Hey Lip Readers: Pluck Two

from the spoiling-all-that-lip-reading-fun dept

It’s always amusing when a TV station edits out a profanity with an ill-timed beep or replaces it with a total non-sequitur (“This is what you get when you meet a stranger in the Alps!”, goes a particularly creative reworking of a line from The Big Lebowski). But just in case some sharp lip-readers among you still manage to decipher the original line, your days may be numbered. PBS is apparently insisting that any bleep must be accompanied by lip pixelation, so that a viewer can’t make out the offending word on screen. As some are noting, the visual alteration will make the censorship even more jarring, and could definitely change the tenor of a scene. Still, with the FCC ready to pounce at any moment, perhaps PBS rightly believes it can never be too safe.


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Comments on “Hey Lip Readers: Pluck Two”

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49 Comments
Ajax 4Hire (profile) says:

so sad that this has to be done.

The 20-something crowd think its cute to see foul mouthed snot-nosed kids bleeping away on screen.

But when the same group turns 30-something and their kids are the foul mouthed snot-nosed brats, the story changes.

I am an adult, I can edit and side-step the pulluted airwaves but the younger you are, the less able you are to disginguish between ‘artistic’ and foul.

Hey, dog crap is everywhere; but just because everyone else is doing it, because it is everywhere does not mean that it smells better, taste better or is someway ok.

Slavery, Child Labor, Kiddie Porn, Terror Bombings;

Hey its everywhere, just get over it, get use to it.

Good is good and Crap is Crap;

no matter how much there is or how wide-spread;

Crap is Crap.

It is easy to fall down, you need to stand up.

For evil to succeed, good people must simply do nothing.

James says:

Re: so sad that this has to be done.

reply to Ajax 4Hire

-“But when the same group turns 30-something and their kids are the foul mouthed snot-nosed brats, the story changes. ”

Now guess who made these words “foul” in the first place…censorship targets the word and says “This word is bad!” no censorship is to abolish this categorization of words based on a completely subjective opinion of a certain commitee who impose their opinion to those who want to “protect their children”. If the word fuck wasn’t censored, kids would see that it isn’t bad, and therefore they wouldn’t use it. Children will ALWAYS find something, some word, some sign (be it with finger or arm) that is repulsive of offensive (according to this group of people that tell the whole populace what are the “bad words”) who gives a fuck? Hell, let them. I don’t see the bad in the word fuck. Honneslty. Think about it. Why is the word “fuck” bad? Do you even know? Because it derives from a certain german word that means “to strike”? that’s why this word is so taboo? And why is the word “shit” more offensive than the word doodoo? Why can’t kids hear “shit”, yet they can hear the word “doodoo”? because…..Oh right, there’s no fuckin logical explanation…

Some words, most of them, don’t need to be censored. If you’re going to censor words, censor those that are ACTUALLY OFFENSIVE, such as the words “slut” or “negro”..those words are actually insulting to some people! These are the kind of words we should debate on.

the word “fuck”??? fuck it, there’s nothing wrong with it

-“Hey, dog crap is everywhere; but just because everyone else is doing it, because it is everywhere does not mean that it smells better, taste better or is someway ok.

Slavery, Child Labor, Kiddie Porn, Terror Bombings;

Hey its everywhere, just get over it, get use to it. ”

WOW!!! You went all the way to Terror Bombings and Kiddie porn to compare with “bad” words?? are you out of your mind? The evil in what you call “foul” language doesn’t even come NEAR the evil and the horror in kiddie porn. And terror bombings??

You need to set your priorities right. Bad words is not that much of a big deal….bombings and rape and slavery is pretty pure cruelty and evil right there…

-“Good is good and Crap is Crap;

no matter how much there is or how wide-spread;

Crap is Crap. ”

I already talked about this above, what you’re labelling as “crap” is not actually bad…shit is worse than doodoo because it has less letters? or is it because there’s a T in it?

you get the fuckin point…

-“It is easy to fall down, you need to stand up.

