"You motherf*ckin' motherfu*ker piece of dog sh*t. Love you too, Mom."
Here’s a typical quote from the BBC series, “The Thick of It”:
“Come the f*ck in or f*ck the f*ck off.”
Or as it’s heard on BBC America:
“Come the BLEEP in or BLEEP the BLEEP off.”
“The Thick of It,” Armando Iannucci’s political satire, has begun airing on BBC America, but in a highly censored, BLEEPed format. Even though it airs at midnight (profane speech is only prohibited between 6 a.m.-10 p.m.).
["Thick of It" writer] Jesse Armstrong described the move to “bleep” [the show] as an “error.”
“They should at least have a conversation with Armando and check what they’re going to do with it before they put it out,” he told the BBC. “It seems a little odd.”
A spokesman for the US channel told comedy website Chortle that it “abides by basic cable television common practice in the US in using bleeps to cover profanity in its programmes.” (Via)
Listening to a BLEEPed Malcolm Tucker is like viewing a blurred Japanese porno, also because of inane censorship laws — sure, I guess it’s still watchable, but what’s the point?
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Taking the cursing out of this show is like taking the nudity out of a porno.
Fuckity bye!
And now I see you made the exact same comparison.
Sorry, I’m just blinded by my own rage here.
At the very least, they could’ve censored Tucker as he censored himself in the movie.
“You are an F-dash-dash-CUNT.”
I’d say, “I hear ya,” but I can’t, over all the bleeping.
From the FCC’s website: “Do the FCC’s rules apply to cable and satellite programming? In the past, the FCC has enforced the indecency and profanity prohibitions only against conventional broadcast services, not against subscription programming services such as cable and satellite. However, the prohibition against obscene programming applies to subscription programming services at all times.”
Pretty sure BBC America is not standard broadcast tv, so as far as profanity, there really shouldn’t be any issue, even concerning when it’s aired. The only issue would be regarding sponors, I guess.
Or sponsors, I guess.
Guess I’ll blame my southernerness for the error this time!
Bingo. Josh is mistaken in his belief that the FCC rules he linked to apply here. The page only deals with “broadcast” of profane content, which means OTA TV and radio, not satellite or cable.
BBC Americans are a genteel sort who will stumble across this looking for their third serving of Downton Abbey. Their delicate sensibilities must be considered.
It’ll still be funnier than VEEP.
WG’s unofficial policy against Brit-show fanboy behavior is fair enough, and I hope I’m not violating it when I say that it might be better for The Thick of It not to air in the US than for it to air with the swearing removed. The deranged creativity of its profanity is a core element of the show, both on its own comic merit and as a mirror and commentary of the New Labour political culture the show parodies (Alistair Campbell didn’t invent the double-c***, but he was one of its most effective users). The ability to pull this off plausibly is what makes Peter Cipaldi’s performance as Malcolm Tucker one of the great unions of actor and role this side of Michael K. Williams and Omar, and airing the show without it is like pulling drug-use from The Wire or extreme violence from Oz – there’s still great material left, but what’s the point, really?
The bleeping might make it seem dirtier? Mostly I hope this means it’ll be released on DVD stateside, or netflix streaming in time for me to send them as Christmas gifts.