I do mean stuff like removed scenes from international airings, replacing objects like cigarettes or vine with any other objects.
South Park Season 1 Episode 7 (the episode where Cartman wears a Adolf Hitler costume for Halloween) was partially censored in Germany. Cartmans “Sieg Heil” was changed to “Wie Geil” (means “how cool”). I think the censoring there was actually funnier than the original.
Similarly, the episode titled “An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig” was supposed to be “An Elephant Fucks A Pig”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Elephant_Makes_Love_to_a_Pig#Production
Parker and Stone intended to call this episode “An Elephant Fucks a Pig”, but changed the title under pressure from Comedy Central.
Good. I would hate to think the elephant and the pig didn’t love each other before fucking.
I always thought the “wie geil” was international for the joke to work. So that others think it’s harmless… but I haven’t seen it since years.
When Sailor Moon was airing on American TV back in the late 90’s, they completely censored out every aspect of romantic relationship between Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus. Turned them into cousins.
It was a shock to me when I bought the subtitled version and they were suddenly lesbians.
That’s so disappointing. To me, Sailor Moon is the OG all inclusive series. (It was my very favorite show ever as a kid and probably still is.) I kinda love how they didn’t make a big deal out of it. The star sailors change sex when they transform and it’s not even talked about. It just is how it is and nobody wonders about it. Neptune and Uranus having the hots for each other is portrayed as any other romance is and iirc no character ever addresses the “taboo” of it. Even the alien incest is somehow fine (I mean they are aliens and extinct so they do them).
I understand the LGBTQ+'s struggle for representation and acceptance, so probably they do need somewhat of an over accentuated representation on screen to eventually reach full acceptance. But Sailor Moon seems to be what comes “after” this, just normalization without it ever being a question. All the while sparking an interest in astronomy in kids who then know all the names of the dwarf planets in our solar system before they know the multiplication table.
Man I can’t wait till my kid reaches Sailor Moon watching age.
I hope your kids like it.
It has always seemed to me that my kids have gone out of their way to avoid liking anything I like. That’s fine, but I never could relate to them.
I adopted my son so it was different with him. We did everything together and he was happy to look into my interests sometimes. He and I played world of Warcraft together for a decade and I’d cut off a couple toes to go back and have that with him again.
Thanks, I hope so too. For now she’s very much into girls as main characters so maybe I’ll get lucky with the series.
I once heard that a teenager will act very similarly to how they acted at 3 years old. Extrapolating from that (my child is 3.5) it’s very likely that she will also not like anything I like or listen to anything I say. When she has the choice between A and B she suggests C. Her answer to the Sally-Anne test is wild. I’m pretty sure she’ll keep destroying metaphorical boxes or playing Schrödinger’s cat instead of just thinking inside or outside the box.
I also always dreamt of having music playing in the background and dancing to it. She hates recorded music. She likes singing and me/others singing (sometimes) but God beware I turn on a CD.
Also, time to call your son and invite him over for a WoW weekend I guess.
When I was a teenager, I bought a DVD that had a few Sailor Moon episodes that I had never seen before (being from the U.S.) In these episodes, Makoto (or “Lita” AKA Sailor Jupiter) develops a crush on Haruka (or “Amara” AKA Sailor Uranus) and has to cope with her being unattainable. The DVD included both an English dub and the original Japanese with English subtitles.
In the original Japanese version, the crush is treated as romantic in nature, with Makoto’s friends telling her that Haruka already has “a girlfriend” (Michiru AKA “Michelle” AKA Sailor Neptune.) In the English dub, Makoto wants Haruka to be her “best friend,” with the rest of the Sailor Scouts telling her that Haruka already has “a best friend.”
The visuals all stay the same, complete with roses and Makoto’s starry love-eyes. The romantic implications are so obvious it’s painful.
lol yeah. They didn’t edit out all the flirting though or all the embarassed or indignant reactions by the characters around them, which presents those “cousins” in a really interesting light ;)
The US version of Sailor Moon was also censored and edited in different other ways. IIRC:
- All Tokyo references were changed to New York. So they’ve changed where the whole thing took place.
- They changed all Japanese writings (Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji)
- Multiple characters had their gender or sex changed as to avoid homosexual relations.
- The music was completely changed for some reason
- They took out many scenes or even whole episodes if they thought, they might vaguely get into conflict with the FCC.
- They scrapped a whole season, because the Sailor Starlights (I think that was their name?) changed gender in their magical transformation.
