# censoring language on TV
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censoring-language-on-tv/581639
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [May 12, 2011, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censoring-language-on-tv/581639 "2011-05-12T11:41:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@scamartistry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scamartistry)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2011, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censoring-language-on-tv/581639/1 "2011-05-12T11:41:20Z")
I find this ridiculous, everyone knows exactly what “ugly” word is being used. Even if you are 10 years old, you are probably familiar with the word “fuck” etc…It’s WORDS that people use
Who benefits from this?
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### Author:  [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2011, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censoring-language-on-tv/581639/2 "2011-05-12T12:25:50Z")
Bluenoses and Mrs. Grundys will write nasty letters to their congresscritters if they feel that television is trying to corrupt the children.
OR – just because these are words that \*some \*people use, there is no reason for them to be heard in \*my \*living room. Unless I just dropped something heavy on my foot. Or broke something. Or if it’s funny.
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### Author:  [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2011, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censoring-language-on-tv/581639/3 "2011-05-12T20:58:21Z")
Because, I don’t want my 4 year old, or my 10 year old for that matter, repeating “fuck”.
If you came into my house and my family was present, or if you were in a family restaurant seated at the table next to me and my family and spoke like that, I would walk up to you and ask you to please watch your language, since my children were present.
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### Author:  [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2011, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censoring-language-on-tv/581639/4 "2011-05-12T23:21:26Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#):
>
> Because, I don’t want my 4 year old, or my 10 year old for that matter, repeating “fuck”.
>
> If you came into my house and my family was present, or if you were in a family restaurant seated at the table next to me and my family and spoke like that, I would walk up to you and ask you to please watch your language, since my children were present.
But your 4 year old and your 10 year old don’t learn ‘‘fuck’’ from the TV or persons in your home or persons i a restaurant. They learn it the same place we all did, from their peers.
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### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2011, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censoring-language-on-tv/581639/5 "2011-05-12T23:23:30Z")
> [@scamartistry](#):
>
> I find this ridiculous, everyone knows exactly what “ugly” word is being used. Even if you are 10 years old, you are probably familiar with the word “fuck” etc…It’s WORDS that people use
>
> Who benefits from this?
I do. Swearing is way overused in movies, especially comedies, and too much of it takes me out of the experience. I’ve even walked out of movies because of the swearing: _Knocked Up_, I’m looking at you…
IMHO, _Independence Day_ is a better movie on TNT precisely because the swearing is removed.
I even wish that many DVD’s would come with a “family friendly” option with the swearing removed - the above-mentioned ID4 is a perfect candidate for such an option. There is not a single thing swearing adds to that movie.
And I say this as somebody who swears. Frequently. I even do it on this board.
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### Author:  [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2011, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censoring-language-on-tv/581639/6 "2011-05-12T23:42:32Z")
There are times when it IS necessary in movies AND in TV shows. For Snakes On A Plane, Sam Jackson’s famous “motherfucking snakes” line drew the biggest cheers in a silly movie. Recently I worked on “True Justice” a new show with Steven Seagal. This show actually had cops say, “If you can’t hold your mud, you can’t be on our team!”
Hold your mud? Does anyone believe a cop would ever say this in any language? They could have said hold your CRAP, not necessarily “shit”.
Also recently on News Radio in L.A., they spoke with a teacher who is against censorship in songs, TV, movies, etc. (Sorry I can’t remember who or what organization.) She made some very good points. In writing classes, it doesn’t bother her if a kid writes a story with bad language if it helps the reader understand the character. As far as songs go, kids know the lyrics from 100 different sources.
I also remember when the Phillies won in 2008 (WHOOO!). At the parade, Chase Utley came to the mike and said, “World champions. World fucking champions!” It was not censored on any station. The shock and/or the fact it was a sports parade let everyone pause too long to hit the censor button. Not many were upset by this. If your kid is old enough to know what a bad word is, then they are old enough to know that no one, not any grown up, will take them seriously if they curse.
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### Author:  [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2011, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censoring-language-on-tv/581639/7 "2011-05-12T23:48:22Z")
Sometimes the dubs are funnier than the dialogue with curses. By far. Forget you, man! Cheese and onions!
