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The Big [Censored] Theory

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Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#451

Post by kelnos »

inopinatus wrote: post #321
coryfklein wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Mormon neighbors tend to use VidAngel, which got in huge trouble with an absolutely hilarious payment model. 1. VidAngel purchases a bunch of Blu-ray discs and stores them in a warehouse 2. Tag all the content of a film and create filters so the user can, for example, filter out all sex and violence but leave in vulgarity 3. User "purchases" a Blu-ray for $20 (!!) and VidAngel says, "since we now know you're the o…

The law is not a programming language. Believing so is a common misconception amongst engineers, but assuming as much is likely to lead to disappointment, frustration, anger, bickering, conflict, and vexatiously long and mostly unenforceable contracts. In particular, you can't just write up your own legal fictions and expect them to be honored. It would seem the developers in the story above learned this lesson the h…

I don't think this is really relevant. This isn't about logic or about programming, it's about trying to conform to the spirit of what the law says, and the intent behind it. The idea of copyright is "when you reproduce something, the creator should get a cut". Sure, we can argue all day what counts as a "copy" when it comes to computers, but... c'mon. One Bluray disc is bought, and one person gets to watch it. When they're done with it, someone else gets to watch it. This is how a library works. This is how Netflix's DVD-by-mail service works. But just because a computer and a network are involved, it's somehow different? No, sorry, I don't buy it.

If the law really does say what VidAngel did is wrong, then the law is wrong and should be changed. I think it should be obvious to anyone who can read that the big media companies have (successfully) fought for decades to unfairly protect their bottom line, at the expense of everyone else. That's not ok; governments should not exist to protect crappy business models. Hell, there'd still be plenty of money to be made with much more lax copyright law.

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#452

Post by afiori »

nindalf wrote: post #199
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…

It’s extraordinary that people are taken in by such videos. Those videos are selectively edited to make the creators point. Tell me, when Jimmy Kimmels producers go out on Hollywood Boulevard and find that not even one person can point to a country other than America on map ( https://youtu.be/kRh1zXFKC_o ) - do you think that’s real too? Or is that selectively edited for laughs?

Everytime you hear someone tell their story you get an editorialized view (at the very least by having chosen to listen to them rather than someone else).

Those videos are clearly optimized toward the desired impression, but I don't think that they used actors to make their points.

On the other hand you have problems like https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/05/12/weak-men-are-superweap... where you can construct a castle of lies and deception by only speaking selective truths...

To summarize my point: stories are ways to tell one of the many facets of the human experience, when told honestly they can be helpful to our understanding of both the common and the uncommon, when told dishonestly they can warp our perception of reality.

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#453

Post by cercatrova »

The solution to this is, of course, piracy. I'm glad people like those on /r/DataHoarder preserve media in their complete forms so I don't have to watch them censored.

A recent example is Community which has an episode of a character dressing as a dark elf, and the joke is that another character assumes it's blackface, even though it's not. Well, networks and streaming services now removed it and unless you have the original discs, you simply can't watch that episode.

Unless, of course, you pirate it, which is how I watched it.

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#454

Post by kelnos »

mr_toad wrote: post #339
koheripbal wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a bit like Jewish, Irish, Japanese, Korean, or Italian stereotypes in movies/tv - few real members of those groups get offended because we're not currently disadvantaged.

The whole show is a giant stereotype.

I was never a big fan of the show, but emphasizing stereotypes is a very common, often very effective form of comedy. If that's not your cup of tea, that's fine -- I tired of it quickly and stopped watching -- but that doesn't mean it's inherently wrong.

