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Rewriting 'Blame Canada' 194

Snaller writes, "Quoting USAToday, The Internet Movie Database reports that Trey Parker will rewrite the lyrics for "Blame Canada," the Oscar-nominated song from the South Park movie. The co-producer of the telecast is quoted as saying that Parker 'will come up with some funny solutions to his own problems.'" Leave it alone, I say. The original got the Oscar nod, not the one they'll perform at the awards.
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Rewriting 'Blame Canada'

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  • That's IE3's fault. It doesn't allow the web site to supply HTML tags in text editing fields. I had the same problem under NT4 until I upgraded to IE5.

    We now return you to your regularly scheduled message thread.
  • I agree. Let's not forget the April Fool's joke when they aired the Terrance and Phillip show instead of revealing who Cartman's Mom was. If they can do that to their fans just imagine what they'll do to the establishment. That epsiode was pure genius.

    "What are you doing?"
    "I'm wishing cancer on you."
    "Don't wish cancer on me."
  • she committed suicide.
    go search the /. archives, there was >= 1 story one it.

    and she's ALL the female characters on south park, so I have no idea who's going to do em now...

    Lea
  • I betcha dollars to donuts the SP kids are gonna show up on Oscar night to announce some category ...
    ---
  • Yeah, but what would they call it?

    "The Director's Cut of South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut!"

    (You couldn't get any stupider if you tried to make a recursive acronym. Really...)
    ---
    pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate [152.7.41.11].
  • Yeah, reading Southam papers involves supporting Black, but its better than the alternative, which is reading the Sun.
  • There's a difference between being forced to not speak freely to others, and choosing to not listen. I don't want to read anything from Katz so I just filtered him out...and made a statement indicating my displeasure with his lame non-nerd, non-news articles.
    Aha, but you forget that the SP guys can choose not to accept the award, and not play it (and therefore not censor it). This is not a matter of force, it's a matter of choice on either side. And while you speak out about some people not wishing to be offended at an awards ceremony they otherwise wish to watch, you yourself wish not to be offended (perhaps that word is wrong in your case) by articles on a forum you otherwise wish to read. I find that ironic.

    "The romance of Silicon Valley was about money - excuse me, about changing the world, one million dollars at a time."
  • Well, Billy Baldwin is sitting in my office, and he saw this story and says

    Didn't he get blow'd up?

    ;)
    Your Working Boy,
  • "As a Canadian I found the "original" song to be hilarious. Hey, if you can't laugh at yourself ... maybe someone needs to lighten up ;-) "

    Also as a Canadian, I saw this song to be making fun of everything BUT Canada. I think this is a great tribute to how much Canada is NOT america, which if I understand my high school social studies teacher, is one of the defining elements of our national identity.

    I know Trey won't change the theme of the song, and anything he does change will make it more funny. Think about it, would these guys pass up the chance to offend millions of people at one time! Trey won't bow to censorship, he'll find a way around it.

    Matt Boone
  • ABC would happily destroy anything even close to raunchy if they got a chance to let their censors run with it. Remember Mallrats, and what they did to that? Among other things, they severely digitally edited it because some of the imagery was offensive, and cut quite a few lines (and scenes). Check it out at
    http://www.viewaskew.com/tv/abcrats/
    to see the full extent of their idiocy. I hope Trey comes up with something that is perfectly legal, but features the SP gang flipping off censorship in general, and ABC in particular.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    That's what Brian Boitano'd do!
  • by Spud Zeppelin ( 13403 ) on Wednesday February 23, 2000 @08:40AM (#1251442)
    Perhaps they should get Celine Dion to sing the Sheila part... she did say she was retiring to "be a mom" right? After all, Sheila's younger son, Ike, is Canadian... so why not a Canadian Sheila singing "Blame Canada" during the Oscars? Especially since Celine Dion played such a significant role in the Terence & Philip TV-Movie "Not Without My Anus".



    This is my opinion and my opinion only. Incidentally, IANAL.
  • I know what you mean. Local papers in Canada tried to stir up a fuss about the song being nominated by printing letters from people who were offended and thought the song was racist. In the past we weren't so touchy, heck the song is really making fun of the Americans anyway, yet some people can't let it go.

    I think the best person to sing the song would be Anne Murray just because it would be terribly ironic.

    Matt & Trey: If you're reading this, don't mess with the song we love it the way it is.
  • He's "aware" of the ABC censors? Who's to say he's going to be self-censoring it, then? The history and style of the show say that he's going to be making it MORE offensive, not less, given his awareness of the censors. :-)
  • I realize that television standards are more strict than film, but it just seems wrong to rewrite the song. There may be swearing and profanity, but that's the point. SP:BLU worked because it used the language to expose the hypocrisy about the MPAA film guidelines. Take that away, and the message is lost.

  • I always shudder when I hear people that people who put down another country are racist. Nationalistic or jingoistic maybe. But it can't be racist. Last I heard Canadian wasn't a race.

  • They're going to censor themselves? How stupid - perhaps they should come up with an 'acceptable' version and sabatoge the event to play the uncencored version!

    "The romance of Silicon Valley was about money - excuse me, about changing the world, one million dollars at a time."
  • Mmmm....Sunshine Girls...

    <Excerpt=Newspaper>...and when Bambi isn't striving for world peace, she enjoys waterskiing and giving fellatio</excerpt>
  • Well, knowing how they bypassed censorship for the movie in the first place, they'll come up with a pretty nifty version, I guess.

    Sendy
  • by EntropyMechanic ( 88779 ) on Wednesday February 23, 2000 @12:59PM (#1251455)
    Actually...