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### Author:  [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2011, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censoring-language-on-tv/581639/8 "2011-05-13T00:33:13Z")
> [@JohnT](#):
>
> IMHO, _Independence Day_ is a better movie on TNT precisely because the swearing is removed.
Huh. I think there are a lot of things overused and gratuitous in that movie, but swearing’s near the bottom of the list.
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### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2011, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censoring-language-on-tv/581639/9 "2011-05-13T00:48:17Z")
> [@scamartistry](#):
>
> Who benefits from this?
For the most part, it’s the sponsor who benefits from it. Sponsors, as a rule, want the viewing audience to be in a receptive mood when a commercial comes on, not having the parent cover junior’s ears while the teenage daughter is saying “what’s wrong with ‘fuck’? Everyone I know says ‘fuck’.” While the family argues, they’re missing the commercial.
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### Author:  [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2011, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censoring-language-on-tv/581639/10 "2011-05-13T01:09:33Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#):
>
> Huh. I think there are a lot of things overused and gratuitous in that movie, but swearing’s near the bottom of the list.
Yeah, I was going to say, is there even much swearing in “Independence Day”?
Anyway these days, whenever they beep something out, it often seems like little more than a formality, so as not to get fined by the FCC. Half the time they don’t even do a good job of censoring the word, and you can distinctly hear, say, the f and the k sounds.
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### Author:  [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2011, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censoring-language-on-tv/581639/11 "2011-05-13T01:14:59Z")
> [@robardin](#):
>
> Sometimes the dubs are funnier than the dialogue with curses. By far.
Yippy-kay-ay, Mr. Falcon.
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### Author:  [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2011, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censoring-language-on-tv/581639/12 "2011-05-13T02:41:43Z")
> [@joebuck20](#):
>
> Yeah, I was going to say, is there even much swearing in “Independence Day”?
>
> Anyway these days, whenever they beep something out, it often seems like little more than a formality, so as not to get fined by the FCC. Half the time they don’t even do a good job of censoring the word, and you can distinctly hear, say, the f and the k sounds.
FCC fines are only for broadcast TV though. And yet most cable channels also censor language, at least before 10pm or so. So I don’t think fear of FCC fines are the main driver.
I imagine its done because viewers that, rightly or wrongly, are uncomfortable watching TV with swear words with their children in the room outnumber those that are annoyed by the bleeping.
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### Author:  [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2011, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censoring-language-on-tv/581639/13 "2011-05-13T02:50:32Z")
I remember when “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” was on network TV.
There’s a scene in the bowling alley, Napoleon has fallen on his face and is swearing “Merde, merde, merde!!” At the theater the subtitles said “Shit, shit, shit!!” On network TV it was “Damn, damn, damn” but you could clearly hear Napoleon’s voice, using the profanity. No apparent attempt to blot it out.
What? They think we don’t know and language but English?
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### Author:  [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2011, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censoring-language-on-tv/581639/14 "2011-05-13T02:58:57Z")
The only known film footage of the first plane to hit the WTC was taken by a French film crew who were with a local firehouse. They’d been filming a documentary all summer, about the training of a firefighter.
As the plane hits you hear the firefighters, in shock and horror, say things like “Holy shit! What was that?” or “What the fuck is going on?”
When this footage was to be aired, years later, as part of a program on the destruction of the WTC, there were protests from some groups about the language, how it should be dubbed out.
Now, I don’t like profanity at all, but the language those guys were using was not casual cussing, but part of an honest reaction to the unbelievable. To alter it would be changing an important historical record.
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### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2011, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censoring-language-on-tv/581639/15 "2011-05-13T03:52:00Z")
There’s enough swearing in ID4 to earn it a “5” in the profanity index at [www.kids-in-mind.com](http://www.kids-in-mind.com) and to get the film a PG-13 rating upon release. Now it obviously wasn’t in the same realm as _Knocked Up_ or _Pulp Fiction_ (both of which received a “10” rating), but when you pull out the DVD to show this movie to your kid, the swears come pretty regularly.
