Public Address | Cafe | Up Front: Mind Your Language

Leopold

Thu, 02 Apr 2015 10:41:10 +1300

Reminds me of Lord Byron's 'Don Juan' and 18th century attempts to expurgate the classic writers:

Juan was taught from out the best edition,
Expurgated by learned men, who place
Judiciously, from out the schoolboy's vision,
The grosser parts; but, fearful to deface
Too much their modest bard by this…

Craig Ranapia

Thu, 02 Apr 2015 08:49:41 +1300

Apparently, ‘melon farmer’ was the invention of Alex Cox (the director), who was responsible for the editing/cutting necessary to get this on TV.

And the "airplane cut" is still a thing. If you have Hot Fuzz on DVD, one of the special features is a supercut of the ADR they…

Rich Lock

Wed, 01 Apr 2015 23:03:26 +1300

"Quim" is an ancient and venerable word.

Yes. I said 'creative', but I did already know it was an exisiting word and what it meant, and that they hadn't created it from thin air. I'm quite comfortable having the Norse Pantheon re-imagined as a bunch of quasi-Victorian English poshos. I…

Rich Lock

Wed, 01 Apr 2015 22:18:24 +1300

Anyone else remember the TV censored version of Repo Man where they had great fun sanitising by replacing with ridiculous words in their place.

Flip you melon farmer is still one of my favourite movie lines.

Apparently, 'melon farmer' was the invention of Alex Cox (the director), who was responsible…

Rich Lock

Wed, 01 Apr 2015 21:59:06 +1300

That's like the way they were allowed to say "wanker" on Buffy because it was America and nobody knew what it meant.

That does appear to be changing. I've seen it used a lot in written US pop culture recently. Next step: get them saying 'arse' correctly.

Emma Hart

Wed, 01 Apr 2015 20:45:55 +1300

We have an update. Charles Stross has announced he's signed exclusively with Dirty Reader.

Dirty Reader uses advanced NaughtyWords™ artificial intelligence technology to scan a corpus of text and detect the optimum location in which to insert a metric fuckton of cuntybollockspoofacefucknuggets to enliven your reading experience and bring it…

Joe Wylie

Wed, 01 Apr 2015 20:41:28 +1300

El Vibora…

AKA “The Viper”. The strip was Perfidia Moruna, by Roberto el Carca, and here’s the relevant page: Pajotus Interruptus!! Por Belzebu!!!

Everything’s on the web now eh.

Sacha

Wed, 01 Apr 2015 18:41:12 +1300

That's like the way they were allowed to say "wanker" on Buffy because it was America and nobody knew what it meant.

And apparently NZ sold them the beer brand. I'm almost disappointed.

Sacha

Wed, 01 Apr 2015 18:33:12 +1300

Flip you melon farmer

yuss

Ian Dalziel

Wed, 01 Apr 2015 17:50:51 +1300

I have a Catalan comic somewhere,
Perhaps it was one of the one's you were in, Joe?
;- )
El Vibora...
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150403433445652.606883.436424315651&type=1
A Classic Joe Wylie work in colour!
(- I first saw it in Black and white in Strips )

Ian Dalziel

Wed, 01 Apr 2015 17:43:01 +1300

Quim” is an ancient and venerable word.
Go and read some Victorian porn...
Steamypunk?
For Quim and Country!

Joe Wylie

Wed, 01 Apr 2015 16:24:58 +1300

See also the Mitsubishi Pajero. In some Spanish dialects, that means “cowboy”, apparently. In others…
I have a Catalan comic somewhere, the authorship of which I can’t attribute from memory, where a bunch of inept islamic zealots set sail across the Mediterranean to invade Spain. Their battle cry is “Viva…

Rich of Observationz

Wed, 01 Apr 2015 15:39:27 +1300

(Some) americans really don’t know what ‘wanker’ means. Phil Collins guested in an episode of Miami Vice where they decided that “bitch” was unacceptable language for prime time TV, so he called the character a wanker instead. (This may be the only creative thing he had done since leaving Genesis).…

Emma Hart

Wed, 01 Apr 2015 14:24:55 +1300

I’ve always wondered if that’s actually true, or if Americans just pretended not to know what “wanker” means so they could get away with swearing on TV.

See, now I'm going to have to go find the episode and watch it with the commentary. Oh no...

Josh Addison

Wed, 01 Apr 2015 14:05:57 +1300

That's like the way they were allowed to say "wanker" on Buffy because it was America and nobody knew what it meant.

I've always wondered if that's actually true, or if Americans just pretended not to know what "wanker" means so they could get away with swearing on TV. Buffy…

Emma Hart

Wed, 01 Apr 2015 13:41:05 +1300

Although it’s sometimes better when people have to get creative to get one past the censors.

That's like the way they were allowed to say "wanker" on Buffy because it was America and nobody knew what it meant.

