Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Big [Censored] Theory

pudding.cool

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 891 posts

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#121

Post by paxys »

politician wrote: post #105
cutemonster wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it slightly amazing how often commenters here (hello aero-glide2) fail to see that the people in a country are not the same as the dictators controlling the country. When such misunderstandings are common here at HN, where people are a bit brighter that elsewhere (or so I think) -- then, such misunderstandings must be dangerously common outside HN. I wonder what consequences follow from that

Given the scale of the demographic collapse in China -- the over-reporting of girls by 100M, the situation where 20M men have no chance of the possibility of having a stable heterosexual relationship due to the lack of women, the rapidly aging population (highest in the world) that is post child bearing age -- doesn't it begin to seem reasonable the steps that the government is taking to curtail and shape public opin…

The Communist Party is the reason China is in this mess in the first place, and further control and oppression by them isn't going to magically fix it.

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#122

Post by jedberg »

jacobsenscott wrote: post #119
jedberg wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I dare you to show that scene at a liberal college and notice how few laughs you get. Did you see the recent video where the white guy dressed up in a poncho, big hat, and fake mustache and carried around maracas? He asked a bunch of white kids on a college campus if they thought his outfit was offensive to Mexicans, and they all said yes. Then he went to the Mexican part of town and asked actual Mexicans, and they…

No, but I constantly hear right wingers referencing it. It must be very popular in the echo chamber.

Yes, it does support a right wing point of view, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily wrong. It's just one video, but there are many other videos and essays about the same topic.

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#123

Post by andruby »

ALittleLight wrote: post #10

I can see how this might backfire. You notice a censored jump and start to feel the itch of curiosity as to what it concealed. I had to watch several of the censored scenes whereas I would have never just randomly watched clips of the show. Also, love the presentation on this page.

We (the HN crowd, often living in less-censored societies) would be very curious.

I’d like to know how curious this would make non-HN people, and those living in more censored places.

My assumption is that they take it for granted and just continue to watch the show. It might be hard for them to even find the uncensored clips.

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#124

Post by nindalf »

ascar wrote: post #110

Side note: the article mentions canned laughter in TBBT rather early. TBBT actually doesn't use canned laughter but uses laughter from the live audience for its laugh track. I pity that I didn't have the chance to visit the studios and be part of that laugh track :(

Most shows that use canned laughter (Friends, Seinfeld etc.) were filmed in front of an audience. It’s not worth the hassle to set up audio recoding for the audience, especially because people aren’t reliable. They might not laugh at the right moment, one or two audience members might have a weird laugh, they might be too soft or loud.

The audience reaction is useful feedback for the actors, but the laughter is canned.

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#125

Post by stirfish »

bee_rider wrote: post #117
TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #2

It's really interesting that such a bland, un-subversive show whose only mentions of sensitive topics are in bad throwaway jokes is so heavily censored. I guess a more interesting show would just not get aired at all.

Actually, I wonder if that would be a "good" way of making a comedy that can be shown everywhere. Just film like 40 minutes per episode for a 30 minute slot, but only include throwaway jokes to they can be removed as needed.

I read somewhere that if you're writing humor for kids, you have to strip out a lot of the context: they might not know what an Eiffel Tower is, but they will understand Big Thing. Maybe comedy that can be shown everywhere is comedy a child can understand?

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#126

Post by commandlinefan »

jrm4 wrote: post #3

I find that it's always interesting to THEN consider, okay -- while there's no centralized board or anything -- what does e.g. American censorship go after?

> what does e.g. American censorship go after?

That's the "beauty" of arbitrary censorship: they'll start to self-censor for fear of being butchered like this. I'm sure there's a lot of stuff that they don't put into popular American media for fear that the censor board _might_ object.

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#127

Post by chclau »

lwansbrough wrote: post #78

Interesting to see what passes for a joke on The Big Bang Theory. I knew the show was bad but wow. Perhaps just as surprising is the author's suggestion that a xenophobic remark about a Chinese restaurant is "harmless". I'm not even particularly sensitive when it comes to race relations, but that's just such a negative stereotype it's hard to ignore. I despise Chinese censorship, but I would support the Chinese gover…

For me is one of the loveliest series I have seen

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#128

Post by elsherbini »

gavinray wrote: post #34

Is the author around? The visualization below "So the question has to be asked: what kind of content has been removed, and why? " Is one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Could you share how this was made?

(I'm not the author). Here is the repo that powers the article: https://github.com/the-pudding/censorship , which forks a svelte-kit starter template most new pudding.cool articles start with.

The bit that actually makes the divs for each scene that was cut is here: https://github1s.com/the-pudding/censorship/blob/HEAD/src/co... , and the data is here: https://github1s.com/the-pudding/censorship/blob/HEAD/src/da...

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#130

Post by notahacker »

cowtools wrote: post #85
okasaki wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good thing we have HN user cutemonster to tell us what the Chinese people want.

If the chinese people had the option between the censored and uncensored version, which one do you think they would prefer? On an individual level it is obvious that almost no one advocates for self-censorship. Most people are only enthusiastic about censorship when they are the censor and not the censored. The communist dictatorship is a parasitic form of governance, but most cannot escape because they're stuck at a…

I strongly suspect many if not most Chinese people would choose to see the censored version, especially if the stated reason for the censorship was "we have removed some things which may be insulting to Chinese people".

Most people don't like being censored themselves, but don't confuse that for a moment with believing that most people want everything uncensored. For all public discourse in America constantly talks about free speech absolutism and the horrors of censorship, US TV has "decency" regulations and there's absolutely no mass movement to ensure that TV companies are not penalised for 'wardrobe malfunctions' and expletives are broadcast without bleeps. Why would people from a much more conservative culture where public discourse attaches no value to free speech but stresses paternalism and patriotism instead be so keen on hearing alleged rudeness about their country?

Post reply on HN