    I'll bet you they won't play this song on the radio
    I bet you they won't play this new -BEEP-ing song
    It's not that it's -HONK- or -HONK HONK- controversial
    just that the -KA_CHING-ing words are awfully strong
    You can't say -AHOOGA- on the radio,
    or -SWOOSH- or -SPROING- or -AACK-
    You can't even say, "I'd like to -ZZZIP- you someday"
    unless you're a doctor with a very large -BOING-
    I'll bet you they won't play this song on the radio
    I'll bet you they won't -SCRRRRATCH-ing well programme it
    I'll bet you those -KA-CHING-ing old programme directors
    will think it's a load of horse -SPLAT-

    Pointless comments should always be right
  • The song wasn't making fun of Canada at all. It made fun of America.

  • by Mark F. Komarinski ( 97174 ) on Wednesday February 23, 2000 @06:48AM (#1251458) Homepage
    As you'll remember, Mary Kay Bergman (who does the voice) died a few months ago. Who will be singing the song? It won't sound the same if she's not singing it.
  • For anybody who followed the problems Trey Parker had in getting the South Park movie accepted with an R rating from the MPAA... you should know that he will come up with a way to subvert the censors. :)

    What he said in interviews about the movie was that each time they came to him and said he couldn't do something he would put in something 100x worse. Eventually he would put in something the censors didn't understand and so they accepted it. I bet he will do something similar with Blame Canada...

    Josh

  • Didn't she use like a lead pipe or something?

  • Personally, I think Alanis Morisette would be the perfect choice for a touching live performance.
    1. Acapella of course...
      1. ;o }
  • I read somewhere that they are trying to get a bunch of Canadian celebrities to sing the song...
  • Would they be able to? I don't think they have the original performers perform the song. They usually have the host or some else sing the nominated songs, don't they?

    Mike
  • by lar3ry ( 10905 ) on Wednesday February 23, 2000 @08:50AM (#1251466)
    say, have the song performed as an instrumental during the Oscar show...

    ABC is owned by Disney, who is known for changing movie lyrics. _Arabian Nights_ in Aladdin comes immediately to mind...

    --
  • by mosch ( 204 ) on Wednesday February 23, 2000 @08:51AM (#1251467) Homepage

    The correct URL is http://us.imdb.com/StudioBrief/ 2000/20000222.html#3 [imdb.com].

    Original uncensored lyrics are available at: http://www.beef-cake.com /interactive/lyrics/blulyrics.html [beef-cake.com] for those of you who want to see what all the fuss is aboot.

    What is everybody laughing aboot?


    ----------------------------
  • by Anonymous Coward
    Blame Microsoft! Blame Microsoft! With all their dirty little spies and PR flacks so full of lies. Blame Microsoft! Blame Microsoft! (Windows ain't a real OS anyway)
  • collapsing police baton.
    and she wasn't the one actually doing the kerrigan-whacking; it was her damn moron bodyguard, jeff galoolie [sp]

    sorry, coffee in the keys doesn't do wonders for a keyboards functionality.. did you hear that, tech support! new keyboard, pronto..
  • As a rule, I usually agree with self-censorship.

    Why? Because obscenity is an art form. Just like any other art form, it is often abused or done poorly, and often has to be adjusted for a target audience.

    Those who went to the Southpark movie were expecting a great deal of obscenity, and would have been disappointed if they hadn't gotten it from every angle. The point of "Blame Canada" isn't to pummel the audience with obscenity - that was "Uncle Fucker"s job - it is to make fun of the general public's response to many problems. I trust Trey's ability to do that in a way that the Oscar audience can actually apreciate.

    Sometimes I hate to admit it, but occasionally I prefer the censored version of some things. My favorite example of this is Insane Clown Posse's "Another Love Song". When God handed out tact, these guys went back for a second helping of obnoxious.

    - Just because you can doesn't mean you should
    - Just because you can't doesn't mean you shouldn't
  • And isn't how it always is these days? The media senesationalizes whatever they feel like.... without regard to what people actually think.

  • Hey! It was correct when i mentioned it - perhaps someone changed it? :)
    Infact, i also mentioned that here (in Denmark) they don't censor things and you can hear the SouthPark songs on tv and radio, even in the kids programs - someone cut that...it's that damn Slashdot censorship again!
    *G*
  • For anybody who followed the problems Trey Parker had in getting the South Park movie accepted with an R rating from the MPAA...

    I didn't follow it, what was his problems?

    What he said in interviews about the movie was that each time they came to him and said he couldn't do something he would put in something 100x worse. Eventually he would put in something the censors didn't understand and so they accepted it.

    You mean its actually so bad over there that they can dictate what you can't have in movies?!
  • South Park is an area in colorado. Some of the larger towns include Salida and Alamosa. Really nice place, too bad there's no high-speed access to speak of, or I'd get the hell outta this damned city!
  • But south park doesn't matter that much, at least not to its creators. They could give a shit, just as long as they get paid. I guess I didn't do a very good job saying that with my first post.

  • He never said the Radio Song was first.

    And his opinions are his, and are just as valid as yours (even though you post like a jerk).
  • You must seriously be demented not to have noticed my sarcasm. I mean, why would Iwrite about as ABOOT and point out the fact that I have a flapping head and beady little eyes. Please! I think the song is great and that you should read all of my message before jumping to conclusions.
  • on a somewhat related note, if Trey wins an oscar for blame canada, is that a sign of the Apocalypse?

    Don't get me wrong, I love the south park movie. Orgasmo is hilarious as well. Maybe it would jsut be a good dose of reality for the academy? I think i've seen (or heard the names of) two of the movies that were nominated for best picture.