I believe there was also a scene in Sailor Moon where a character was in the bath. In order to make the water opaque the censors decided that red would be the best colour to use, so it looks like she’s bathing in blood.
That honestly sounds absurd to me and makes me want to see sailor moon or (but the uncensored version).
Out of curiosity, (if you’d like to share), how old were you when you found out and how did you take it? Were you on board with it or did it feel weird?
I was a freshman in high school when I found out, and I was dumbfounded. I’d always chalked the wonky scenes up to being a culturally Japanese thing. And anime in itself was more “effeminate” overall than anything we had in America.
I was shocked, but it all suddenly made sense. I was fine with it. Early 2000s where I lived at the time was pretty accepting. I had friends in high school who were openly gay, and no one bothered them about it.
I think now it’s pretty wild that sailor moon was even on the air back then, though. There were definitely series they could have played that wouldn’t have to edit out huge chunks just to keep in line with broadcast regulations. The fact it got airtime at all is astounding. I mean, I’m happy it did, because SM is awesome, but still.
::: I spoiler tagged this long ass post in order to hide it from folks who don’t care.
I’m not that person but I had the exact same thing happen to me! And let me tell you, when I was first watching it as a middle schooler, I knew they were in love! I didn’t know that women-who-like-women had a word (lesbian), so I thought, “Well, if you’re in love with someone, they’re probably your friend. Probably your best friend, so that makes sense. But you can’t just call them your girlfriend, because-”
I grew up in rural Oklahoma (and now live in Tennessee). A woman, who has a friend, and that friend is a woman, makes her a girlfriend. I still call women who are my friends, ‘girlfriends,’ even though it obviously could mean something romantic. So Uranus and Neptune probably couldn’t just say ‘girlfriend,’ because all the girls who were their friends were their girlfriends, so ‘best’ friend is probably a friend who is such a good friend, that you’re also in love with them. (This was the logic of a sixth grader.)
It’s one of the reasons that Sailor Moon fans have always been so inclusive, have always stood up for other presentations or orientations. Why on earth would we support people trying to hide this stuff from children, when a not-so-small number of us knew what we were looking at when we were children?
To add to that, I might have had a very unique interpretation of the situation, because I would later learn that I was a demi bisexual (we didn’t even have the word ‘demisexual’ when I was a girl) and what that means is… For me, I usually only want a relationship with the person who is such my best friend, that I also am in love with them!
:::
Why on earth would we support people trying to hide this stuff from children, when a not-so-small number of us knew what we were looking at when we were children?
I watched Sailor Moon on German TV in the 90s (RTL 2 gang unite!). And whenever this topic of changes in the dubs comes up I struggle to remember how they put it in the German translation exactly because of what you said. It doesn’t matter how they translated it. It was so obvious. I haven’t known anyone who didn’t know exactly what was going on (but to be fair, it was common knowledge what lesbians were).
(Also 90s German dubs in general sometimes turned out weird - looking at you, first three seasons of FRIENDS - so I kinda didn’t over interpret the exact wording because I was so used to strange ways of putting things.)
Now you must tell me about the first three seasons of FRIENDS. (Please?)
Oh they just didn’t translate idiomatically. Alot of times they translated it literally and very badly. So a lot of puns just don’t work at all. Not the worst example but one that I remember out of my head is when Rachel and Ross have their fight in the cafe right before their first kiss. I think they say that the shop has long sailed (which is a saying and works with relationship) but they also talk about ships in German. Which isn’t too bad but it’s not a saying in German, you would say the train has left. The German word for relationship also has no “ship” so them talking about ships was really random. You can take it as a metaphor still, so it was ok-ish, but why would two New Yorkers use ships as a metaphor out of the blue.
A lot of sexual innuendo that is more or less obvious in English just absolutely doesn’t work in German. Like the dude with the watch who claims he has a dry spell (Monica’s date) - when he starts talking about having no ink in his pen it just sounds super off. Not like in a well designed metaphor but just like “???” you get it but it’s just not something that works.
There is also a scene that is so random that I can’t even pinpoint it down right now. Monica asks Joey (or Chandler?) whether he will be good to some specific girl and he doesn’t get the question. In English (and with context) it makes sense and it’s funny why he doesn’t get it, in German it is so random, you absolutely are on Joey’s side because you do not understand wtf is going on and what he is supposed to answer and why Monica would ask that. As I said, I’ve watched the show a lot and I can’t even tell you the context because it is so unfitting in the moment. I’ve watched the whole show like 15 times in German and about 5 times in English and I only got it when I watched it in English. If I remember what episode that was I’ll let you know.