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### Author:  [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2011, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censoring-language-on-tv/581639/16 "2011-05-13T03:54:49Z")
> [@JohnT](#):
>
> There’s enough swearing in ID4 to earn it a “5” in the profanity index at [www.kids-in-mind.com](http://www.kids-in-mind.com) and to get the film a PG-13 rating upon release. Now it obviously wasn’t in the same realm as _Knocked Up_ or _Pulp Fiction_ (both of which received a “10” rating), but when you pull out the DVD to show this movie to your kid, the swears come pretty regularly.
What did they say? “Damn”?
😕
Sometimes I’m in a network TV mood and sometimes I’m in a cable TV mood. If network TV starts swearing, then what? In five years we’ll be watching vampire porn! (okay, maybe that’s kind of harsh, but _cable_ has a reputation for a reason.)
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### Author:  [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2011, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censoring-language-on-tv/581639/17 "2011-05-13T03:59:04Z")
> [@JohnT](#):
>
> There’s enough swearing in ID4 to earn it a “5” in the profanity index at [www.kids-in-mind.com](http://www.kids-in-mind.com) and to get the film a PG-13 rating upon release. Now it obviously wasn’t in the same realm as _Knocked Up_ or _Pulp Fiction_ (both of which received a “10” rating), but when you pull out the DVD to show this movie to your kid, the swears come pretty regularly.
it [says](http://www.kids-in-mind.com/i/independence_day_1996__275.htm):
> [@](#):
>
> PROFANITY 5 - One mouthed F-word, some mild obscenities, anatomical references and scatological references. [profanity glossary]
Hmm…not convinced it’s the same as network TV dropping whatever it is they’re dropping.
I’d be more worried about nekkidz.
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### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2011, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censoring-language-on-tv/581639/18 "2011-05-13T04:07:20Z")
It also sez…
> [@](#):
>
> A CAVEAT: We’ve gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and some of our early standards were not as stringent as they are now. We therefore need to revisit many older reviews, especially those written prior to 1998 or so; please keep this in mind if you’re consulting a review from that period. While we plan to revisit and correct older reviews our resources are limited and it is a slow, time-consuming process.
The film earned a PG-13 for some reason, and it wasn’t just for the 30 seconds they showed inside a strip club. (the film earned a “2” for sex and nudity on the same site, so I don’t think it was much nekkidness).
Anyway, I’m not going to watch the movie again to prove it one way or the other, so I’ll just concede the point.
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### Author:  [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2011, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censoring-language-on-tv/581639/19 "2011-05-13T05:06:54Z")
> [@Baker](#):
>
> I remember when “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” was on network TV.
>
> There’s a scene in the bowling alley, Napoleon has fallen on his face and is swearing “Merde, merde, merde!!” At the theater the subtitles said “Shit, shit, shit!!” On network TV it was “Damn, damn, damn” but you could clearly hear Napoleon’s voice, using the profanity. No apparent attempt to blot it out.
>
> What? They think we don’t know and language but English?
HA! I actually worked on a reformat of the “edited” subtitles years ago! We were all laughing at the office saying the same thing you were.
But of course, us subtitlers need to be familiar with certain foreign words-- especially curse words-- to alert the client if they want the foreign audio changed. Let me assure you right now that NO client, out of hundreds and hundreds I’ve worked with, EVER wants to spend the time and money to send in a voice actor and redo it. NEVER! 😃
I really don’t think TV censroring helps with shielding your kids from curse words. There’s YouTube, MySpace, South Park Studios, Urban Dictionary, Free Porn Sites, the classmate with the R-rated DVD collection, etc.
There’s also alternate curses that people use. Like “effing”. When they hear that, you’ll have to find a way to explain why they’re saying effing, and don’t lie to them and say they mean “fluffy” or “Ferdinand” or something. 😉
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### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2011, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censoring-language-on-tv/581639/20 "2011-05-13T13:11:06Z")
I’m not worried about shielding my kids from swearing, I just want some"place" we can go w/o being inundated by it. I’m thrilled that there is swearing on Youtube, but that doesn’t mean I want it being broadcast into my home on the TV.
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