Series III Certification

[Unrumble]

I feel like I’ve heard/read the explanation for this somewhere before, but I’m not sure, and can’t find anything online (official site doesn’t work on my browser).

So, as I recall from a Doug interview, the brief shot of Starbug added on the end credits on the remastered/DVD version of ‘Marooned’ was so the certificate could be lowered from a 15 to a 12. This was due to a change, however minor, needing to be made to allow it to be submitted to for re-classification.

My question is, what was the reason for the original ‘Series III Byte 1’ VHS being rated 15? (This caused me issues with my strict Mum, not allowing me to watch it in the 90’s as a pre-teen.)

Presumably it was something in the content of ‘Marooned’ specifically. The story of Lister losing his virginity as a minor seems like the only obvious contender.

If so, why would it now be deserving of a lower rating? Simply just a relaxing of attitudes/regulations in the intervening years?

Possibly just answered my own question there…

Topic

[cwickham]

<quote>I REMEMBER THIS it was incredibly cack-handed.</quote>

I remembered that so well I devoted an entire paragraph to it in this article I wrote: http://cwickham.blogspot.com/2016/12/the-simpsons-on-bbc-ludicrously.html

[Seb Patrick]

Re the spaz thing, Weird Al Yankovic had the word “spastic” in his Blurred Lines parody (“Word Crimes”) but after it was pointed out to him how offensive it is here, he’s stopped using it in live performances.

Brian Michael Bendis used to use “spaz” loads in Ultimate Spider-Man, too. It was a while before I discovered that it’s just not offensive over there in the same way.

Same goes for “retard”/”retarded”, although they are starting to cotton on to that a bit more now.

[clem]

I remember being quite shocked by the lad in Bedknobs and Broomsticks saying “Not bloody likely!”

As a kid there were a few films I didn’t realise our taped-off-the-telly versions of had been bowdlerised. Probably all three BTTFs, and Spaceballs “[Fuck!] Even in the future nothing works!”

[clem]

Channel 5 used to put See No Evil, Hear No Evil on at teatime. There’s so much you’d have to cut out of it to make a version suitable for broadcast pre-watershed, I used to wonder why anybody had bothered.

[Bargain Bin Holly]

McSpazatron is said twice in the Spongebob Squarepants Movie (Maybe three times, can’t remember)

[Dave]

As a kid I happily watched edited pre-watershed versions of See No Evil, Hear No Evil (and loads of other Richard Pryor movies) as well as the likes of Coming To America, Beverly Hills Cop and so on. I never noticed the edits. Watching them back as an adult they must have been cut to ribbons.

[bloodteller]

>Same goes for “retard”/”retarded”, although they are starting to cotton on to that a bit more now.

When I was younger, I saw the (Tim Burton) Charlie And The Chocolate Factory movie and remember being quite shocked when one of the children says “retard”. Even if it’s not as offensive in the US, it surprised me they got away with that in a kid’s movie

Mind you, they did that West End musical version of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory a while ago where Augustus gets decapitated and Veruca gets torn limb from limb by squirrels, so I guess Roald Dahl stuff can just get away with anything

[Warbodog]

Shoddiest editing I’ve seen was at the cinema in Singapore, they just cut sentences off half-way when it looks like there’s going to be a rude word and it jumps a few seconds. Their regional BBC also censors anything suggesting scandalous same-sex relationships in shows like Doctor Who, so episodes are about 50% as long.

[Ben Saunders]

I’d love to watch a cut of Deep Breath with all the implied gayeity removed. Considering one of the most important scenes is resolved with an interspecies lesbian kiss.

And what do you know, I looked it up on Google and it was indeed edited out of Asian broadcasts. And received a number of complaints to Ofcom. Fuck off.

[Author]

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