So I was watching watching The Departed on FX earlier, and I needed to vent. Everything is "FCC friendly." Fucking is replaced with freaking, dipshit was replaced with dipstick, etc. etc. But they just had a scene where faggot was ok. Would they had played n*gger on air? No. Would they say or show tits? No. But somehow saying faggot wasn't offensive? Ugh. And right now I'm watching 8 Mile on TNT (clearly I have no life except watching movies right now) and they clipped out faggot and cut the ex scene. So what makes saying aggot on FX ok, but TNT knows better?
To sum it up. FX is more willing to push the boundaries than TNT, but not as much as say HBO or Showtime.
They probably would've played the N word on FX actually. I've definitely heard it on Network Television before. Bottom line is this: Never watch movies on channels that have commercials. Why? Not ONLY will they edit out anything in an R rated film that makes the film R rated to begin with, but they will also edit out "Unnecessary scenes" to fit into time slots with the commercials. A lot of the time these unnecessary scenes are actually really important, or have a lot of hilarity in them. I've seen it happen too many times and its like film murder. It's horrible. SOME channels aren't too bad to watch films they may be playing on them, like the SciFi channel ( I refuse to type out its new name >_>) and even Comedy Central after a certain time at night. FX is interesting though. They allow "Shit" on the air sometimes. Sometimes not. Even "fuck" I've heard too, but that was probably after dark. It's all very complicated, the FCC and MPAA. Bullshit? Yes. But so is life
And here I thought someone was going to complain about the most important thing the US Federal Communications Commission deals with - spectrum management. With the decline of shortwave radio in North America due to the internet and interference from other devices, maybe it would be nice to allow enthusiasts to broadcast on more favourable frequencies. On to your topic … Maybe if people wrote in every time a word was censored to complain instead of the other way around broadcasters and regulators would have more sensible policies. A lobby group wouldn't hurt either. If you are interested in double standards you may enjoy Kirby Dick's documentary on the MPAA. "Horrific deplorable violence is okay, as long as they don't use any dirty words " - Sheila Broflovski
Yeah, I can't stand to watch movies on channels with commercials. A few weeks ago they had "Grease" on TV Land or something,and they cut out anything remotely "racy" (and this was around 1:00am too.) I can understand cutting out the lyric "you know it ain't no shit, we'll be getting lots of tit" from the song "Greased Lightning," but some of the other stuff they cut like when they talk about "putting out" and whatnot was completely ridiculous. Ugh, I couldn't finish watching it, the cuts were horrendous. And the cutting for commercials just irritates the hell out me. I'll just stick to Blu-Rays, DVDs, and HBO for my movie needs. I think it depends on the channel in regards to the word f-ggot. I hate that that slur is still allowed. That word just burns me up. Alot of channels will bleep it out, but I guess FX allows it. I don't really get it either.
"So the FCC won't let me be or let me be me, so let me see They try to shut me down on MTV But it feels so empty, without me " I couldn't help it. lol
You see what happens Larry? You see what happens when you find a stranger in the alps! [YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCcKBcZzGdA[/YOUTUBE]
Omfg I love the fucking Big Lebowski <3 And yes, Censoring CAN have some novelty treasures, such as that. And I think in Die Hard with a Vengeance they change one of Samuel L Jackson's lines from Motherfucker to Melon Farmer, which led the phrase Melon Farmers to be used by Red in Pineapple Express xD [YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dOC1_AZGAs[/YOUTUBE] They just used that one purposely though xD
Even some regular channels allow "shit" in the right circumstances (I think it's after 10:00 PM). The recent Comedy Central Roasts allowed "shit" as long as it is used as an interjection and not to refer to excrement; that may be the differentiating factor for FX as well (that's pure conjecture, though). I even remember seeing it uncensored on Tenacious D's tv show once (the context was, "Onstage, we're the shit."), as well as on some real-life forensic TV show (context: "He was calling her, and basically threatening to beat the shit out of her.") I think the Tenacious D example happened during the day, surprisingly enough. In both cases, it was kind of surreal to hear it on television; I almost didn't believe that I had just heard it. I'd continue from here, but I think it may be too vulgar for this tender audience, so instead, I give you the clean version, which is pretty silly compared to the explicit version: "Come on, get bum on you lips Jump back, jiggle your hips, and wiggle a bit and get ready 'Cause this is about to get heavy I just settled all my lawsuits **** YOU DEBBIE!""
I don't understand how they have any basis to remove words like "fuckin'" over "freakin'"... who says one is worse than the other? [YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_Nrp7cj_tM[/YOUTUBE] Anyways, I would rather them not censor out another word (faggot) and just allow whatever the original movie says to be said. Parental block imo.
Melon Farmers, haha. I'll confess that I've never seen The Big Lewbowski on TV but I bet the censors really had to earn their paycheck for that one. I'm sure it would have been more economical to replace the entire soundtrack with mariachi music.
For the record, the FCC has ZERO jurisdiction over cable, as that is privately-owned space not broadcast over the air. The FCC has jurisdiction over things broadcast over air, hence broadcast television (which is a very very small portion of television these days), radio, et cetera. The cable channels that bleep and edit do so according to their own internal policies, which are based on their assessment of who comprises their audiences, whether sponsors and advertisers will want their brand images associated with that particular channel's content, and frankly, whether they think they need to censor stuff to make more money.