For evil to succeed, good people must simply do nothing.”

what if my evil isn’t you’re evil…maybe your evil is succeeding but my evil is right where I want it?? ever thing about that? this bad language shit is subjective…fuck isn’t necessarily a bad word…unless you decide it is, and then do some fuckin stupid thing like censor it…which just makes it worse since people subconstiously refer to it as “bad”

GOOD FUCKING JOB

And your comparison to all those things (slavery,kiddie porn, rape, terror bombings, child labor) Reminds me…you fucking guys…people like you, are worrying about these fuckin little words…while people are being enslaved, kids are being rapped, bombings are occurring, kids are working at the age of 6 under obligation…Like I said, you need to set your priorities. If you wan’t to make this world better, change what really matters. People are dying…and you are comparing this to the effect the word “fuck” has on children…death and rape equals the same amount of “bad” as the word “fuck” to you? I am genuinly pissed off right now…knowing that people pretend they want to make the world a better place…and all they’re changing is the fuckin dictionnary…

note: theres a whole bunch of spelling mistakes…as long as you can read it fine, don’T tell me hey kiddo! you mispelled the word “honnestly”! no shit sherlock…once again: priorities!!

Ajax Supporter says:

Re: so sad that this has to be done.

I totaly agree with Ajax, It’s already every where, why stop it now? Heck, we should be teaching it in the schools so that kids don’t have to learn it incorrectly off the streets! Once there are no more bad words, then no single word will be offensive anymore. Genius Ajax, genius!

Ajax and I are starting a pettition to un-bad bad words so that they may be used freely with the horrible meanings they have now! Who’s with us?

DittoBox (user link) says:

Rush Hour edit was the best

Chris Tucker starts arguing with Jackie Chan. In the unedited version Tucker keeps telling Chan he’s “fulluhshit, you know that you fulluhshit!”.

Chan replies in his accent “you full of it of shit, yes, you full of shit”.

The edited version is funnier though, only because it’s so obvious, they just cut the sh sounding off in the audio, so it doesn’t quite match up. But with the accent and the ‘hoodspeak it’s hilarious.

What’s interesting about pixelating or covering up the cursing lips is that it’s what Jerry Springer and his ilk do to *emphasize* it. Strange how many times when people try to cover something up it’s just easier to spot.

Tyson says:

Re: the striesand effect

I have to agree… When movies are edited to remove foul language, it makes it soooo much easier to notice it. The sound and pitch of the voice are different and anybody that has heard these *gasp* HORRIBLE “curse” words will know exactly what they were trying to say in the first place…

LOL my fav has to be Austin Powers edited… Instead of “Do I make you horny…” It is “Do I make you randy…”

Krz says:

Re: Re: the striesand effect

Special DVD players? Seriously folks …

Studios making movies strictly to appeal to niche markets is exactly what is causing the obvious downward spiral in film today. The solution to this problem is quite simple; parents act like parents, and the easily offended take more care to aviod offensive situations. Disconnect the cable, and qut blaming the rest of the world for not catering to your rediculous sense of meddling morality.

Johnny Starview says:

Re: Re: the striesand effect

Hah, pink hands? They usually cover stuff up on shows like Real TV with smiley faces. On American Idol they would put their logo over someone’s mouth if they swore.

It reminds me of the scene from Office Space when they show it on TV…. the part where the guy goes “Hey, get a room you two!” and flips them off, they play part of the scene in reverse instead of showing the middle finger.

Lonny Paul (user link) says:

Lip Pixelization / C'mon....

Recently it was announced that the companies who offer “edited family safe” DVDs, where they also provide a copy of the original with the purchase, have been making three companies plenty of money, now the studios say they aren’t allowed and are ordering their inventories be recovered and destroyed.

Why?

Same reason for this.

We do have devoutly religious people across the country, you know the ones who wince when you say, “who the hell was that?” But they deserve their respect and accompanying products. If the studios aren’t going to address niche markets within their industry, someone must!

I say we develop a dvd player that can download “play lists” from these guys, allowing the DVD player to be programmed to automatically skip the sections which were previous edited out. Although no DVD player currently allows for this, someone should do it to address the market, and remain within the law.