But again, a lot the power of that insult is packed into…

Miche Campbell

Wed, 01 Apr 2015 13:06:38 +1300

"Quim" is an ancient and venerable word. Go and read some Victorian porn — it's hilarious in its inventive use of euphemism.

Miche Campbell

Wed, 01 Apr 2015 13:05:41 +1300

Oh I love the censored version of the '80s film Repo Man for its silliness.

"Flip you, melon farmer!"
"Well forget you, airhead!"

Comedy gold.

Rich Lock

Wed, 01 Apr 2015 02:31:38 +1300

Although it's sometimes better when people have to get creative to get one past the censors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o2fw3Hme-0

linger

Wed, 01 Apr 2015 00:30:47 +1300

books sometimes use faggot correctly.e.g., when an American base guard inspects a Witchfinder’s identity card in Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman’s Good Omens (p.346):“What’s this here,” he said suspiciously, “about us got to give you faggots?”
“Oh, we have to have them,” said Newt. “We burn them.”
“Say what?”
“We burn…

tussock

Tue, 31 Mar 2015 22:48:49 +1300

Translation's getting better faster now because they've crowdsourced it and you get to enter improvements into the translation engine as you translate things. At least for babelfish, or whatever google calls it now they've lost their soul.

—

I have seen the odd use for censorship that basically worked, you…

BenWilson

Tue, 31 Mar 2015 19:46:34 +1300

and that’s been quietly moving ahead of late.

It's been moving ahead our whole lives.

Rich of Observationz

Tue, 31 Mar 2015 19:18:43 +1300

But there’s no way any software’s going to be able to do that for a long time

It's a similar problem to machine translation, and that's been quietly moving ahead of late.

BenWilson

Tue, 31 Mar 2015 19:05:24 +1300

Well it’d take actual work, by a person, which took into account things like voice and context.

Yeah or some hella good software. But even then, a computer's probably better off sending a chill down your spine with a polite "I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that".

Lilith __

Tue, 31 Mar 2015 18:08:05 +1300

I love the Firefly solution: "Gorram", "Humped", etc. Any really bad cussing in Chinese. And gather not usual Chinese curse-words either.

Emma Hart

Tue, 31 Mar 2015 17:48:44 +1300

But there’s no way any software’s going to be able to do that for a long time.

Well it'd take actual work, by a person, which took into account things like voice and context. But yes, leaving them out altogether is vastly preferable to using minced oaths, because there's a…

BenWilson

Tue, 31 Mar 2015 17:12:52 +1300

If characters from The Wire start talking like they’re in Famous Five books – “Gosh darnit, what the freaking heck is that freak doing here?” – they have become different characters. Less plausible characters. Completely freaking ridiculous characters.

Ironically, the language in shows like Boardwalk Empire had to be dirtied…

Rebecca Williams

Tue, 31 Mar 2015 16:22:36 +1300

LOL flip you melon farmer!!!! actual LOL.

Rebecca Williams

Tue, 31 Mar 2015 16:21:22 +1300

i am kind of pleased and kind of embarrassed that i'd never even heard of Clean Reader. and kind of glad to hear it's been taken off the market, to be sure.

when it's your book being freaked in the jerk

that last line made me laugh out loud Emma.…

Kim_Wright

Tue, 31 Mar 2015 15:05:18 +1300

And then there's the utterly hilarious "Tongan Ninja"

My favourite line "We'll be back ... you ..... homeowners!"

Here's the final fight scene for a snapshot of the laughs.

Ray Gilbert

Tue, 31 Mar 2015 14:39:09 +1300

Anyone else remember the TV censored version of Repo Man where they had great fun sanitising by replacing with ridiculous words in their place.

Flip you melon farmer is still one of my favourite movie lines.

linger

Tue, 31 Mar 2015 14:11:59 +1300

In Clean Reader, all sex is anal sex.Amazing how attempts to enforce purity inspire a race to the bottom.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8ZF_R_j0OY

Kumara Republic

Tue, 31 Mar 2015 13:27:45 +1300

Also, the filter had, as they very often do, the Scunthorpe Problem.

There’s also that theo-con news web site run by the American Family Association that renamed athlete Tyson Gay to “Tyson Homosexual”.

Rich of Observationz

Tue, 31 Mar 2015 13:22:44 +1300

Famous Five books

"Oh Timmy, you're so licky. Just like the first time"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biqn6huNXZ8

Idiot Savant

Tue, 31 Mar 2015 13:14:59 +1300

If characters from The Wire start talking like they're in Famous Five books – "Gosh darnit, what the freaking heck is that freak doing here?" – they have become different characters.

I'll say. I mean, this just doesn't seem right:
Aw... freak.
Mother-freaker!
Freak freak freakity freak.
Freak
Mmmm... freak.…

Emma Hart

Tue, 31 Mar 2015 12:58:56 +1300

If you want to play the Clean Reader game, this column has a by no means comprehensive list of its substitutions.

Public Address

Tue, 31 Mar 2015 12:58:56 +1300

Discussion from blog post.