    "You want to kiss the sky? Better learn how to kneel." - U2
  • 22 Minutes is better IMHO....
  • While I totally respect your right to take offence, I also must tell you that you completely missed the entire point of the song. You apparently are unable to recognize sarcasm when you see it, and as such should not be watching a show as full as sarcasm as South Park (And I'm betting you don't and actually pulled this comment out of your a$$ without even examining the lyrics.) The last line redeems the entire song as far as your objections go, showing that the song is actually making fun of people who will blame anything or anyone rather than take responsability for what is in truth at least partially their own fault. The fact of the matter is that they could have substituted any country name for Canada, and the song would have been almost as effective. It wouldn't have been quite as effective because of course Canada is to blame for everything. (Author's Note: for those too ignorant to pick up on it, that was sarcasm and humor, not an actual attack against the country named) I kinda hope they just change the country name in the revised song, and make it Blame America. THAT would be funny, especially when we get to see the response from all the Americans and Canadians who didn't get it in the first place.
  • I'm a Canadian and I'm proud to be animated with a flip-top head. Air Farce? My mom likes the Air Farce. Try 'This Hour has 22 Minutes'
  • The are from colorado. In fact, they took there ACT's or something in the Colombine highschool Cafiteria. There's a real city called south park in Colorado as well.

    [ c h a d o k e r e ] [dhs.org]
  • your right i'm sorry i did have it backwards
  • You mean its actually so bad over there that they can dictate what you can't have in movies?!

    I assume that by "over there" you're referring to the US. No, there is no true "censorship" in the sense that happens in, say, Singapore or Germany.

    The MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) gives ratings to movies, to aid parents, movie theaters, and others, in deciding whether to allow children to see the movie. Anything worse than an R rating kills any chance a movie has of making money. So, South Park had to try again, and again, and again, to try to get down to the R rating.

    As far as what actually happened with the movie, I have no idea. I've never seen it, etc. etc.

  • Angry female gorilla to embarrassed male gorilla: "Well, well -- another blond hair ... Conducting a little more 'research' with that Jane Goodall tramp?"

    A few days after this cartoon was published, my syndicate received a very indignant letter from someone representing the Jane Goodall Institute. ... There was a vague implication that litigation over this cartoon might be around the corner.

    I was horrified ... because of my deep respect for Jane Goodall and her well-known contributions to primatology. The last thing in the world I would have intentionally done was offend Dr. Goodall in any way. ...

    The National Geographic Society contacted my syndicate and expressed a desire to reprint the cartoon in a special centennial issue of their magazine. My editor, aware of what had just occurred, declined, explaining why. ...

    [The National Geographic Society] told my editor that "that doesn't sound like the Jane Goodall we know." They did some checking themselves ... Jane Goodall loved the cartoon. Furthermore, she was totally unaware that any of this "stuff" was going on. ... The cartoon was not only reprinted in the centennial issue of National Geographic, but was also used by her Institute on a T-shirt for fund-raising purposes.

    -- from The PreHistory of The Far Side: A 10th Anniversary Exhibit, p. 167.

  • The confusion comes from deep (cubit magnitude) fisting.

    That should have got at least a Score: 1, Funny
  • It's not "aboot". Those tossers say "aboat". What kind of boat?
  • by nyet ( 19118 ) on Wednesday February 23, 2000 @05:22PM (#1251500) Homepage
    Is it just me, or is there really not much to censor in "Blame Canada" in the first place?
  • Snaller dun said:

    For anybody who followed the problems Trey Parker had in getting the South Park movie accepted with an R rating from the MPAA... I didn't follow it, what was his problems?

    Basically, when Trey Parker and company offered the movie to the MPAA ratings board the first time, the ratings board rated it "NC-17" (this is roughly equivalent to an "18" cert in most countries, and is essentially box-office poison in the US--more on that below).

    Trey Parker and company were, understandably, more than a bit pissed (seeing as they'd ALREADY gotten a movie rated "NC-17" by the MPAA ratings board--"Orgazmo", a sex comedy--which also pretty much placed them on the MPAA rating board's shitlist to begin with).

    So, they went through at each point where the MPAA had made a specific objection, and made those parts even worse...and the next time the movie was presented, it actually got an "R" rating (this would be roughly equivalent to a "15" cert in most countries, only a) it applies to 17 and under and b) is generally enforced more strictly, especially at the time SP:BLaU was released in the US).

    What he said in interviews about the movie was that each time they came to him and said he couldn't do something he would put in something 100x worse. Eventually he would put in something the censors didn't understand and so they accepted it. You mean its actually so bad over there that they can dictate what you can't have in movies?!

    For all intents and purposes, yes, unfortunately.

    Basically, here's the situation in the US: Firstly, the vast majority of films are passed through the MPAA's ratings board (set up after an even more draconian censorship scheme, the infamous Hayes Code [which even banned such things as women in miniskirts, tongue-kisses, ANY profanity worse than "damn" or "hell", and even proscribed regular kisses over a certain length] was finally done away with in 1968 or so), which is a group of six or eight folks picked to represent "most of America" (many are suspected to be housewives; nobody really knows who all is on the MPAA ratings board, as the membership is kept very secretive). Movies aren't required to be rated by law (except in some towns), but the vast majority are (literally the only exceptions are porn movies, independent films, and [mostly] imports).

    Also, the vast majority of movie theatres in the US (even the vast majority of art-movie theatres) are owned by three or four major chains (National Amusements, Cinemark, Loew's, and there's probably one or two more I'm forgetting) that, a long time ago, were actually owned by the movie theatres themselves until the Department of Justice ordered the studios to divest themselves of movie chains (this was in the 50's). The number of independent movie theatres in the US probably is less than 5% of all movie theatres in the United States, and is almost exclusively either small-town operations or art-house movie theatres that specialise in import films, cult-classic films, art films, and anime.

