Comments on: Belgium, man, Belgium

By: John Bragg

John Bragg — Tue, 21 Jun 2005 15:52:54 +0000

The bit about Belgium being an offensive swear word elsewhere in the galaxy, the offense that this gave to the cosmopolitans whom Arthur told that his planet named an entire small country Belgium, and the contrast with the small, inoffensive and faintly ridiculous country we think we know was one of the most memorable bits of Life, the Unieverse and Everything.

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 21 Jun 2005 12:39:51 +0000

Oh, and I don’t know if it ever screened in the US, but the early 80s Australian movie The Wrong Side Of The Road contains this sublimely poetical line from someone taking a dodgy used car back to the dealer who sold it to him – “Fuck me, mate – this fucking fucker’s fucking well fucked!”

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 21 Jun 2005 12:37:05 +0000

Remember: Belgium was invented so that Germany could invade it giving the rest of Europe time to prepare for war . . .

By: engels

engels — Mon, 20 Jun 2005 23:27:31 +0000

Sorry… getting an NC-17 is de facto censorship…

By: engels

engels — Mon, 20 Jun 2005 23:09:14 +0000

The point is that this form of censorship only applies to the limited domains (network TV, PG-13 movies) which domains account for an ever shrinking portion of the American media market.

NC-17 is also fairly strict though, isn’t it? And failing to get an NC-17 is de facto censorship…

By: Slocum

Slocum — Mon, 20 Jun 2005 22:55:03 +0000

Go rent the uncensored version, then you’ll see that censorship doesn’t exist.

Whaa?

The point is that most people see movies on DVD and the ‘unrated’ version is just sitting there on the shelf at the video store. Doesn’t exactly compare to the days when ‘Lady Chatterly’s Lover’ was illegal, does it?

The point is that this form of censorship only applies to the limited domains (network TV, PG-13 movies) which domains account for an ever shrinking portion of the American media market.

Pick whatever time you think was the golden age of American media freedom? And then try to imagine the typical South Park episode being broadcast at that time. It’s inconceivable.

By: Kieran Healy

Kieran Healy — Mon, 20 Jun 2005 22:34:06 +0000

‘Belgium’ reference goes back to the very first set of radio episodes, where it’s used (without context) as an expletive by Zaphod.

No, the guide in the radio series gives a whole explanation of it.

By: engels

engels — Mon, 20 Jun 2005 22:17:35 +0000

Go rent the uncensored version, then you’ll see that censorship doesn’t exist.

Whaa?

By: Uncle Kvetch

Uncle Kvetch — Mon, 20 Jun 2005 22:04:32 +0000

Go rent the “Team America” DVD (with the full, uncensored puppet sex scene ;) and then see if you agree with the idea of the “unique censoriousness of American media”.

If the media weren’t censorious, wouldn’t a “full, uncensored” scene be kind of pointless?

By: nick

nick — Mon, 20 Jun 2005 21:45:30 +0000

American television seems to have no problem with ‘crap’, ‘piss’ and ‘wanker’ in primetime. And the South Park movie demonstrates how the ‘R’ rating is actually much more permissive than its UK equivalents: adults can take young children into ‘R’ films, but not ‘15’ or ‘18’ rated ones. Now, the line between ‘R’ and ‘NC-17’ or ‘Unrated’ is much more important, since an NC-17 will keep a film out of multiplexes and Blockbuster.

On adaptations: the Bridget Jones novels were very sloppily Americanised (or should that be Americanized?)—directly converting stones to pounds made no sense, since no American woman has an target weight of 126lbs.

(And I just pre-ordered the UK version of Harry Potter for my wife here in the US.)

By: nick

nick — Mon, 20 Jun 2005 21:38:46 +0000

Who actually changed the word in the US edition?

Adams, and he spun a fairly good extended joke out of it. Although Dirk Maggs elided the original for the recent R4 adaptation of LTU&E. This has been mentioned before on CT, I believe: the ‘Belgium’ reference goes back to the very first set of radio episodes, where it’s used (without context) as an expletive by Zaphod.

By: Slocum

Slocum — Mon, 20 Jun 2005 21:37:32 +0000

I think the whole thesis here is kind of goofy. There are limited areas of American media affected by this—namely network TV and PG-13 rated theatrical releases. But R, NC-17, cable-TV, and DVDs have no such restrictions and these channels of distribution are much larger overall.

Go rent the “Team America” DVD (with the full, uncensored puppet sex scene ;) and then see if you agree with the idea of the “unique censoriousness of American media”.

By: Jake

Jake — Mon, 20 Jun 2005 21:21:54 +0000

My mother told me that when she and my stepfather were leaving the theater after seeing Henry and June, there were two little old ladies creaking along in front of them. My mother overheard one of them say to the other, “The problem with that movie was too much fucking!”

I still find that extremely amusing. Perhaps it’s an American thing.

By: Richard

Richard — Mon, 20 Jun 2005 18:56:59 +0000

Amusingly, thanks to the hyper-sensitive web filters at work, this post prevented me from reading CT today until now…

Actually, not amusingly, what’s the other thing? Infuriatingly.

By: Anderson

Anderson — Mon, 20 Jun 2005 16:32:59 +0000

The Harry Potter link is fascinating … some of the changes are purely stylistic (“next moment” v. “a moment later”). I wonder if any are Rowling’s?

I hadn’t realized this was still going on; the most recent book has “flat” for “apartment” and other Britishisms, so I’d thought they had quit censoring.

Thank god no American children will have the opportunity to learn the word “whilst” in the course of reading HP. We’ll wait until sophomore English in college, when their minds are more flexible and open to learning.