# Bowdlerized for broadcast **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 21, 2007, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowdlerized-for-broadcast/388794 "2007-01-21T03:45:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2007, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowdlerized-for-broadcast/388794/41 "2007-01-22T05:11:48Z")
[QUOTE=Johnny L.A.] And _ **National Lampoon’s Vacation** _. I don’t remember if they dubbed it, or just cut it out for broadcast, but the line was **Daddy says I kiss best.** [/QUOTE] The TV version I saw was “My science teacher says I’m the best at it.” Guess that’s marginally better than incest… Joe ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2007, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowdlerized-for-broadcast/388794/42 "2007-01-22T05:12:14Z")
[QUOTE=Otto] The skanky cousin says something like “I know how to french kiss.” The daughter says something like “everyone knows how to do that” and the cousin says “Yeah, but daddy says I’m the best.” [/QUOTE] That “skanky cousin” grew up to be [Jane Krakowski](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005105/) . ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2007, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowdlerized-for-broadcast/388794/43 "2007-01-22T06:30:48Z")
[QUOTE=thelurkinghorror] It wasn’t Comedy Central’s doing, do you really think they would shy away from that? That cut of the film is older than the CC station itself, they just likely didn’t want to invest in making their own edit. [/QUOTE] Why make their own edited cut? Just _show the damn film._ It’s about a PG13 by todays standards. Ok, show it after 10, if you must. :mad: Slacker: Well, no. But don;t listen to me. I thought Sopranos was just Ok, and without the nudity, swearing and violence, I wouldn’t bother at all. But yes, I love Rome and Deadwood! ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2007, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowdlerized-for-broadcast/388794/44 "2007-01-22T10:06:28Z")
I’ve heard Dr Lecter says “I can smell your _scent_…” in the TV version. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2007, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowdlerized-for-broadcast/388794/45 "2007-01-22T13:29:10Z")
In “Blues Brothers” the line “We had a band that could turn goat piss into gasoline” has been edited to “goat milk.” ---
**Author:** ![Carl\_Corey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Carl\_Corey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carl_Corey)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2007, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowdlerized-for-broadcast/388794/46 "2007-01-22T13:42:54Z")
In _The Breakfast Club_: “slip her the hot beef injection” was changed to “slip her a little affection” in a really bad dub. It’s like they weren’t even trying. ---
**Author:** ![RumMunkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@RumMunkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RumMunkey)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2007, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowdlerized-for-broadcast/388794/47 "2007-01-22T14:15:04Z")
> [@](#): > > I’ve never seen a TV broadcast of Planes, Trains and Automobiles, but have always wondered how they would overdub Steve Martin’s ten-fifteen almost back-to-back utterances of “fucking.” > > Anybody know? The version I saw they cut out the “fucking” at the start of Steve’s diatribe: “I don’t care for the way your…company left in the middle of…nowhere with…keys to a…car that isn’t…there” The cuts in the audio were masked with inserts of Edie McClurg’s reaction shots and an over-the-shoulder of Steve Martin. I recall they used the same shots at least twice to make up for the time slips. The second part (where he \*really \*gets going) was just cut altogether. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2007, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowdlerized-for-broadcast/388794/48 "2007-01-22T14:26:58Z")
The Dylan Thomas radio play _Under Milk Wood_ was set in a fictional Welsh port by the name of Llareggub (which is ‘bugger all’ written backwards) - this was changed to _Llaregyb_ in the BBC broadcast with Richard Burton, and also in some printed editions. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2007, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowdlerized-for-broadcast/388794/49 "2007-01-22T15:33:55Z")
[QUOTE=wolf\_meister] This goes way back, but when the movie “ **The Godfather** ” made it to network TV (about 1975?) they replaced “son of a bitch” with “son of a buck”. Just about everyone who saw it thought this was incredibly stupid.QUOTE] November, 1974. “I don’t want my brother coming out of that toilet with just \*\*his dick \*\* in his hand” became “\*\*a stick \*\* in his hand.” ---
**Author:** ![Arrimus\_2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f08c70/32.png) [@Arrimus\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrimus_2)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2007, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowdlerized-for-broadcast/388794/50 "2007-01-22T17:02:12Z")
My favorite is from TBS’s version of Shoot to Kill. Sydney Poitier encounters a bear, his response of “Oh, shit” becomes “Oh, sheezy”; which I find to be much more satisfying 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2007, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowdlerized-for-broadcast/388794/51 "2007-01-22T17:13:17Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas] In “Blues Brothers” the line “We had a band that could turn goat piss into gasoline” has been edited to “goat milk.” [/QUOTE] Why would they want to turn goat piss into goat milk? Someone mention _Thw Sopranos_ on A&E. MadTV did a sketch a few years back featuring “The Sopranos on PAX” with episodes lasting approximately three minutes after editing. ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2007, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowdlerized-for-broadcast/388794/52 "2007-01-22T17:37:18Z")