Lonny Paul

OY9.net

Ben(damnit) says:

Words?

It’s hillarious how much importance people put on words. They’re just words, sounds placed next to each other. Why do we have to have ‘Bad’ words? and does that make other words ‘good’? Are English words the only bad ones? what about Guvno (russian equivlent to fuck i’m told), or Manko (pussy in japanese, sounds eirily close to mango).

The show Farscape replaced English curses with their own words like frell, or dren. Frell it, it’s frelled. Get that frellin’ dren out of here.

The idea is still there, it’s just a different word.

so obviously it’s not about context, or meaning, but just about the words themselves. Fuck em’ it’s all just stupid.

Petr?a Mitchell says:

Seen this before

This is nothing new– I remember watching “TV’s Bloopers” as a kid, and they put graphics over people’s mouths whenever they were bleeped. The only thing that’s changed is that when I was a kid, PBS was the one broadcast station that didn’t censor anything– they’d give you a warning at the start of the program and then assume you could make an informed decision.

Kevin says:

pixelation..thank you

Oh how I love the, excuse me… FUCKING PIXELATION. If you people have a problem with curs words, put some ear muffs on and don’t hear what everyone else is saying. If you have a problem with your kids hearing that, which I do…. DON’T LET THEM WATCH THAT SHOW… DUMBASS. Why do we have TV ratings anyway, it’s extremely simple to turn that feature on on most TV’s in manufactured in the 21st Century … and… all SatTV and Cable boxes have parental controls. USE YOUR TOOLS AND SHUT THE FUCK UP

innocent by stander says:

#$%#!#$

I’m not one who agrees with cencorship in any way. The way I see it is that the US has way too much as it is. If you look at European countries you almost don’t see any at all and yet their kids are much better behaved than ours. So explain that to me. If they are trying to reduce the risks of kids seeing foul things which is supposed to make them better behaved, then ITS NOT WORKING ANYWAY!!!!! so adding something that coveres the actors mouth during a scene with something foul being said won’t help any.

innocent by stander says:

#$%#!#$

I’m not one who agrees with cencorship in any way. The way I see it is that the US has way too much as it is. If you look at European countries you almost don’t see any at all and yet their kids are much better behaved than ours. So explain that to me. If they are trying to reduce the risks of kids seeing foul things which is supposed to make them better behaved, then ITS NOT WORKING ANYWAY!!!!! so adding something that coveres the actors mouth during a scene with something foul being said won’t help any.

Anonymous Coward says:

how about you smack the shit out of your kids whenever you hear them curse, and refuse to curse in front of them? then it wont matter how much cursing they hear, theyll know its bad manners and learn when to do it and when not to as they learn all the other social nuances while theyre growing up. so what if they hear it on tv? so what if they think its unfair that samuel L jackson can curse and they cant? theres nothing wrong with a little hypocrisy for the kids, everything seems hypocritic to them anyway until they understand the nuance.

K says:

Loosen up

95% of the American population needs “rectal-cranial inversion” surgery… in other words… get their head out of their ass.

I’m from Europe and I moved to the US 5 years ago (legally, so don’t come crapping about illegal immigrants to me, they piss me off as much as they piss you off). One of the major differences is how over protective you people are. Censorship is just one of them. The other day, I was listening to live streaming of a Belgian radio station. It was a call-in show and someone called in to request a song to dedicate to his ex-girlfriend because she took off with his best friend. The show host and the caller ended up calling the lady in question all kinds of names, varying from “bitch” to “whore” and the now-ex-best-friend was called a “motherfucking cocksucker” live on air. NO CENSORSHIP. And that is how it is over there. Do they have issues with fucked up children who take daddy’s shotgun and go kill their class mates? No.

Foul language is out there. There is NO way to shield yourself or your children from it. Censorship is not the answer. It teaches your children nothing. The problem is, without censorship, parents are required to parent and talk to their children about it… and that seems to be too much to ask… but that is an entirely different discussion.

A$$H0LE says:

WH4T THE FU

God damn the bullshit these fucking cocks keep trying to get away with!

These bitches need to keep their dried up cunts out of our lives.

