Hi SD,
So what is the current status of censorship of vulgar language on TV? On YouTube?
Do we allow “fuck”, “cunt,” “asshole,” and everything now? I am sure if we are not there yet, we are trending towards no censorship of language. But I still hear occasional censorship of “fuck” and other words like it. If you go on YouTube, really anything goes, which confuses me, because just as many if not more people have access to YouTube than TV—or am I wrong?
What word do you think will be the last one to still remain censored before the end comes and all language is uncensored? How many years remain until censorship of language becomes no more? My guess is that Trump had a hand in normalizing vulgar speech?
There are different levels of censorship on TV. The FCC (in the United States) restricts some language on broadcast TV. There is no censorship on cable. Cable networks determine what kind of language they wish to censor. Some have looser standards for language. Others try more to appeal to families. Subscription networks such as HBO have no restrictions on language, as the assumption is that people voluntarily pay for their content.
YouTube, like the rest of the internet, is habitually not restricted at all, at least in most countries. More repressive governments, such as North Korea, highly restrict content which is accessible to their citizens, but this is not common in most of the world.
TV in the UK is censored, but maybe less than it is in the USA. Nine o’clock is the watershed time when children are assumed to be in bed and most of the words above can be and are used. Tits, nipples, bare bums etc, may be seen; pussies, but no close-ups too, but no erect cocks.
After midnight it is possible to see more, but that requires a subscription so I don’t know how far they go.
My point about the USA comes from the surprise American guests evidence when they find that on a Saturday evening (that’s when it’s aired anyway) they can drink alcohol and use any four-letter word they choose.
When it comes to pejorative references to midgets or retards, that is in the same class as all the racist references which are considered offensive in most civilised countries. A host who announced that we were going to meet two niggers, a dwarf and a spick, would rapidly be looking for an alternative career outside of broadcasting.
This thread’s going downhill in a hurry. It’ll be off to GD or the Pit before you know it.
Considering censorship of words in general, consider that less than 70 years ago, people were getting all upset about the use of the D-word in a movie…
The radio spectrum is a very limited resource, and is considered to be collectively owned by all the people, and so the FCC has been given jurisdiction to enforce rules over it. These rules mostly involve who gets to use what portion of it, but also include some rules about content. So they can say that you’re not allowed to use Carlin’s Seven Words over broadcast material. This is still the case.
Bandwidth over a wire or fiber is far more abundant, and is owned by whoever owns the wires or fiber, which is the cable companies. Since they own it, they can and do set whatever rules they want. They’d rather use those words than to choose not to use them, and so Carlin’s Seven Words have never been prohibited on cable.
If there’s a difference nowadays, it’s just that more people have non-broadcast television, and there are more shows being made exclusively for non-broadcast, rather than the cable networks just showing the same shows as broadcast.
YouTube may place an age restriction on a video based on language. Other than that there seem to be no restrictions on language. There are lots of other restrictions, though.
You still don’t hear most of them, but I’ve heard the word piss, in the context of “piss off.” And some of Carlin’s other words, not in the list of seven, have become acceptable, such as “ass” for the buttocks, “bitch,” and “bastard.” He mentioned “fart” as being so unacceptable that you couldn’t even allude to the act of passing gas, but now you even hear fart on broadcast TV. I can remember when it caused controversy when a child character on the TV series Uncle Buck said, “You suck!”
Ugh, I hate bleeping. A few years back I tried to watch the PBS broadcast of the Billy Elliott musical. I was familiar with the show, but despite this, I could hardly follow the story, they’d bleeped (with silence) so many words. Ridiculous.