Another movie they should never every try to show on “regular” television is one of my favorites, _The Jerk._ The protagonist’s dog is named “Shithead.” On WTBS, I think, they got around this by merely removing the “Shit” from the dialog, so throughout the film, you hear Steve Martin calling his dog like this: Here, [pause]head! ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2007, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowdlerized-for-broadcast/388794/53 "2007-01-22T18:02:23Z")
The one that always bothered me in _Blazing Saddles_ was Lilly’s stage show, with the punchlines cut out. So “they’re always coming and going and going and coming… and always too soon [audience laughing]” becomes “there always coming and going and going and coming [audience laughing].” It’s just dumb. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2007, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowdlerized-for-broadcast/388794/54 "2007-01-22T21:27:25Z")
[QUOTE=PoorYorick] Another movie they should never every try to show on “regular” television is one of my favorites, _The Jerk._ The protagonist’s dog is named “Shithead.” On WTBS, I think, they got around this by merely removing the “Shit” from the dialog, so throughout the film, you hear Steve Martin calling his dog like this: Here, [pause]head! [/QUOTE] This is reminicent of the TV edit of _Stand By Me_. One of the characters is nicknamed “Lardass.” There is one scene in which there is a flashback to an eating competition, and the crowd is cheering his nickname. The “ass” is removed, but there isn’t any attempt to make a pause between each utterance of “lard.” So it sounds rather unusual, like non-human almost. “Lardlardlardlardlard” ---
**Author:** ![Gordon\_Urquhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@Gordon\_Urquhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gordon_Urquhart)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2007, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowdlerized-for-broadcast/388794/55 "2007-01-22T21:42:01Z")
Carl Showalter, Steve Buscemi’s character in \*Fargo, \* makes frequent use of the “F” word as a modifier – he must say it a couple of hundred times. I can’t remember on which network I saw \*Fargo \* broadcast, but I recall “frozen” being one of the many, many alternates … ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2007, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowdlerized-for-broadcast/388794/56 "2007-01-22T22:37:15Z")
[QUOTE=DrDeth] Why make their own edited cut? [/QUOTE] Janet Jackson’s nipple, the FCC, and idiots who can’t be bothered to change channels because they feel it’s their duty to take notes on everything on TV that they find objectionable. ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2007, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowdlerized-for-broadcast/388794/57 "2007-01-22T22:40:39Z")
A Canadian TV station, [Show Case](http://www.showcase.ca/) (“Television Without Borders”), used to run an ad campaign that makes fun of watching censored movies. One of their funniest was the line-up scene from _The Usual Suspects_ with everyone saying “fuzzy socks” in virtually every sentence. (The station, which is associated with the Canadian version of IFC, almost always shows the un-edited version of movies and shows. They ran _Oz_ un-censored, for instance.) ---
**Author:** ![Rico](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rico/32/3582_2.png) [@Rico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rico)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2007, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowdlerized-for-broadcast/388794/58 "2007-01-22T22:41:07Z")
In the first few TV broadcasts of _Young Frankenstein_, they replace the line: Inga: He would have an enormous schwanstucker! with: Inga: He would have an enormous…personality! And then they cut out the cute little “woof” sound she makes as she thinks about the “personality” of the Monster. Criminal, I tell ya… ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2007, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowdlerized-for-broadcast/388794/59 "2007-01-22T23:24:13Z")
And of course, many of the modern generation may watch a slightly edited version of _The Dambusters_ and be unaware that Squadron Leader Guy Gibson’s black dog was called Nigger. Or that the dog’s name was used as a code-word during the raid. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2007, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowdlerized-for-broadcast/388794/60 "2007-01-22T23:28:27Z")
I thought edited versions of _The Dam Busters_ changed the dog’s name from “Nigger” to “Trigger” rather than edit his name out altogether. (Nigger was a [real dog,](http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/album/showphoto.php?photo=6074&size=big&cat=550) by the way, and his name was indeed used as a codename during the mission. I wonder how Peter Jackson will work with that in his version.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowdlerized-for-broadcast/388794.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowdlerized-for-broadcast/388794.md?page=4)