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#455

Post by ricktdotorg »

astrange wrote: post #386
clouddrover wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Where Kunal Nayar grew is insignificant. Not when it comes to his accent. It's wholly unsurprising that someone who grew up in India speaks English with an Indian accent. That isn't "mocking" his accent. That's just what his accent is. > I am not sure whether you are Indian or not, but if you fail to see Weak. If you can't demonstrate where this supposed racism is in the show then I'd suggest you need to start cons…

Having a TV actor speak in their natural accent might be mocking them, if it's normal to have them fake a different one. eg David Tennant uses his Scottish accent for jokes in a show where he normally sounds English

> David Tennant uses his Scottish accent for jokes in a show where he normally sounds English

may i ask that you clarify this point?

tennant made a personal choice NOT to use his native/normal scottish accent for Dr. Who. he discusses this with Jodie Whittaker (also someone with quite a strong native accent) in an episode of his podcast, he TL;dr said it didn't feel quite right for him to use his native accent for the role [1].

whenever tennant does TV "as himself" (for example the voiceovers he has done for various shows or charity events like comic relief etc) he uses his own/native accent, is he doing this for laughs/jokes? surely he is doing them with a scottish accent because that is actually his literal normal voice?

[1] https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/jodie-whittaker/id1450...

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#456

Post by rmah »

Way back in the day (think before 2000), I worked for a major cable TV company that showed films around the world. Every film had different cuts for different regions to comply with various censorship rules, licensing restrictions, dubbing, etc. Including the US. Yes, there were things that were cut from the US release that might have been in the UK release. It was nightmare to schedule everything properly everywhere. From what I can vaguely recall, a lot of errors were made, but as long as a decent effort was made by the company to censor according to their rules, most nations were ok with it.

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#457

Post by dtn »

jedberg wrote: post #86
sltkr wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I'm mostly offended how stale and unoriginal a lot of these jokes are, but I can definitely see why the censors took offense at some of them. For example, the joke about the Chinese restaurant ("I'd be more concerned about what they're passing off as chicken") plays off of the stereotype that Chinese people eat dogs and cats, and the “passing off” remark implies that the Chinese restaurant owners are decep…

> 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…

Good grief, I wish people would stop pointing to a particular subset of an ethnic group to try to "prove" that people are "wrong" to get offended.

1. Videos are easily selectively edited

2. Within an immigrant ethnic group, different subgroups will have different feelings due to their experiences. For example, 1st generation immigrants tend to be less cognizant of this sort of stuff.

Here's a bit of a rant for you- as an Asian person, I find these Asian jokes pretty fucking unfunny. It absolutely shits me when people will ask an Asian person from Asia what they think about some hot-topic issue within the Western sphere- yeah no shit they'll find it trivial. They're so geographically and politically disconnected from the issue it makes no sense to ask them.

They experience none of the effects, understand very little of the context and have very little stake in the matter, the only reason people would ask them for their opinion on these issues is so they can point to a foreign face and tell people like me "why can't you be as well behaved as them".

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#458

Post by astrange »

dirtyid wrote: post #258
jedberg wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and the onus on you would be to get data that they wouldn't. FWIW I have a few data points -- this is something my Chinese wife has literally said inside a Chinese restaurant, and some of her other family members have said similar things about not trusting that the food being served is what they said it was.

> not trusting that the food being served is what they said it was Chinese folks being weary of restaurants with swapping ingredients for lower tier is not comparable to assuming chicken being swapped for cat, which is a tired joke. Usually reserved for pricer seafood, hence pick your victim tanks. Many restaurants do similar type of substitute shenangians, like I'm pretty sure the hipster burger joing is not serving…

Swapping ingredients is pretty common in all kinds of restaurants; a lot of whitefish are actually tilapia no matter what they say, and a lot of farm-to-table ingredients are entirely fictional.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/02/20/fish-s...

https://projects.tampabay.com/projects/2016/food/farm-to-fab...

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#459

Post by munificent »

MichaelCollins wrote: post #320
Tao3300 wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heavens above, Myrtle! That turtle is a ninja! With nunchaku! Someone think of the children!

> nunchaku Huh, you weren't kidding. Banned and censored in the UK, banned in Canada, Germany, and several US states... because of Bruce Lee? Bizarre. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nunchaku#Legality

This sounds so hilariously quaint to someone in the US like me. But, I guess that's because I'm used to being surrounded by people armed to the gills with assault rifles and shit. Maybe if you're in a mostly gun-free country, nunchaku actually seem kind of scary and threatening.

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#460

Post by brigandish »

lettergram wrote: post #428
andruby wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[flagged]

I think the downvotes you're attracting give some indication for the HN crowd.
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