Nah, usually he solves the case on the very same day!

You're probably right, but if UK and USA viewers have different preferences for their reality show candidates, does that not also say something about the viewers?

Sure. Possibly. Maybe we're more open to public displays of emotion here. Or maybe we've just come to expect to see very emotional people on TV.

Thinking about it, the US v. UK versions of The Office have very different humor. Most people I've met found Ricky Gervais to be completely unlikable as a character while Steve Carrell (who is no less of an annoying idiot in that role) is crafted to be endearing.

I have a question for you guys. How is swearing/cursing on TV in your country handled?

In Norway cursing is a very common thing in our language, and there is literally no censoring on TV, we even had a part on a TV show going on where norwegian-americans would find as many norwegian curse words as possible and use them in a conversation. They were surprised to hear that their words wasn't censored, and the fact that they could say them freely infront of the camera. When I see foreign TV shows (british and american for instance) I see that the censoring is rather strict, with these *beeps* being a common thing to hear in a conversation on TV.

I don't really see the harm, I really don't think alot of people would find it innapropriate/offensive. In Norway we curse in basically every single TV show where the audience is "everyone" (of course we don't curse on shows that are directly aimed at children) and so far we haven't heard a single story about people being offended or something, I'm starting to wonder if it's a cultural thing.

So how is it where you live?

Yeah, I'd say that's fairly accurate in real life as well. We're generally pretty restrained with our emotions, at least on the outside.

Only minor swearwords are allowed before 9pm, then you can pretty much say whatever you want. Even then things may still be censored for various reasons, either just the opinions of the producers or if the show's going to be rerun before 9 or whatever.

I thought that one of the major elements of The Office was that Gervais didn't exactly portray a likeable, sympathetic character... although I found him difficult to watch, I'm surprised that the remake went down a different route if Carrell's is indeed endearing, but I guess perhaps it is to cater for their respective target audiences.

I don't feel at all flooded with British media, American media on the other hand... I don't really mind it, though, I mean it's been this way my entire life for me it's just the way things are...

I think the problem is that none of the countries in Europe can really compete with the U.S. when it comes to making blockbusters, video games with huge budgets and series with expensive sets and casts. It would be better if more of these things were made with funding from various countries, I know there are a few movies made with financial funding from Germany and France for instance, it would be cool if there was more of that. Older European (specifically Italian) movies had international casts, I'd like to see this again in European cinema.

Thanks to Netflix, Americans get a chance to see more European films these days and there is a bigger market. Hopefully that will help diverisfy things.

Please don't judge Americans by our media. Especially the more crass kinds like reality TV. I have no idea why people watch that, except for the same reasons people turn to look at car accidents. I do think Americans are probably more expressive/ louder than northern Europeans, less so than southern Europeans or Middle Easterners. It also depends on geography. The US is a big place with a lot of regional differences.

Not that I watch reality TV, but sometimes when just switching back and forth, one of those "real housewives from..." is always on. Those shows, those people, are ugly and foul. It's incredible people can watch such crap without gouging their eyes out and jamming screwdrivers into their ears.

Here, the public channels broadcast exclusively American content. Paid for channels broadcast a lot of stuff from a lot of countries and cultures -- the UK, France, Nigeria, India, Australia, Spain, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Russia, China... I'm glad local media isn't bigger because the undercurrent to anything would consist of maybe five topics. Free and/or local TV here is really poor/boring/self-righteous/etc.


Remember, put anyone in front of a camera and they'll play for it or adjust their behaviour. Then there's also the fact that most Americans haven't experienced much hardship and/or live very cushy lives, so what to them is a tragedy is an inconvenience to other people. Say, not being able to fix their kitchen, and then having this "horrible" aspect of their life fixed by someone else, is the equivalent of someone somewhere else... I don't know, having their entire [censored]hole of a house renovated for free. Also, yes, Americans do seem to be more emotional in general than most others.


A lot is censored here. The population purports to be 80% Christian, with another 10% of people following very modest/proper/strict religions.

