SH!T

Some of you may have seen this episode of South Park where they say the word, Shit. Of course, you cannot say the word, Shit on basic cable TV in the U.S. It gets bleeped. Its one of the 7 words, made famous by the late comedian George Carlin. These days the FCC in the US has gotten so high and mighty, that anything they consider remotely offensive, crude, explicit... they bleep the shit out of it.

Anyway, When I was in Montreal, Canada last week on business, I was watching TV and it was some random talk show. The guy was interviewing James Cameron, the famed director of Terminator, Titanic, Alien etc. Apparently, he has got a star in the Canadian Walk of Fame. They have one up there as well, similar to the Hollywood Walk of Fame. So, durin the course of the interview, the host drops the "shit" word and since I have been conditioned the past few years of living the U.S. of A, my ears perked up pretty quickly. I saw few more shit droppings on other shows as well. Then, it dawned on me that its okay to say Shit on Canadian TV. Now, India has something in common with Canada. I was reminded of the times in India where you could say Shit!

During the business meeting, the consultant also mentioned the word a few time, with the word bull thrown around generally in front of it bunch more times. He even dropped the F-bomb once. Now, I am aware even in Canada, you can't say the F-word on TV. But for a business consultant to do it in a professional setting and no one react adversely to it, it was an interesting sight for me. I wonder how it would have been received in the U.S. I work in a place where things are pretty informal but we still don't curse very much.

I have always considered these rules by FCC extremely stupid. I understand you shouldn't swear on TV because little kids mght be watching and/or its just plain offensive to people. But, there definitely is a time and place, where no other word could substitute for a good curse word. I hope someday the people that work in the FCC get to their senses and get down from their snooty positions and provide some wiggleroom for cursing on TV and other media! Its about fucking time.

Update 1: Funny.. I uploaded this post and went home, only to see the aforementioned South Park episode come on TV. Weird!

Update 2: You know how the Canadians in South Park episodes always say 'aboot' and have 'flopping heads'. Only one of the two is actually correct.