to just not play the song at all, rather than bleep out half its title?

[olivesmarch4th]

There's a radio edit of "Paper Planes" by MIA that changes the sound of gunfire to something that sounds more like a balloon being popped. Also for some reason her vocals are doubled, and poorly at that.

This is OT, but I just looked up the lyrics to that song and they are really, really stupid. (they also mention weed--maybe that was dubbed over?)

[Bryan Ekers]

As an side note, I find myself getting increasingly irritated with the butchering of classic Warner cartoons, even on cable networks supposedly dedicated to showing the toons to a nostalgic adult audience.

[Richard Pearse]

Before Bethesda modified the game, it was going to be a crime to sell or import Fallout 3 in Australia, with a penalty of up to 10 years in jail. The reason? Depictions of drug use.
That's true but misleading. It would just have been the generic penalty for selling banned literature. The specific problem they had was the use of morphine in game. My understanding is that Bethesda simply changed the name of the drug to address the censor's concerns. There is still drug use and drug addiction in Fallout 3.

[Richard Pearse]

Ah, and the problem was actually with the classifications available to the censor. There is no higher restriction available for a game than MA15+ which means the censor does not have the ability to restrict the game to say 18 year olds and older. Basically, like my wife, the law still thinks video games are only played by adolescent boys.

[Larry Mudd]

This may be an urban legend, but I have heard that on the American version of the Antiques Roadshow the "naughty bits" on nude paintings and sculptures are pixillated. Is that true?I can't speak to The Antiques Roadshow, but I've seen dogs' bits and baby bums blurred out on U.S. television, so it wouldn't surprise me at all.

[Siam Sam]

Regular Thai television is dismal. I never watch it, so I can't guarantee they still do this, but they probably do: They at least used to pixellate out every instance of alcohol, tobacco and guns. Man, whenever they showed a movie like, say, JFK, where virtually everyone smokes, it really looks pitiful.

[griffin1977]

Classic example of this is 60's TV networks showing The Rolling Stones playing "Satisfaction". They would bleep the line "And I'm trying to make some girl", thus turning it into the infinitely ruder sounding "And I'm trying to *bleep* some girl".

[fusoya]

My favorite censoring has always been the Comedy Central version of Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Cameron: We can't take my car, my car's a piece of TIN
Ferris: Well I don't even have a piece of TIN, that's why I have to use your piece of TIN. Can't we just borrow one of your dad's cars?
Cameron: If I touch one of his cars, he will crush my HEAD into jelly

very obvious dubbing makes it even funnier

[Raguleader]

That's true but misleading. It would just have been the generic penalty for selling banned literature. The specific problem they had was the use of morphine in game. My understanding is that Bethesda simply changed the name of the drug to address the censor's concerns. There is still drug use and drug addiction in Fallout 3.

The concern was "realistic" drug use. I guess it becomes no longer realistic if you don't use real names for the drugs, so Morphine became Med-X (makes you take less damage). There's a mod available that lets you switch the names back.

But yeah, Fallout 3 is definitely not a game for little kids, given the completely non-drug-related content in it.

One of my favorite examples is the Tenacious D song "Fuck Her Gently". When they played it on my favorite radio station in high school (KDGE 101.1 The Edge, IIRC) they dubbed over all of the offensive content with carefully chosen sound effects. The final effect is freaking hilarious. That said, I can't find this version anywhere now. :(

I wonder what an edited version of The Departed would be like? Has anyone seen the "Fucking Short" versions of movies they put on Youtube, where they edit out everything EXCEPT instances of the word Fuck? Departed is still a full three and a half minutes long.

[Lucky 13]

Classic example of this is 60's TV networks showing The Rolling Stones playing "Satisfaction". They would bleep the line "And I'm trying to make some girl", thus turning it into the infinitely ruder sounding "And I'm trying to *bleep* some girl".

I always heard it as "And I'm trying to please some girl." Also, the Steve Miller Band's "Jet Airliner" has the lines

That I don't wanna get caught up
In any of that
Funky shit going down in the city

I've heard a radio version that changes that last line to "Funky kicks going down in the city." Oddly enough, KLOS used to play the uncensored version not that long ago. I guess nobody noticed till like '04 or so.

As for egregious censorship in anime, the US does a lot of that, at least for syndicated and cable series. I remember watching the DIC dub of "Sailor Moon" and seeing an episode in which Serena (the dub name for Usagi) attended a formal party and fell off the balcony. Tuxedo Mask caught her and they floated down using her parasol as a parachute. DIC edited it so they were about to fall off the balcony one second and on the ground the next. I guess it was so stupid kids wouldn't imitate the show. I thought it was unnecessary, but in retrospect, probably not -- remember a few months ago when some boys who had been watching "Naruto" decided to bury one of their buddies in the sandbox like Gaara and left him to suffocate? :smack::(

A few years later, 4Kids (or was it DIC?) dubbed "Dragon Ball" and showed it Saturday mornings. One of the characters, Oolong, was a panty-obsessed pig. I seem to remember a scene in which he jumped into a river and the other characters used panties on a fishing pole as bait to get him to come out. The dubbers digitally changed the panties into a wad of dollar bills. You would think 4Kids would have learned their lesson about editing teen-oriented anime for Saturday morning use, but I guess they didn't. When they licensed "One Piece," all instances of alcohol use were cut (news flash: pirates enjoy alcohol!) and digitally turned Sanji's cigarettes into lollipops.

[Rayne Man]

Here are a couple of example of BBC censorship from the 1940's:-

Bing Crosby’s "Deep In The Heart Of Texas" . This was because “The melody was so infectious that the BBC banned it from broadcasts during working hours, to prevent factory hands from using their tools for banging against machinery to keep time with the music.”