    The vast majority of movie theatre chains in the United States have standing policies that they will not show NC-17 or unrated films in their theatres. (In addition, some counties and cities--most notably, some towns in Texas--have or formerly had ordinances against NC-17 or unrated films being shown within town limits.) The vast majority of movie theatres in the US are multiplex theatres; the only real outlet for NC-17 and/or unrated films, in most cases, is either through the direct-to-video market (which is basically what has happened with porn in the US) or through art-house movie theatres (which are only usually available in large cities or in places with large collegiate populations--Louisville, Kentucky [which has a metro population approaching a million people] could only support one of the two art-movie theatres in town, leading to the much lamented closing of the Vogue Theatre).

    To make matters even worse, the largest video-rental chain in the United States (Blockbuster Video) will not offer NC-17 or unrated movies for rent, and even has a habit of censoring even R-rated movies (one reason I will not rent from Blockbuster, by the way). Most chain stores, most notably Wal-Mart (pretty much the largest store chain in the US) will not sell NC-17 videos. Most cable channels, even pay ones (with the notable exception of Cinemax) will not show NC-17 rated movies, and most "pay-per-view" channels will not show NC-17 movies except on the "adult-only" (read; mostly porn flicks) channels. The vast majority of places like grocery stores (which actually do rent out a lot of videos, at least in the Southeastern US) don't rent out NC-17 videos.

    Now, keep in mind with all this--in many parts of the United States (I would go so far as to say the vast majority of the US that is not in large cities), often the only video rental placea available are Blockbuster Video (or maybe Blockbuster and the one or two mom-and-pop video places Blockbuster hasn't successfully run out yet) and grocery chains. In most of the rural and even suburban parts of the United States, often the only large stores that may sell video tapes are Wal-Mart, grocery stores, and possibly if in a larger town an electronics store like H. H. Gregg or Circuit City or Best Buy (none of which sell NC-17 videos, by the way). Most of these areas might not even get cable, but get pay channels through either DSS or "big dish" cable. Many of these areas are 50 miles away or more from the nearest specialised video store that might sell NC-17 rated tapes (usually something like Suncoast Video). A fair number of these folks, especially in the more rural parts of the United States, may even run afoul of local obscenity ordinances that de facto define NC-17 rated movies as obscene (yes, these are illegal according to our Constitution, but until someone gets arrested and files a lawsuit over it, there's not much that can be done). For most Americans, about the only way to get an NC-17 rated movie or video is to a) see it at an art-movie theatre (and hope it's not owned by one of the chains that refuses to show NC-17 rated movies), b) buy the thing at a video-sales store or rent it at somewhere large that has an over-18 section (considering Blockbuster Video is about as agressive at running competitors out as Wal-Mart is, this can be hard, especially in smaller towns), or c) buy it online (especially if you are in a podunk town, or unfortunate enough to live somewhere where NC-17 movies are literally against the law).

    To make things worse yet: A fair number of papers and even paper chains actually have policies against advertising NC-17 or unrated films. In some communities, there are actual bans on advertising of NC-17 or unrated films (even for the video market).

    Needless to say, because of this, nobody wants their movie rated NC-17 if they can keep from it, because almost nobody will show it and almost nobody will even hear about it or be able to rent it in most places. (What is especially ironic is that the whole "NC-17" rating was set up as an alternative to the "X" rating--the old US "18 cert" equivalent, which had pretty much been co-opted by porn films because literally the only places willing to show X-rated movies were art-movie theatres and porn-houses. Of course, since they never attacked the REAL problem (the fact that the largest theatre chains refused to show any kind of "18-cert"-type film period, not to mention a slew of unconstitutional ordinances banning the showing and/or advertisement of such films and the policies of a LOT of newspapers not to advertise such films in any form or fashion) they ended up with exactly the same problems with the NC-17 cert as they did with the old X cert. :P)

    This is basically why Trey Parker had to lobby (and eventually outfox) the MPAA's ratings board. If he hadn't, "South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut" would have suffered the exact same fate that "Orgazmo" faces ("Orgazmo" is supposedly a screamingly funny movie, but it is next to impossible to find and pretty much never showed anywhere--because it got the NC-17 Mark of Death from the MPAA ratings board). Which would suck. :P

  • > Now, if the song crapped on the good 'ol U.S. of A., you'd have Trey's head wouldn't you? Er, no. That's really stupid. There are plenty of songs, articles, editorials, books, poems, paintings, comic strips, movies, plays, and performance art productions that "crap on the good 'ol U.S. of A.," and I don't find them offensive in the least. Furthermore, "Blame Canada" isn't crapping on Canada, it's "crapping" on American racisim, xenophobia, and violence.
    * mild mannered physics grad student by day *
  • by Anonymous Coward
    On behalf of Slashdot, I would like to apologize for the previous apology.

    When he said : "If the article doesn't interest you, don't read it", what he really meant was : "Sod off you little bitchmonkey"

    And where he stated : "News for Nerds", what he really meant was : "Bite my bunhole you rancid carp buggerer"

    Although we must stress that the phrase "Stuff that matters" would be delicatly phrased as "take the grits out of your pants, you kangaroo-abusing flamingo felcher"

    (and a really big :) on this one!!)
  • Yes , I'll have to agree with that one. I play hockey with Kurt Browning(Same league, different team - he's Red I'm Brown) and he has a hell of a wrist shot, too.

    Not to mention he can literally scat circles around most of us.

