# TV now censors the "N" word? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 28, 2010, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-now-censors-the-n-word/526759 "2010-01-28T14:23:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-now-censors-the-n-word/526759/21 "2010-01-28T22:06:51Z")
\*Prisoner \*(_Prisoner: Cell Block H_) would not be the same without Lizzie saying “He the “N” in the woodpil” 🙂 Thank God for uncut DVDs ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-now-censors-the-n-word/526759/22 "2010-01-28T22:11:07Z")
Sure, some channels censor the word “nigger” sometimes. Hell, even in this thread, no one’s been willing to say it yet. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-now-censors-the-n-word/526759/23 "2010-01-28T22:22:10Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > Archie never said it, but George Jefferson said it in the episode where is son was going to marry a woman whose father was white. Yep. I remember. George Jefferson said the word at Lionel and Jenny’s engagement party. Archie upon hearing it pulled a face and said, “Geez, I haven’t used **that** word in five years!” ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-now-censors-the-n-word/526759/24 "2010-01-28T22:30:32Z")
A very good episode was Archie getting drunk when he was locked in the basement. He thought God was coming to take him and of course the guy who showed up was black. ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-now-censors-the-n-word/526759/25 "2010-01-28T22:47:41Z")
Fred Sanford used the word a few times. ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-now-censors-the-n-word/526759/26 "2010-01-28T23:28:40Z")
> [@Indistinguishable](#): > > Sure, some channels censor the word “nigger” sometimes. Hell, even in this thread, no one’s been willing to say it yet. Thank you. It was unclear to me which “N-word” people were referring to. I don’t remember ever hearing “nigger” on TV, though if it were in something period-specific like All in the Family or Sanford and Son (or something older) I wouldn’t expect it to be bleeped. (I would be surprised to hear it, nonetheless.) I think on a specific MOVIE channel (TMC or IFC) it wouldn’t be bleeped as they usually air things uncut, but perhaps becuase it was ION, a fringe network that doesn’t specialize in movies they decided to play it safe. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-now-censors-the-n-word/526759/27 "2010-01-28T23:41:55Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > I don’t recall Archie saying N but I do recall him saying Wop, Spic and Hebe. And Spade. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-now-censors-the-n-word/526759/28 "2010-01-28T23:52:53Z")
> [@voguevixen](#): > > Thank you. It was unclear to me which “N-word” people were referring to. I don’t remember ever hearing “nigger” on TV, though if it were in something period-specific like All in the Family or Sanford and Son (or something older) I wouldn’t expect it to be bleeped. (I would be surprised to hear it, nonetheless.) > > I think on a specific MOVIE channel (TMC or IFC) it wouldn’t be bleeped as they usually air things uncut, but perhaps becuase it was ION, a fringe network that doesn’t specialize in movies they decided to play it safe. ION used to be PaxTV (as mentioned above), and considers itself a more family friendly network. I can see them going overboard with censoring to help keep that image. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-now-censors-the-n-word/526759/29 "2010-01-28T23:55:44Z")
Goodfellas is not much of a family movie even with all the bad words taken out. Lots of people get whacked and they show all of those deaths. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-now-censors-the-n-word/526759/30 "2010-01-29T00:40:32Z")
Books are censored too. I have a few first editions of the _Hardy Boys_. The early books had a few expressions like “Nigger in the Woodpile”, which means - something suspicious or wrong. Later editions removed them. ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-now-censors-the-n-word/526759/31 "2010-01-29T00:49:57Z")
The first time I realized this was being done, was back in the late 90s, early 2000 when I was watching Rap videos on MTV vs. watching them on BET. The MTV versions would have all sorts of pauses and breaks that I never really understood but then when I saw the videos on BET they kept in most of the language and N-words. However, now it seems to vary as I’ve seen the word censored by both companies, but not always either. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-now-censors-the-n-word/526759/32 "2010-01-29T02:57:18Z")
M new favorite censoring is the removal of the words “muffin” and “gun” from the video for Lady Gaga’s Pokerface. On VH1’s best videos of the year special, they removed the word muffin. One of the commentators then said " ‘Bluffin with my muffin’ is my favorite phrase of the year." They neglected to censor the word muffin when he said it. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-now-censors-the-n-word/526759/33 "2010-01-29T03:50:02Z")
So… now they’re censoring innuendo? Hasn’t that traditionally been the \*point \*of innuendo throughout the years? To get a bawdy message “past the censors”? ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-now-censors-the-n-word/526759/34 "2010-01-29T15:27:50Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > I don’t recall Archie saying N but I do recall him saying Wop, Spic and Hebe. What?! Really I’m shocked to hear that none of these words have historically been censored. I had no idea they used that language on All in the Family. How stupid we can censor meaningless words like fuck or shit, but we don’t censor words historically used as symbols of oppression and degradation. (I’m anti-censorship, for the record, I just think it’s stupid how we define ‘‘offensive.’’) ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-now-censors-the-n-word/526759/35 "2010-01-29T16:12:48Z")
> [@Neidhart](#): > > Fred Sanford used the word a few times. Do they go back and censor stuff like that or does it run as original to when it aired? ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-now-censors-the-n-word/526759/36 "2010-01-29T16:43:33Z")
The whole point of Archie Bunker was that he was a bigot so it was expected he would use those words. All in the Family was pretty ground breaking as a sitcom because of the topics they covered. The Bunkers were not a normal family like you saw on most sitcoms. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-now-censors-the-n-word/526759/37 "2010-01-29T17:06:45Z")
I seem to recall an article by Isaac Asimov, back during the show’s run, where he criticized the show for NOT using the n-word. His thesis was that a real person like Archie Bunker would most certainly have used the word, and that to have him avoid it in favor of the lesser slurs made him less offensive, and even, perhaps, lovable. I didn’t recall the episode cited by **Too Many Cats** , above, where Archie claimed to have “not used that word in five years”. However, if this is correct, I think it actually makes the character a bit more realistic. A person of Archie’s history and circumstances, in that time period, might very well have deliberately modified his language in that manner. He still uses the less offensive terms, but probably thinks he should be given some credit for dropping the most offensive. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-now-censors-the-n-word/526759/38 "2010-01-29T17:15:28Z")
At the end of the show Archie did get less bigoted, for example they rented a room to a Hispanic woman after Mike and Gloria moved out. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-now-censors-the-n-word/526759/39 "2010-01-29T17:17:31Z")
I did try to watch “Blazing Saddles: The Censored Version” - don’t bother. It is well and truly emasculated and gut-shot with all the naughty words taken out. We saw Craig Ferguson live last week, and he does indeed like to swear. I’m amazed now that they only bleep him one or two times per episode. 😃 ---
**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:** [January 29, 2010, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-now-censors-the-n-word/526759/40 "2010-01-29T17:27:10Z")
> [@Annie](#): > > You should see what they can do to “Blazing Saddles” [Indeed.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=2242147) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-now-censors-the-n-word/526759.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-now-censors-the-n-word/526759.md?page=3)