And the Andrew Sisters' "Rum and Coca-Cola" was barred from being broadcast because it breached the BBC's ban on advertising.

[Biffy the Elephant Shrew]

The broadcast version of American Graffiti was pretty ridiculous. No surprise that they cut out Paul LeMat's "chickenshit" ("File that under C.S." "C.S.? What's that?" "Chicken stuff!!! That's what it is!"), but when Wolfman Jack shook hands with Richard Dreyfuss, he couldn't even call the melted popsicles "sticky mothers." They dubbed in the word "popsicles" with the opening "p' slightly clipped, so the line became "Sticky 'opsicles, ain't they?"

Both "chicken stuff" and "sticky opsicles" became catch phrases around our household.

[mbh]

The first time I saw Blazing Saddles was the edited-for-television version. "Lili von Schtup" became "Lili von Scht". (By the way, the bean-eating scene is even funnier without the sound effects.)

One time I was watching an American movie on a Mexican TV station. It was in English with Spanish subtitles. In one scene, the character shouted what seemed like a ten-minute string of profanity. The subtitle read "Maldito!"

[Electric Warrior]

This is OT, but I just looked up the lyrics to that song and they are really, really stupid. (they also mention weed--maybe that was dubbed over?)

I know this is horrendously off topic but the lyrics are supposed to be tongue-in-cheek. The song is mocking stereotypes of immigrants. (Although perhaps you figured that out and still think they're stupid.)

Back to the topic, I used to hear a bleeped version of Three Days Grace's "I Hate Everything About You" on television wherein the line "After every hit we take" became "After every ... we take." Until I heard an uncensored version on the radio, I always wondered why Three Days Grace had chosen to sing about taking a dump.

[kitemaker_chuck]

When I was in the USAF and stationed at Forbes Air Force Base, (near Topeka) in Kansas in the early seventies, I remember hearing Paul Simon's song Kodachrome being played with at least one word censored from the song, specfically the word "crap".

"When I think of all the _____ I learned in high school..."

It seemed like kind of a mild word to censor.

[Bryan Ekers]

The first time I saw Blazing Saddles was the edited-for-television version. "Lili von Schtup" became "Lili von Scht". (By the way, the bean-eating scene is even funnier without the sound effects.)

I recall seeing an edited version featuring the Rock Ridge song:

...Should we stay or up and quit?
It's nearing time for a decision
Our town is turning into [loud MOOOOOO! from outside]

I later saw saw the original with the last word intact. It wasn't as funny.

[Illuminatiprimus]

Not TV or film, but a book. When I read Foundation by Isaac Asimov I got to a heated exchange between two characters and did a WTF when I read this:

"When will their forces reach us?"
"Two months. Two unprintable months"

At the time I thought that the swear word really was "unprintable", then it occurred to me it was probably censored from the original as it was published in 1951. Still, you'd think with later reprints they'd put the original word back in now the population is considered able to handle swearing (although saying that maybe they don't know what the word is...).

[CalMeacham]

Rayne Man writes:

This may be an urban legend, but I have heard that on the American version of the Antiques Roadshow the "naughty bits" on nude paintings and sculptures are pixillated. Is that true?


Sounds like an urban legend to me. "Antiques Roadshow" runs on PBS, which has no problem with actual nude people, let alone paintings. I can't see them pixillating anything.

Even American network TV doesn't actually pixillate nude paintings. "Saturday Night Live" used this to comic effect back in the 1970s when Dan Ackroyd played a lounge-lizard-type commenring on paintings, and gleefully pointing out the naked bits.

[Captain Carrot]

Not TV or film, but a book. When I read Foundation by Isaac Asimov I got to a heated exchange between two characters and did a WTF when I read this:

"When will their forces reach us?"
"Two months. Two unprintable months"

At the time I thought that the swear word really was "unprintable", then it occurred to me it was probably censored from the original as it was published in 1951. Still, you'd think with later reprints they'd put the original word back in now the population is considered able to handle swearing (although saying that maybe they don't know what the word is...).

I should totally start using 'unprintable' as an actual swear word. I believe one of Heinlein's characters actually did something like that.

[GreedySmurf]

I presume you don't see characters named "Clint" either....

Someone in marvel comics must not have got the memo as Hawkeye's real name is Clint.

[Green Bean]

The censoring due to brand names can be pretty funny. IIRC, Burger King wouldn't allow their name to be used in broadcast versions of the Digital Underground's Humpty Dance. So you have a song with lines like "In the sixty-nine my humpty nose will tickle your rear," and then a line that goes "I once got busy in a <bleep> bathroom." It was very comical.

Great, I got that song stuck in my own head. :smack:

[Raguleader]

I can't remember which fast food chain used N*Sync as part of their advertising (I want to say Burger King), but they had a video tape with promotional stuff from N*Sync and Britney Spears (don't judge me, I got the tape as a door prize at a party). One of the N*Sync guys had a t-shirt from the other food brand, which was blurred out (Another one was wearing an N*Suck hat. This was the point where I started liking the band. Anyone who laughs at his own expense every once in a while, right?)

[Siam Sam]

Regular Thai television is dismal. I never watch it, so I can't guarantee they still do this, but they probably do: They at least used to pixellate out every instance of alcohol, tobacco and guns. Man, whenever they showed a movie like, say, JFK, where virtually everyone smokes, it really looks pitiful.

