- Warning: Use of swears and bad words below, as referenced in movie lines -
[same scene, a few moments later]
"Goblin: That's not it! Where did she learn that rubbish?! It doesn't even start with [...]"
Okay, so I've quoted a couple different parts of the 1986 Jim Henson movie, Labyrinth because I had a moment in the gym today where I was watching The Silence of the Lambs. With no audio. Just closed captioning. I'll explain my reasoning shortly.
As the movie was being aired on BBC America, in the middle of the day, certain words needed to be censored or corrected for afternoon viewing.
It's almost like when some movies rated PG-13 and above have specific words "you can't say on television" (thanks, George Carlin).
The specific things I'm referencing are the regular use of the "f-bomb" and other incidentals ("s-bombs" and so forth). This in turn, make those words into something completely different.
An example of changing swears into something 'family friendly' would be (#SpoilerAlert) the scene in Silence when Buffalo Bill is yelling at Catharine (forced to be in the well) to: "Put the fucking lotion in the basket!". This is that same scene where Bill tells Catharine she'd "get the hose again" if she didn't "put the lotion on its skin". The censoring took that basket exclamation and had Bill say "Put the freaking lotion in the basket!".
At the very least, that's what I caught in the closed captioning since I had the audio muted and was reading the dialogue on screen. I have been watching random movies while working out and don't have the sound on. The audio I do have, is in my headphones and its been various podcasts. I have changing sound in order to keep my mind from wandering. I also want to watch the television instead of staring at a time clock for over an hour. I am being respectful enough of the fellow gym goers, where they won't have to listen to what I'm watching, while they're doing their own workouts on the other side of the room. I have way too many podcasts in my list to not listen to them when I can, which is why I choose to have them play while I've got spare time.
The other side to the TV being on is when the other TV has on politics and it's rather loud. Like, I can hear reports over my headphones and I'm at least 25 feet away (which isn't much, I know). Sometimes I walk in to the room and both TVs have on politics and no one is watching on the side I'm about to use. Which is why I tend to turn up my headphones and watch what I want. I make the attempt to not bother anyone and most of the time, I'm by myself on one side of the gym (where the treadmill and elliptical are and I'm totaling two hours of machine use).
If the person doesn't like what I'm watching, they can stay on the other side (where the weights and bikes are). Most people don't care; they'll stop every so often and look at the screen and then keep going on with their workout. It's pretty funny when the people doing free weights are walking the floor and whatever I'm viewing catches their eye. They'll stop for a moment and rather dumbly look at the screen. Then they give up watching and turn around to continue on with their weight walk. If someone does pop up next to me on a machine, they'll either watch the show with me or they'll turn on their phone to watch Netflix (happens a lot). Very seldom does someone use the YouTube app that's built into the new machines we have (Technogym, which is like Nordictrack and Peloton).
One of the main reasons I am writing this and what got me thinking about how television channels are censoring the movies, is in the beginning of Silence, when Clarice goes to visit Hannibal Lecter, she passes by a side character named Multiple Miggs.
For those who have not seen the movie, I'm not going to completely spoil this for you, but I do apologize for talking about the scene.
It's got to be one of the more small but commonly referenced lines in the movie, where Miggs is in his cell and screaming at Clarice as she passes by him. It's at this moment when he says "I can smell your [c-word]".
I am censoring that specific word, as it's one of the really obscene ones that we have in our language; this also tends to offend a lot of people. There has been conversations about the varying history in relation to the etymology of the phrase, but to be respectful, I am not using it here (even though I've used it in conversation, fully aware of the connotations and context of it).
So to watch the movie and hear Miggs say the full sentence, the "c-word" gets changed to "scent". Again, I'm watching this with the sound off, so the closed captioning had him say "I can smell your scent", which for this incident, makes sense. When Hannibal Lecter asked Clarice what "Miggs hissed at" her, she repeats to Lecter, "He said - 'I can smell your scent'". However, when the scene does a close up of Clarice speaking, her mouth moves in the shape of the "c-word", so you know she's not repeating Miggs' word of "scent".
When I was explaining this to my friend Shawn, he gave me an example he know of in The Big Lebowski:
"In the movie, there's a scene where Walter yells at a kid and his line is 'this is what happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass' and proceeds to smash a corvette. The censored line is "this is what happens when you find a stranger in the alps'".
I cannot confirm that particular quote, but I responded that "that's an extreme example of censoring!" (I trust my friend; he's another movie buff). Shawn agreed, and said he has "a book on that movie, and that particular scene had so many weird stories about it".
He goes on to explain some other "insider information" about the Coen Brothers and John Goodman; how the "Brothers had closed a real neighborhood and Goodman was afraid to wake the neighbors during shooting because he didn't know it was a closed set". Since there are quite the array of books on the subject, I do not know which passage Shawn was quoting from.
It's a rough one, these random changes. I don't know if my friends and I watch too many "cult" or "popular" movies and know all the lines, or if it's somehow we're a little more attuned to the ways things change in how films air on smaller screens. Sure, my communication major gets the best of me sometimes, and my other commie friends have said they've had similar situations.
