an affect and/or conspiracy of annoying! teevee bleeps

(Getting my feet wet here in Ed. & Media)

I've grown to loathe shows that over-use the practice of the "BLEEPED"-word. It's truly annoying on so many levels. As I write this, I can hear the teevee in another room. I can't hear what is being said, but I sure can hear the BLEEPS. Ever tried reading while someone cranks up a video game? But back to BLEEPS...

I guess I started noticing this BLEEPING! "BLEEP"ing method on COPS. Now it's every-where, from motorcycle building to every "reality" show on earth and else-where. Remember the old days of the black square over the mouths of swearing people? I actually find it noble that more respectable channels simply drop the audio when some words are used.

I'm sure I'm not the only one here who thinks it is over-done as a rule. Shows are buried in sandstorms of BLEEPS unnecessarily. Can't writers come up with anything interesting but the same four-lettered words over and over? Is this turning people on to shows, or is it turning people like me off at this point? (These are pretty much rhetorical questions. I am not concerned with any censorship/total freedom debate. My theory follows.)

The "conspiracy":

I have absolutely no doubt that "perfectly fine" words are bleeped just to supposedly spice things up. I hear an awful lot of BLEEPS from people who I'm pretty sure aren't really saying BLEEPworthy words in certain situations.

Notice how some shows even allow the first or last sound of the BLEEPED word? Why not just say the BLEEPING word in entirety? Really though, why not come up with something original?

Here's why: I believe it is done to further pollute our standards and thought processes by forcing our conscious mind and/or subconscious to PROVIDE the profanity instead of PASSIVELY observing it. Of course you can train yourself to ignore it by always using a word like "smurf" or something, but there have got to be neurons firing somewhere when BLEEPS occur.

Seriously, watch a movie with "objectionable" language or passages in it. It is the character doing the talking. Obviously it isn't real. We observe the story and are not beat over the head when certain subjects arise. BUT on the teevee we are bombarded over the head ad nauseum to SUPPLY the BLEEPED words. This is not healthy.

I'm not sure who is behind this or what the expected result is. I know for sure that it ain't good.

[edit on 12-7-2005 by 2nd Hand Thoughts]

[edit on 12-7-2005 by 2nd Hand Thoughts]

[edit on 12-7-2005 by John bull 1]

Take it up with the FCC and the PTC. If they weren't so strict about forcing the morality fo the "religious right" down our throat, it wouldn't be a problem.

What shows are you watching anyhow with so much bleeping? Cops, Howard Stern, and Jerry Springer are the only shows I can think of where that much "vulger" language is used.

As for the partial words, it's as close as the stations dare come to actually allowing the words to be used without the PTC getting their panties in a twist and the FCC fining them.

There's no conspiracy here. It's simply the most vocal group at the moment happens to be the ones who get offended the easiest, so we get the bleeps over the bad words (like you can't hear worse walking down the street), blurs over nudity (oh no, little Johnny just saw a boob, he must be scarred for life!), and violence toned down. (Never mind being able to watch a guy jump off a bridge to his death or shooting people on the evening news.)

What shows are you watching anyhow with so much bleeping? Cops, Howard Stern, and Jerry Springer are the only shows I can think of where that much "vulger" language is used.

I don't watch Springer (fake AND racist) or Cops (propaganda to the max) and Stern's teevee show sucks (even before I moved to an area where the radio show isn't easily available, I got really sick of his venemous contempt for religion). It is done in primetime on the big three U.S. networks like Nanny 911 (children as young as 3 swearing...this was never broadcast even into the 90's...I don't think children need to be protected from the language, but I still don't think it's necessary on one of the few shows that could sort of be a "family" show.) Again, it conditions people and children to ACTIVELY SUPPLY profanity which is a sad state of affairs as well as a risky business.

