Shit shit shit shit shit!
I think I remember hearing the word shit uncensored on an A&E documentary about Jim Jones a while back. I kind of did a double take.
Sometimes, the bleeps are funnier than the original. On MST3K, they did an episode where Mike is on trial for blowing up planets. Crow does a video deposition? -is that right- and totally laces it with profanity. Every other word is BEEP. It’s hysterical! And then the episode with Final Justice, Joe Don Baker calls someone a Son of a MUTED out totally. They get to make jokes, like, “Son of a what? Son of a preacher man? Son of a son of a sailor maybe?” or, “I’ll kill you but I won’t curse at you!”
So no other Dopers saw that episode of SNL from around '96 or so where they said “fuck” probably three times? Funny, that was the first time I’d watched it in ages and it just happened to be one that hit the foul language jackpot. Anyway, Stuart Smalley said it twice in one sketch, and I believe Norm McDonald said it during Weekend Update. The guy I was with at the time knew quite a bit about broadcasting standards and said that they would probably get fined a set amount for each usage of the word, but no big deal.
And of course PBS can get away with more profanity because they don’t have the sponsor issue that broadcast tv has. But that’s a ‘duh’ statement, no?
I love how Europe is so much more relaxed than we are in the US when it comes to foul language. Last Xmas I was in Sweden and quickly found out that one of the most popular ad campaigns on TV featured the catchphrase “Oh, for fuck’s sake!” (In English, but everyone knows what it means).
In fact, language and nudity abounds there, and it’s one of the nicest, most law-abiding countries I’ve ever seen.
Man, what a sad bunch of neopuritans some of us can be!
And speaking of bleeps, lately one often hears them done so briefly that the original word is hardly distorted. For example, “asshole” becomes “as__ole.” Why even bother? Everyone knows what was said, so go ahead and let 'er rip. Sheesh. As if a four-letter word is gonna ruin your life.
One of the most annoying things about the American channels I get on cable here (Western Canada) is how they bleep curses.
As Dave Foley (from Kids In The Hall) informed David Letterman during an interview “Yes Dave, up in Canada, not only can we say the ‘F-word’, we can also say the vowel and the other two consonants”.
Strangely enough, this has not caused the collapse of civilization as we know it.
Go figure.