Ah, I just remembered! I can't believe I forgot this before, but there was this anti-smoking television commercial in the West. I'm sure many of you have seen it. The theme song is Cat Stevens' "Cats in the Cradle." It shows a small boy watching a videotape of his father. Different stuff all edited together -- cooking on a barbecue, clowning around, etc -- but the father is always, always smoking a cigarette. He died from lung cancer, obviously. I think it even shows the teary-eyed kid touching the TV screen with his hand.

That commercial played in Thailand. Because of the rules against showing tobacco use, they pixellated out the father's smoking. Got that? It was an anti-smoking commercial, and a touching one at that, but you can't tell what the father was doing!

[Harvey The Heavy]

I think the Oscar for all time most ridiculous censoring has to go to Cheech & Chong's Next Movie. A pot movie with the pot replaced with diamonds. Who did they think was going to watch it?

[Sublight]

Japan has a number of odd censoring laws (or maybe just unwritten rules that the networks all agree to), but one that always seems exceptionally pointless is blurring out handcuffs whenever a suspect is being escorted by the police (only in news broadcasts, dramas can show all the handcuffs they want). What makes it so ridiculous is that the blurring draws your attention to the suspect far more than the actual handcuffs would. I often wonder what the reaction would be if some show did the "Unnecessary Censorship" skit and blurred out some innocent person's wrists.

Oddly, this rule only applies to suspects in Japan. If there's footage of a trial or arrest in America, they'll just run the local footage as-is.

[Annie-Xmas]

Elton's John "The Bitch is Back." Some radio stations beeped the word "bitch," which kinda killed the chorus.

Oh the *BEEP* oh the *BEEP* oh the *BEEP* is back.
Stone cold sober as a matter of fact
I can *BEEP* I can *BEEP* cause I'm better than you.
It's the way that I move, the things that I do

[Sigmagirl]

Classic example of this is 60's TV networks showing The Rolling Stones playing "Satisfaction". They would bleep the line "And I'm trying to make some girl", thus turning it into the infinitely ruder sounding "And I'm trying to *bleep* some girl".

Huh. I've heard it changed to "trying to meet some girl," which sounds very similar.

[jayjay]

Elton's John "The Bitch is Back." Some radio stations beeped the word "bitch," which kinda killed the chorus.

Oh the *BEEP* oh the *BEEP* oh the *BEEP* is back.
Stone cold sober as a matter of fact
I can *BEEP* I can *BEEP* cause I'm better than you.
It's the way that I move, the things that I do

This reminds me of the blatant rewriting of the Tina Turner cover of this very song, from the tribute album, Two Rooms.

First, the original lyric:

I get high in the evening sniffing pots of glue

Then, the replacement lyric:

I get high just from thinkin' 'bout the things I do

Gee...PC much?

[villa]

Totally from memory, but I watched From Dusk Till Dawn on Fox. It amused me no end to see the strip club called the City Twister.

It also struck me as odd they could show two hours of vampires getting decapitated, impaled on stakes etc, yet they felt obliged to dub over any cursing. Including George Clooney's (?) line at the end, which includes about 7 variants of the word "Fuck." They gave up enve trying to dub over the word, and just had an entirely new sentence spoken by a completely different sounding actor.

[Annie-Xmas]

When planes showed "Rainman" they deleted the airport scene. Except for Quantis

[Shoeless]

This may be an urban legend, but I have heard that on the American version of the Antiques Roadshow the "naughty bits" on nude paintings and sculptures are pixillated. Is that true?

Others have already responded to this question, but I just wanted to mention that it reminded me of when John Ashcroft was Attorney General and had curtains placed over the naked statues in the Justice Department.

I was watching the documentaries on the extended DVD version of "Iron Man" a couple of weeks ago, and noticed that in one scene of a meeting in someone's office, a painting on the wall was pixellated. Also, there was an interview with someone who was a comic book writer or artist and behind him there is a display case with what appears to be a number of comic book character figurines, and some (but not all) were pixellated. I wondered if they pixellated all the ones that weren't Marvel characters!

[BiblioCat]

I can't speak to The Antiques Roadshow, but I've seen dogs' bits and baby bums blurred out on U.S. television, so it wouldn't surprise me at all.They blurred out the dogs' naughty bits in an episode of Dirty Jobs, where Mike Rowe was working with a dog groomer.

[griffin1977]

As for egregious censorship in anime, the US does a lot of that, at least for syndicated and cable series. I remember watching the DIC dub of "Sailor Moon" and seeing an episode in which Serena (the dub name for Usagi) attended a formal party and fell off the balcony. Tuxedo Mask caught her and they floated down using her parasol as a parachute. DIC edited it so they were about to fall off the balcony one second and on the ground the next. I guess it was so stupid kids wouldn't imitate the show. I thought it was unnecessary, but in retrospect, probably not -- remember a few months ago when some boys who had been watching "Naruto" decided to bury one of their buddies in the sandbox like Gaara and left him to suffocate? :smack::(


I seem to remember there was a ton of stuff like this in the UK during the 70s and 80s with classic martial arts movies. There was a ton of media hype at the time about kids braining themselves and each with nunchucks and the like, so to this day (I believe) the official versions of all Bruce Lee's movies that were released in the UK have the nunchuck scenes removed.

[mobo85]

I seem to remember there was a ton of stuff like this in the UK during the 70s and 80s with classic martial arts movies. There was a ton of media hype at the time about kids braining themselves and each with nunchucks and the like, so to this day (I believe) the official versions of all Bruce Lee's movies that were released in the UK have the nunchuck scenes removed.