For the most part, I do have trouble watching movies and shows. I keep looking for faults - bad lighting where there shouldn't be (lens flares are the bane of my existence), improper product placement, low audio levels (drops), and an entire array of other crazies. I spend way too much time looking for bad and I don't spend enough time actually enjoying what I'm seeing.
On another subject of censoring, when it comes in full lines or individual words being changed, it's not just a general foreign language / translation overdub. It's English movies changing English words. When you add closed captioning and it's another beast added to the list of "look what they did now!!".
To cite an example of this, I was watching... oh god.. what was it now? It was last month when I was rewinding back on previous days to "on demand" or "replay" the old horror movies on IFC, AMC, and a few other channels. I am totally blanking out on what film I was watching, but it was part of a series (I don't think it was a Nightmare on Elm Street movie, as it was a little more recent, I think?).
The captioning threw me through a loop because it was translated into British English, even though it was an American movie. As I'm thinking about the choice of spelling.. was the movie "IT"? No... Crap; I can't recall right now. However, like I said, the translation into the captions was in British English; so "your mom" was "your mum" and when they said "ass" or "asshole", it was "arse" and "arsehole".
I honestly can't remember what movie it was that had a double take on the transcription offered. I know it wasn't one of the early 1980s movies, but I could be wrong. I did have a chuckle over it because every other "basic" / similar spelt word was fine. It was just the one off small change words that were different.
I really wish I knew what it was I watched. This is what happens when you just mindlessly stream so many things in a two hour time frame every day.
I work out at least 6 days a week in the community gym. I'm there for two hours a day, depending on what I've got going on (if I have work or no work). I could be there in the morning, afternoon or evening, so when there's no one watching the screen, I've got control of the remote - I put on what I want. I stay in the same area for the most part, as both the treadmill and elliptical are next to each other.
This gives me opportunity to watch the film or show in its entirety. If I happen to finish it in under 2 hours (due to forwarding through commercials), I'll throw on YouTube to finish my set. Sometimes I end when the movie ends and go to the other side of the room and use the weights.
It usually becomes a matter of "do I feel like using the dumbbells today, or do I just want to keep the rhythm going with the machine I'm on?". I find myself mainly staying on the machine and watching some random competitive eater or DIY stuff on YouTube.
Yes, I watch competitive eaters and what new contest they've entered... while jogging on the treadmill. It's interesting to see what ends of the Earth they go to, in order to find a hole in the wall eatery with some sort of food challenge. The challenge usually is "finish this giant plate of food in so many minutes and win a prize!", like big money and your name on the wall (with your picture). Most of the time the restaurant requires payment up front because a lot of people attempt the food challenge and fail. If you win, you might get your money back, and sometimes some extra. It is up to the owner's discretion. Other times, you get a t-shirt and that's it. Very little notoriety for the socials.
The other shows I've been watching lately have been the people who decide to create roving and roaming tiny homes out of school busses and RVs. Outfit them in a way where the raise the roof (literally and figuratively) and add full size appliances on the inside. There are also mini documentaries I've seen about the history of specific shows and movies or people and their lives. Maybe an abandoned mall is featured because some kids decided to sneak in and film what they saw. I'm all over the board some days and no two videos are alike.. for the most part.
However, the closed captioning done on Youtube is not immune to chaos. Not only is it sometimes slow to catch up with each scene, but it has various cut offs. Meaning, there will be a description of what's going on and all of a sudden the next sentence will have a few partial words.
What?
Stay with me on this one. Let me rewind to the last sentence with what I'm talking about. "Meaning, there wi[.] bea descript[ of what's going on andall of a sudden th nxt senence will hv afew partial words". Things like this. It's not exact, but it's something I have noticed on a regular occasion with how the app translates everything. It's weird; I can't make sense of it, unless it's due to the app being not a stock app on the gym smart TVs and someone having to download it. I'm tech savvy to a point, but I'm not that smart when it comes to knowing that type of intricacy.
So yeah, the closed captioning on YouTube has its own type of strange. As the things I watch on it are real people, odds are, there aren't many swears coming across the screen, so there's less of a worry about any type of dubbing.
I haven't watched Amazon, Netflix or anything of that streaming ilk in the gym, so I can't make a comment about what they're like. However, given the fact these channels have the real moves with little to no interruption, they are being aired in their original form. You know that R rated moving picture will have some nasty / naughty bits in it and they won't be cleaned up. It's really when they're aired on the television channels that it'll get some sort of PG level pass through.
Welcome to some sort of new version / update of The Hays Code?
One will never know.
Unless I can figure it all out and report back with some other pieces of hard evidence, keep your eyes moving and your brain working. Stay strong and drink your milk. Gotta get the muscle gain.
Cheers;
See Also
* George Carlin made light of the "Seven Dirty Words You Can't Say On Television" and he lays them out in various forms of media, including his live standup and memoir.
* Stephen King's 1987 book, "IT"
* The 1990 made for TV version of "IT"
* The 2017 theatrical version of "IT"
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Thanks for sharing!