Thursday, April 16, 2009

bleeped out

jimmy kimmel has a segment on his show called "unnecessary censorship" in which he shows video clips with innocent words bleeped out from sentences at places where other not-so-innocent words could be possible substitutes.

it's pretty funny (search for the "mr. rogers" edition on youtube!) and the degree of obscenity is largely dependent on the amount of filth present in your mind. which is directly proportionate to how much television you watch.

not to be outdone, the powers that be have decided to do some unnecessary censorship of their own on malaysian radio.

i've once ranted about the omission of the word "sex" from a jamie foxx song. the same word is being blurred out on justin timberlake's latest single.

fine. no sex please, we're a former british colony. whatever.

well, imagine my...surprise? stupor? when i heard the following on air:

1. if i were a boy - beyonce
miss knowles sings about switching roles with her lousy policeman boyfriend who flirts, drinks and doesn't comb his hair in the morning.

drink b**r with the guys, and chase after girls. i'd kick it with who i wanted and never get confronted for it.

oh yes. the censorship people have decided that the mere mention of alcohol will drive hordes of innocent youths (particularly those born into families that practice the official religion of malaysia) to pubs and a life of evil. why not just replace the word with wholesome one-syllable beverages like, say, juice? milk? tea?

i can picture it now - a table of grown men sipping from juice boxes and then proceeding to pick up women at a, erm, juice bar. that's the kind of image we wanna project!

2. unfaithful - rihanna
this one's just as, if not more, baffling than the above. in the bridge, a pre-black eye rihanna sings...

our love, his trust, i might as well take a gun and put it to his head.

guess which word has been deemed harmful to the fragile minds of the malaysian radio-listening population? 10 points if you said "g**".

don't ask me. i don't get it either.

i love malaysia. anything is possible here. my expectations of malaysian stupidity are almost always exceeded. malaysia boleh, indeed.

---

having said that, i am escaping to the little red dot this weekend for a well-deserved break. i have yet to sort out the itinerary, but it'll involve the east coast, changi museum, steamboat, church, a concert and some spontaneity.

oh wait, that doesn't make it spontaneous anymore. hmm. *shrugs*

turrah!

lishun at 10:23 PM

|