The Creeping of Bleeping

I have established this thread to discuss the trend in the use of the bleep censor in today's television. Its use is becoming ever more prevalent, now firmly entrenched in late night and expanding rapidly into primetime televison.

New trends are the use of profanity and the bleep censor by a late night talk show host in his monologue (Jimmy Fallon), the use of the bleep censor in trailers of movies shown on late night television, and the use of the bleep censor in television commercials, something that is not legal in the United Kingdom where television and radio commercials are not allowed to use bleeps to obscure swearing under BACC/CAP guidelines. Just tonight Fallon let loose with a several bleeps; even a band member yelled a profanity loudl..

Of course, we all know about the ubiquitous bleep censor on reality shows and talk shows. Did you know that as recent as the 90's the producers would edit out obscenities rather than bleep them out? I will provide links to some of the edited out wear words on YouTube for evidence; e.g., raunch talk shows; Leno as late as early 2000's did not use the bleeeep censor! (yes, not that long ago bleeeeeps were extremely rare!). Even American Idol hosts never used an obsencity unti Steven Tyler joined the show; I did not watch one episode last year to avoid his rampant swearing covered by the bleeeeping.

Even Howard Stern rarely used obscenities on his show. What makes it particularly aggravating is the piercing noise the producers use; I can hear the sound in rooms far removed from the television when I cannot hear the television otherwise; I have been woken by the sound of the bleep censor. It is as grating or more so in my opinion as fingernails on a chalkboard.There have been scientific articles written why the bleep censor is so piercing and irritating; it has something to do with how the brain does not have time to process the noise gradually. The sound is so intrusive that it will cause my ears to ring for some time after a particularly long and extended high-pitch bleep. I would like to hear your opinion on this growing trend.

I will explore this further with references in other posts to this thread.

Do you find it annoying or not? Thanks.


See: http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/12/entertainment/la-ca-bleeping-20110612 ; http://benton.org/node/77516 ; http://news.yahoo.com/beep-why-digital-sounds-annoying-152006593.html ;

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=aggravating%20censorship

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MODERATORS NOTE: DO NOT USE SINGLE-CHARACTER SUBSTITUTION TO CIRCUMVENT THE PROFANITY FILTERS AS THIS POSTER HAS DONE (since edited). If I can figure out the word, then the whole thread's gone. This is an all-ages, all races and all-religions board. There is no warning nor age verification for this board. We want to keep it that way.

I didn't use any profanities in my replies. It has been acceptable to use, in place of a swear word, the word with symbols covering part of the word. Has the AVS policy changed?

If I find no interest in the thread on bleeping, I will not continue with the topic.

That's the same argument people make when arguing against nonsmoking policies in restaurants.

And, yes, there are programs I will not watch because of the constant bleeps. SNL, any of the now several prime time shows that use the bleeep censor (even though I would love to watch some of them like "The Office", any taped segments from skits of any of the late-night talk shows, reality shows, Chelsea Handler, and taped segments regarding people reacting to storms, violence, car crashes, and so forth.

Then why not have a less grating noise, like Craig Ferguson uses when obscenities are blurted during his interviews? On the AMA's last Sunday, the producers went as far as to bleep out a profanity by Ozzy Osborne that was never bleeped out in the original telecast, because, as noted, live shows do not use the bleep censor. Just another example of the trend.

Good points. But the FCC has no authority over cable; yet, the producers still insist on bleeeping out rather innocuous obscenities. Unnecessary censorship.

Bleeping has been around for a long time, but it was a grain in the sand, compared to the level of bleeping used today.For example, you very, very rarely heard bleeps in primetime television before 2000. You can read my first post to get an idea of the changes and trend. Also, check out my links.

That is part of the problem. I do have my home entertainment system with a nice receiver and speakers and most programs are now broadcast in DD 5.1. In fact, my Panasonic plasma is a commercial monitor with no sound, so turning down the sound is not practical and defeats the purpose of having a great sound system.

But premium channels do censor non-movie content all the time. Most of their documentaries and sports programming; e.g., "Inside the NFL" contain the bleep censor.They also use the bleep censor in their promos; e.g., for stand-up comedy shows.

And so no cable channel is willing to push the envelope over a weakened FCC? The primetime networks have. I would think the audience base of certain shows would not have a problem with the profanity; therefore, the advertisers would not complain.