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Bleep censor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A bleep censor (or "bleeping") is the replacement of swear words with a bleep sound (or a short silence), in television or radio.
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- Bleeping has been used for many years as a means of censoring "inappropriate" content from programmes to make them suitable for 'family' or 'daytime' viewing. The bleep censor is a software module, manually operated by a broadcast technician. A bleep is sometimes accompanied by a digital blurring of the speaker's mouth, in cases where the censored speech may still be easily understood by lip-reading.
- On closed caption subtitling, bleeped words are usually represented by the capitalized word "BLEEP", or sometimes asterisks (e.g. "****"), remaining faithful to the audio track.
- Bleeping is usually only necessary in unscripted programmes - documentaries, radio features, panel games etc - since scripted drama and comedy is designed to suit the time of broadcast. In the case of comedies, bleeping may be for humorous purposes. Otherwise, bleeping of these is rare. Also, when films are censored for daytime viewing, broadcasters usually prefer not to bleep swearing, but cut the segment/sentence out, replace the speech with different words, or cover it with silence or a sound effect.
Bleeping in the final cut of a film is extremely rare, unless it was intended by the director (as in a fantasy 1960s sitcom scene, in Natural Born Killers, or for plot purposes in "Kill Bill").
- The bleep is sometimes used to protect an individual's identity (if they didn't agree to be named on TV or radio), or where they live (as in the British hidden-camera series Trigger Happy TV, when a member of the public answers the question "Where are you going?").
- Bleeping is most common in English-language broadcasting, and rarely heard in other languages. This is perhaps because of their more liberal attitude towards swearing, or unwillingness to censor.
- Examples of 'live' censorship can be put in the article tape delay (broadcasting).
The existence of the 9pm watershed makes the boundary between "suitable" and "unsuitable" content clear: the bleep censor is employed much less after 9pm.
In more recent years however, bleeping is hardly deployed, no matter what time of day and instead singular or very occasional instances of words, such as shit, are allowed to be heard even before 9pm.
- In the 1980s and 1990s, recorded hidden-camera segments on programmes like Beadle's About and Noel's House Party (where practical jokes were played on unsuspecting victims in public) would, if they contained swearing, be bleeped.
- When MTV UK and Ireland screened The Osbournes, it was uncensored after the watershed, but they later introduced a daytime version, The Bleeping Osbournes, containing (usually hundreds of) bleeps or sound-effects to cover swearing.
- On BBC television, some post-watershed programmes such as Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, QI and Have I Got News for You are bleeped if "fuck" or "cunt" is uttered, perhaps because they appeal to younger viewers and the BBC don't want to seriously offend during prime time/family viewing.
Channel 4, meanwhile, almost never bleep swearing after the watershed, and it is almost a cliché that every post-9pm Channel 4 programme will contain a "strong language" warning before it starts.
- In 2006, The Apprentice was repeated before the watershed in a bleeped form.
- Prank call segements on daytime radio programmes are often subject to be bleeped if, like on hidden-camera TV shows, the victim becomes very agitated.
- Pre-recorded daytime comedy series on BBC Radio 2 and Radio 4 are often bleeped sparingly; even the word "shit" often remains.
- In the United States the bleep might be employed as part of the tape delay, and therefore added seconds before footage is broadcast.
- The Federal Communications Commission has the right to regulate indecent broadcasts. However, the FCC does not actively monitor television broadcasts for indecency violations, nor does it keep a record of television broadcasts. It relies exclusively on documented indecency complaints from television viewers. The FCC is allowed to enforce indecency laws between the hours of 6am and 10pm.
- There has been criticism by some observers of a perceived FCC 'crack down' on swearing and the increased FCC fine for the use of profane language at 'pre-watershed' times. This climate has perhaps lead American networks like Comedy Central and MTV to still bleep out swearwords like the 's-word' and 'f-word' even after 10.00pm.
- Talk shows The Jerry Springer Show and Maury are heavily bleeped for daytime broadcast.
- In rare examples of bleeping of scripted programmes, Comedy Central's South Park and The Daily Show are bleeped (even late at night).
- On the programme The Daily Show references are sometimes made to the bleeping out of swearwords, drawing attention to the censorship and making fun of it.
- Bleeped scripted programmes might be rare because the major broadcast networks, ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox rarely if ever feature swearwords or profane words beyond what is acceptable for their timeslot.
- Even after 10.00pm programmes on the major American networks rarely feature swearing, bleeped or unbleeped.
- On Inside the Actors Studio, clips from films containing swearing are bleeped.
- WWE wrestling programmes can rely heavily on bleeping, particularly for daytime versions; WWE Raw and pay-per-views are censored 'live'.
- The comedy programme Arrested Development featured a bleeped F-word swearword in one episode but this was rare, as the programme rarely contained 'strong' swearwords. Other FOX sitcoms, such as Oliver Beene and The War at Home (which both heavily use the bleep censor on the word fuck, among others) rel(y)(ied) heavily on the bleep censor.
- The MTV series The Osbournes was bleeped in the United States yet was broadcast uncensored in other English-speaking countries, such as Canada and the United Kingdom.
- The bleeping on the programme The Osbournes was frequent and became a running joke.
- Swear words are bleeped on Fox's long running TV show COPS
- Major networks are usually granted more leniency with what they must bleep. For example, Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart frequently bleeps the "hole" part of "asshole", while in the "Be Kind, Rewind" episode of the NBC series Medium, Jake Weber said the word "asshole" without being bleeped.
- Interviews on This American Life are subject to being bleeped.
- According with FCC rules radio shows must not broadcast profane material between the hours of 1.00am and 10.00pm and so words may be bleeped if used at all.
- If radio stations use uncensored swear words or a person on a show uses them the station can be fined by the FCC.
References to the bleep censor include:
- In the episode *Bleep*, Arthur became one of the first children's series to cover the issue of swearing and censorship.
- A MadTv sketch involving Aries Spears involved a parody of a hip-hop video where he repeatedly swears, resulting in the song being nothing but bleeps.
- An episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch involved characters going on The Jerry Springer Show, and being bleeped even though they weren't swearing, lightheartedly suggesting that bleeps were only there to add controversy to arguments. Also, in Austin Powers 2, a Springer segment contains bleeped swearing, even though characters don't swear in the rest of the film, suggesting that simply being on The Jerry Springer Show makes people swear uncontrollably.
- During an interview on The Colbert Report, Colbert joked that whenever he tries to swear all that comes out is a loud bleep.
- In the anime Samurai Champloo, the sound of a record scratching is used to cover up swearing.