The UK had many qualms with nunchuks for many years- as well as references to ninjas in general (the Ninja Turtles were known as the Hero Turtles in the UK for many years).

[jayjay]

As for egregious censorship in anime, the US does a lot of that, at least for syndicated and cable series. I remember watching the DIC dub of "Sailor Moon" and seeing an episode in which Serena (the dub name for Usagi) attended a formal party and fell off the balcony. Tuxedo Mask caught her and they floated down using her parasol as a parachute. DIC edited it so they were about to fall off the balcony one second and on the ground the next. I guess it was so stupid kids wouldn't imitate the show. I thought it was unnecessary, but in retrospect, probably not -- remember a few months ago when some boys who had been watching "Naruto" decided to bury one of their buddies in the sandbox like Gaara and left him to suffocate? :smack::(

Didn't the US dub of Sailor Moon also completely rework the lesbian relationship between (I think) Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Neptune?

[Drunky Smurf]

*Snip*

When they licensed "One Piece," all instances of alcohol use were cut (news flash: pirates enjoy alcohol!) and digitally turned Sanji's cigarettes into lollipops.

I only ever saw the US verison of One Piece and I don't think them cutting the alcohol scenes hurt the show. I always wondered what was up with Sanji and those damn lolipops. It kind of sissified him.

And Hero Turtles :p Thats just silly.

[Richard Pearse]

When planes showed "Rainman" they deleted the airport scene. Except for Quantis
Small nitpick: It's Qantas, it stands for Queensland And Northern Territory Aerial Services.

[Grumman]

Didn't the US dub of Sailor Moon also completely rework the lesbian relationship between (I think) Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Neptune?
So I have heard... unfortunately it was reworked into an incestuous lesbian relationship. :smack:

[Larry Mudd]

Oh, I'm reminded of a silly beeping:

In the early nineties, YTV ran the fantastic UK/Kiwi kids' show Worzel Gummidge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worzel_Gummidge), which starred Jon Pertwee as a bad-tempered magically-alive scarecrow that had to be continually bailed out of trouble by a couple of sweet-natured children.

In one episode, Worzel took a short-cut through a cowfield on the way to see his sweetie Aunt Sally, arriving covered in muck.

Hoity-toity Aunt Sally looks him up and down and then declares, "You smell like a cowshed!"

There must have been addle-headed complaints, because an even more addle-headed censor rendered the repeats into "You smell like a cowsh[beep]!"

:dubious:

[Arglefraster]

One of my favorite examples is the Tenacious D song "Fuck Her Gently". When they played it on my favorite radio station in high school (KDGE 101.1 The Edge, IIRC) they dubbed over all of the offensive content with carefully chosen sound effects. The final effect is freaking hilarious. That said, I can't find this version anywhere now. :(

I remember in highschool hearing Adam Sandler's "Piece of Shit Car" on the radio with all the curse words replaced with car horn noises. The censored version was funnier than the original.

Also in highschool I remember watching a censored version of a movie on tv. For the life of me I can't remember what the movie was, but I remember two choice lines (changed words in caps).

"Kiss my HAND!"

"You can go to FRANCE!"

The France line in particular had me giggling. :D

[PoorYorick]

I wonder why they even try with some movies. For instance, WGN (I think) showed The Jerk. Now that's a movie that revels in sophomoric, low-brow humor, and is, in my opinion, one of the 10 funniest movies ever made. The most egregious example of bad censorship was how the station handled the name of Navin's dog, Shit Head. The TV station just cut out the "Shit" from "Shit Head." During the scene where he's chasing his dog (after nobly telling him to leave), Navin is yelling "Here, [pause] Head! Come back, [pause] Head!"

[Siam Sam]

Ah, I just remembered! I can't believe I forgot this before, but there was this anti-smoking television commercial in the West. I'm sure many of you have seen it. The theme song is Cat Stevens' "Cats in the Cradle."

And of course, I do know it was Harry Chapin who wrote that song. :smack: Guess I had the word "cat" on my mind.


Totally from memory, but I watched From Dusk Till Dawn on Fox. It amused me no end to see the strip club called the City Twister.

That showed in Thailand. In the days before pixellation, they smeared Vaseline on the naughty bits. The vampire strippers in that movie all looked like they had nuclear breasts. (They're actually getting better about nudity censorship here, with an actual movie-rating code just started last month, but it's hit or miss, sometimes coming down simply to which cinema you happen to be in.)


I wonder why they even try with some movies. For instance, WGN (I think) showed The Jerk. Now that's a movie that revels in sophomoric, low-brow humor, and is, in my opinion, one of the 10 funniest movies ever made. The most egregious example of bad censorship was how the station handled the name of Navin's dog, Shit Head. The TV station just cut out the "Shit" from "Shit Head." During the scene where he's chasing his dog (after nobly telling him to leave), Navin is yelling "Here, [pause] Head! Come back, [pause] Head!"

I recall watching The Jerk on network television one time in the US. Shithead got changed to Stupid. Didn't match Steve Martin's lip movement at all.

Another example: They pixellated out every Buddha image in the film Music and Lyrics (the ditzy Britney Spears-style singer seemed crazy about them), but the clips running on the several TV monitors out in the lobby left them intact!

[Annie-Xmas]

I once saw a network broadcast of The Blues Brothers where they beeped all the bad words, going so far as to change the line "we had a band that could turn goat piss into gasoline" to "goat milk."

[Lucky 13]

Didn't the US dub of Sailor Moon also completely rework the lesbian relationship between (I think) Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Neptune?

