I Hate Bleepin’ Censorship

Vitruvian © by Mr.Enjoy

Recently, the Hallmark channel ran a Frasier marathon.  I love that show. It just never ceases to make me giggle. The same is true for the Golden Girls which also airs on the channel.  As I was watching the Frasier episodes, I noticed that certain words were being bleeped out or edited out  including the words ass, hooker and maybe butt—about that one, I am not sure.

Anyway, at first I thought I imagined the bleeping. I couldn’t figure out why these words would be considered “bleepable”.  After a few more words didn’t make the Hallmark cut, I really became curious, so I emailed the network .  In truth, I was pretty rude. This is what I said:

May I ask why you feel it necessary to cut out some words from your broadcast of Frasier? What kind of prudish people work at your channel or worse, what kind of prudish people watch your channel, that you feel this is necessary…?

This is what they sent back:

Crown Media Networks is committed to family friendly programming.  Our Standards & Practices (“S&P” – the things that are or are not acceptable for a particular network) are very conservative.  There are words and phrases commonly used on other cable channels and broadcast networks that Hallmark Channel’s S&P guidelines deem unacceptable.

Okay, this is what is wrong with that statement and why I need to rant. First, this is censorship at its worst. Family Friendly, my ass – oops, my BLEEP. Worse than censorship, this is hypocritical censorship. The Hallmark channel broadcast Frasier at various times of the day. The show is filled with sexual content; yet, the word ass, as in pain in the ass, got them upset. If they are so FAMILY FRIENDLY they wouldn’t be broadcasting this show at all.  Frasier episodes are filled with sexual dialogue and sexual situations that depict mostly casual sex – not married-people sex. And let’s face it: if family entertainment advocates had their way, we would only see married-people sex or no sex at all on TV.  If “bad” language sends up the red flag to the Hallmark people why not one-night-stand sex?

The same goes for the airing of Golden Girls. Anyone who has ever watched this show knows sex and orgasms are the primary topics of discussion over cheesecake. I don’t ever remember hearing any bleeping when the “Girls” graphically reminisced about their sexual escapades.  Again, why are these conversations not subject to the same censorship?

So, what exactly are Hallmark’s guidelines?  I assume it’s to set a high moral standing as long as that standing does not interfere with revenue dollars. To be honest, I am lashing out at Hallmark here because I hate anything to do with censorship, and I hate groups that advocate censorship with words like Family Friendly. To me, Family Friendly are the two “F” words we might all fear in the censorship game.

Here is an idea: You want to protect your children?  Be parents. Change the bleepin’channel or take the bleepin’TV out of your kids’ bleepin’ rooms so that they can’t watch the bleepin’ shows that are deemed by some ultra-conservative watch groups as amoral or sexually explicit. It upsets me to no end that a cable channel has been duped into thinking that censorship is the right way to go.

Perhaps, Hallmark cards, which is part of the same corporation, should be banned from retail outlets because–let’s face it– their Shoebox Greetings, while incredibly funny, can get a little crass. Maybe retail outlets should adopt the strategy of the now extinct video stores and place the less family friendly cards in a back room out of view of the general population. God knows what would happen if small children happened upon one of those more suggestive cards.  The words or images might be seared into their innocent brains and their lives will no doubt take a 180-degree turn away from purity rings and toward sexual promiscuity. Yes, it will be Sodom and Gomorrah all over again, and it will be all Hallmark’s fault. Isn’t that ironic?

photo by Jos

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33 thoughts on “I Hate Bleepin’ Censorship”

  1. Dear Anonymous – “Let me warn you this” Besides the poor grammar the internet is protected by the Constitution that provides us with freedom of the press for jerks, cowards and geniuses. Sadly you fall under the jerk/coward category. Your comments are just idle empty threats, (yawn). The great news your comments have gained our site so much traffic we are gaining new readership!! For this we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

  2. Awww.. why censor Frasier? He’s just a lovable old bear who tries to get in everyone’s pants.. and gets worried about repressed homosexual tendencies once in a while!

