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Author Topic: Comedy Central's "Secret Stash" Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 03-01-2008 01:26 AM                     Anyone who regularly watches Comedy Central knows about the channel's "Secret Stash" showings of uncut comedy specials and movies late at night. I think "Secret Stash" is good for the most part. But sometimes it can get really lame. Here's the problem. They go through all this trouble to stress how the shows are uncensored in the promos. But that's not really true. They'll let any manner of curse words fly. They'll even show some R-rated violence. But if the camera shows a woman's bare breasts, they often either fuzz out the naughty parts, zoom into a portion of the frame to get the nipples cropped off the edge or they just cut the shot entirely. It's a sham. I was channel surfing tonight and found Comedy Central showing some mediocre movie called Beer League. They had a scene in a bar with strippers taking off their tops. Sure enough various methods were used to hide the nudity. But all sorts of profanity, including foul language about sex acts was allowed. I'm trying to understand this contradiction. I mean they're saying all 7 of the words you can never say on TV repeatedly. But they can't show any tits. That's just pretty damned warped!  |  IP: Logged Adam Martin I'm not even gonna point out the irony. Posts: 3686 From: Dallas, TX Registered: Nov 2000 posted 03-01-2008 01:39 AM                     And then we have the same old, worn-out discussion about how, in America, violence is great and sex is taboo; elsewhere in the world, it's the opposite.  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 03-08-2008 10:50 PM                        No reason to get defensive about it, Adam; it's not tired or worn-out -- it's just a fact. Spain, France, Japan, Italy, the Netherlands (have you ever been to Amsterdam?) all have quite different and I would posit more mature attitudes about sex, whereas we seem to still be in our early, pimply adolescents...still ringing the alter bell so Alfredo can splice out the "dirty" scenes. That's just our culture; it is what it is. Many times my lady and I are watching a foreign film and it will contain both female and, even more taboo here in the USA, male frontal nudity. And when these do occur, they are done inconsequentially and naturally and without any hint of prurient exploitation. Seems other cultures are more able to look at human sexuality without snickering than are we. In fact, just last night we watched LATE MARRIAGE, an Israeli film by Dover Koshashvili; it contained both female and male frontal nudity. As with many of these foreign films, we both look at each other and say, "Geeez, this picture could never be made in the United States." Even the Canadians are less juvenile about sex than we are. The fact that we would rather it not even be mentioned is a pretty good indication that we have a way to go in this area.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 03-09-2008 01:48 AM                        I think Adam says it is "worn out" mainly because people try to use this against American culture. Lots of people have the "Well, sex is more liberated in Europe, so Europe is better" hoity-toity attitude. What these pansies don't realize is that violence kicks ass! Which would you rather watch... a bunch of bad guys dying in multiple, massive explosions or some nude girl (usually smoking) just sitting there talking about her feelings (usually in a run-down art house theater)? You can see nude girls and sex anywhere on the internet, so it's not like nudity is hard to come by. But good violence is a bit more rare. Also, Japan is WAAAAAAAAAY more strict about their sex and nudity that the US. They censor out the genitals. Far more mature? I think not.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 03-09-2008 03:17 AM                     The differences of American culture versus that of Europe and Asia is one thing. I think the original point I made regarding Comedy Central's "Secret Stash" is still quite valid. What they're doing is often very lame. The movie I cited as an example contained lots of graphic discussion of various sex acts, lots of profanity like "fuck" or "cock sucker" or "would you like a side order of cock with that?" Now if a TV station is going to let all that kind of stuff fly, then, please, what the hell is so wrong with some naked nipples? If the TV station is going to promote a movie as being "uncensored" then, dammit, really deliver an uncensored movie. If you fuzz out the titty nipples while allowing the f-bomb, you're still showing a censored movie.  |  IP: Logged James Westbrook Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1133 From: Lubbock, Texas, Usa Registered: Mar 2006 posted 03-09-2008 05:16 PM                     Comedy Central can legally show the boobies as it's not a broadcast network. I think some executive in charge of "Standards and Practices" has issues with nudity and feels the need to throw their weight around. Most cable and satellite viewers who insist on taking the moral high ground are not going to be watching Comedy Central anyway. Show the damn boobies!  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 03-09-2008 06:59 PM                     I get the Independent Film Channel (IFC for short) in with my satellite programming package for no extra change. It's not a premium network like HBO -at least I don't think it is. Yet they show all kinds of movies containing nudity, even full frontal nudity. Perhaps the folks who care about censoring naughty naked body parts don't care about IFC since the movies they show are often "indie" and European in nature.  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 03-09-2008 07:36 PM                        Comcast sends out porn on open (unscrambled) on-demand digital channels here. If you have a ATSC QAM tuner (as all current TVs probably do), you can pick up the porn. They've been doing that for a long time.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 03-15-2008 02:23 AM                     Here's something that makes the Comedy Central situation an even more odd head-scratcher. They fuzz out the naked breasts in one movie, which inspired my complaint. But this evening, I get home from a CBA basketball game watch party, and they have Rodney Carrington's comedy concert on Secret Stash. His comedy song Show Them To Me features some women in the audience rising from their seats and flashing their bare breasts. They didn't fuzz out the nipples this time.  |  IP: Logged John Lasher Master Film Handler Posts: 493 From: Newark, DE Registered: Aug 2001 posted 04-06-2008 02:42 AM                        Could it be that the studio provided a TV version of the film which featured the nipples blurred, but had the soundtrack uncensored, leaving it to the network to drop audio on whichever words they chose to find objectionable this week.  |  IP: Logged

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