Yeah. Haruka (Sailor Uranus) and Michiru (Sailor Neptune) were turned into the extremely close cousins Amara and Michelle. I thought Amara was a stupid name for her because part of the character's appeal was that you couldn't tell right away if she was male or female, because she was supposedly butch. The name "Haruka" can be for either a male or a female, apparently. Not so with the dub name-- anyone here ever met a guy named "Amara?" :rolleyes:

[mobo85]

And the Andrew Sisters' "Rum and Coca-Cola" was barred from being broadcast because it breached the BBC's ban on advertising.

Most people are probably familiar with the BBC-friendly version of The Kinks's Lola, where "champagne tastes just like cherry cola" than its original, where it "tastes just like Coca-Cola."

[Skald the Rhymer]

I presume you don't see characters named "Clint" either....

The cooler of comic books two super-archers, Hawkeye, is in "real life" Clinton Barton. I put "real life" in quotes because he never put any particular effort into having a secret identity; he just wore a mask because it was part of the hero uniform.

ETA: I just read post 60 and need to :smack:.

[teela brown]

Going back to The Big Lebowski, I recently saw the edited-for-television version. When Jackie Treehorn offers the Dude a drink, the Dude says "John Fogerty would".

I know I remember him saying "Does the Pope shit in the woods?" in the screen version.

They also went to the unnecessary trouble to pixellate out Maude Lebowski's bum, which in the screen version is glimpsed briefly and dimly in the dark as she's un-hooked from her artist's flying harness.

[Sublight]

Didn't the US dub of Sailor Moon also completely rework the lesbian relationship between (I think) Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Neptune?

Speaking of anime imports, does anyone remember Battle of the Planets from the '70s? The Japanese original had a great deal of violence (including many deaths), plus a hermaphrodite villain. All of this was cut from the American release, with the 7-Zark-7 character created and given lengthy intro sequences each episode to fill time.

Additionally, the original took place entirely on Earth; all the space-related stuff was created out of whole cloth for the US release.

I've heard the '80s release, titled G-Force was closer to the original, but I've never seen it.

[corkboard]

This reminds me of how funny The Blues Brothers can be when cut for tv.

The scene where Elmo and Jake are in little kids desks and The Penguin is describing what's going on. <snip>

(bolding mine) Elwood?

[curlcoat]

As an side note, I find myself getting increasingly irritated with the butchering of classic Warner cartoons, even on cable networks supposedly dedicated to showing the toons to a nostalgic adult audience.

What are they doing to the cartoons?

[Duke]

The wonderful song 'Hash Pipe' by Weezer, had Hash silenced out of the song and on the video info at the start of the song, when it was played on MTV. Wouldn't it make more sense to just not play the song at all, rather than bleep out half its title?

I heard a version of "Hash Pipe," also on MTV, that partially censored the word "asswipe" in its chorus. I suppose that wouldn't have been so surprising...except they censored the "wipe" part, not the "ass" part. I think that's the only time I've been truly stunned by something on MTV in the last 10 years.

[curlcoat]

They blurred out the dogs' naughty bits in an episode of Dirty Jobs, where Mike Rowe was working with a dog groomer.

Apparently only in Baltimore - we saw all the naughty bits here in California!

[Bryan Ekers]

What are they doing to the cartoons?

For example, Elmer is about to shoot Daffy, camera cuts to Bugs (and not a reaction shot, but just a single frame of Bugs) during the sound of the blast, then cuts back to a post-shot Daffy, all in an effort to prevent the kiddies from being traumatized.

Fuckin' kiddies.

[Fuzzy Dunlop]

I am thinking specifically of Katy Perry. Her song "Hot and Cold" comes with a delightful music video, but in the line "Like a bitch -- I would know," the word "bitch" is bleeped out in the MTV video.

Maybe they bleeped it because the whole line is fucking stupid. By censoring a random word, you have to stop and think what it would be and not focus on how bad the line is.

[TheMightyAtlas]

I grew up in Pakistan from 1967 to 1987. For the last seven of those years on television there would be no physical contact shown between men an women. Period. Whole episodes of British and American TV shows would be dropped because there was an *implication* that sex had taken place.

There were pickets at the TV stations demanding that "Different Strokes" be taken off the air as a show that corrupted the morals of the young. The Gary Coleman character talked back to his adoptive father too much apparently.

Of course the number of things that would get cut for religious and political sensitivity are too many to mention. Like any movie or show depicting any military dictator in an unfavorable light. Anything bad about the Chinese.

[Siam Sam]

There were pickets at the TV stations demanding that "Different Strokes" be taken off the air as a show that corrupted the morals of the young. The Gary Coleman character talked back to his adoptive father too much apparently.

I'd be the first one to admit that you can't censor Gary Coleman enough.

[curlcoat]

For example, Elmer is about to shoot Daffy, camera cuts to Bugs (and not a reaction shot, but just a single frame of Bugs) during the sound of the blast, then cuts back to a post-shot Daffy, all in an effort to prevent the kiddies from being traumatized.

Fuckin' kiddies.

Oh. Yuk.

Guess it's better that the kiddies don't know what guns can do before the first time they happen to come upon one?

[Annie-Xmas]

My Channel 9 shows two episodes of Law & Order: SVU on Sundays at 8 & 9 p.m. The censor apparently has a thing about the word "balls," demanding it be silenced not only in reference to body parts, but in phrases like "having to balls to do it" and even "ballsy."

They also beep out "Putting things where the sun don't shine."

[Evil Captor]

In the softcore movie "Hotel Erotica" (not to be confused with the softcore TV series of the same name) there's a scene with two women having lesbian sex in a very strange manner. They're both on their hands and knees, facing away from one another, and they bump their butts together rhythmically as if they were engaged in some kind of intimate aerobic exercise -- but that's all they do, bump the butts, there's no grinding and there's no device involved as in Jennifer Connolly's scene in "Requiem for A Dream."