    #19

    PS Go Brown! (Late Night Hockey!)
  • Air Farce lost its edge a few years ago. It now borders on irrelevant. Here's another vote for 22 Minutes (http://www.salter.com/22minutes/22hour.htm).
  • i think your wrong. :)
    south park is most definatly news for nerds!
  • Adam Sandler had this great song called "Ode to My Car" I heard one day on the radio, that roughly went, "Ode to my car, my piece of *honk* car," etc.
    By the end of the song, there was as much honking of various types of horns as there was singing. It was great!

    I found the CD for it, and it was uncensored! That completely ruined the song. :(

    Anyway, I hope Parker & company use this as an opportunity to censor the song while making fun of the censorship.

    I still can't believe that the biggest dig at the MPAA is actually going to have a song aired at the Oscars. That just rules. :)
  • You forget that South Park was a web trend before even the television show. How many times was the Santa vs. Jesus short forwarded to you? Hell, I don't even have cable or a TV, all of my early South Park fascination was from watching episodes on the net. It's part of nerd culture, so a South Park article is just as legitimate as a Star Wars or Monty Python article. It is a scary trend though. One of the first web trends to blow into the mainstream in a big way. Does this mean that in a couple of monthes we'll hear that the whazzup movie is coming soon?
  • by Lemmy Caution ( 8378 ) on Wednesday February 23, 2000 @10:15AM (#1251513) Homepage
    You know, standards about dirty words on broadcast TV really aren't were I'm willing to make a big stand on censorship. The "South Park" message can and will get out, and Stone and Parker are already very rich. There's nothing to prevent a "director's cut" of South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut being released - in fact, it was their desire to make more money that motivated the initial kowtow to the MPAA. I agree with their general messages: that it is hypocritical to wring hands over sex and bathroom humor while sanctioning large-volume depictions of violence, and that the patronizing "someone think of the children!" attitudes of middle America are maudlin and an evasion of responsiblity. As far as modification as compromise goes, that happened already with the original movie!

    However, there's a much more serious ongoing form of censorship: corporate censorship by litigation. The McLibel suit is the most classic example of this, but the attacks on fan sites, parodies (like Negativland - U2 case), artists sites (like Etoy), and the vicious attacks against DeCSS are a much bigger threat to speech. Since words, images, and ideas are treated as property, and corporate reputation is more important than critical investigation, free speech only exists for those with massive legal budgets or absolutely nothing to lose.

    I know that I'm preaching to the choir here, but I'd like to know if it would be possible to see federal legislation that penalized SLAPP cases(with extreme prejudice!) and even provided a legal warchest (funded by those who were found guilty of SLAPPs) for those who are accused; I'd like to see it in the context of legislation which removed the 'defend it or lose it' trademark restriction, while affirming the 'first come/first serve' sector-agnostic approach to domain names, and expanding 'fair use' of copyrighted images and texts to more increase protection for fan sites and parodies.

  • That reminds me of a story I read in one of the big Far Side compliations by Gary Larson.

    One day he got an angy call from The Jane Goodall (sp?) Foundation about a Far Side cartoon showing a female gorilla grooming a male gorilla and she's found a blond hair on his back and she's saying something like:
    "Another blond hair? You've been hanging around that Jane Goodal tramp, haven't you?"

    Mr. Larson called Jane Goodal to apologize for offending her with the cartoon only to find out that no one at The Foundation had bothered to ask her about it; she thaought it was very funny.
  • by Anonymous Coward
    to worry about. That is until we run out of natural resources. Then look out, you will be annexed. All of Canada except those frogs in Quebec. No one likes them anyway.

    The other Canucks are OK. Real gullible and easy to fool. By the time we take them over, it will be too late. See ya at Tim Hortons eh?
  • Not to Be a dick or anything.... but the "that chef is a bad mother..." "shut your mouth...." "hey man, I'm just the chef...." I believe that came from Pearl Jam's "Dirty Frank" in 1992 off the Even Flow single.... "that Dirty Frank is a bad mother......" "shut your mouth......" "hey man, I'm just talking about Dirty Frank....." it's cool song
  • Remove all the naughty words but secretly replace the last note of the song with "The Brown Noise." That would be a memorable performance.
  • um, "theme from shaft" is just a wee bit older than pearl jam, so I would imagine you have this backwards
  • Heh, that particular episode would have made Andy Kaufman proud. It's HIS kind of humor.
  • MAn, I honestly think that all of the people posting with things like "Hoser" and "aboot" and "eh" are not really canadians, just pretending/making fun...



  • That's my point exactly. I'd rather read biased, poorly edited news than a completely unedited tabloid full of ads that doesn't even bother to try to seem respectable.
  • Yeah, but they say Canada like a *million* times...

    Seriously, Matt and Trey are two of the funniest bastards walking the planet right now. If anyone actually thinks they are going to hear a song on the Oscars that doesn't adequately blaspheme all things Canadian and otherwise, I am sure they are mistaken. Have a little faith in these guys. A lot of skeptics doubted South Park would reach the level of offense achieved in Spirit of Christmas, because you just can't say "Dude, don't call Jesus a Pig-Fucker" on television...even on Comedy Central. Somehow, they managed.
  • "Orgazmo" is supposedly a screamingly funny movie, but it is next to impossible to find and pretty much never showed anywhere--because it got the NC-17 Mark of Death from the MPAA ratings board

    Indeed, Orgazmo is quite hilarious. Here in Pittsburgh, it's readily available for rental (and not thrown in with the pornos) at (at least) one local rental store, and it was on some pay cable channel a couple of weeks ago.

    It would be nice, though, if more filmmakers simply accepted the NC-17 on mainstream films; if enough of them did this then there would be more of an economic incentive for theaters, rental places, etc. to not blindly shun a film because of the rating. Of course, it'll probably never happen, as the losses would be to high on the first several films to do so.

