Geeks Trying To Be Funny » censorship

Truly ahead of his time, Mark Twain chimes in on censorship

christian — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 16:32:59 +0000

You probably already heard about the new editions of Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” That’s right–the ones where the “n-word” were replaced with “slave.” Some believe this dilutes the essence of the book but as Larry Wilmore from the Daily Show puts it “slave is a job description and Jim was an escaped slave. He can run away from being a slave but he can’t run away from being a nigger.”

Ahem, anyway, Mark Twain’s thoughts on censoring his books:

“But the truth is, that when a Library expels a book of mine and leaves an unexpurgated Bible lying around where unprotected youth and age can get hold of it, the deep unconscious irony of it delights me and doesn’t anger me.”

Original post via Science Blogs

[NSFW] And now for something completely different…

christian — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 00:37:12 +0000

Here’s a letter about self-censorship options for Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Basically, the movie will be rated AA which would mean only 14 and above can only see it. The make it to A (which means down to 5), several cuts (from the dialog) were suggested.

The funny thing is, the letter writer (presumably the producer) would like to negotiate with the censors. He still wants the AA rating but would like to retain “fart in your general direction” and “castanets of your testicles.”

It’s really surreal and click here to see for yourself.

In spite of the earthquake, China’s Great Firewall still very much active

christian — Tue, 27 May 2008 09:03:26 +0000

It’s no secret that China is censoring the internet over there, encouraging netizens to "advance harmony". But with the recent earthquake (and more recent aftershock) in Sichuan province, the Chinese blogosphere was mostly empathic, thus eliminating the need to "shut up dissidents."

However, when bloggers start to criticize the less than sympathetic response of some entities, the cutesy Jing Jing and Chacha (guardians of–gasp–Chinese online harmony) pounced to do their jobs.

It’s nice to know that China does not let a natural disaster get in its way of doing things.

(SARCASM)

Link to article via Wired.