| NEWS 8: South Park's naughty words cut out by MTV UK! (April 2006) As the South Park movie taught us: horrible, deplorable violence is OK, as long as nobody says any naughty words! The South Park television series has always had to put up with some censorship; despite being one of the most deliberately offensive and taboo-busting American TV shows in history, they've still had to bleep "fuck" and "shit" out of most episodes. Maybe if it was on HBO they would be able to swear more, but then maybe South Park wouldn't have been able to reach its 10th series (and still going strong). In Britain, the series is currently shown by Paramount Comedy (who treat it very well, in my opinion) and MTV (who treat it very poorly, I think). Here are a few examples of censorship (words being bleeped-out which weren't bleeped before), from episodes MTV have screened in 2005-06 (quotes sort-of-borrowed from SP Scriptorium): ORANGE = ALREADY BLEEPED RED = MTV-BLEEPED --------------------------------- NAUGHTY WORD 1: "Retard" In 'Goobacks' (Season 8, episode no. 806) At the meeting of, er, Rednecks against people from the future: DARRYL WEATHERS Chet, you are a fuckin' retard, you know that?! Even if global warming were real, which all proven scientific data shows it isn't, it would take millions of years for a climate shift to happen! You think an ice age can just happen all of a sudden-like? CHET Well I was just tryin' to be helpful. WEATHERS Well help yourself to a fuckin' science book, 'cause you're talkin' like a fuckin' retard! Now, come on people, we've got to think! Damnit, they took our jaorbs! --------------------------------- NAUGHTY WORD 2: "Jew" Same episode KYLE If you want your share of the money, then you're gonna shovel snow like the rest of us! CARTMAN Hey! Don't boss me around, you fuckin' Jew! I will kick your ass! But "Jew" doesn't always get bleeped-out. When they showed the belowmentioned episode, MTV allow Cartman to say such things as [to Stan] "Look, I know you think he's your best friend, but Kyle is a Jew rat! He has his Jew ethics while he hoards his greedy Jew gold, and he will Jew you out if you tell him about this!" without bleeping them out. Is this line any less racist than the one they didn't allow? --------------------------------- NAUGHTY WORD 3: "Fag" In 'Two Days Before the Day after Tomorrow' (Season 9, episode no. 908) Randy, Gerald and Stephen are marching through the 'storm', to try and save the boys, while putting on rather ridiculous 1940s-adventure-movie voices: RANDY We're in deep hypothermia, all of us! We've gotta keep the blood flowing! [bends down to help Stephen up] GERALD Maybe we should... strip these jackets off, and warm our bodies next to each other! RANDY Don't be a fag! --------------------------------- The common thread between all those naughty words is their pejorativeness - they're all small-minded, prejudiced insults. But South Park only uses these words to make us laugh at the people using them - dealing with the 'taboo' head-on, as they often do. By bleeping extra words out, MTV are suggesting that they don't understand this (as well as the obvious point about censoring controversial art) and I don't think they should show the series at all if they're going to water-down this side of its humour. I don't know if they cut out visually-shocking scenes such as Mr Garrison's Fancy New Vagina (you'll remember it when you see it). Or Mr Slave 'ingesting' Paris Hilton. Are these more shocking or offensive than the naughty words? I don't know, and I don't think it should matter - South Park should be allowed to be seen as it is. Have they no respect for the viewer?! Oh wait, it's MTV; of course they don't. |
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