Monday, January 29, 2007

Watch that bleep

I read recently that an overzealous, inexperienced censor cut all instances of the word “God” out of an in-flight version of the movie “The Queen,” believing references to the deity, even in lines like, “God rest his soul,” to be expletives.

Hey, it might have offended somebody, yes?

I'm reminded of a recent song by a band called Panic at the Disco. A radio-edited version of their popular single omits the word "God" from "Goddamn," but leaves the "damn" intact. Odd.

When one starts slicing with the censor's blade, anything can happen. Leave it all in, I say, and trust the audience to steer clear of material it finds offensive. We don't need Big Brother to do it for us.

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