Gah.. this! I have absolutely no idea why people watch reality tv and I swear everytime you turn on the TV there's more of that garbage. It's a trend that I keep hoping will die.

Curse words are pretty heavily censored here until after 10pm or so. Then they allow some more minor curse words but the f bomb is almost always cut out on regular channels. It's fair game any hour of the day or night on speciality channels like HBO though. They'll show anything anytime.

Censors only operate for the network channels, because these are considered public airwaves. Cable channels are pretty much left to their own discretion or lack thereof. So in actuality there is not a lot of censorship in what Americans watch, and this is pretty much the same in Europe where you have the state channels and satellite. Americans get a bad rap for being prudes. European media is censored, too, sometimes more heavily than in the US. The criteria are just a bit different.

And really, this is not a bad thing. We don't need media competing for more shock value and crassness than they already do. I'm for a more "democratic" approach but we have that with cable and satellite TV and now with satellite and internet radio as well.

When i was in primary school, in Australia, it was kindergarten, primary school, secondary school, you could do TAFE college, (technical and further education) or university, but in state primary school religious education was mandatory till about 1973 or so i think then they abolished it in public schools, but it was basically christian religious education, you never got taught any other religion, i didnt go well because i always asked to many questions. But its now only taught in religious schools.


Weve always had lots of english programs and US television, were more flooded with US television now and we take a lead in our tv from US reality shows, not a big fan of watching alot of US tv shows other than a few mostly sci fi or fantasy stuff or hbo produced shows, i watch alot of SBS (special broadcasting service) which is our multicultural and multilingual broadcaster, and the ABC the national broadcaster.


Here its basically you can say certain words, till a certain time of night then after that its basically a free for all, the one thing that annoyed me when i was playing online, was the alot of the US player would get offended with me saying damn, and then they would say dont cuss, and id say its swear, and words that Australians just say in passing they were offended by, yet they would happily say F**k as every second word in a sentence, also another reason i dont like alot of american tv, unless its hbo they dont even swear in context, in alot of english programs they do.

Just posted this in the Comedians Topic.

Thought I would repost it here and see if PapaFern would be so kind as to translate the beginning...


For your enjoyment:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcnFbCCgTo4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHB32ll7Ce8

It's a drunk northern Scot, and besides [censored] their back end and know ye like drink - I can't make anything else without laughing

- Want to know what Scots say, increase your brains processing power to keep up

Beep, or mosiac. It is inappropriate to for public display, for media at least.

Before 10PM it's bleeped over or the sound drops, but mostly any programmes containing swearing don't really show on normal TV. After 10PM it's a free-for-all in terms of cursing - though South Park for some reason remains censored even at 11PM to 2:30AM, think that might just be ComedyCentral though

Mind expressing this differently? I don't think I understand.

Censorship in Thailand seems to be a bit random. Seems like swearing can be censored and even just lewd phrases can be censored. Some swear words while watching a movie weren't but that was on HBO. Certain scenes can be cut out entirely. Was watching Family Guy, the episode were Peter and his friends get stranded on a desert island, and they removed the "orgy" scene. They also censored some lewd phrases that episode even though I doubt a Thai would really understand them.

Also, smoking is censored and I think the cigar/cigarette/pipe is also censored when not in use, guns pointed at people clearly and knives threatening and close to a person are censored.

Dear gods, what did The Matrix consist of? The opening credits, the Oracle visit and the end scene?

Since I haven't been living here all that long I wouldn't know. If you can't really see the gun being pointed at someone it doesn't get censored. Or so it seems. With the guns/knives they just put a big blur on it though, they don't cut the scene.

Oh okay, I thought you were native. I'm trying to imagine watching action movies... Die Hard, Payback, Planet Terror...

The next step in motion picture; Silent burtion pictures

Asked my dad's girlfriend (she's Thai) and apparently Fox and HBO aren't censored.

Honestly though it's really not that bad. The more annoying thing is all the porm on the Internet being blocked... I mean...

But... Then what the hell is the use of the internet?!