In a subsequent airing of "Hotel Erotica" the scene is cut. And given that the rest of the movie is full of fake sex scenes involving sexual techniques that actually work, all I can figure is that is that they feared the scene would confuse young lesbian viewers. Except, since when did censors ever give a shit about anything like that?

[Martini Enfield]

For example, Elmer is about to shoot Daffy, camera cuts to Bugs (and not a reaction shot, but just a single frame of Bugs) during the sound of the blast, then cuts back to a post-shot Daffy, all in an effort to prevent the kiddies from being traumatized.

Fuckin' kiddies.

Anyone who has been duck hunting can tell you that if you shoot a duck at close range with a shotgun, its beak will not comically spin around its head a few times, leaving said duck with a charred black face and a snappy comeback.

Said duck will instead explode in a puff of feathers.

This is not a recommended practice or desireable outcome. Peking Feathers is not a particularly tasty dish. Nor is Canard a la projectile de fil, for that matter.

On a more serious note, I always thought that most of the Warner Bros. cartoons tended to get censored in some places these days because of... erm... "quaint" ideas regarding ethnic minorities?

[Student Driver]

In the softcore movie "Hotel Erotica" (not to be confused with the softcore TV series of the same name) there's a scene with two women having lesbian sex in a very strange manner. They're both on their hands and knees, facing away from one another, and they bump their butts together rhythmically as if they were engaged in some kind of intimate aerobic exercise -- but that's all they do, bump the butts, there's no grinding and there's no device involved as in Jennifer Connolly's scene in "Requiem for A Dream."

In a subsequent airing of "Hotel Erotica" the scene is cut. And given that the rest of the movie is full of fake sex scenes involving sexual techniques that actually work, all I can figure is that is that they feared the scene would confuse young lesbian viewers. Except, since when did censors ever give a shit about anything like that?

That sounds completely different from what I've seen, and what's recorded here:

NSFW link with screenshots of the scene in question: http : // www .clublez.com/movies/lesbian_movie_scenes/h/hotel_exotica/index.html

(For nitpickers-- Hotel Erotica was one release title for Hotel Exotica). Perhaps you're misremembering the acrobatic tribbing or the girl that does the splits?

Anyway, you're right that the scene is cut out of subsequent versions. It's one of the more notorious softcore scenes (the girls must have been into gymnastics or yoga at some point in their lives), and was only in the initial VHS release; every release since then (including the DVD which is erroneously labelled as the director's cut) has been of the R-rated version.

[zenith]

Dinah Shore wanted Tennessee Ernie Ford to appear on her show, but the sponsor, Chevrolet, refused, due to the fact that his last name was also the name of one of their major competitors. Ford was eventually allowed to appear on the show, and Shore had a bit of fun at the fears of the sponsors, jokingly introducing him as "Tennessee Ernie Chevrolet."

A similar instance involved a made-for-TV adaptation of Judgment at Nuremburg. Due to the fact that the show was sponsored by the American Gas Corporation, references to gas chambers were not allowed in the program. MAD Magazine poked fun at this with a feature about what it would be like if similar historical instances were overseen by corporate sponsors in the same way, leading to such occurences as Galileo discovering the Baby Ruth and a show about the FBI introduced by J. Edgar Electrolux (the latter of which got MAD in trouble with the real humorless director).

My favorite part of the MAD parody was the newsie announcing, "President Oldsmobile assassinated at Buick's Theater!"

[Bryan Ekers]

On a more serious note, I always thought that most of the Warner Bros. cartoons tended to get censored in some places these days because of... erm... "quaint" ideas regarding ethnic minorities?

Possibly, though I'd rather see the toon intact in all its violent and racist glory.

Well, except Speedy Gonzales. Whether or not he's seen as a positive or negative portrayal of Hispanics, I'm just sick of him.

[Annie-Xmas]

Mark Lyndsay was set to play John Lennon in the TV movie "John & Yoko: A Love Story" until it was uncovered that his real name was Mark Lyndsay Chapman, too close to Mark David Chapman, Lennon's murderer.

Would you want John F. Kennedy to be portrayed by an actor named Lee Harvey?

[Bryan Ekers]

Mark Lyndsay was set to play John Lennon in the TV movie "John & Yoko: A Love Story" until it was uncovered that his real name was Mark Lyndsay Chapman, too close to Mark David Chapman, Lennon's murderer.

MLC has in fact played Lennon in the more recent Chapter 27 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0488988/), which focuses more on MDC.

Would you want John F. Kennedy to be portrayed by an actor named Lee Harvey?

I could've imagined a slimmer younger James Earl Jones playing Martin Luther King, though.

[Evil Captor]

That sounds completely different from what I've seen, and what's recorded here:

NSFW link with screenshots of the scene in question: http : // www .clublez.com/movies/lesbian_movie_scenes/h/hotel_exotica/index.html

(For nitpickers-- Hotel Erotica was one release title for Hotel Exotica). Perhaps you're misremembering the acrobatic tribbing or the girl that does the splits?

Anyway, you're right that the scene is cut out of subsequent versions. It's one of the more notorious softcore scenes (the girls must have been into gymnastics or yoga at some point in their lives), and was only in the initial VHS release; every release since then (including the DVD which is erroneously labelled as the director's cut) has been of the R-rated version.

First, you're correct, it's Hotel Exotica, not Hotel Erotica.

