If I’m remembering right, the South Park kids say God damnit all the time. But the movie “Super Troopers” is on tonight, and they’re bleeping it out every time it’s said. I believe the movie started at 10:00 pm, same as South Park. What gives?
WAG would be that while South Park would never air on, say, a Monday afternoon, Super Troopers might. With the possibility that ST might air in an earlier time slot, it’s just easier to have one edit rather than multiple edits.
Doesn’t really explain the completely uncut versions CC shows of some moves though.
It may also be that CC is given the movie with the edit for content from the distributer.
[mere hearsay, not vouching for accuracy]
I seem to remember hearing once that in the South Park scripts it is punctuated as
“God! Damnit!”
Two separate sentences each with acceptible words, rather than one unacceptible phrase. One of those “fine line between clever and stupid” kind of things. Of, course this could all be bull. Shit.
[/mere hearsay, not vouching for accuracy]
When Comedy Central shows blazing saddles the scene where they’re eating beans and farting around camp has the fart sounds edited out. This is the same network that has…well, if you’re asking about Comedy Central odds are you’re aware of what kind of programs they air.
I believe when a network orders a show they’re not necessarily the ones who edit it. That’s why Comedy Central shows pretty much the same version of Blazing Saddles as PAX. I suspect it’s the same reason they’re showing that version of Super Troopers.
Marc
I am as confused as all of you.
Once on the Daily Show, I heard Jon Stewart say, “bullshit” (he was interviewing the author of the book On Bullshit ). We heard him say it many, many times.
They replay the previous noc’s broadcast after the show–and all the bullshits were edited out!
Huh?
They replay The Daily Show in the afternoon like around 7:00pm, so it’s probably like Otto mentioned, it’s easier to just make one edit for all times.
Jon Stewart really gloried in saying “bullshit” as many times as possible in that episode. I think he was given a special dispensation because it was in the title of the book, and was also the author’s technical term for the subject of the book (essentially, misdirection without any regard for the truth). Even in the usual 11:00 PM timeslot, “bullshit” would be bleeped.
Comedy central and other individual networks don’t do the edits for movies. They are done by the studios according to their standards and the standards for network TV at the time the edit was done.
Cable channels aren’t regulated by the FCC, but they are in the business of making money. And that means they can’t afford to offend either their advertisers or the cable system operators.
So as long as everyone has advance warning and buys in, they have no problem showing uncensored films and comedy concerts. People know what South Park is like and accept it. Besides, they’re cartoons. Comedy Central will show the complete originals of roasts or movies late on Saturday nights. The audience will accept it and the advertisers can be screened for the ones who’ll want that particular audience.
But they’re careful not to push the boundaries by running uncensored material in other times of the day or for advertisers who buy blocks of ad time rather than specific program-connected ads. It’s a careful balancing act but they seem to know how to walk that tightrope and they’re remarkably successful at it.
I’m also guessing that all the cable channels are worried about pissing off some tight-assed religious fanatic somewhere, and being the subject of a boycott. It’s funny about “bullshit”, though; I heard that for years on “NYPD Blue”, which was on broadcast tv.
During a Conan O’Brien episode with Dave Foley, they were talking about Dave’s (at the time) upcoming film Dick.
When it referred to Nixon and/or the film it was o.k. When Dave was naughty and used the word to mean “penis”, it got bleeped.
When Conan “scolded” Dave for his naughty use of the word Dave said:
also, keep in mind that The Daily Show has a TV-PG rating, while South Park has a TV-MA. Although you really do have to wonder if since they’re getting the MA rating anyway, why South Park even does any self-censoring at all?
Sometimes it’s funnier censored. Like when “Fat Abbot” said to the girl “Maybe later you can…” and the rest is left to the imagination.
I was thinking that, too. I don’t think Arrested Development would be nearly as funny unbleeped.
I was actually worried that when South Park was released on DVD it might not be censored. I was quite pleased to hear that the bleeps were kept. Much funnier.
On a related note. . .
I’ve mostly gotten to know South Park on DVD because I have not had cable since the second season. So prior to getting it on DVD I had never seen, or heard about, the episode It Hits the Fan, where they actually use the word “Shit” unbleeped something like 200 times.
In the episode they use the word “shit” because everyone is fascinated by the recent use of the word in a network television cop drama.
Was this premise based on a real life use of “shit” on a network show?
Were the South Park folks taking advantage of the precedent being set (similar to Kevin Nealon’s SNL Weekend Update discussion about the use of the word “Asshole” on NYPD Blue)?
Or did South Park simply advance boldly and alone in their use of the word “Shit” on television?
“How many dicks is that?”
“A lot”
An interesting opposite case happened on Sunday, during the coverage of the Montreal Formula One race on CBS. At one point commentator Derek Daly said about something that had happened to one of the drivers: “He’s [bleeped].” I took it to be “He’s screwed.” But later on, referring to the same situation, he said, “He’s screwed” several times *without being bleeped. *
I got the sense that someone with his finger on the button heard “screwed,” hit the bleep button, thought about it a minute, looked it up in the book, and found that you’re allowed to say “screwed” now. So he let it pass later on. (I’m certain Daly wouldn’t have said “He’s fucked” the first time, and I can’t think of anything else that would have fit.)
Interestingly, the race was tape delayed, so you’d have thought they had the time to get it right.