    --

  • I prefer Uncle Fuquer, but whatever you say...
    I disagree, Blame Canada was a damn good song. Although, if they were going for the less offensive song, they should have picked "What Would Brian Boytano Do?", less cursing, and (imo) a better song.
  • just so the people know that i didn't make it up, tell them they have to shave their genitalia to get into heaven!

    Thanks for writing. As many of you know, I've been in heaven for about the last 1970 years, and I've got blue balls the size of Idaho. Dad sort of looks down upon fornication in his kingdom, so I'm pretty screwed (not literally; I wish!) whenever I want to lay down with a Heavenly body.

    (Sure, I could mosey down to Hell for some hot anal sex, but Dad gets all bitchy about that too. "Just don't bother coming home at all!" Fuck you, asshole! Some of us were born with balls! If you didn't want me to have desires of the flesh, you shouldn't have made me half human!)

    So anyway, it's been 2000 years, and I'm ready to FUCK! When the doors My kingdom (okay, it's Dad's kingdom, but I'm paying rent, dammit!) open, you're crazy if you think you're getting in without giving Jesus a little nookie! That's right, spread your legs and prepare for the Savior's coming! (Pun intended! Ha!)

    The flipside is that as much as pedophiliac homosexuality has been associated with My church, I'm not gay. So all you guys out there, if you want to get in to Dad's kingdom, (and frankly I couldn't care either way!), you'd better be prepared to do some sick stuff to make me laugh. So yes, if you shave your nuts, that'll probably get you in.

    I have spoken. Now I'm going to watch some TV.

    I am the Lord.

  • Hey moderaters...how come my message on the same damn topic got marked down, and this guy gets a 2? Sigh...
  • assume that by "over there" you're referring to the US. No, there is no true "censorship" in the sense that happens in, say, Singapore or Germany.

    I don't see any connection between somewhat absolutist Regimes like Singapore, and Germany (and yes, I live there ...)

    Actually, only in this discussion I heard that in American SP Episodes any expressions are deemed inappropriate and therefore bleeped out. In the dubbed german Episodes, which make excessive use of every German equivalent of f-words, I never noticed a single *bleep*

    So much for censorship - considering what americans think obscene (in language and pictures), I'm afraid the US is closer to Singapore than Germany is. Rowlff
  • Germany has selective Censorship.. see Amazon.com's trouble selling Mein Kampf. I find political censorship far worse than a few f-- words.

    The people doing the "deeming" of offensiveness, are the networks themselves, not government thugs. It's a big difference, to me.

    Of course, I don't mind a few bleeps in south park. I find that overly-spicy language is just silly, and needless. Why not be funny without it?
  • In the last two days slashdot pages have been very very slow to load. Is that just me, or is Slashdot slashdotted? I am ~17 hops away according to traceroute. Slashdot is almost always slow for me, but it's been unbearable lately (>30 second wait to load the page, and I'm on cable modem!). But, to go on the topic: Blame Canada really expressed what many Americans think about Canada, but it really didn't diss on Canada, but on the USA. I don't see how Canadians can be *that* offended. Besides, it's all marketing. Americans find it funny when people speak about Canada like this so that is how it's done. It sells.
  • I find the combination of your comment and your .sig ironic.

    What irony? There's a difference between being forced to not speak freely to others, and choosing to not listen. I don't want to read anything from Katz so I just filtered him out...and made a statement indicating my displeasure with his lame non-nerd, non-news articles. This in contrast with the SP rewrite issue, which involves one group forcing another to not say certain things to a willing third party...an act which will (I believe) result in the second party saying something even more offensive and embarrass the first party in the process (THAT's where the real irony is).

    Freedom to speak includes the freedom to not listen.

  • by Anonymous Coward
    Dude, if he's doing scat circles around most of you, then who the hell cleans up the ice? And doesn't it smell? I mean, enough to make a circle around most of a team must be a LOT of it.

    "Satan always likes to have some turds around"
  • You call that an upgrade ?
  • Thanks you for your solid and thought out reply. You pointed out aspects that I didn't consider. I just want to thanks you for your reply. Specifically, that it was not a flame.
    I do think we have gone past the point that if it is on the internet it has to be geek material. I mean I can find out what the whether is likely to be tomorrow on the internet, that does not mean water falling out of the sky is news.
    I always considered SP to be part of the "Teen subculture" in general. This generation of teens have had internet access a good portion of there lives, so natural teen subculture will "spill" over into it.
  • A nice little self-referential bit from last weeks "X-Files". They were doing a "COPS" parody:

    Cop: "What the (bleep) are you talking about"

    (other dialog)

    Scully and Mulder walk away, followed by the camera.

    Scully: "Is that thing live?"

    Mudler: "Nah...She said (bleep)."

    The funniest one on "South Park" was when Kyle's brother is kidnapped by aliens. When Kyle confronts them, he starts out talking with one or to bleeps. As he continues, they increase in frequency until there is nothing but bleeping. Had this been actual unbleeped swearing, it wouldn't have been near as funny.

  • But the song is making fun of America not Canada! It's making a joke about how the latest trend in America and American media is to blame everybody else. The less connected to the actual even the better. Canada was just used as a ridiculous example.

    It sort of makes me wonder if you understood the point of the whole movie?
  • This comment is not insightful, and signal 11 does not get their position. They are trying to make money, and they are very up front about it. They don't give a shit about any sort of position that you have read into the movie. Lemmy cation already pointed out that they edited the movie to ensure an R rating from the MPAA, which they did, to make money. Besides, if their success is at all warranted, the new version will be just as effective as the old. They did not get where they are by sucking. I would cite the whole thing with cartmans mom to support the fact that they just go and do what they think is funny. People were pissed about that, and Parker and Stone thought that it was great that they managed to piss people off with their construction paper cartoon.

