Censorship is alive and well.

[Lasher]

Just got home from a fan-fucking-tastic night to see that censorship is alive and well in the USA...Thought I'd share this little news story with ya'all....


'South Park' Song Poses Oscar Dilemma
March 8, 2000 7:08 pm EST


By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Oscar-nominated song "Blame Canada," an obscenity-laced song about censorship from the "South Park" movie, has put ABC's censors and the producers of the Academy Awards in a quandary.

ABC has told producers they need to either clean up or bleep out profanity in the tune so that it can be performed with the four other best-song nominees on the March 26 Oscars telecast, composer Marc Shaiman, who wrote the song with "South Park" co-creator Trey Parker, told Reuters on Wednesday.

In the song, angry parents and community leaders in the United States condemn Canada for exporting an obscenity-laced kids' movie they accuse of corrupting their children.

The song contains such expletives as the notorious "f"-word, a different "f"-word that means an expulsion of intestinal gas, and a swipe at a famed Canadian singer-songwriter, "that bitch Anne Murray."

"We'll figure out a creative way to make light of the whole situation," Shaiman said. "It's a song about censorship from a movie about censorship, so the irony is not lost on any of us that we're being asked to censor the song."

Bruce Davis, executive director of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, told Reuters the producers have devised a few "clever" ways to "work around the big f-word" and are trying to decide which is funniest. However, "we're not looking to pioneer in that area."

Davis said the word bitch has already become fairly commonplace on prime-time television. He added, "Anne Murray has been very gracious about the reference to her and finds the song very amusing ... so we probably will deliver that line. We tried to get her to sing that line, but she's on tour and can't do it, but she liked the idea."

The big question is what to do about the second "f" word. According to Davis, the academy, songwriters and ABC are "still in conference" over that one.

Shaiman joked that the academy should urge this year's Oscar presenters and recipients to "incorporate the word ... into their intros and speeches, so that by the time the song rolls around, the censors will be in a coma."

"I never thought I'd grow up to be the person who is fighting the good fight so that fart could be said on the Academy Awards, but if that is my mission in life, so be it," he added.

As it happens, "Blame Canada" is one of the cleaner songs from "South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut," whose soundtrack also includes such chestnuts as "Uncle Fukka" and "Kyle's Mom's a Bitch."

Still, the surprise nomination of "Blame Canada" is posing a unusual dilemma for this year's Oscar broadcast.

"I'm not aware that we have ever had quite that problem before," Davis said. "Everybody knew what the movie was like, and part of the joke was that the songs were scatological and foul to the extreme."

"Blame Canada" is up against much tamer fare in the contest for the best-song Oscar -- Diane Warren's "Music of My Heart" from "Music of the Heart"; Aimee Mann's "Save Me" from "Magnolia," Randy Newman's "When She Loved Me" from "Toy Story 2" and Phil Collins' "You'll Be In My Heart" from "Tarzan."



Un-fucking-believable, is it not? As I've mentioned before, for the first time in my life I'm gonna watch the Academy Awards just so I can see this song performed, and also see the reactions of the overdressed assholes that are going to have to sit there and listen to it. Goddamn, this is sooo much horseshit.

 

[Slut_boy]

LOL, and I haven't ever even seen South Park.

 

[Xander]

LMAO, the world is a conservative place after all.
What would they have done if it was the Uncle Fucka song there was nominated LOL

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

"Censorship" is one of those overused tags like "Superstar" or "Liberal Media".

So they can't say "fuck"? This isn't some stuffed shirt stick in the mud school marm censorship issue. This isn't censorship -- it's TV, man. It's about imposing some language standards on a national medium that is massively influential and accessible to young people. I have no problem with the FCC baning the seven dirty words on the boob tube.

And you can't say "Don't let your kids watch" or "turn the channel!" for everything. TV viewing doesn't work that way. I have kids and I don't let them watch adult themed programs, but I don't want to have to sit there with my finger on the remote button hoping my five year old won't happen to pass by one day while I'm watching TV and hear the word "fuck", or see someone get his head graphically blown off in an unedited film, or catch a lewd sex act on an "uncensored" soap opera. So free TV is regulated? Good.