How the hell can we call this country free anymore?

Why do these assholes insist on pissing all over us?

I’m not such a pussy that I need some asswipe to tell what safe to see or hear.

Goddamn motherfucking crybabies need to learn to grow up and not be scared by words or ideas that may challenge their agendas.

I think I’m going to throw my TV out my apartment window on top the next baby carriage that goes by, smash my PC and CD player, shoot my paperboy, strangle my mailman, flush my phone down the toilet and then find a nice dark, quiet corner to sit down and masturbate in my own feces to pictures of Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh, and the Pope until I go blind.

After all, its the only thing left for a decent person to do…

AJAX is a DILDO says:

GROW A BRAIN!

// ==UserScript==

// @name Melon’s Censor

// @namespace none

// @description Censors bad words

// @include *

// ==/UserScript==

//

// This code turns -most- cuss words into *s.

//

//

// WARNING: Code contains words that many consider offensive. If you do not wish to see them,

// Don’t scroll down.

//

// ^_^

/

(function() {

var replacements, regex, key, textnodes, node, s;

replacements = {

//case sens

//safe replace

“Pussy cat”: “***** ***”,

“Jackass”: “*******”,

// bad replace

“Goddamn”: “*******”,

“God damn”: “*** ****”,

“Son of a bitch”: “*** ** * *****”,

“Bitchy”: “******”,

“Bitched”: “*******”,

“Bitching” : “********”,

“Ass hole”: “*** ****”,

“What the hell”: “What the heck”,

” Tits “: ” **** “,

” Tit “: ” *** “,

” Pussy “: ” ***** “,

” Damnit”: ” ******”,

“Bastard”: “*******”,

” Cunt”: ” ****”,

“Dickhead”: “********”,

“Ballsack”: “********”,

” ass “: ” *** “,

“Faggot”: “******”,

“Niggaz”: “******”,

“Nigger”: “******”,

“Nigga”: “*****”,

“Lmao”: “Rofl”,

“Lmfao”: “Rofl”,

//all caps

“SON OF A BITCH”: “*** ** * *****”,

“GOD DAMN”: “*** ****”,

“GODDAMN”: “*******”,

“BITCHY”: “******”,

“BITCHED”: “*******”,

“BITCHING” : “********”,

“LMAO”: “ROFL”,

“LMFAO”: “ROFL”,

“WHAT THE HELL”: “WHAT THE HECK”,

” TITS “: ” ***** “,

” TIT “: ” *** “,

” PUSSY “: ” ***** “,

“BASTARD”: “*******”,

” CUNT”: ” ****”,

“SON OF A BITCH”: “*** ** * *****”,

“DICKHEAD”: “********”,

“BALLSACK”: “********”,

“ASSHOLE”: “*******”,

“ASS HOLE”: “*** ****”,

“ASS-HOLE”: “*** ****”,

” ASS “: ” *** “,

“FAGGOT”: “******”,

“NIGGAZ”: “******”,

“NIGGER”: “******”,

“NIGGA”: “*****”,

//punctuation

“Shit!”: “****!”,

” Tits!”: ” ****!”,

” Tit!”: ” ***!”,

“Cunt!”: “****!”,

” Ass!”: ” ***!”,

“Shit,”: “****, “,

” Tits,”: ” ****,”,

” Tit,”: ” ***,”,

“Cunt,”: “****,”,

” Ass,”: ” ***,”,

// trump cards

“Asshole”: “*******”,

“Ass-hole”: “*** ****”,

“Motherfucker”: “************”,

“Fucker”: “******”,

“Fuck”: “****”,

“FUCK”: “****”,

“Shit”: “****”,

“Bitches”: “*******”,

“Bitch”: “****”,

“Damn”: “****”,

“BITCHES”: “*******”,

“BITCH”: “*****”,

“DAMN”: “****”,

};

regex = {};

for (key in replacements) {

regex[key] = new RegExp(key, ‘g’);

}

textnodes = document.evaluate( “//body//text()”, document, null, XPathResult.UNORDERED_NODE_SNAPSHOT_TYPE, null);

for (var i = 0; i

Aparent says:

Two perspectives.