    By the way, they are my favorite kind of celebrity, up for sale and proud of it.

  • by Delta-9 ( 19355 ) <delta9 AT gmail DOT com> on Wednesday February 23, 2000 @06:50AM (#1251552)

    Screw censorship -- what would Brian Boitano do?

  • by Erik Fish ( 106896 ) on Wednesday February 23, 2000 @06:50AM (#1251553) Journal

    Oh sure, the story SAYS it's ABC's fault but I blame those touchy canadians!

    It seems a shame to mess with the song. If I were Trey I'd just make liberal use of the "bleep" -- in fact I'd bleep out every other bleeping word weather it needs to be or not -- just to make a point.

    Censorship is obscenity.

  • Blame Canada All four Moms Sheila: Time's have changed Our kids are kids are getting worse They wont obey their parents They just want to fart and curse! Sharon: Should we blame the government? Liane: Or blame society? Dads: Or should we blame the images on TV? Sheila: No, blame Canada Everyone: Blame Canada Sheila: With all their beady little eyes And flappin heads so full of lies Everyone: Blame Canada Blame Canada Sheila: We need to form a full assault Everyone: It's Canadas fault! Sharon: Don't blame me For my son Stan He saw the darn cartoon And now he's off to join the Klan! Liane: And my boy Eric once Had my picture on his shelf But now when I see him he tells me to fuck myself! Sheila: Well, blame Canada Everyone: Blame Canada It seems that everythings gone wrong Since Canada came along Everyone: Blame Canada Blame Canada Some Guy: There not even a real country anyway Ms. McCormick: My son could've been a doctor or a lawyer it's true Instead he burned up like a piggy on a barbecue Everyone: Should we blame the matches? Should we blame the fire? Or the doctors who allowed him to expire? Sheila: Heck no! Everyone: Blame Canada Blame Canada Sheila: With all their hockey hubbabaloo Liane: And that bitch Anne Murray too Everyone: Blame Canada Shame on Canada The smut we must stop The trash we must smash Laughter and fun must all be undone We must blame them and cause a fuss Before someone thinks of blaming uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuus
    --Ivan, weenie NT4 user: bite me!
  • by John Fulmer ( 5840 ) on Wednesday February 23, 2000 @06:57AM (#1251558)
    Funny you should say this:

    I saw an interview with Issac Hayes (who is 'Chef' on South Park) some time ago, about when he was writing that classic, tender love song, 'The Theme From Shaft'.

    At some point, one of the lyrics was:

    "You know that Shaft is one bad mother-!@#$%^!#.."

    He wrote this down and KNEW that there would be no way to get it past the 60's-era censors or the studio. So, he censored himself and created one of the best musical cliches of all time:

    "You know that Shaft is one bad mother-...."

    "Shut your mouth!"

    "But I'm talking about Shaft!"

    "We can dig it..."

    Sometimes censorship is good! :)
  • It really depends how they do it.

    They could release a censored version that's entirely toothless - let's say they change:

    Times have changed, our kids are getting worse
    They's won't obey their parents, they just want to fart and curse!

    to

    Times have changed, our kids are getting bad
    They's won't do what I ask them, they just want to fight their Dad.

    to provide a particularly lame example :)

    Now, that would be selling out. Which I'd actually say they did anyway in cutting it to drop the rating, but that's another matter.

    But that's not the only way to rewrite.

    Many people seem to be assuming they're going to rewrite to the style I've suggested, but there's nothing saying they can't rewrite so you have something that's entirely clean and innocent but taking a pop at censorship. Seeing as the original probably wouldn't get bradcast uncensored anyway...

    Alternatively, they take a pop at censorship by self-censoring but excessively. Rely on the likely dirty minds in the audience and censor perfectly clean original lyrics to make people think of something worse.

    For example:

    Two little boys had two little toys
    Each had a wooden horse

    once got censored on a comedy show to:

    Two little boys had two little (beep)
    Each had a wooden (beep)

    and, in the minds of the audience, a perfectly tasteful (if rather cheesy) song by Rolf Harris becomes absolutely deplorable.

    Anyway, don't complain too loudly until we see what they do.

    Greg

  • http://www.thehellhole.com/lyrics /blamecanada.htm [thehellhole.com]

    How is this song going to be performed?
    a) original movie footage?
    b) new animation
    c) live performance

    I would love to see a live performance with guest like Les Claypool and other celbrity fans.
    --Ivan, weenie NT4 user: bite me!

  • Beats me... I actually expected to be moderated down for mine, since it's skirting the edges of being a flame. Maybe someone read the first part of your post and thought he was in the Netscape release article?

    Oh well, that's the problem with moderation... it lets the 'general public' police itself, but it also lets the 'general public' police itself. At least it doesn't have a permanent effect...
  • by DoomHaven ( 70347 ) <(DoomHaven) (at) (hotmail.com)> on Wednesday February 23, 2000 @09:47AM (#1251570)
    We Canadians *are* a race; Nietsche's(sp?) race of supermen! Due the harsh living of -40 degree temperatures (during summer, no less!), the constant danger presented from high-velocity low flying hockey pucks, and the only companionship coming from frisky polar bears, Canadians have evolved far beyond anything you Americans hosers will *ever* approach. We are a *higher* life: homo superior canadiana.