There are plenty of places of free discourse that aren't visited by children. Three are books, newspapers, films, magazines and, of course, cable TV. What ideas or intellectual properties are being censored? The South Park Movie is available to anyone who wants it via video, DVD, satellite and cable.

"Censorship" is a tag better reserved for things like 60 minutes pulling a story on the tobacco industry, I think.

I'm glad TV pushes the boundaries of what can be done. I loved NYPD Blue for that. I know what to expect from that, and I don't let my kids watch. (Though I'm pissed that some Networks will show promos for shows like NYPD Blue during other programs when I'm not prepared to have my kid not watch. Sometime we'll be watching "Star Trek" or a re-run of "Sister-Sister" and up pops a promo for "Tonight's movie - Die Hard!" with a flash of Bruce Willis shooting someone. Geez! Thanks for the fucking warning.")

Unlike NYPD Blue bluntly obscene words on The Oscars is not something that parents will be expecting, so it's appropriate that the old standards apply.

 

[Lasher]

Well, being much more sober than I was last night when I started this thread, I'd have to say that damn near everything you said is correct, DCL.

The article I posted didn't say anything I didn't expect to hear from the beginning, except that I was expecting the Academy to find someway to prevent the song from being performed at all. So I will, at second look, at least give them credit for trying to make it work.

Living and working in a child-free enviroment, I tend to forget to look at things from a parent's point of view. I'm the person that grumbles about children in restuarants and theatres, and grocery stores, and basically any place that I come into contact with children. So you will need to be patient with my insentivity in that area.

Now if we could only get "liberal media" outlets like "60 Minutes" to pay more attention to the work of "superstars" like Trey Parker, instead of focusing their energy on the damn tobacco industry....well...

Thanks for the well deserved slap in the face, DCL.

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

LOL!

 

[Laurel]

Living and working in a child-free enviroment, I tend to forget to look at things from a
parent's point of view. I'm the person that grumbles about children in restuarants and
theatres, and grocery stores, and basically any place that I come into contact with
children. So you will need to be patient with my insentivity in that area.

I have that same problem, Lash... Every time I hear anyone whine about "protect the children", my response is always "what do you want to do, turn the world into a goddamn nursery"? I get annoyed with every right-wing conservative religious group using the protection of children as a ploy to disguise the fact that they want to remove grown-up's rights to do/view/enjoy something that they personally find offensive. Just like in the polar bear documentary I saw on cable this week, it's the parent's job to protect their kids, not mine.

However, as DCL pointed out, it's not that simple. There do need to be language and content standards on widely available media during the hours in which children have access to said media. The funniest thing about all of this is that many of the kids watching the Oscars probably have seen the South Park movie, probably know the whole profanity-laden song by heart.

I haven't seen the movie. I've heard that it's really really funny and that it's really really stupid, both from South Park fans. Anyone here seen it?

 

[Lasher]

Actually, there is almost no profanity in that particular song. I'm guessing off hand that there's probably fewer than 10 words they'd need to change to make it acceptable for TV.

As for as the movie goes...It wasn't at all what I expected when I saw it the first time. I think most people were expecting a 90 minute "South Park" episode, like the Beavis and Butthead movie was. Instead, the movie is a musical, which probably drove a lot of your typical "South Park" fans nuts...and the humour can be fairly subtle in places, a lot of obscure references that I think a lot of people just don't get. My wife's comment after seeing it the first time was that it was almost as if Andrew Lloyd Webber and Dennis Miller had collobrated on the writing.

Anyways, I laughed so hard I was crying. I hadn't laughed that hard in a movie theatre since I saw "Full Metal Jacket" back in 1987 (the first 20 minutes when the DI is just going apeshit and doing his thing...I think if you've been thru any type of military training in this country, you can really appreciate the humor). I've seen "South Park" 6 or 7 times now and I still laugh every time.

But that's me..If I was gonna write a movie, that would've been it (so that's one less thing I need to do in this lifetime...LOL).

 

[Hullo_nurse]

I just had to comment here-- I LOVE South Park and have seen the movie at least 10 times if not more. It was one of the features on cable and we happen to get the channel it was on, so I viewed it practically every time it was on. I have the soundtrack & often listen to it while surfing the net, singing along with all the songs. So, yes, I must say this is one of the most tame of the entire musical. Anyway, just had to add my three fiddy!!