And now the word is used extensively among coloured people as a term of respect. The more you censor a word, the more offensive it is percieved to me. OTOH if you use a derogatory word more in a positive way, it evolves into a word that is no longer considered offensive. Language evolves.
Removing the word "******" from the print editions of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn is a lot different from removing the same word from many action movies produced today. Huck Finn is a literary masterpiece, not an Arnold Schwarzenegger or Bruce Willis blood fest. Twain was writing about the cruel realities of his time in a realistic manner and the struggle of the characters to overcome their situation in a heroic manner. The word "******" was a common place word used against blacks in the south. Twain choose to include it as a commentary on the racism in the South. He was worried about censorship, but his worry was that it would upset people because of the positive characteristics of the escaped slave Jim and his realistic depiction of the true South. Die Hard 2 is not Huckleberry Finn.
By restricting the whole panoply of political correctness to throttling back on the N word you've really narrowed the field. Most people find they can get along without the N word but there are plenty of other PC items that are more florid candidates for parody.
I remember a version of Cheech & Chong's Next Movie where the pot was replaced, with diamonds. The movie was altered so much from its original plot line that it was absolutely meaningless. But as censorship goes, we see this in phases. Right now we're in a tighter mode than we were in a decade ago. I'm positive as things progress we'll once again see a relaxation of this stringent CYA mode as apathy cycles back around. Maybe I'll hear honkey again! It's sure been a long time and cracker just sounds stupid, at least honkey was funny sounding.
I'm not comparing Mark Twain's works to Die Hard 2. Therefore I'm not sure what you're trying to argue. Do you feel that renaming the character ****** Jim to Slave Jim was the right thing to do?
I'm agreeing with you about Huck Finn, but disagreeing with you about Die Hard 2. I understand that you see the need to sometimes remove naughty language, but I disagree that it altered any message in the movie in a way that similarly altering Huck Finn would. It seemed to me that you were, in fact, comparing the altering of Huck Finn to the altering of Die Hard 2 in that you said altering the word "fucker" actually took a LOT out of the movie...if it had much of a meaning to begin with. Whereas removing the word "******" from Huck Finn would take a LOT out of the book compared to the removal of the other word in Die Hard 2, in my view.
And sometimes it's the principal of the thing. Of editing or cesnoring a movie to an absurd level. that is to say....sometimes the edit might not really negatively impact the plot or the continuity of the movie to a signficant degree. But I still find it insulting to my intelligence. An example of this is when they blur out the "finger" when somebody flips the bird in a movie or TV show. I mean....really? In what world..in what Universe...in what godforsaken hellhole of a Nanny State right out of the satirical masterpeice "Demoloition Man" could some sane and reasonable man, woman or child even, be offended by seeing the middle finger in a movie? So...here is my ultimate absurd edit in a cable movie. I swear, you guy ain't a gonna believe this one.... From the movie Bull Durham. My favorite baseball movie, btw. In the original scene, Kevin Costner is mocking his pitcher, Tim Robbins, for giving up a super long home run ball. Costner is at the mound, chiding Robbins on how freaking FAR the homer went. He tells Robbins..."Anything travelling that far oughtta have a stewardess on board!" LOL..great line, right? Seemingly inert and inoffensive? Right? Au Contraire, my friends. Seems some genius at the censorship board (ten bucks and my left nut say it was a woman) felt the word "stewardess" is demeaning to flight attendants. So...I guess they couldn't quite make a dub work, so the entire line is simply removed. From ANY version of this movie I have EVER seen on TV. Wow. Just..... fucking..... Wow. WTF? A sign the Apocalypse is truly upon us, me thinks. Cheers.
Some censoring is just stupid. I remember watching a cable version of Do the Right Thing where they replaced "motherfucker" with "Mickey fickey". In the scene where Radio Raheem goes into the Korean store to buy batteries he tells them "Just count the mickey fickies!" WTF? Just bleep it out or something, there's no reason to get stupid. Mickey fickey?
