Censoring

[RebelRising]

NOTE: This is not a discussion about the swears themselves and how they might be offensive to some people. This is concerning how people feel about "bleeping" as a contributor to the humor of a scene with lots of swearing for the purpose of being funny. Lots of shows, like Family Guy and South Park, right off the bat, are boasting the feature of being uncensored, but I wonder if that's all it's cracked up to be.

Yahtzee brought this up at one point, that censors can actually enhance the humor of a dialogue, especially if the swears are constant and quick-fire, like the "f-word scene" from the South Park movie. I think the reason for this is that if the application of a certain cuss is flexible enough, the ambiguity can make for guesswork for what they are actually saying. Plus, uncensoring is just mainstreaming "offensive" language, and that's no fun.

Your opinions? Thoughts?

 

[jim_doki]

Fuck certainly loses its impact after a while. its much better to mix levels of cursing in the same curse:

"what a gosh darn cunting thing to happen"

its funnier and catches people off guard. that said constant cursing nearly always demonstrates a lack of wit (the following exceptions noted: BillY Connelly, Dave Chappelle, Kevin Smith)

 

[Jharry5]

Yeah, I think that sometimes censored stuff is funnier. You can usually work out what's being said anyway...
For example, there's a scene in the Family Guy episode 'PTV' where nearly every word is censored and regardless of how many times I watch it, I still don't know what's being said (because the bleeps come at you so fast). But its just that that keeps that sketch funny.
Leaving it to the viewer's imagination is sometimes better than providing the answer...

 

[OverlordSteve]

My favorite scene in a show is that one in arrested development where they're all cursing their mom out (uncensored), then Buster works up the courage to say a good 20-second long sentence, all censored, during which their mom walks in. Priceless.

 

[Helmet]

I believe South Park has summed this up quite well at the end of their "Night of 1000 Shits" episode. If you use a cuss word too often, it loses its effect. Keep it random, and censor yourself occasionally. Keep'em on their toes.

 

[Amnestic]

I've always found the idea of censorship of such words a bit silly really. Especially the censorship where you can hear at least part of the word and the bleep occurs halfway through. For example when one says "Shit", it comes out as "ShBLEEP". But everyone knows you said "shit", so why bother censoring it?

This occurs plenty on the internet too, when people write "f**k" or "Sh*t". Everyone knows what you're saying, why bother self-censoring, except to get past needless swear filters which perhaps shouldn't even be there in the first place?

Using terms like "the F-word" similarly, seems pointless. Everyone knows what you're on about, it's pointless hiding it for the sake of hiding it.

 

[corporate_gamer]

Depends, sometimes it works well, when it just adds some ambiguity to the situation. But in songs or something, where it just completely ruins the flow of them its just a bit stupid.

 

[Imitation Saccharin]

I've always found the idea of censorship of such words a bit silly really. Especially the censorship where you can hear at least part of the word and the bleep occurs halfway through. For example when one says "Shit", it comes out as "ShBLEEP". But everyone knows you said "shit", so why bother censoring it?

This occurs plenty on the internet too, when people write "f**k" or "Sh*t". Everyone knows what you're saying, why bother self-censoring, except to get past needless swear filters which perhaps shouldn't even be there in the first place?

Using terms like "the F-word" similarly, seems pointless. Everyone knows what you're on about, it's pointless hiding it for the sake of hiding it.

Maybe they're just fans of exceedingly easy encryption?

 

[Cpt. Red]

Swearwords isnt exactly only useful in comedy...

 

[Nimbus]

Swearwords isnt exactly only useful in comedy...

You've probably never heard an Irish comedian

 

[Scorched_Cascade]

Censor bleeps do add humour in my opinon for example in timesplitters 3 a character plays a sound bite and does a little animation when you select to play as them in multiplayer. One of the side characters is a stereotypical English butler but when you select him he does the hand snap thing and says "*beep*ing you up in a gansta stylie!" if he just said fucking it would be a lot less funny.

 

[fluffylandmine]

Why bother when I can come up with 7 new words of equal or greater meaning than the ones in place.

Yurk you censors!

 

[Nimbus]

Why bother when I can come up with 7 new words of equal or greater meaning than the ones in place.

Yurk you censors!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5q3TG5yCG0

Grat your Yurk.

 

[Cpt. Red]

Swearwords isnt exactly only useful in comedy...

You've probably never heard an Irish comedian

I think you misunderstood me, what I meant is that there are a lot more kinds of places where swearwords are useful and in many of those it would be ridiculous to censor and not that it isnt useful in comedy...

 

[fluffylandmine]

Why bother when I can come up with 7 new words of equal or greater meaning than the ones in place.

Yurk you censors!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5q3TG5yCG0

Grat your Yurk.

You flaking blit!

 

[Dele]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyCKxNDGENE&feature=related [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyCKxNDGENE&feature=related]

I approve censorship when its used correctly

 

[cleverlymadeup]

yeah censoring can actually make things funnier or can make it look less serious

tho i will say the new mac commericals where they keep bleeping out vista are hilarious and a great use of the bleep