Tonight on Cartoon Network, they’re showing episode Futurama, episode 25 “The Deep South” (in which they have an underwater adventure with southern-gentlemen merpeople.)
The Professor, known for using some rather bizarre phrases, has a line early in the episode where he exclaims, “Sweet zombie Jesus!” in alarm at an approaching fish of enormous size. When the episode was aired just now, you heard him say “sweet zombie–” and then saw his mouth moving when he would have completed the line, while the background track continues to play, so clearly it was deliberate. They cut the word “Jesus” from the line on purpose.
For what unfathomable reason do we suppose that might be? Irreverent attitudes towards religion are taken routinely, and to a much greater extent on The Simpsons (same creator as Futurama, so unlikely to remove it himself) and Family Guy (on CN immediately preceding Futurama.) This hardly even seems to register a blip on the “innapropriate content” RADAR. But I can’t seem to think of any reason other than content to remove a single word from an episode.
I was wondering what the hell happened there. Damn! That’s a really funny line! Fun episode, too.
I feel like I say this every day, but FOX can bite my shiny metal ass!
There are some people who consider using God or Jesus as expletives to be as profane as the more commonly bleeped obscenities. In fact, a poster on this very board often complains about such usage, and I’m sure he’s wounded deeply by the thread title.
You can talk about sex on TV, even lewdly to some extent, but you can’t say “fuck”. And you can talk about or mock religion, but you can’t exclaim “Jesus Christ!”
Of course, this various depending on the network and time slot. Obviously Fox didn’t cut the word when the episode originally aired. And you can say “shit” on NYPD Blue on ABC, but when it airs in syndication the word is cut. Same thing.
I should also note that Cartoon Network is notorious for cutting all references to religion in the anime they run.
“We train young men to drop fire on people. But their commanders won’t allow them to write ‘fuck’ on their airplanes because it’s obscene!”
-Col. Kurtz
Ranchoth
(“He’s not so bad/he’s really just an odd-man.”)
I’ve seen this ep before on CN and they edited it then too…
FOX != Cartoon Network
Well, sure we kill people. But we always do it politely!
Of course, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything seriously religious in anime, anyway, so this is hardly a loss. In some ways its an improvement, since the word God simply doesn’t cross the cultural boundary.
True, CN is owned by AOL/TW. However, FOX can bite my ass anyway. CN, AOL, Ted Turner and anybody else involved can feel free to join in.
I’m here to add, actually, that the TBS rerun deleted the entire line, not just the “Jesus.” And even more amazingly, in tonight’s episode, the Professor used the line again! (I didn’t realize it had happened more than once.) How did I know what he said? Well, how many times in a week do you hear “Sweet Zombie ____!” on TV? 
:smack: :smack: :smack: :smack:
It IS clear, in any case, that the “Jesus” was removed because it was used as a swear. Comedy Central removes (bleeps) both “Jesus!” and “god!” when they’re used this way, which I love ridiculing because it’s so stupid. I’ve never heard Family Guy “use the lord’s name in vain,” so they wouldn’t get edited for that. Apparently, it’s been done on the major networks on occasion.
Did CN edit the Christmas episode of Family Guy where Peter says “As we all know, Christmas is that mystical time of year when the ghost of Jesus rises from the grave to feed on the flesh of the living. So, we all sing Christmas carols to lull him back to sleep.”?
The good news is “Sweet Zombie Jesus” can be heard in all its blasphemous glory on the new DVD set.
Whoa. Futurama is aired on TBS?
Just wanted to point out that this subject has been brought up before. By me. Right around the time Futurama first came out on CN. Professor Farnsworth utters the line “Sweet Zombie Jesus!” in numerous episodes and it is edited in all of them.
If they were showing this in prime time it wouldn’t bother me as much, but it’s somewhat galling considering this is airing after 11pm during the Adult Swim lineup, which has a message warning of possible objectionable material at the beginning of every show.
At least CN gives us a place to get our canceled cartoon fixes without shelling out for DVDs. You gotta appreciate that.
Yeah I think at 2:00 pm. I only remember that because I thought it was sorta strange.
Futurama and Family Guy are both on TBS at 2 pm Eastern.