I wish I could provide you with more and better examples but it’s been at least 6 years since my last rerun :(
As a side note, the Russian dub is so much worse quality wise, but they end up just summarizing more or less idiomatically what happens. Jokes are lost this way, but at least there is no confusion about what is happening.
And now we are friends!
That’s the other cool thing about the Sailor Moon fandom. I’ve never once met a Sailor Moon fan who was a racist, or a bigot, or… anything. It comes with the ‘love and justice’ thing.
The VH1 edit of showgirls. Movie was cut shorter… Meaning what actual plot there was was even more chopped up .
And when they couldn’t edit out the nudity, they “Ms painted” bikini tops on the actresses.
It’s absolutely hilarious to see https://www.reddit.com/r/Corridor/comments/1bs47qn/showgirls_movie_edited_for_tv_vh1_no_joke/
Here is a reddit link
Here’s an example
Qatar Airlines does something similar with their movies - took me a bit to realize I was being “protected” on that tiny screen 😆
Here’s the non-reddit link. https://archive.org/details/showgirls-tv-version
Thanks for linking that!
Don’t remember the movie or show but on aired in Korea I saw they would blur out parts such as cigarettes as well as arm pits (male actor) and a chef’s knife (prop was being held with the actors intention to defend herself).
I think I heard about that last one or a similar one where the censore spoiled the upcoming scene as has there been no violence the knife wouldn’t have been blured.
The version of From Dusk Till Dawn that aired on German TV with age 16+ rating was half an hour shorter and was cut so badly, it hardly even made sense anymore.
It’s basically just a couple of dude(tte)s going to a gas station, then walking into a bar and starting to shoot at nothing for no reason.That’s not a movie that you can make TV appropriate.
I could look this up but what is with germany and blood censorship?
It’s just different values. I could ask the same about the US and nudity. In German media, blood and violence is fine, but it’s considered a topic that you need to be able to handle, so you need to have a certain age, depending on how gruesome that is.
Tbh, I’m European and therefore biased, but the way the united states have no problem with people harming other in media but being offended by something like “bodies” or “sex” does seem a little weird. Like, if my kids normalised harming others I’d be much more concerned than if they normalised making love.
Watching TV:
Here in the EU it is offensive/inappropriate to kill people.
There in the US it is offensive/inappropriate to make people.
So the difference is whether to make love or to make war. Personally I’d rather be a bononbo than a chimpanzee.
Bonobo Love Island:Chimpanzee Gladiators.
Little story to that point: In 2000 I flew NWA from Europe to the states. That time they still showed the movie on a big screen in the front of the cabin. The movie that day was Gladiator.
The airline did not censor gore and violence even though children were also flying.
But of course there was no nudity to speak of in that movie at all.
There is nudity in the original, when emperor rapes his sister(?) and I believe there’s other scenes as well. They usually showed the made for TV edit so that’s probably why you didn’t see.
Their solution for kids was to not give us headphones lol.
Some of us here think it’s backwards as well. The thing is that it’s a hard cycle to break. Because nudity is so taboo here and pretty universally related to sex rather than art or nature it ends up with any place it show up being taken as scandalous ‘uh oh, they showed the naughty bits’.
Nudes in art are viewed as high-brow, guns and violent sport as more low-brow, but we"re also a place who make icons of the blue collar ‘Joe Sixpack’ sort and for a large part treat intellectualism is snobby elitist shit.
Maybe one day we’ll unga bunga our way out of the caves, but nobody knows when.
What is it with USA and boob censorship?
women scary 😨
Omg! Is THAT what they did? I remember when that movie came on tv and Ioved the road trip bit in the beginning and then it suddenly all stopped making sense all at once. I never watched it again because I didn’t realize that wasn’t just what the movie is. Mind blown. Thank you.
Yes. They cut out a lot of dialog, and most of the transition to vampires and the final fight.
Ugh, that version is so bad. You see a character build this awesome vampire killing machine in a montage. And a minute later you see them throw it away without ever having used it.
Also for some inane reason the only way to get an uncensored Planet Terror with the helicopter chopping up zombies is by renting it. Good luck finding a video rental place nowadays.
