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Comment by andruby | Hacker News Reader

We (the HN crowd, often living in less-censored societies) would be very curious.

I’d like to know how curious this would make non-HN people, and those living in more censored places.

My assumption is that they take it for granted and just continue to watch the show. It might be hard for them to even find the uncensored clips.

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Growing up in Sweden, I mainly watched Swedish (original or dubbed) shows as a kid.

Once we got satellite and I started watching American channels I had my first encounter with censorship. Bleeps and blurs and random spots where audio cuts out. It was very jarring. I couldn't understand it at all and still can't. It really stands out, breaks the flow, makes everything feel cheap and ugly. In real life people swear and sometimes there is nudity. That never bothered me. But the jarring edits "protecting" me from these? Those certainly do.

This relates to PG rating and the way national TV works. In order to secure prime time spots, the show must hit a certain "family friendly" rating that matches the audience of the TV network. They chose the beeps as a way to cater for both adults and kids together. FWIW, these are far less common today.

I'm quite familiar with PG ratings. Not just because it's mentioned everywhere, but also because we had some passionate discussions about which to go for during the making of one of the Need for Speed games. Honestly, I feel they warp a lot of not just how media is presented but even how it is produced, sometimes in ways which make things feel very weird and inauthentic.

However, when I first started seeing this stuff as a kid I had no idea why and it really struck me as odd.

I think the funniest thing I've heard about censorship was Magnus Uggla, a Swedish artist, complaining that because he had a UK firm produce one of his music videos it was a real struggle getting them not to blur a scene where they're drinking shots.

TV edits ruin everything. There's a scene in Independence Day where Will Smith's character is running from an alien fighter, and he says "oh no you did not shoot that green shit at me." TV edits make it "green stuff," and it does not work.

I feel the same way about some radio/music video edits of songs. The one which really bothers me is Cee Lo green's "Fuck You". At some point Spotify randomly played the clean version of it, called "Forget You" and it just doesn't work. It turns a snappy and fun highlight into an awkward moment.

Excessive profanity generally makes things sound less eloquent, but limited use can be really good for emphasis.

I still encounter people who don't know "Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles" was a heavily censored version of the real show. They realize how weird the edits are in retrospect, but it didn't register much/at all for them at the time.

> "Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles"

Are you referring to the UK version of the 1987 animated "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" TV series? I never realized it was considered controversial! [0]

0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teenage_Mutant_Ninja_Turtles_(...

Heavens above, Myrtle! That turtle is a ninja! With nunchaku! Someone think of the children!

> nunchaku

Huh, you weren't kidding. Banned and censored in the UK, banned in Canada, Germany, and several US states... because of Bruce Lee? Bizarre.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nunchaku#Legality

So is Napoleon Dyanamite censored too? I think he mentions nunchucks

The word isn't banned.

This sounds so hilariously quaint to someone in the US like me. But, I guess that's because I'm used to being surrounded by people armed to the gills with assault rifles and shit. Maybe if you're in a mostly gun-free country, nunchaku actually seem kind of scary and threatening.

Especially ironic given nunchaku as a practical weapon is really not that great, especially in the hands of an amateur. A common kitchen knife or an iron rod (or even a good sturdy stick) would probably be more dangerous. It may be a great tool for a martial artist to develop valuable dexterity and speed skills, but as a practical weapon... It's common though for politicians to ban things out of sheer ignorance and following cultural stereotypes borrowed from fictional movies.

This is what the UK police confiscates in their "weapons sweeps" these days:

https://twitter.com/MPSRegentsPark/status/974645778558980096

TIL of Hero Turtles! That literally blows my mind.

On this, Dragon Ball is heavily edited too

in my observation (and it might not be correct), most of ppl around me doesn't even care which part has been censored, watching those sitcoms are just a way to kill time after all. however, you could find those censored clips on some video platforms where censorship is not so strict since there is no clear guidelines about what should not be exist.

> often living in less-censored societies

I think people a lot of us started to get out of the common path because of the limitations (which censorship is at the basic level) we hit. My hypothesis would be that simply “curious” people get pushed into the “hacker” bucket by getting refused something that seems reachable with some creativity.

The dumb example is people will get creative and jumping through hoops to get foreign porn. Growing non-authorized plants is another example, where people have to learn so much by themselves to make it happen. Even getting pirated non-censored versons comes to require more and more technical proficiency I think, and looking at industry’s reaction it seems there’s a decent number of people sailing the seven seas.

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