  3. Why do they so commonly use the bleeping sound as a means of censorship? Nobody likes brief farts of static while watching a good show, and that’s profanity to our ears itself. They should really consider replacing it with sounds of something a little more soothing, say, the chirping of birds, bunnies pooping, and such.

  4. I always wonder about people concerned about sex and language in front of their children, but don’t care what violence is portrayed! I notice that you have eschewed censorship on this site and I applaud you for it! Some humor can be aided with just the right word!

    1. we have tried to eschew censorship. I do put an R-rating on the relevant posts as a warning only. If people choose to read posts, that is their choice but I will not censor the work or ideas of the writers. G-rated or R-rated, they get promoted the same. And yes, it takes just the right word sometimes to get the point across. Thanks, Mike!

  5. But it’s important that children grow up thinking they have tushies and not asses. They might associate one with a parent who allows them to watch such UNfriendly family shows.

    Outf—— standing article Donna.

    1. Now, now Deb; it’s about our sustaining our kids’ morality by eradicating the world of the bad words because we all know that it’s bad words that lead to the downfall of society not the close-minded and judgmental attitude that some people own and preach. 🙂

      1. You’re so freakin’ deluded and your sarcasm sickens me.

        It’s people like you who lead to the downfall of society by thinking that you can just hide behind freedom and use it as an excuse to say and do whatever you want even if they’re harmful. Didn’t your parents teach you right?

        Let me warn you this: If you take your freedom too far, you will pay the price. If you think that I’m kidding, then I dare you to go out into the world, be a big jerk to lots of people, and see if they don’t retaliate at you for that.

        1. Tough words from a coward who is apparently afraid to leave their name on a comment. While we approved these comments from the moderation queue because basically we don’t believe in censorship, we do have a spam filter and the fake e-mail address you used has been added to the spam filter. Any further comments from that address will go straight to the trash.

        2. By the way anonymous, let me teach you a thing or two about computers and the internet. Nothing is really anonymous. For instance you are from Milwaukee Wisconsin, you spent 9 minutes and 49 seconds on the site during the visit you left these comments. You came to the site by searching “I hate humor”, which obviously you do. Shall I go on with more info? Next time you want to leave threatening comments own up to who you are.

        3. Dear anonymous:

          The only deluded person here is you. Donna is certainly NOT going “out into the world” and being “a big jerk to lots of people.” Just the opposite. She has been incredibly generous in helping give a voice to those of us who love to make people laugh.

          In fact, the only one being a jerk here is you. Deluded and a jerk. A double threat.

    2. No, you should get a life. Censorship will always exist whether you like it or not. Besides, I support it, And if you don’t like it, deal with it.

      1. Okay, first of all see how much more courageous I am in that I approved your comment, and you didn’t have the guts to identify yourself. All you did was give a fake email and no name. Secondly, threatening me is stupid but with your mentality I expect nothing else. Third, Michele Bachmann, what happened to our agreement? I thought if I didn’t call you a fucking hypocrite, you would leave my site alone. that’s a joke, moron!

        1. Nice. I just love people who take a stand, especially when they do it anonymously. I’m picturing some inbred mouth breather who lives in a basement at their mom’s house. The kind of person who’s only gotten to second base with a first cousin at a family reunion. If you’re so admit about censorship, I suggest you start with your idiotic ranting. 😉

          1. Inbred mouth breather who lives in a basement at their mom’s house… who just so happens to be listed on the national sex offenders registry

      2. Congratulations on your support of censorship, this puts you in the company of great world leaders such as Joseph Stalin, Mao Tse Tung, and Saddam Hussein just to name a few that even a poorly educated person such as yourself has probably heard of.

        You often hear gun advocates claim that the first thing a dictator does is take the people’s guns, perhaps but it is closely followed if not preceded by taking control of the means of communication, i.e. censorship.

        Tyranny in the name of Christ or whatever you consider “goodness” is still tyranny.

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