Silly Censors
I was watching Forensic Factor on the Discovery Channel just now. The episode was on cremation and the science behind the process. As a demonstration, they were using a pig cadaver to simulate the disposal of human remains through burning. Throughout the explanation, they also showed some images of badly burnt remains. However, that’s only my guess because the only thing I saw through the entire 10 snippet was a large smudge that spanned the entire screen.
Believe it or not, the picture above is actually that of a pig being cremated. That’s of course before I put my censorship skills to test. And that’s the Malaysian censorship board for you. I am watching the discovery channel for goodness sakes. It’s not as though I’m watching a documentary on cremation to get some sexual high on burning pigs and charred remains.
The kids should already be asleep and few ever watch the documentary channels to begin with. Last I checked, they usually stick to the Disney Channel. So who are they trying to protect? Not me, that’s for sure. I’m just an average Joe, taking in some information while waiting for my hair to dry after a late shower. There is no need to protect me from gory images of death by fire. I LIKE my documentaries in their full graphic nature.
It’s actually patronising to have some scissor/pixelator happy idiot behind a desk smudging out things that they don’t deem fit for public consumption. Especially when it’s a documentary. It basically defeats the whole purpose of the show being educational.
I remember some time last week when I was watching another documentary on dancers where they went and put a blur around all the female dancer’s backsides. You would think that people watching this sort of shit would be mature enough to be able to watch this stuff without getting a hardon. The smudge just gets in the way and is downright distracting. Even more so than a little bit of expose rump.
Maybe next time I should also censor my drawings:
Well, at least I learned that it takes 2 cubic meters of solid wood fuel to properly dispose of a 200 pound body through burning. Good information to know in case you want to eliminate the censorship board.
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Simonsays Said,
September 12, 2006 @ 12:12 pm
Speaking of censorship, Windows XP by design censors our intelligence and general enjoyment of computing :) I am barred from tinkering with runlevels, compiling source code with built-in tools or even surfing the web with a plaintext browser. I am prevented from checkins and commits; the Registry will always be a dark place for most users due to its deadly power. Vista will hide the pleasure even further :(
tummythoz Said,
September 12, 2006 @ 3:40 pm
Err.. think d blurring was not due to d remains. It’s d oink-oink factor. Blurry patches or even total snipped off scenes happen during other movies/series where that forbidden creature appears.
gbyeow Said,
September 12, 2006 @ 9:40 pm
tummythoz: Well, I’m not sure if it was only the oink factor but they were censoring images of charred human remains as well. As for the oink factor… makes you wonder what goes through these people’s heads sometimes. Picture also tak halal?