# In a world where "Play that Funky Music" is censored... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 8, 2007, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228 "2007-05-08T13:20:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pizzabrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9c0ed/32.png) [@pizzabrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pizzabrat)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/21 "2007-05-08T16:46:28Z")
[QUOTE=KayElCee] Actually, I am pretty sure that this is not new censorship. I think that the bowdlerized version of “Play that Funky Music” has been around for as long as the original. I’m pretty sure I heard it back when I was a teenager. [/QUOTE] It was also censored in an old Intel ad from the 90’s. ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/22 "2007-05-08T16:47:43Z")
[QUOTE=jali] Wow. I didn’t know there were actual negative racial connotations. I remember James Brown, “..and it’s gots to be funky”. I remember “Do the Funky Chicken”. I remember Parliament Funkadelic and a host of bands playing “funk music”. I missed the whole negative vibe. I learn something here everyday, I meant hearing the work "fu\*\* instead of funk. [/QUOTE] If the word ‘funky’ has negative racial connotations it comes as news to me too. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/23 "2007-05-08T16:55:20Z")
Are we really being asked to defend the artistic integrity of Wild Cherry? Jeez. [QUOTE=OtakuLoki] My understanding has been that it started as a derogatory description of “negro music.” [/QUOTE] You may be right, but it’s been accepted as the name for a style of music for 40 years. There can’t be too many people offended by it anymore. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/24 "2007-05-08T16:58:17Z")
[QUOTE=Marley23] You may be right, but it’s been accepted as the name for a style of music for 40 years. There can’t be too many people offended by it anymore. [/QUOTE] I don’t disagree that it’s very, very cold pudding. I only suggested that if someone were determined to feel offended over something that I believe the word has a history that would lend itself to that. Has nothing to do with how the word is accepted, now. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/25 "2007-05-08T17:04:30Z")
[QUOTE=OtakuLoki] I don’t disagree that it’s very, very cold pudding. I only suggested that if someone were determined to feel offended over something that I believe the word has a history that would lend itself to that. [/QUOTE] Knowing the way these things work, people could take offense even if your etymology is incorrect. Anyway, do you have a cite for it? ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/26 "2007-05-08T17:07:34Z")
I’ll clean up my oldies library when the \_\_\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_ go doo do doo do doo do doo doo do doo ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/27 "2007-05-08T17:14:16Z")
I’ll admit I’ve been doing a quick look for it. And this [dictionary](http://www.alphadictionary.com/slang/?term=funk&beginEra=&endEra=&clean=false&submitsend=Search) offers funk with a 1600’s definition as being a bad smell, then mysteriously in the 1950’s coming to mean music. It offers no linkage, but I don’t think it contradicts what I suggested. This article from [Cecil](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_244b.html) seems to support that it was a derogatory descriptor, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/28 "2007-05-08T17:23:54Z")
But without the “white boy,” it could be _anyone_ playing that funky music! It could be an elderly Asian woman playing that funky music! It could be a Mestizo hermaphrodite! The song would simply make no sense! ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/29 "2007-05-08T17:50:45Z")
[QUOTE=randwill] Soon we will hear James Brown singing, “Say it out loud! I’m \_\_\_\_\_\_\_ and I’m proud!” [/QUOTE] And we will all “Get on up… like a sax machine!” Well, it _is_ a tip of the hat to his horn section, right? ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/30 "2007-05-08T17:55:14Z")
I thought the FCC only was concerned about certain foul words, or description of sex, and the like? Is this really an FCC issue? ---
**Author:** ![ReuvenB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc348/32.png) [@ReuvenB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ReuvenB)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/31 "2007-05-08T17:57:36Z")
[QUOTE=Terrifel] But without the “white boy,” it could be _anyone_ playing that funky music! It could be an elderly Asian woman playing that funky music! It could be a Mestizo hermaphrodite! The song would simply make no sense! [/QUOTE] I’d just like to say that this post has made my day. I can’t stop giggling. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/32 "2007-05-08T18:11:07Z")
As a person without color, I’m glad that removed those offensive lyrics. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/33 "2007-05-08T18:15:57Z")
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn] Is this really an FCC issue? [/QUOTE] Nobody said it was. FCC or not, stations don’t want their listeners complaining. Nor did they want them complaining 30 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/34 "2007-05-08T18:38:11Z")
[QUOTE=Terrifel] But without the “white boy,” it could be _anyone_ playing that funky music! It could be an elderly Asian woman playing that funky music! It could be a Mestizo hermaphrodite! The song would simply make no sense! [/QUOTE] I’m always amused when I hear that song being done by a bar band–and it is a major staple on the bar band circuit–and the singer is either not white, not a boy, or both. I _have_ heard the song more than once sung by an Asian woman. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/35 "2007-05-08T18:39:24Z")
I’m dreaming of a \_\_\_\_\_ Christmas. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/36 "2007-05-08T18:43:36Z")
[QUOTE=Zebra] I’m dreaming of a \_\_\_\_\_ Christmas. [/QUOTE] Funky? ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/37 "2007-05-08T18:58:54Z")
Bing Crosby may have been many things, but ‘funky’ wasn’t one of them. ---
**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:** [May 8, 2007, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/38 "2007-05-08T19:14:12Z")
New Kids on the Block once wished people a Funky, Funky Xmas. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/39 "2007-05-08T19:24:28Z")
I’m a dirty melanin-deficient boy, I’m a dirty melanin-deficient boy, I’m a dirty melanin-deficient boy, Dirty melanin-deficient boy! ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2007, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228/40 "2007-05-08T19:27:56Z")
This reminds me when a song lyric form a Black Eyed Peas song was changed from “don’t funk with my heart” to “don’t mess with my heart” for the radio. :rolleyes: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-world-where-play-that-funky-music-is-censored/403228.md?page=3)