Say What???

The Husband and I were watching TV this weekend, and we always get such a kick out of studying what is censored and what doesn't make the cut. It's the same puzzlement I have when I see a local Malaysian woman in her traditional dress answering her mobile phone, the ringtone of which is Akon's "Smack That". Something just doesn't quite add up.

Anyway, so we watched Wedding Crashers and kept track of which words were censored and which weren't. I won't bore you with the entire list, but a few comparisons would be: Censored="teet", Not Censored="prick". Oh, and apparently "hooters" is okay to say, as well as several slang terms for homosexuality. However, "sheet" was censored, I guess because it sounds very similar to "sh*t". We just find the whole censorship thing kind of interesting. I've never lived in a place where I just really didn't have the choice on what I did or didn't hear. Given the choice, I typically go for all the colorful words...

Oh, another interesting example...this weekend, we took the ferry from Labuan to Kota Kinabalu (more on that later) and I was absolutely astounded at the movie they showed. Now, this is a country where we get a censored version of Wedding Crashers on HBO, but lo and behold, we saw a completely uncensored version of "Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny", which is the new Jack Black comedy. For those of you who are familiar with Jack Black's band Tenacious D, then you understand why I am amazed they showed that movie. There were women on the ferry that were covering their eyes, parts of it were so offensive.

But the best (or at least, the most interesting) example of censorship I've seen thus far was this morning when we watched The Aviator. During the scene where Howard Hughes and Ava Gardner are getting their car smashed by the other chick (Hughes' girlfriend), Howard tries to appease her by using the term of endearment "Pork Chop". Now, Malaysia is predominantly Muslim, and so pork is forbidden. I certainly respect their religious practices, but I did think it was interesting that the term "Pork chop" was censored and in it's place was... "Chicken". Doesn't have the same ring to it, does it?....