Unnecessary Censorship…

I have to admit that I really haven’t watched any late night TV shows for a good five or six years now, though I do think they can occasionally be very funny.  So this may be old news for those of you who actually keep up with this sort of stuff, but I just recently discovered a beautifully hilarious bit that Jimmy Kimmel (who, incidentally, is himself pretty funny, IMO) does on a weekly basis.  Titled “This Week in Unnecessary Censorship,” the idea is so straightforward I can’t believe no one else has thought of it: Kimmel (or, rather, his producers) take random news and video clips, and then bleep out words that don’t need to be bleeped.  The effect is rather startling; even though your brain knows these clips don’t contain swear words, it’s amazing how easily your brain fills in the forbidden word that would make sense in that spot.  Essentially, the producers can use a simple bleep to make anyone swear, from President Obama to Kathy Lee Gifford.  Here are a couple of example clips:

Along with being quite hilarious, the most impressive thing about this seemingly trifle little comedy bit is how brilliantly it illustrates the silliness of our obsession over “naughty words”…or rather, our obsession with not hearing them.  Think about it this way: Can you ever think of a time when you heard a [bleep] on a news broadcast, television show, or whatever, and didn’t immediately know exactly what word had just been bleeped?  Unless you are adorably naive, the answer has to be “no.”  Now, if you know what word is being said anyway, from the context, what exactly is the bleeping protecting us from?  Preventing having the offending word, which by the way is just a bunch of arbitrary syllables put together, from actually caressing our innocent ear drums?  To put it another way, what is the source of the offensiveness in so called “swear words?”  Is it the intent, or the literal word itself?

The only possible legitimate argument for bleeping that I can see is to protect children, who may not yet be able to “name that word.”  Fine, I suppose.  But you’re kind of just delaying the inevitable, aren’t you?  Is there really anyone over the age of say, six, out there who hasn’t already learned these words already?  If not at home, then from their more worldly friends at school?

To be clear, I’m not advocating complete and total uncensorship for TV (although, I’m not saying I’m against that, either).  The point I’m trying to make is simple: Is that annoying bleeeep! sound really necessary when someone accidentally let’s loose with a word they aren’t supposed to say on TV?  As far as I can see, they only good it does is provide Jimmy Kimmel with an awesome Friday night time-filler.