SMOKING CENSORS AT WORK
Advertising censorship on television in Thailand is common. For a number of years Thailand has adopted a bad on the advertising of tobacco and alcohol products, so when an advert is broadcast a "Normal service will be resumed shortly" page is displayed.
Censors also work on movies and television programs as this example illustrates perfectly. It seems to be deemed acceptable to show someone holding a cigarette, but when the cigarette is actually being smoked the 'pixelators' get to work. These two screen shots from the movie Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy illustrate what I mean. Interestingly, in the same movie the line: "Go f**k yourself San Diego" remained intact.
On the subject of language 'beeping' or muting of offensive or even semi-offensive language happens all the time. One example last night was during the program Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food where Jamie frequently used the F-word. You can here the 'f' and the 'ing' but the 'uck' was muted.
3 comments:
I guess the bleeping was not done by Thai censors? Because I've had surreal experiences like watching films on UBC with words such as 'motherf*cker' unbleeped at mid-day.
But yes the smoking "vaseline" effect (also used when people are drinking alcohol, or using guns) is risible.
I've also seen cleavage being blotted out in a similar manner. Perplexing as to why cleavage is considered worthy of censorship yet gory scenes showing real murder victims are shown on the news all the time!
I recently bought a "Perfume" movie DVD from Thailand and they censored a topless woman corpse that is the most crucial part of the movie! Totally ruin the whole viewing pleasure.
Post a Comment