Censorship

In general I am against censorship. I think there should be clear warnings about what offensive things lay within a certain movie, TV show, videogame, or even musical albums; that way people can avoid what they don't want to see. However short of actions that are harmful to the performers themselves (including animal) or actual laws being broken to create the piece; there should be no limits on the direction an artist want to take their work.

However we live in a society that freaked out just because Janet Jackson's nipple was exposed for half a second. Things on television inevitably have to be tamed down in order for the general populous to be satisfied with it, and things have to be toned down so that they station will not receive fines from the FCC.

While I am against censorship sometimes it results in absolute hilarity. Yesterday TNT showed "Die Hard: With a Vengeance". They replaced the phrase "mother fucker" with "Melon Farmer." That's right, yesterday I saw Samuel L Jackson angrily call Bruce Willis a "racist melon farmer." I must say I was kind of sad that they didn't carry it all the way through the film at the end I was looking forward to a resounding "Yippie-ki-yay melon farmer" but sadly they changed it to "Yippie-ki-yay my friend"

It kind of makes you wonder what the world would be like if "Melon farmer" because the official stand in for "mother fucker." I personally think of Samuel L. Jackson as at delivering any line with the f word in it. He does it with such class and attitude. I have often said that every time Samuel L. Jackson says motherfucker and angel gets it's wings, because the way he says that phrase brings a sort of magic to the world.

Censorship of that particular phrase immediately brings to mind what would happen if this exact form of censorship happened to another Samuel L Jackson movie.