Can't remember what movie it was. But there was one censored dialog where they changed mother fucker to mamba jamba
We have pretty much turned into a nation of pussies, wimps, female twits, and faggots who have been so coddled my the libtard nanny state and the... I deserve as much as You do...even if you are smarter, stronger, and work harder....ethos that now mere words can offend and cause severe emotional stress. I am reminded of two things here..... One...a great picture I once saw of a grizzled Viking who looked as if he just left a bloody war zone. The caption was.....I feel sorry for you if you can be hurt by a mere word. LO fucking L. And two.....in a book...an old school doctor and former lacrosse player asks his young, twenty something yuppie patient if he'd ever been concussed before. The kid says no. Doc replies, with a sigh....of course you haven't. People these days are barely even physical anymore. Right fucking on. Sorry for the rant. Long day dealing with wimpy liberal beaurocrats. Who seem intent on penalizing rugged individualism and success, and redistribution of wealth.
I realise you're obsessed with the N-word but, like any other obsession, you can wean off it with a 12-step program. In the meantime, just try substituting another word every time the N-word begins to form in your amygdala. Words such as gladioli and Honda can work well.
I've been called ugly, retarded, etc due to my medical condition. And people who say these things claim it's because they have the right to their opinion, it's freedom of speech, and they refuse to be politically correct because it's the government controlling them, and they refuse to be controlled. I really don't care about all that. I just don't want to be called those things. So, fine... you have the right to your opinion, it's freedom of speech, and you refuse to be politically correct because you refuse to be controlled by the government. But, this is real people that you're taking the shit on. And that's not fair to them. As for TV being politically correct, it's TV... it shouldn't be taken seriously. But, there are shows that bother me, like Family Guy. So, what do I do? I simply don't watch it. Shows like Family Guy are for people who want to say "Fuck you to the government", because everyone is "so sensitive" and they're not. I'm not one of those people. I don't want to say fuck you to the government. I am sensitive. So, shows like Family Guy are not for me. But, I'm not going to make a petition to take down the show. I'm just going to not watch it. TV is different than real life, though.
In regards to the first part of your statement, those people tend to forget that freedom of speech doesn't mean freedom of consequence. Nor does it refer only to the freedom to say something, but also the freedom to not say something. People in the situation you mentioned are not some kind of patriotic backlash against oppressive government. They're using their misunderstanding of the First Amendment to justify being an asshole. And that's just not cool. As far as the Family Guy thing goes, I don't think it's "fuck you to the government." I think it's, "Jesus Christ, lighten up and laugh every once in a while!" One of the things I find interesting about the show is how it makes fun of everyone equally--no one is safe. It doesn't have an agenda other than to make us laugh at ourselves and realize life isn't that serious. Anyway, I'm sorry for what you've had to endure. No one should be called names because of a medical condition.
Sometimes I feel like being un-PC is just an excuse to be an asshole. In my parents' and my grandparent's generation it wasn't called PC, it was called common etiquette and manners
Anytime humans are involved in making decisions, as they always are, we can expect excesses like this. The editors were trying to overcome an unfortunate history of using the "N" word to debase African-Americans. The effort to sanitize seems silly. Sorry it spoiled your entertainment Last Sunday, I went to see a local production of the Irving Berlin musical Annie Get Your Gun. I really enjoyed the show, but I commented to a friend that they left out one song. I thought it was strange, and then I got to thinking. It was the one where Annie, after being made an honorary Indian by Chief Sitting Bull of the Souix, no less, launches into a song with lyrics including: "Just like Battle Axe, Hatchet Face, Eagle Nose Like those Indians I'm an Indian too A Sioux Like you Some Indian summer's day Without a sound I may hide away With Big Chief Hole-in-the-Ground And I'll have totem poles, tomahawks, pipes of peace Which will go to prove I'm an Indian too A Sioux I wonder if PC had anything to do with that missing number. (BTW, I really am an Indian too). Maybe the large number of Native Americans in the audience led the producers to conclude that discretion was the heart of valor and they might get scalped if they left the number in. On the other hand, the actor playing Sitting Bull was African-American. I hope the Sioux don't sue.
I dont get why people still watch Family guy or why its still being made, funny the first couple seasons, but then its just the same dumb kind of jokes over and over Southpark too, just lame after about 5 seasons, and yet both shows are near 20 seasons, ugh
Pretty much every guy I hear complaining about the nanny state they live in will then turn around a couple minutes later and complain about some lame thing his government doesnt do for him, or some nanny state law that should be in place to protect him or his stuff though