Second, I suspect that what happened is, they filmed two different versions of the scene, one involving the strong lesbian sexual imagery that you have cited, and one involving the strange butt-bumping that I saw. The reason I think that is because I remember the scene being on a hotel kitchen counter and I remember the two women as being dark-haired, just like the ones in the jpegs. What I think happened is that they filmed two versions, one with the strong lesbian scenes, one with the strange butt-bumping that I found so memorable, and then in some versions they just cut the scene out entirely.

[Trans Fat Og]

For example, Elmer is about to shoot Daffy, camera cuts to Bugs (and not a reaction shot, but just a single frame of Bugs) during the sound of the blast, then cuts back to a post-shot Daffy, all in an effort to prevent the kiddies from being traumatized.Just confining it to Warner cartoon classics-- Isn't it a bit strange that they would go to all that trouble to sanitize the fake violence in that cartoon? (I'm familiar with that one, but have they done ot to a lot of others?) There are various Speedy Gonzales, Sylvester & Tweety cartoons, etc., that would seem to be far grosser and more likely to "traumatize" kiddies.

Not to mention various Harvey, Tom & Jerry, Tex Avery cartoons.

And the donkey transformation scene in Walt Disney's Pinocchio is beyond belief. Worse, while all the above have the modifying effect of covering everything in silliness, the donkey scene here is played very straight. (I can supply a YouTube ref.)

- "Jack"

[Martini Enfield]

Possibly, though I'd rather see the toon intact in all its violent and racist glory.

I haven't seen the cartoons on TV here in ages, but the last time I do recall seeing them a few years ago they hadn't been censored, which was reassuring.

[mobo85]

I could've imagined a slimmer younger James Earl Jones playing Martin Luther King, though.

An award intended for Jones was infamously not given to him because the inscription was engraved incorrectly, giving it the rather grim message "Thank you James Earl Ray for keeping the dream alive."

[Siam Sam]

On a more serious note, I always thought that most of the Warner Bros. cartoons tended to get censored in some places these days because of... erm... "quaint" ideas regarding ethnic minorities?

Possibly, though I'd rather see the toon intact in all its violent and racist glory.

Well, except Speedy Gonzales. Whether or not he's seen as a positive or negative portrayal of Hispanics, I'm just sick of him.

In some instances, the context may be lost to modern audiences. I believe Rochester (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0026655/) from the old Jack Benny shows made a few appearances in those cartoons. He actually made Benny look like a buffoon, but anyone watching him in the cartoons now will think it's just some negative generic stereotype.

[Evil Captor]

It's one of the more notorious softcore scenes (the girls must have been into gymnastics or yoga at some point in their lives), and was only in the initial VHS release; every release since then (including the DVD which is erroneously labelled as the director's cut) has been of the R-rated version.

I forgot to mention, wrt to the flexibiity: in her other career, Ahmo Hight is an aerobics fitness diva -- participates (or participated, I'm not sure what she's up to nowadays) in contests and so forth. Aerobics fitness divas do a LOT of stretching ... they're very, very bendy.

[pope_hentai]

on the local jackfm station we've got "true faith" by "new order" the chorous goes like this:

"I used to think that the day would never come
I'd see delight in the shade of the morning sun
My morning sun is the drug that brings me near
To the childhood I lost, replaced by fear
I used to think that the day would never come
That my life would depend on the morning sun..."

we get:

"I used to think that the day would never come
I'd see delight in the shade of the morning sun
My morning sun is the drug that brings me near
I used to think that the day would never come
That my life would depend on the morning sun..."

a whole line missing and noone seems to know why.

[Rick]

In Galaxy Quest when Tim Allen and Sigourney Weaver get to the chompers, her line "Well fuck this" was changed to "Well screw this" Watch the movie, the movement of her lips makes this obvious.

[Markxxx]

My favourite example of censorship was told by Jack Benny. He said it occured on NBC radio in the late 30s.

The sketch involved him in a bathtub and Rochester comes in. Remember this is on radio so no one see anything.

Rochester comes in and Jack says "Come on in and sit down." Jack says the censor told him, "You can't do that." Jack asked why and the censor said "Because people will think Rochester is sittting on the toliet. Can't have them thinking toliet."

So Jack says "How about we change the line to 'Come in Rochester and sit on the side of the tub'." The censor says "Can't do that." Jack, again asks why. The censor says "Because people will think 'why is he sitting on the side of the tub and not the toliet'."

So Jack says "How about we change the line to 'Come in Rochester'," and just leave it at that. Censor says "Can't do that, everyone knows Jack wouldn't let his vallet stand there without asking him to sit down."

Jack says then they scratched the whole idea.

Don't know if it's true, it sounds too funny to be true

[Siam Sam]

My favourite example of censorship was told by Jack Benny. He said it occured on NBC radio in the late 30s.

The sketch involved him in a bathtub and Rochester comes in. Remember this is on radio so no one see anything.

Rochester comes in and Jack says "Come on in and sit down." Jack says the censor told him, "You can't do that." Jack asked why and the censor said "Because people will think Rochester is sittting on the toliet. Can't have them thinking toliet."

So Jack says "How about we change the line to 'Come in Rochester and sit on the side of the tub'." The censor says "Can't do that." Jack, again asks why. The censor says "Because people will think 'why is he sitting on the side of the tub and not the toliet'."

So Jack says "How about we change the line to 'Come in Rochester'," and just leave it at that. Censor says "Can't do that, everyone knows Jack wouldn't let his vallet stand there without asking him to sit down."

Jack says then they scratched the whole idea.

