Has anyone got a clue what is happening here? Can it really be that Radio 1 - the network whose biggest star is that model of decorum and decency Chris Moyles (and whose 'urban' spinoff, 1Xtra, is devoted to rap and such, er, outspoken genres) - genuinely decided that it had to censor the words 'slut' and 'faggot'? Or is it a stunt to remind us of the good old days when Radio 1 used to ban or censor pretty much everything? And what on earth is Tachell bleating about at the foot of the piece? Equal opportunities censorship, by the sound of it...
(By the way, that hideous image of Parkinson to the right of the piece reminds me that I was thinking of posting on the subject of his departure - but what's to say? First he was good, then he was showbizzy and so-so, then he was frankly awful, now he's gone. And so, one hopes, has the fawning, PR-friendly style of which he became the supreme exemplar).
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
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A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
Yes Nige. What was Parky's last show all about? The same guys telling the same stories about how enormously rich and succesful they've become. And they always say - 'It's not about the money, I'd do it for free!' - so why don't they? As far as I can tell they're all trousering hundreds of thousands per appearance. Thank God for Peter Kay's party hats last Sunday night. It rescued a tired blokeish celebfest.
ReplyDeleteYup, I too scratched my head in disbelief re: the Pogues censorship. What did they have for breakfast that day that made them think (temporarily) that censoring an old much loved classic was a good idea? I almost can't bear to talk about "context" and "appropriateness" in the face of this idiocy, but nonetheless, the string of abuse in the song is the point, not the particularities of an individual barb.
ReplyDeleteYou'd be surprised how insane pompous people can be about 'loaded' words. i was accused of being a white supremacist because i used the phrase 'the white race' - just using the phrase apparently means i'm an Aryan skinhead, despite being half-Indian.
ReplyDeleteDigger, duck and hunt. Substitute the first letter of each of these words with N, F and C and it's an outrage. Why? Please don't give me boring convoluted arguments about what such words 'represent'. They're just words.
ReplyDeleteIf words are simply words, and represent nothing else then what is the point of poetry and literature?
ReplyDeleteOne of American comedian George Carlin's standard short routines is about the seven words not allowed on radio and television. It won't be long before the ever-growing list consumes all the time alloted for his entire set.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that childhood ditty, "Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me" has been forgotten.