Saturday, November 14, 2009

more than words

Edward Wyatt. "More Than Ever, You Can Say That on Television. 14 October 2009. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/14/business/media/14vulgar.html?_r=1&ref=media

Summary: In 1972 George Carlin laid out the "Seven words you can never say on Television". But it seems that since then tv show producers have found many ways to sneak around this. The article has stated that directors are tired of always using the word "jerk" which has led to the word "douche". The use of the B-word (you all know what I mean) tripled in the last decade. The H-word jumped from a rate of 5.5 times an hour in 1990 to 9.8 in 2005. It used to be that this kind of language was "reserved" for hours after ten, but lately they have managed to sneak their way into even the family shows. Its not just the langauge that has become worse on televesion, it's also the sexual content.

My response: This is a big pet-peeve of mine. I'll be watching something as innocent as "sister sister" on disney channel, thinking I am perfectly safe, when all of a sudden they throw a swear word at me. Woah! where did that come from? Sometimes I honestly think the shows could go with out all of the sexual content and profanity. The best tv shows and movies are the ones without it. For example, "biggest loser" and "extreme makeover-home edition". These are the most inspirational shows and they have almost none of the crude remarks. I might be able to understand the profanity when its in adult tv shows, but putting it on channels like ABC family is not a good idea. How many of us have little siblings who say a word that we know they didn't pick up from your home?