- Mar 13, 2009
- 5,245
- 2
- 0
I used to think that Americans were prude for censoring certain words like the so-called "f-word" on TV. Britains, on the other hand, always struck me as quite liberal with their usage of swearwords and similar expressions such as "bloody hell".
But I recently started watching British TV and stumbled upon an interesting phenomenon. Indeed, British TV channels such as ITV4 will go so far as to censor American sitcoms when they consider the content - not necessarily the words - too raunchy. This can lead to a considerable loss in the viewing pleasure.
A great example of this is the episode "The Benefactor Factor" from the popular American TV series "The Big Bang Theory". In this episode, the main characters (a group of young scientists) are trying to convince wealthy donors to give their university department money. One of these wealthy donors, an old lady, then becomes sexually interested in one of the young scientists, a character named Leonard. Leonard must then navigate the moral dilemma of "trading sexual favors for material gain", as his friend Sheldon puts it, i.e. faces the questions: What constitutes prostitution? Is prostitution morally wrong? Can it be justified by the result?
Needless to say, the entire episode consists of jokes relating to sex and prostitution. British TV censors however have felt it necessary to cut out certain parts of the dialogue that they have found too - well, what exactly? I don't know. This kind of censorship seems stupid to me in general, but appears particularly pointless in this specific case, when the entire episode's theme is sex and prostitution.
To illustrate what I mean, here is a link to an extract from the episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pebyyGg0OU8. In this clip, we see Leonard leave for his date with the wealthy donor, and then return the following morning, after having slept with her.
Between brackets and bolded, the dialogue that was cut out by British censors:
Sheldon: Hold on, I have something for you.
Laughter.
(Leonard: What's this?
Sheldon: Just a few things you may need tonight... There is baby oil, condoms and (...) viagra.)
(...)
Leonard: Are you insane?! I am not going to prostitute myself just so that we can get some new equipment!
Sheldon: Oh, come on! Why not?!
(Laughter)
Leonard: Good night, Sheldon!
(Sheldon: Given how much time you spend engaging in pointless self-abuse, you might consider, just this once, using your genitalia to actually accomplish something!)
(...)
The next morning:
Penny: Good morning, ($lut)!
Leonard: Whaat?
(Laughter)
(...)
Sheldon: I'm so proud of you! You sold yourself out like a common streetwalker!
Leonard: I didn't do it for the money!
Sheldon: She stiffed you?!
(Penny: I believe that's what your room mate did to HER...)
This to me is absurd. As you can tell, by removing these fragments, the censors did nothing to change the episode, it is still very obviously about sex and prostitution. All they did is render some parts plain absurd, like the dialogue between Leonard and Penny: "Good morning" - "Whaat?" - Laughter.
What I learn from this is: For TV censors, condoms, masturbation and talking about stiffing someone are obscene and should not be mentioned on TV. What's amazing to me is that someone actually has this job, going through episodes looking for references on masturbation and deciding what is and is not suitable for TV audiences. That seems like a pretty sad, pathetic life to me.
It should be noted that this episode ran in what would probably be considered "daytime TV" (around 5 pm GMT), and that episodes that run later at night might not be censored. However this to me changes nothing to the ridiculousness of the entire endeavour. Also, I know that Britain is not the only country where this is practiced. In the US, I know that movies are very often censored for TV, but I have never experienced TV shows being censored (I assume American TV producers would be careful to produce something that can be aired at any time of the day).
But I recently started watching British TV and stumbled upon an interesting phenomenon. Indeed, British TV channels such as ITV4 will go so far as to censor American sitcoms when they consider the content - not necessarily the words - too raunchy. This can lead to a considerable loss in the viewing pleasure.
A great example of this is the episode "The Benefactor Factor" from the popular American TV series "The Big Bang Theory". In this episode, the main characters (a group of young scientists) are trying to convince wealthy donors to give their university department money. One of these wealthy donors, an old lady, then becomes sexually interested in one of the young scientists, a character named Leonard. Leonard must then navigate the moral dilemma of "trading sexual favors for material gain", as his friend Sheldon puts it, i.e. faces the questions: What constitutes prostitution? Is prostitution morally wrong? Can it be justified by the result?
Needless to say, the entire episode consists of jokes relating to sex and prostitution. British TV censors however have felt it necessary to cut out certain parts of the dialogue that they have found too - well, what exactly? I don't know. This kind of censorship seems stupid to me in general, but appears particularly pointless in this specific case, when the entire episode's theme is sex and prostitution.
To illustrate what I mean, here is a link to an extract from the episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pebyyGg0OU8. In this clip, we see Leonard leave for his date with the wealthy donor, and then return the following morning, after having slept with her.
Between brackets and bolded, the dialogue that was cut out by British censors:
Sheldon: Hold on, I have something for you.
Laughter.
(Leonard: What's this?
Sheldon: Just a few things you may need tonight... There is baby oil, condoms and (...) viagra.)
(...)
Leonard: Are you insane?! I am not going to prostitute myself just so that we can get some new equipment!
Sheldon: Oh, come on! Why not?!
(Laughter)
Leonard: Good night, Sheldon!
(Sheldon: Given how much time you spend engaging in pointless self-abuse, you might consider, just this once, using your genitalia to actually accomplish something!)
(...)
The next morning:
Penny: Good morning, ($lut)!
Leonard: Whaat?
(Laughter)
(...)
Sheldon: I'm so proud of you! You sold yourself out like a common streetwalker!
Leonard: I didn't do it for the money!
Sheldon: She stiffed you?!
(Penny: I believe that's what your room mate did to HER...)
This to me is absurd. As you can tell, by removing these fragments, the censors did nothing to change the episode, it is still very obviously about sex and prostitution. All they did is render some parts plain absurd, like the dialogue between Leonard and Penny: "Good morning" - "Whaat?" - Laughter.
What I learn from this is: For TV censors, condoms, masturbation and talking about stiffing someone are obscene and should not be mentioned on TV. What's amazing to me is that someone actually has this job, going through episodes looking for references on masturbation and deciding what is and is not suitable for TV audiences. That seems like a pretty sad, pathetic life to me.
It should be noted that this episode ran in what would probably be considered "daytime TV" (around 5 pm GMT), and that episodes that run later at night might not be censored. However this to me changes nothing to the ridiculousness of the entire endeavour. Also, I know that Britain is not the only country where this is practiced. In the US, I know that movies are very often censored for TV, but I have never experienced TV shows being censored (I assume American TV producers would be careful to produce something that can be aired at any time of the day).
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram