I thought that South Park was rated TV-MA. What's with the bleeping?

Like the episode Cartman Gets An Anal Probe, An Elephant Makes Love To A Pig episode had bleeping in it. What is this? If a show is rated TV-MA there should be no censorship whatsoever. When NBC showed Schindler's List earlier this year with a TV-MA rating, it had the f--- word, nudity and graphic violence. South Park should be no different. Comedy Central should either remove the bleeps from each of the two shows plus air the uncut version of Cartman Gets An Anal Probe or they should change its rating of South Park from TV-MA to TV-14 like Beavis And Butt-Head and NYPD Blue. Anyone agree with me here?

On Fri, 12 Sep 1997 00:40:10 -0400, [email] (Jerry Roche) wrote:

It has an MA rating yes. But I think the bleeps are there on purpose. You can then guess at what there saying and it doesn't offend as many viewers. The ones who don't mind religious blastphomy (is that how you spell it.) but do mind cursing. On the other hand I could be wrong.

Later

it's "blasphemy"

In article , [email] wrote:

~~Do you know how much Spielberg paid off the censors and NBC to get them to do that? I don't think that South Park is that popular. Plus, parents would probably get mad that their children are learning this kind of stuff on TV, advertisers might leave, and unlike Shindler's List, they need advertising to fund the show, or else there is no point. So it has to stay beeped and censored.

Yes, I do agree. South Park shouldn't have the same rating as television shows like HBO's Real Sex, etc. It seems the only word allowed on South Park that is bleeped out of the TV-G rated shows is "goddamn". On the South Park commercials "God" is bleeped

[email] wrote:

It is supremely unnerving to think there are people whose *job* is to preview and edit programs so as to exclude or approve specific words -- words that 99.9% of viewers will fill in for themselves anyway. If this were my job, I'd think up a *really* bizarre title so that nobody would ever find out what I did.

In article , [email] wrote:

Vocabulary Engineer? Lexicon Analyst?

Seriously, I find it strange that South Park gets a TV-MA (or is it TV-M?) and still has stuff censored. The language that gets through is no worse that what's used on NYPD Blue, which is TV-14.

Aaron

On Tue, 23 Sep 1997 18:52:33 -0400, *[email]* (Aaron S. Veenstra) wrote:

...and shows nudity.

It's a sick double standard.

Well, we've already seen his ass, on episode #1.

Don't kick the baby, Joel

Well we did see most of his behind during his anal probe flashback....and during weight gain 4000... OyVey!

This flies in the face of what we know.

Reality check: South Park airs when most normal children are asleep.

What planet are you on? South Park is Comedy Central's *highest*-rated original show. That means MORE people watch it than any other original show on that channel, so its advertisers reach a *more* people if their ads air on that show. Advertisers don't *leave* a highly rated show; they *flock* to it. This is a really simple concept.

Any public campaign by people who want to have the show silenced will only bring it *more* viewers -- people who hadn't heard about it before or who'd heard about it but initially had decided not to check it out. That will make advertisers *more* eager to buy air time, not less.

The first amendment is actually pretty neat.

Mark

you are all missing the point of the bleeps they are there because it is funnier than so much cussing the best bleeps are when Stan cusses out the Aliens and he is constantly bleeped

In the first episode, I think the scene would play much funnier with all the bleeping, rather than the actual cursing.

In this last one, I can either take or leave "pigfucker" being bleeped. It didn't detract from or add to the scene.

Wendy, what's a <BEEP>? /Shrug/

Joel

I agree with joel mack,the beeping does add to the whole show,like the time the aliens wouldnt bring back stans littler brother and he started cussing, the thousands of beeps had me on the floor laughing,where as if he just was saying the words,it wouldnt have been very funny. Gill

"Why is it that the dumbest poeple are the hardest to understand?" -Me

Yes, the beeping is there purely for entertainmetn value, not to block out foul language. Personally I think it makes it funnier.

Well, actually, often the *first* bleep blocks out an obvious obscenity but the rest are just random. In the first episode, the first bleep in Kyle's long and eventually bleep-filled tirade at the aliens was obviously "fuck," in "what the fuck do you think you're doing" (or something very similar).

Actually, so far you're all wrong! Even with an MA rating there are still things you can't do on network or non-premium cable. Among the things you can't do is say "Fuck" or any derivative of that word. I've seen the Xmas episode, and there's something surreal about hearing the South Park crew swear up a storm. So, the bleeping is there because the show is delivered to Comedy Central with swearing, and CC is obliged to bleep out "fuck" and "shit" and whatever else the FCC says is bad. BTW, the creators were on KROQ-FM in L.A. a couple of days ago, and said that they use "Fuck" etc. when no other word will do, and leave it to the network to clean it up.

Reid C

Okay, well, I echo everyone else in saying that the bleeps just add to the humour. An entire room of people absolutely *ROARED* at the bleeps, whereas the UNbleeped profanity just garnered some run of the mill gut busters... Now... I gotta say something else that I don't think anyone else has mentioned. Schindler's List canNOT be, in anyway compared with South Park. Geesh! I love SP and all, but Schindler's List was just a BIT higher up... I mean... come on. Consider the content. It was not edited for the dramatic impact. It was dealing with the Holocaust, a very real and horrible historical event. Editing THAT would have taken away a lot. SP is far, far different... ~

"If I were stranded on a desert island and could only have one book, one record, and one person, I'd probably die of exposure." --Dave Foley "I once shot a man just to watch him die. Then I got distracted, and I missed it." --Dave Foley