I saw an interview on Conan O’Brien recently where the guest recounted a tale where he described in detail, an amusing “penis” anecdote that involved graphic descriptions of the male anatomy and the act of “urination”. Not one word was bleeped out. Scott Thompson comes on next, and makes reference to the previous anecdote, using the words “dick” and “piss”, which are bleeped out. The last guest, a Brit, recounts a tale about Richard Nixon being intoxicated at a party “Dick was pissed!”, not bleeped out. Why are TV censors so weird?
because a few people are trying to decide what is morally right for millions of other people. context is certainly a factor (what is talked about, and who is saying it). so is the time slot (late night vs prime time).
for that matter, perhaps Scott T. wanted the bleeps for comic effect.
You can get a certain number of words in okay. One time on happy Days, they wanted to get the word ‘virgin’ on, which you really couldnt use then, so they put it in the script 12 times! Which got changed to just once by the censors. If they did it just once, it would have been cut by the censors.
To quote from Bill Bryson’s superb Made in America:
Although this was under the prudish auspices of the Hays Code, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was still going on today. I know that in Britain a blind eye is sometimes turned to strong language where it’s important for context (e.g. emotional drama).
And since the fine art of “bleeping” is not automated, it’s a judgment call and so can depend on the censor’s mood, what she had for lunch, etc…
(By the way, if the words were bleeped, how do you know he said “dick” or “piss”)?
Let me give you an example. Suppose that you’re the moderator in charge of this forum, and you’re told “personal insults are disallowed.” I decide to call you (for the purposes of experiment: this is not meant to be a real insult) an a*****e. Does that get me a reprimand?
How about a*le, aole, a**hole? What if I spell the word out? Obviously, the two *s in my last word are easily interpreted to indicate my real meaning, so does it really make a difference if I spell the word in full? At what point am I booted off to the BBQ Pit forum?
It’s important to remember that the “bleep” has a certain shock value, and shows like Jerry Springer will use it ad nausium because it makes the staged fights seem more edgy. OTOH, shows that try to be family entertainment will just blank out offensive words, or dub in something less offensive.
This is a WAG, but I would say that when Mr. Thompson used the words dick and piss, they were meant to be vulgar or whatnot. But, when said Brit said “Dick was pissed” that could be taken this way. Dick is a shortened form of the name Richard. And, I’m pretty sure, ‘pissed’ is a slang term for being intoxicated.