This thread whomps.
…ass?
I’m so used to hearing words like schmuck and putz used figuratively, I have a difficult time imagining them being used literally. I can’t picture a horny Israeli girl telling her boyfriend “I need your hot throbbing putz!”
Bah ha ha! Nemo, that would just be hysterical!
I’d thought there weren’t really any laws about what you could and couldn’t say on TV… IIRC, Standards and Practices for each station looks out for that station’s best interest - if we air this program that has these bad words, will our advertisers run someplace else?
Which would explain why the ads on comedy central tend to be for beer and video games, I guess.
Question: How do I say the following sentence in Yiddish?
“I may be a big schmuck, but I have an enormous cock.”
?
This obsurdity was the premise for the entire South Park movie. One phrase from Sheila Broflowski sums it pretty well:
“Men, when you’re out there, in the battlefield, and you’re looking into the beady eyes of a Canadian as he charges you with his hockey stick (or whatever he has), and people are dying all around you, just remember what the MPAA says: “Horrific, deplorable violence is okay, as long as people don’t say any naughty words.” That is what this war is all about!”
Suddenly the word Schmuck has all new meaning to me, same with Putz. I always assumed them to mean idiot or something similar, so seeing them actually mean something more offensive is pretty surprising…
Makes me want to use them in conversation more 
The whole television censorship thing is just bizzare.
I was watching (well not really watching, but it was on) Caddyshack on TV a while back. Where Ty (Chevy Chase) asks Danny, “Do you do drugs?” the real response is “Every day!” They edited it to be “No way!”.
Then last night on “The Man Show” they had a skit with an umbrella that was supposed to keep your dead relatives from seeing you jacking off. It even had the words “Jacking Off” printed right on the umbrella. Had a guy acting out the said jacking off.
I have no problem with jacking off on TV, but to get so touchy-feely that you can’t have a guy in a comedy say he smokes dope every day…sheesh!
Schmucks.
The following is a partial list of potential FCC violations and the fines for each:
Transmission of indecent/obscene material $7,000
Violation of broadcast hoax rule (Remember “War of the Worlds?”) $7,000
Broadcasting telephone conversations without authorization $4,000
Violation of enhanced underwriting agreements $2,000
Violation of Public File rules $10,000
Unauthorized discontinuance of service/programming $4,000
Exceeding power limits $4,000
Violation of transmitter control and metering requirements $4,000
Failure to provide hourly station ID $1,000
Failure to maintain required records $1,000
I found that here, but then headed over to the FCC and found their Obscene and Indecent Broadcasts Policy. I really had no idea. There’s a link from that page to a list of recent actions. This thread is cool. I learned some things. 
South Park Using the word “SHIT” over 200 times and before NYPD Blue says it even once…PRICELESS!
Wasn’t there a sportswriter in Los Angeles named Peter Schmuck?
I was thinking the same thing as Dr Lao, the editing was done when the rules were different.
On tv, occasionally I’ll hear a curse or rude/crude phrase in another language that would never be allowed in English. I wonder how that effects the censor’s decisions…
And not just that, but childish, puerile humour, too. Fans of America’s Funniest Home Videos would be shocked to see what makes it to the air on Australia’s Funniest Home Videos. On the latter I once saw a severely overfed baby vomit up a good litre or two of milk… There’s a fine line between entertainment and child abuse, and Australia’s Funniest Home Videos dances madly upon it.
Is yutz an equvalent to the word c*** ? Or is it the equvalent to pussy?
Schmuck is German for jewelry or decoration.
schmuck in German is also an adjective for pretty or attractive. (note the lower case for adjective vs upper case for nouns in German). The spelling s-c-h-m-u-c-k is German, not “Americanized”. Americans wouldn’t add a “c” in there.
Reference for above is Oxford Duden Concise German dictionary.
Schmuck is cited in my Websters Encylopedic Unabridged as:
[quote]
n. Slang. fool; oaf; jerk. [< Yiddish: male member, lit., pendant; akin to OHG smocko, G Schmuck ornament, finery ]