There are always two sides to a story. Calling people names for not wanting to here the big ol’ F-bomb isn’t very mature. The truth is, the majority of adults don’t like hearing the F-word.

/rant on

As I read these posts it seems the solution is for those who do not wish to hear the word just not watch the movie. We should wear ear muffs or some such thing. Since the majority of people do not want to hear the F word doesn’t that make you the minority pushing our views on the majority?

That said, blurring lips is stupid in my opinion. Some characters in movies (Jay from Jay and Silent Bob?) have a reason for swearing. Gangsters perhaps use foul language, I don’t know as I don’t know any, and it seems more reasonable to assume they do. Teen movies have a lot of swearing because they are trying to protray the actors as kids. Usually stupid kids.

As for words just being words, that’s a pretty narrow view. Each society has words that the society feels are unacceptable. This is why Guvno isn’t a curse word in the U.S. as it is in Russia. It is the meaning behind the word. Guvno means nothing in America. If it did, it would be a swear word.

K, Europe has just as many screwed up people as the U.S. Don’t fool yourself. That said, how would it be taken if someone from America went to Europe and started saying things like “get those boobies off the air. No wonder the kids in Europe are so screwed up!” BTW, grats in being a legal immagrant. I have no urge to move to Europe to see boobs on TV (although it would be ok with me). I am not a prude. I don’t find nudity offensive. I find the love scenes in Soap Operas on TV offensive and their is no nudity. I find Benny Hill hilarious, more so when he has nudity in his skits. I don’t mind a good killing on T.V. either. Movie/T.V. violence is not real violence.

My point is that you all push your point of view to an extreme. You are no different than the extreme religious nuts who want lips blurred. What is funny is that for most of you, age factors in to a big degree. Am I prejudice? Possibly. But I have seen 4 generations of teenagers in my life and each was so much like the other it was funny. No that all of you are teenagers, I am sure that there is a small percentage in their 20’s too. And no doubt a tiny percentage of people at each age group are ok with using any language anywhere. That doesn’t make it less rude or more acceptable.

/rant off

fistikuffs says:

Re: Two perspectives.

mate europe has problems but we are letting the states win the gun toting religious red neck race. We do not have a comparable murder rate with the states. compared to the states europe has minimal censorship. i recently read that over 50% of online child porno material is located on servers in the states. i cannot think of any incidences of children murdering other children in schools with guns in europe certainly nowhere near the frequency found in the US of A. I’m afraid when you say europe is as screwed up as the states YOU are fooling yourself. Swearing is merely language. I am not religious but i respect that people of that persuasion should not have to listen to or watch offensive content. That’s what the remote control is for. Your argument as to “the minority pushing our views on the majority?” is rubbish. My satellite tv subscribtion comes which so much religious BS that it makes me want to puke. I didn’t ask for any of it but its still there and i find THAT offensive. This issue is another in a long line of disasters that is being perpetrated in the land of the free by the fundamentalist christian minority which is in control. You should monitor your own censorship, choose what you think is good for you and your family not the rest of these bastards that are trying to censor Darwin along with everything else.

ps. its late at night and i’ve had a few glasses of fine scotch malt so please excuse my rambling.

Search Engine WEB (user link) says:

Strange Priorities of Society

What a strange world we live in – when kids are inundated with the most REALISTIC Vitual Games that depict rampant bloody violence –

but are not allowed to hear profanity over the media

Anyone over 17 can see the most bizzare movies of almost unimaginable wanton destruction –

but can not hear profanity over the media

😮

Sanguine Dream says:

Could someone tell me...

why some censors bleep the wrong word.

For instance:

Ass_ _ _ _. Why bleep hole and let ass be heard?

_ _ _dammit. Can’t say God but can say dammit?

I can uderstand on live shows that its hard to catch a dirty word even with a delay of x seconds. But I hear this stuff on prerecorded networks like WB, WGN and so on. If you have it recorded why not just slow it down until you catch the right part you want to bleep? And even if they inted to bleep at those spots…why?

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