I’m sitting her watching the South Park movie on Comedy Central and everyone’s saying “fuck.” They can do that? How come they normally bleep it then? Can you say “fuck” after 10 PM or something?
Well, IIRC, Comedy Central can do whatever they want since they’re cable.
I’m sure someone will be along shortly to either correct me or provide more details.
Its there back room collection or something like that. They play movies and routines without censoring anything. They just play it late so nobody complains, and to be honest with you I’ve never seen them play anything other than the south park movie.
They actually do a have a thing on Saturday nights where they air things unbleeped. They’ve showed some Richard Pryor and Chris Rock as well.
http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/obscene.html
Not sure if these rules apply to cable. But it seems you do whatever you want after 10pm unless it fails this three prong test:
An average person, applying contemporary community standards, must find that the material, as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest;
The material must depict or describe, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by applicable law; and
The material, taken as a whole, must lack serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.
Don’t see how South Park applies. The series (and accompanying movie) represent some of the most astute social commentary America has ever enjoyed.
You’re thinking of Crank Yankers. Anyway, CC probably censors themselves because they want to avoid controversy, not because the law requires them to.
I’m thinking of South Park, actually.
Crank Yankers sounds funny, though. Might check it out.
Crank Yankers is east, and funny is west. IMHO at least.
But yeah, CC airs uncensored stuff late saturday nights. There was also an episode of South park with unbleeped profanity. One in particular, I mean; I’m sure there have been several. FCC has no jurisdiction over cable because it’s not publicly available over the airwaves.
I agree.
Right, anything on cable goes. If they show restraint, its marketing.
In addition, anything goes on regular broadcast media after 10pm. Again, if they show restraint, its marketing.
Around here, college radio stations that don’t rely on sponsorship have disclaimers saying that programming after 10pm may be ‘inappropriate for younger or more sensitive viewers’.
The South Park movie is usually shown at 1am so it’s generally unlikely children would be up watching.
According to the South Park website, the shows are sent to CC pre-bleeped. The DVDs are censored as well!.
They frequently advertise their late-night timeslot where they show uncut material, I can’t think of what they call it. But they have a promotional name for it.
Actually, I read an interview with Matt and Trey and they said that they wanted South Park to be bleeped because the profanity was funnier that way.
South Park also had the “shit” episode when they counted up the number of times the characters said shit unedited in the bottom right of the screen.
I think it came to 161.
I watched it with my mother, who laughed her ass off. It was her first episode of South Park.
I’m pretty sure it was closer to 10 PM here on the west coast. I guess I didn’t realize the cable channels self-censored. I really thought if they could say fuck, we’d be hearing it all the time.
I agree the regular South Park show is funnier with the bleeping. They do it so skillfully it’s like they’re getting over on the censors.
Sorry, forgot about the East Coast/West Coast thing. I don’t think Comedy Central has a West Coast feed.
As for the self-censoring, yeah, it’s a lot funnier that way. Especially in “Cartman Gets an Anal Probe” where Stan is cussing out the aliens. You might hear one or two “nice” words in his rant.
Well… I doubt they do the self-censorship from any moral reasons, but instead they don’t want to offend their advertising customers.
That’s why channels that have no commercial advertisements such as HBO, etc… can show nudity, profanity, etc… in their shows. They don’t have any advertisers to worry about.
“The Secret Stash.”