Don't know if it's true, it sounds too funny to be true

Considering what they did with Jack Paar and the term "WC," it could be true.

[Arglefraster]

I always thought that most of the Warner Bros. cartoons tended to get censored in some places these days because of... erm... "quaint" ideas regarding ethnic minorities?

I was watching one of the old Tom & Jerry cartoons not too long ago. There was a gag they used from time to time where Tom somehow falls into a trashcan and the lid lands on his head. When he flinches from the impact, his face takes on a stereotypical Chinese look (slanted eyes and buck teeth), the gag being that the tashcan lid looks like one of those rice hats. In the episode I watched recently, they showed him landing in the trashcan and the lid hitting his head, then it immediately cut away to Jerry laughing at him.

[Peter Morris]

They also recoloured and overdubbed the cartoons to turn the black woman into a white woman with an Irish accent. They also removed the line "Thomas, get out. Oh Doubleyou Tee - out."

[Annie-Xmas]

In the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the Oompa Loompas were pygmies. You know, little chocolate brown guys.

In later editions of the book, they turned in white skinned guys with orange and green hair (I think). I wish I had kept my original copy of the book.

[Icerigger]

In the Johnny Quest episode "Pursuit of the Po-Ho" Dr Quest is captured by the po-ho Indians and Race masquerades as Aquesio their water god. He swims under water and violently surfaces to scare the Indians while uttering these lines among others, "heathen monkeys" and "savages". These words are bleeped out of the DVD releases.

I am glad to be protected from the evils of Johnny Quest.

[Petey]

I was recently watching Craig Ferguson's show when he had The Smothers Brothers on. He was lamenting that a guest was talking about text messaging and they had to censor something to "OM<bleep>G".

"We had to censor a letter!" All the while Craig won't say what the offending letter is, because he thinks it will get bleeped again. This is at 12:35 am.

[Leiko]

In Galaxy Quest when Tim Allen and Sigourney Weaver get to the chompers, her line "Well fuck this" was changed to "Well screw this" Watch the movie, the movement of her lips makes this obvious.

When they showed the film on HBO, they changed the line again, to "Well, frell this!"

It fit her lip movement better, and it was nerdy. Everyone wins!

[Martini Enfield]

In the Johnny Quest episode "Pursuit of the Po-Ho" Dr Quest is captured by the po-ho Indians and Race masquerades as Aquesio their water god. He swims under water and violently surfaces to scare the Indians while uttering these lines among others, "heathen monkeys" and "savages". These words are bleeped out of the DVD releases.

I am glad to be protected from the evils of Johnny Quest.

And yet ironically The Venture Bros. is full of this kind of thing, with no bleeping (except for swear words, and in the context of the show it actually makes things even funnier instead of detracting from it).

[kidchameleon]

One of my favorite examples is the Tenacious D song "Fuck Her Gently". When they played it on my favorite radio station in high school (KDGE 101.1 The Edge, IIRC) they dubbed over all of the offensive content with carefully chosen sound effects. The final effect is freaking hilarious. That said, I can't find this version anywhere now. :(



I heard something similar with Metallica's cover of So What?

And there was an interview with Graham Chapman about one of the skits that got censored on MPFC. He was in a game show and listed his favorite activities, many of which were very violent, and ended with "and masterbating." They insisted that be cut, but the rest was okay.

[HeyHomie]

This is similar to Wooden Taco's post. I watched Fargo on AMC the other night. Since when does the word "fruit" even vaguely substitute for "fuck" in any lexicon in the world? When Steve Bescemi (if I remember the scene) yells "What the fruit?!" after getting shot, it kind of takes me out of the movie. C'mon, just bleep the fruiting word; we all know what it's fruiting supposed to be. It's less distracting than fruiting replacing it with something kinda sorta phonetically similar.

Fruit 'em.

Similar story watching Fargo on TBS. Instead of "fuckin" it was "firzzin." And at one point Buscemi beats the hell out of somebody and (in the uncensored version) calls him a "fucking fuck" or something similar. In the censored movie he calls him a "foolish man."

Yep. "Foolish man."

[Captain Amazing]

In the censored movie he calls him a "foolish man."

Yep. "Foolish man."

There's no greater shame than being gently chided by Steve Buscemi.

[cochrane]

I still hear recordings of "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" in which the line

I done told ya once, ya son of a bitch
I'm the best that's ever been

has been replaced with "son of a gun."

[Raguleader]

I still hear recordings of "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" in which the line

I done told ya once, ya son of a bitch
I'm the best that's ever been

has been replaced with "son of a gun."

Yeah, that always annoys me because "son of a gun" just doesn't fit with the tone of the line, a victorious fiddler telling off the Devil himself.

[cochrane]

In the Johnny Quest episode "Pursuit of the Po-Ho" Dr Quest is captured by the po-ho Indians and Race masquerades as Aquesio their water god. He swims under water and violently surfaces to scare the Indians while uttering these lines among others, "heathen monkeys" and "savages". These words are bleeped out of the DVD releases.

I am glad to be protected from the evils of Johnny Quest.
I'm surprised they left the title intact. "Pursuit of the Po-ho" sounds like a pimp chasing one of his hookers. :D

[Eutychus]

I had to ressurect this to report the absolute funniest one I've ever seen.

I'm watching "The Usual Suspects" on AMC right now and during the line-up scene they've changed the line ("Hand over the cash you fucking cocksucker") to :

"Hand over the cash you fairy godmother."

And the topper is that right after they've all said that line, the next line in the movie is :

"This has got to be pretty embarassing for you guys, huh?"

I almost fell out of my chair. :D