Swearing in America

[Ewan]

Just wondering, are words like "damn" and "hell" considered swearing in America? I've been playing Burnout: Dominator recently and on the sound track they have the "Damn" from Avril Lavigne's album ***'d out. Also, in the song Chelsea Dagger by Fratellis, they censor out the word hell from the line "Just for the hell of it".

I dunno if it's an American thing or just weird censoring. I know I wouldn't even think twice if I heard "damn" in a kids TV show. Probably wouldn't even notice them saying "hell" either. Maybe "go to hell" is a bit bad for kids TV, but something like "for the hell of it" I wouldn't notice.

[Troll King]

Was it just "damn" or was it "God damned"? I know the latter gets taken out often.

[Fit of Rage]

In a lot of cases, the God in God-damn gets bleeped out, so you get

"... you *bleep* damn mother*bleep*er."

I would say that words like damn and hell are perhaps "harsh" for regular language but not necessarily censor material.

[Ewan]

The album title it blanked "damn" from is "The Best Damn Thing"

[Dameon Angell]

In America we have the freedom to listen to bleeped out music publically. If we don't, then the children will die, kill eachother, kill themselves, take drugs, get drunk, and have tons of unprotected fornication without consent of the king. EA, Electronic Arts, published the game "Burnout Dominator" as well as the others in the series. That being in mind, it's a racing game which they'd like to get to the most amount of people possible. That being said, they'd like to ship the game out with the best rating they can get. An "M" for Mature rating would ensure that alot of kids would be barred from playing this game at the ignorance of their parents, and mean far less profits for the big king EA. Now, with the T rating, it's not exactly kiddie material, but 13+ is a good demographic in the gaming industry.

Now, why is just the word "damn" alone gonna garner a "M for Mature" rating? Very simple, the rating process is as such. A panel of people are brought into a room and they view a special trailer of new games coming out. They're supposed to highlight the most extreme cases of certain items on a checklist the ESRB deemed "inappropriate" for children at certain ages. They range from "Comic Mischief" to "Drug and Alchohol Consumption". You're probably familiar with this if you've bought a game or movie in the past 10 years or so. This panel then pretty much does a vote on what they see and marks what they see according to the checklist made by the ESRB. Once a certain amount of 'points' are made under a certain heading (Everyone, Teen, Mature, etc*) the one that it's most hitting will get the nod.

For Burnout, it might not of gotten that M rating because of the words, I believe Shadow the Hedgehog got a T for Teen because of his mild languge of "damn" and "damn it", but EA definately plays to the safe side of business when it comes to this.

Oh, and yes, it's an American thing and weird censoring. Also I hear Germany, Australia, and some other countries are pretty Nazi (oh ho, bad pun) when it comes to their game ratings, sometimes outright banning certain titles. So, I guess I'll take what I can get.

Oh, and while I"m in the subject, I don't think I should have to be subjected to censoring of my lyrics in certain games because the children can't hear it. I'm not a child, so they should make two versions of games: Dirty/Clean, Kids/Adults, Everyone/Mature. Not for every game, but where it can apply. It works in the music industry.

[Noah]

Censorship is only good for removing the most extreme shit from the youngest ones.

[MirrorriM]

maybe it depends on the rating? if the album is rated for kids under 13, it would make sense. Damn and hell arent really that vulgar here, but for kids I can understand it being bleeped out.

[Dameon Angell]

Oh, one better idea. Instead of two versions, you just keep your one version, but you put a 'content control' box. I've seen it in games before. A parent can take out blood, cursing, over done gore, etc*. But really, I don't know any parent who would do that for their kid, mostly because they'd be too ignorant to know about it or be able to navigate the screen to select it.

[stark]

I remember an oldish NHL game (I think it was 2004) where they had "punk rock 101" by bowling for soup on the soundtrack and where it was supposed to say "to him it's sex" it said "to him pawn shop" (from a line later on in the song where he says "local pawn shop")... So, an allusion to sex in one line in one song is naughty, too... but, as stated above, it is an EA game.

I think they just don't want ratings of games hindered by the soundtracks, regardless of the significance of the profanity.

[Jeansi]

The fact that if there is blood in a movie fight, it's considered bad for children turns things upside down for them kids IMO.

They get the image that you can beat up another person with your fists and kick him in the face and the other dude will just get up and continue fighting, without even bleeding.

[Ephemeral]

I have never understood why on American television it’s considered obscene to show a beautiful pair of breasts yet not obscene to see/hear about hemorrhoids, feminine odor products or some long-breasted native on a nature show.

[Ewan]

Yeah, I think the way our TV works is good. Nudity/swearing/extreme violence is only allowed after 9.30pm (unless it's for medical/informative purposes). Channel 4 kinda likes to flaunt this, their current program "Embarrassing Illnesses" which is on at 8.30 showed a whole girl's hockey team getting their tits out cause it was about breast cancer. It was pretty good viewing :whistling:.

In America it sounds odd, they allow programs like 24 with rather graphic and extreme violence, yet don't allow any nudity?


Also, one thing I found quite funny. We had a song over here called "Year 3000" by a band called Busted. I believe some "christian" band over there covered it. In the original, they sing "your great great great grand-daughter is pretty fine" but in their version they sing "is doing fine". Also they sing "triple-breasted women, swim around town, totally naked" which in the Jonas version they put in some crap about star wars hair. I guess that's more cause they are a christian band aimed at kids rather than censorship, but I thought it was amusing.

[PolluX]

I love the holidays.


During the holidays a lot of festivals are going on and a lot of American bands are in Europe.
When these bands are getting interviewed, they always ask (after using it first) if they can say 'fuck' on teevee. The interviewer replies most of the time with 'sure, why not', after which the interviewee starts a waterfall of fucks and swears.

Fucking hilarious, everytime

[404 Not Found]

Well if censorship is to be used to protect children, I think they may want to move the evening news to after 12AM. Sure as shit, there is more violence and death on a daily basis being viewed by the entire family usually during dinner time.

Honestly though, who are we really protecting by the use of censorship for certain words beingused, when daytime soap drama's take advantage of what is censored from music and video games. It's very hypocritical.

[geekbot]

Just because something is "censored" doesn't mean it is government censorship. A lot of albums will censor the album listings on the cover to make it easier to sell in stores (and not get banned). And sometimes content will be censored for the same reason. Also, if your target audience is 12 year old girls, you might "censor" your own album so that parents don't go up in arms. The point is, the motivations are more likely pressure from society (parents, store owners, etc) than from the government.

But, the far more serious issue: Ewan....Avril Lavigne? Really?