Extreme Examples of Censorship

[Student_Driver]

@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?

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]

@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).

My favorite part of the MAD parody was the newsie announcing, “President Oldsmobile assassinated at Buick’s Theater!”

[Bryan_Ekers]

@Martini_Enfield

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]

@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.

MLC has in fact played Lennon in the more recent Chapter 27, 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]

@Student_Driver

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.

[Find_Friends]

@Bryan_Ekers

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]

@Bryan_Ekers

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]

@Bryan_Ekers

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]

@Martini_Enfield

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?

@Bryan_Ekers

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 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]

@Student_Driver

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]

@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

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

[Arglefraster]

@Martini_Enfield

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.