There are several shows with "panels" that comment on pop culture that do it. Any show similar to the "American Chopper(?)" motorcycle building show does it. I can think of at least two these and I don't watch them due to BLEEPING. Pretty much any emptyvee or vh1 show does it. Cable comedy shows do it, such as Reno 911. The Daily Show does it (and it ALWAYS seems forced and unfunny to me). Dating shows do it (I don't mind it on Blind Date, but it's even done on completely phony shows like Date My Mom (emptyvee). No one can dispute that it is being written into the scripts. And these are only the ones that come to mind that I cross paths with.

To me this isn't an FCC issue. It's more in the development of these shows. I'm no angel. I'm involved in counterculture music and literature and film, etc. STILL, if I heard someone swearing to the Nth degree as they do on teevee, I'd say "BLEEP man, quit BLEEPING swearing so much." More adult shows like The Shield and Dennis Leary's firefighting show (Rescue Me) use a "B.S." here and an "A.H." there and it's not overdone and the show is fine IMO as far as that goes. ATS actively enforces guidelines that limit or eliminate unnecessary profanity. Is it any less "real" or worse-off for it? I don't think so. Boards based on an anarchy system don't seem to live up to what they could be. Intelligent conversations simply don't include a lot of rubish or slang. Even if ATS BLEEPED words with "&$^#@%", it would also force readers to SUPPLY the profanity in their own minds.

There is obviously a proliferation of swearing, whether "real or not". Try replacing a BLEEP with "goofball" or "knucklehead". How do we know that the words being BLEEPED aren't something similar? BLEEPS are the new "ummm"s and weren't around even 5 years ago. Why? Even if the BLEEPS were removed, why so much contrived swearing? At the least, hearing any sound 20+ times on a show in a long list of shows is like fingernails on the chalkboard.

The staff and producers of these shows make it a component of their shows. Why? In a business where everything is so calculated, what is the reasoning? Shows WERE NOT writing BLEEPS into fictional programs only a short time ago.

[edit on 12-7-2005 by 2nd Hand Thoughts]

[edits for grammar/spelling]

[edit on 12-7-2005 by 2nd Hand Thoughts]

[edit on 12-7-2005 by 2nd Hand Thoughts]

Moving to Skunk Works as per author's request.
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2nd hand, you might be on to something.

I can just see the production meeting now~~~
"come on now people, we can't let our competitor steal ratings from us, we have to spice up our show>
Let's create some drama and BLEEP out words that aren't even cussing. The public loves raunchy humor and since no real words are used, the feds won't be on our backs.
Let's kick our competition into the sotne age and juice up our stuff!!"

I put nothing past the MSM.

OTOH, I do notice a trend...people lack respect for each other and it often reflects in their language. There is a casualness in our society that makes me uncomfortable at times.
I compare it to getting into my personal space. I don't want strangers using the "f" word as just another word.

I have noticed a similar thing to what you are talking about.
Occasionally I’ll be watching a music video & they will block out words that are not offensive in any way & I can't see the logic behind bleeping it as all it does is bring attention to the missing word.
A case & point was a Pink video called "Just like a pill" where the word morphine was blanked out, why would you bleep out the word morphine?
I don't associate morphine as being offensive, so why bleep it out?
All it does is bring attention to the word morphine which in the context of song is insignificant. So why do it?
It's could be just politically correctness gone mad or it could be something more sinister but I just can't find the logic behind it.

Has anybody also noticed that blurring of certain objects in music videos also has the same effect?
I notice it more & more because I find censorship quite annoying.
An example of this blurring technique that i've noticed was in a video for a UK group called "The Streets" and for their song "Fit but you know it", there is a shot of 2 guys sitting at a table in a traditional british pub & there is a half empty pint of lager in front of them with no advertising but they decided it was offensive enough to blur out.
Why blur out a half empty pint of lager, nobody would have noticed it if they hadn't blurred it out, everybody knows it's a pint glass so why spend the time to go & blur it out?
But there's no problem when showing some tits & ass all the time, not complaining mind but if their going to go all nazi with the censorship then why blur out a half pint of lager?
Maybe my logic is a bit screwed up as I can't get into the logic of these people.