    But seriously, I am Canadian nationalist, loved the song, think it's great for the crew at South Park to be recognized at this level. I haven't heard any bad Canadian backlash because of the song. All my Canadian friends *love* it, none are insulted by it; in fact, most were saying, "Hey, hoser, South Park's even got a song aboot us, eh?" (this is coming from people in a country that has a national apolelxy everytime Canada is refered to on the American media we watch on our bootleg mini-dishes, hooked to the top of the igloo).
  • c) live performance

    Probably. In the past when songs from Disney animations have been nominated, live singers have performed the song as part of a huge production number. They sometimes do mixtures of live action and animation in Oscar sequences, but not ususally in the song sections.

    Sometimes the performer of the nominated song is the original performer and sometimes not.

    Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
  • by Baron Fundi ( 22034 ) on Wednesday February 23, 2000 @09:50AM (#1251573)
    The papers here in Canada thought this was oh so terrible, especially since the song referred to Anne Murray as a bitch.

    So a reporter called her up to see what she thought. She thought the song was hilarious.

    I guess they were upset that SHE wasn't upset...

  • by Plasmic ( 26063 ) on Wednesday February 23, 2000 @09:59AM (#1251581)
    shut your fucking mouth, uncle fucker.

    Far be it from me to throw meat to the trolls, but this comment should be 'Score: 5, Funny'; It expreses in only 6 words what every other post on this thread attempts to convey to us, the Slashdot readers: censorship sucks.

    The Oscars are telling Trey to shut his fucking mouth and he shouldn't. He shouldn't be the uncle fucker that's within all of us. He must leverage his market space in the entertainment industry to further the censorship campaign by embarking on a new journey toward a greater good for the common folk: the uncle fucker.

    DON'T SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH, UNCLE FUCKER.
  • Just a question - what exactly are the Oscar producers afraid will be censored by ABC? If we're talking about the one use of "fuck", IMO changing that one word would not be the end of the world as we know it. Yes, in the realm of South Park, using "fuck" (especially referring to Cartman) makes a lot of sense, but even the regular episodes of SP have to bleep it.

    However, if ABC wants them to change anything else in the song, including "bitch", that's not cool. I mean, the Academy knew the song was "demeaning" to Canadians when they nominated it.

  • I apologize. Slashdot is sorry that it posted something that didn't interest you, personally. If you would please post your personal preferences, Slashdot will be happy to restrict all future articles to only such things that are entirely within your personal definition of "news for nerds", and "stuff that matters".

    Err.. what's that you say? I'm not qualified to speak for Slashdot? Odd... but I suppose you're qualified to speak for all the 'nerds' who DO believe this story is "stuff that matters" (including the nerds who run this site), huh?

    All sarcasm aside, does one article about censorship of a South Park song among the technical and philosophical stories that have been posted today really qualify Slashdot for the jab of "Southparkdot"?

    'Nerds' have notoriously varied preferences (check the Jargon file for a good description), and Slashdot does a fairly good job of catering to the most prevelant of those preferences (aside from Jon Katz, of course :). After all, someone must have been interested in the story to have submitted it.
  • You clicked on the article, didn't you? Southpark is(was) subpopculture. Especially among nerds. If you didn't find the article informative, or interesting, why did you click on 'read more'?

    Some people have nothing better to do than complain about things.
  • by Signal 11 ( 7608 ) on Wednesday February 23, 2000 @08:24AM (#1251596)
    Censor it and it dies. The reason South Park is popular is because it pokes fun at the people who want to censor and control modern media. SP is a slap in the face for the so-called "christian coalition", political correctness, and the general stupidity and holy war activism going on down in DC and around the country.

    Modify it and you effectively kill it AND compromise your position. Don't do it.

  • by nellardo ( 68657 ) on Wednesday February 23, 2000 @11:42AM (#1251613) Homepage Journal
    Well, Billy Baldwin is sitting in my office, and he saw this story and says:
    Bullshit! We don't have to "blame Canada" for how uptight and politically correct this country has become. Oh no, we need not look nearly that far. All you have to do is check out Standards and Practices and those yahoo executives at ABC. To hell with censorship! Besides, if we didn't have Canada to smack around, we'd have to watch the media turn Rick Rockwell into their next prison bitch. Even if it meant my family's survival, they shouldn't change a damn thing.
    You heard it here, /.'ers. And no, this isn't a joke - he really is sitting in my office.

  • by Megane ( 129182 ) on Wednesday February 23, 2000 @08:34AM (#1251617)
    Williams quoted Lili Fini Zanuck who is co-producing the telecast with her husband, Richard, as saying that Parker "will come up with some funny solutions to his own problems

    See, the thing is, foul language is not funny in and of itself, only when it has shock value, and that tends to wear out quickly. The comedy comes in making the audience come up with the foul language in their heads on their own.

    In fact, that's one problem I had with the movie (the other being I generally don't like musicals)... I like how they bleep out The F-Word on the TV series, and don't bleep out much else, because it makes it more funny when you notice how much else doesn't get bleeped!

    Another example: The second Austin Powers movie had the montages where they cut off the last word of a sentence where it would have been profanity, then cut to the start of another sentence with the same or a similar sounding word. Again, it's not the profanity that's funny, it's how it's covered up.
  • by Krellis ( 19116 ) <slashdot@krYEATSellis.org minus poet> on Wednesday February 23, 2000 @08:37AM (#1251620) Homepage

    The correct URL for the story in question would be here [imdb.com]. The URL in the story goes to today's news, and this was in yesterday's. And if you really don't feel like clicking on the link:

    http://us.imdb.com/StudioBrief/2000/20000222.htm l#3

    Enjoy.



    ---
    Tim Wilde
    Gimme 42 daemons!

"I'm a mean green mother from outer space" -- Audrey II, The Little Shop of Horrors

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