There is a famous US tv edit of Snakes On A Plane where Samuel L Jackson shouts at a pivitol moment, “I’ve had it with these monkey eating snakes on this Monday to Friday plane!”
Monkey fighting snakes, if my memory serves correctly.
The best version of that movie is the censored version lol
on this Monday to Friday plane!
If I were stuck on a plane (let alone one with monkey-eating snakes) for 5 days straight, I’d reach a breaking point, too.
The Malaysian version of Matrix cut out the kissing scene at the end.
MASH on Channel 10 (Australia) used to be so heavily censored they would splice two episodes into one.
They couldn’t even bother to orient the milk carton correctly…
I know a protest when I see one… I am guessing they are forced to so they go out of their way to make it as obvious as possible to the viewer
ISAIP episodes, those episodes pre-2010, with blackface jokes, basically it was showing how ridiculous blackface is to racists, the "execs decided it would be obliterated from most media besides clips on youtube. they are doing it "im a white person offended for black people "type of virtue signalling, not even poc is offended by this.
you know BSG wanted to say fuck instead frack.
also castlevania nocture, when they turned the captain lady intoa frozen shade, you can clearly see they dint want the frozens shades boobs to show in anyway, so its constantly always covered up.
I remember watching the TV-edited version of “The Faculty” and there was a particular scene that stuck with me where the main guy runs outside in frustration and screams “PHOOEY!” instead of “FUUUCK!”
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the movie, much less the censored version of it, so that memory feels like a fever dream to me.
The 20th Anniversary Edition of E.T. not only had superflous CGI E.T. scenes (no doubt inspired by Lucas), but also all guns of the federal agents were changed to walkie talkies.
Spielberg later apologized for the changes and rolled them back.
I read some years ago that in the Arabian version of Simpsons, Homer drinks lemonade instead of beer.
Moe is such a talented lemonade merchant he has to stay open till the early hours to sate the townsfolk’s addiction to his citrus crack.
That’s kinda sweet but also completely steam rolls a very big part of Homer’s character.
I remember when Young Guns aired on a cable channel in the 90s there’s a scene at the climax when Billy the Kid actually says “Murphy, you son of a bitch…” and shoots the baddie in the head.
So this cable channel edited it for him to say “Murphy, you sorry old buzzard…”. But the headshot was still intact because this is America.
John McClain kills every member of a heist crew then throws the boss off a skyscraper to his doom and the only concession made for tv is “Yippee ki yay Mr Falcon.” America.
I thought he said melon farmer
It’s a movie, but when Sigourney Weaver’s character says “Well, fuck that.” and it’s edited to say “Well, screw that.” without changing how her mouth moves at all is about the funniest one I can think of.
(Galaxy Quest is the movie)
Supposedly that was one of a couple leftovers from a more R rated first cut.
Some of those cut scenes are present on the DVD release. There’s one where Weaver’s character does a bit of a strip tease to disteact some aliens (the modification to her outfit is still in the movie, it just changes randomly between scenes) and another where Shalhoub’s character is explicitely confirmed to be high off his ass the entire movie.
Yippee ki-yay, Mr. Falcon!
That’s a gif I always want to send co-workers 😁
I never saw the movie and don’t know the context, but I wanted to see the gif so I looked it up. Is this the one?
It is indeed. The audio is smooth in the movie so you don’t notice unless you’re watching her mouth.
This gif just reminded me how awesome that movie is
Does the fediverse have a place for watch parties? Because a bunch of us are for sure watching Galaxy Quest today.
[email protected] has links to #Monsterdon, a weekly watch party over on Mastodon. Galaxy Quest might be a bit too well made for their usual brand of movie, though.
Oh, thanks very much for the link! Always looking for cool new places on the fediverse!
Also, nice to finally meet you, Odo. You were an excellent part of my favorite Star Trek.
She has one job on that ship. It’s stupid but she’s gonna do it!
My name is Buck… And I’m here to- PARTY!
also the most famous one:
This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps
I don’t get the latter.
Also where is it from?
I don’t know where the line is from, but gonna guess from context it’s “fuck a stranger in the ass”.
From The Big Lebowski. Youre correct in your translation :)
lol John Goodman is on the hood of a car smashing the windshield with a golf club or a baseball bat. Completely destroying the fuck out of this car. And he’s yelling “this is what happens when you find a stranger in the alps!”
I’m glad someone else remembers the hilarious travesty of TV censored kill bill
