# censoring language on TV **URL:** \ **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:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2011, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censoring-language-on-tv/581639/41 "2011-05-20T16:33:24Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > I don’t get it either. > > One of the great things about Syfy’s **BSG** was the unintended social experiment that came with the show. They famously took the word “fuck” and turned it in to “Frak” (Sp?). > > Nobody, as far as I know, had a problem with this. If certain parties are offended by “fuck” then they should absolutely be offended by “Frak” because both words mean the exact same thing! Unless they’re offended by the phonetic sound of fuck. Which just seems too bizarre to believe. The original BSG used “feldercarb” for shit. Like a character said he was in deep feldercarb. So credit Larson for that one. Not that this was new. Norman Mailer used “fug” for fuck in The Naked and the Dead, needing to put some sense of reality in his military dialog while not being allowed to. (This was maybe the first instance of “band name!” coming true.) Which is the main argument against censorship, I think. Like the half bed sheet that women use, or the twin beds in old TV series, banning four-letter words everywhere ruins the reality of lots of shows. I also suspect that there would be less of it if it weren’t censored. When I started to subscribe to The New Yorker, “dirty words” were banned. They now appear, with no loss of artistic or cultural value. ---
**Author:** ![Blaster\_Master](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cab0a1/32.png) [@Blaster\_Master](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blaster_Master)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2011, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censoring-language-on-tv/581639/42 "2011-05-20T17:15:51Z")
I don’t really understand all the fuss over language in shows. Sure, I think it’s overdone, one of my mottoes is that cursing is a crutch for a poor vocabulary, but that’s for people who seem to use cursing to modify everything they say. However, that doesn’t preclude the fact that it is something you we hear in every day life, and in films and movies depicting certain aspects of the human condition, it’s a necessary part of that. There are some characters and situations in film that simply make more sense with it, like the aforementioned famous line of “Yippee-kay-yay, mother fucker.” In other situations, as another motto of mine goes, sometimes fuck is the only word. Like someone else mentioned upthread of the film crew who saw the plane hit the WTC, a response of “gee willikers” doesn’t cut it, but “Holy shit!” does. Even if I’m watching something that doesn’t cover an aspect of humanity where cursing is rampant, if there’s a situation where cursing is appropriate, I don’t want them to skirt around it afraid to offend someone, I want them to be authentic or it ruins my immersion. Sure, some of the dubbed over things are hilarious, but it’s hilarious precisely because of how jarringly out of place it is. And the idea that you don’t want to hear it in your livingroom, I can understand that, but I don’t think censoring for everyone is the right way to go. If you don’t want your 4yo to hear a curse word, I’m left wondering why a 4yo is watching something where cursing fits. I’d think seeing a movie that has cursing in it probably has a lot more stuff that’s a lot more objectionable to a 4yo than cursing like, I dunno, violence and sex. Would anyone here seriously contend that Pulp Fiction, or another movie with excessive swearing, would suddenly become appropriate for a child if all the profanity is censored out? All that needs to be done is have people rate the language and other content and then let parents and individuals watch or not watch whatever they want, or even get a device that can block that stuff. Hell, hasn’t that more or less been done for years now with the v-chip? They already do HD and non-HD versions of channels, would it be that difficult to implement a censored and uncensored version of the audio? ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2011, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censoring-language-on-tv/581639/43 "2011-05-20T18:19:14Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > That said, in The Stuff of Thought, Steven Pinker references some research showing that (IIRC) the amygdala shows a spike when someone hears a swear word from their native language, a spike generally associated with negative feelings. Swearing apparently causes negative feelings in the heads of the audience, which isn’t necessarily a nice thing to do. Also from that book (which was very interesting, by the way), he talks about how swear words and other kinds of taboo words exist in every language and every culture, and how it relates to human nature. ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2011, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censoring-language-on-tv/581639/44 "2011-05-20T20:27:04Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Therefore, knowing that a general rule exists that “from 8-10pm swearing will be eliminated or kept to a bare minimum on the major networks” is far preferable, especially given the fact that we parents are working more. It’s the double standard that bugs me - I watched From Dusk Till Dawn on a regular channel (Fox I believe) and the violence was untouched - heads getting chopped off etc. But they couldn’t allow the bar to be called the Titty Twister - instead it was the City Twister. Violence (especially violence without consequences such as the A Team) is something I would want my son to see far less than hearing the odd curse word. ---
**Author:** ![scamartistry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@scamartistry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scamartistry)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2011, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censoring-language-on-tv/581639/45 "2011-05-20T23:57:35Z")
This censoring business , is it a worldwide phenomenon? I don’t think I’ve seen it outside the US, at least not to to that ridiculous extent, Where a lot of shows are completely unwatchable. I actually find censoring of movies offensive and very hard to understand as a phenomenon. ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2011, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censoring-language-on-tv/581639/46 "2011-05-21T01:11:59Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > You tube is not broadcast into people’s homes. You don’t understand the meaning of the word. Broadcast stations are licensed to transmit over the air. > > If TV is not offensive enough for you then swear during the shows. You’re thinking of broadcast network licenses. I’m talking about broadcast physically-- like just now, turned on my computer, clicked my YouTube link, it’s coming through the air, it’s broadcast. And just like TV, some clips (channels) are offensive, some are not. I don’t understand your second sentence. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2011, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censoring-language-on-tv/581639/47 "2011-05-21T03:21:57Z")
> [@Locrian](#): > > You’re thinking of broadcast network licenses. I’m talking about broadcast physically-- like just now, turned on my computer, clicked my YouTube link, it’s coming through the air, it’s broadcast. And just like TV, some clips (channels) are offensive, some are not. Broadcast historically refers to sending a single program to a lot of folks simultaneously, and I think that’s a useful meaning to maintain. A broadcast program is distinguished from a requested program because for a broadcast is sent at the whim (or market research) of the producer/distributor, whereas a requested program is sent at the whim of the consumer. Especially when you’re talking about things like censorship, this difference is highly relevant. A broadcaster presumably has greater responsibility to ensure that a program is inoffensive than does the producer of a program that must be specifically requested. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2011, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censoring-language-on-tv/581639/48 "2011-05-26T16:39:15Z")
Some people are just offended by crude language. It’s probably also so toddlers won’t go around saying “fuck” and “shit” all day. But really with the way they have the networks rate TV shows these days for violence and language, you’d think you could just say anything you want on TV now as long as you’re ok with the “L” for language tag. This site details the ratings that every show seems to have in the USA: [http://www.tvguidelines.org/ratings.htm](http://www.tvguidelines.org/ratings.htm) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censoring-language-on-tv/581639.md?page=2)