a limit to depravity?? [parental discretion IS advised]

So, I just got through watching an episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force...

Now, I'm no conservative by any means, but...

well, I'm somewhat at a loss for words. I don't know what the name of the epsiode was, but basically the premise was that a giant alien penis was running a fast food joint as a front for an operation to collect penises (they used different language, you understand) from people in order to build a penis ship with which to return to...what I'm guessing is the penis planet. So these characters, which were meant to portray stereotypical Asians (the fast food place was called "Wong" Burger) went around chopping off penises for the ship. I won't go into any more detail except to say that the episode ends with a character mistaking one of the severed penises for a hotdog and...yeah.

So anyway, personally I am against strict censorship, but I AM in favor of SOME kind of regulations.

Your thoughts?

Sounds hilarious to me. Censorship is wrong in my opinion, although warnings are a good idea

Screw Sensor Ship. As long as there is a warning, I say they could play La Blue Girl on Disney during the time they get their highest amount of viewers.

They shouldn't do something like that, but should and could are two different things.

And ATHF is funny, but highly overrated.

That sounds funny simply because it's so absurd. No censorship I say!

Jesus christ, that’s horrible. Not because the overload of phalli, but because it just sounds so :skull::skull::skull::skull:. People draw pleasure from that kind of stuff, though, and I don’t think it should be censored. As my old friend blim mentioned, a warning should get those old folk, children, and anyone else likely to blowing their brains out over the devouring of severed genitalia off to bed. blah blah late at night and so on.

So don't watch it.

Why did you see the end of the show if that offended you so much? Having a power button on your TV is there so you don't have to watch things that offend you, that's the censorship you have.

That sounds really funny !!
They should give warnings but not censorship (?)
If people dont like or get offended or whatever then they shouldnt watch it ! :greenie: Simple !

Censorship always ends up worse than the work it is created to avoid. Trust me on that. Treating adult people as imbeciles who can not decide for themselves what to watch is a dangerous route...

I don't beleive in censorship. I do beleive in warning people about the content so that they can decide for themselves, but beond that, people should be able to watch/read/write/ect. whatever they want.

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Originally Posted by Renmiri

Censorship always ends up worse than the work it is created to avoid. Trust me on that. Treating adult people as imbeciles who can not decide for themselves what to watch is a dangerous route...

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Amen.

That sounds too stupid to be funny.

I don't really care if that kind of crap is on TV if I don't have to watch it. If I was watching Scrubs and a penis monster was in one of the commercials, I would be pretty annoyed. But hey, it's in a completely unfunny cartoon show that won't sneak up on anybody, so who gives a flying rats ass? As long as it's appropriately rated.

Speaking of ratings, I have no way of checking them with my basic cable plan short of looking in a TV guide (or, you know, watching the first five seconds of a show. :P) Something should be done about that. You know, build something into TVs that can check the rating at any time without blocking it out completely. Unless such a thing already exists and I don't know about it because I have an old welfare TV. In which case, just ignore me. :P

Censor it? Why? To keep people from hearing about penises? About Asian stereotypes? About bad programming?

Penises, Asian stereotypes, and bad programming exist. Pretending that they don't by censoring this sort of thing has no logical benefit--in fact, I would argue that it harms those from whom it is censored by making them less prepared to face reality. If anyone remembers the poem "Terrence, This is Stupid Stuff" that I posted somewhere in EoEO recently, apply it to this topic as well.

By the way, this applies to children as well. Innocence, schmennocence. Censorship from children is just a power game for those who already have power.

I'd just be scared about getting aroused while watching it.

Yeah, ATHF is kinda crappy now.

I have no problem with the content, but the Dick Ship episode really was weak, they're stretching for cheap laughs.

That's what the TV rating system is for. Because you think they went too far, I shouldn't be allowed to rotflmao at it?

When it comes to censorship, I think Family Guy's "The Fricken' FCC" song has the majorities opinion about sensorship. Like you guys said, if there's a warning there should be no problem and you have the option of turning it off.

Okay, just to clarify:

I wasn't "so offended" by the show.

and "if you don't like it, turn it off." is my catch-phrase, so don't quote that at me...

I guess the reason why this particular piece of depravity caught my attention as opposed to all the other depravity I willingly subject myself to, is that it was completely unfunny (which is the purpose of the show- to be funny) and there was nothing of any merit about it.

Like the episode of South Park where they say sh** one hundred and however many times. That was just as over-the-top, but it was funny and they threw in a warning about excessiveness.

Yeah, my arguments are pretty weak, but my point is:

I'm not a censorship nut, but I just think there should be something to balance things out.

So your point is that you want the FCC to disallow jokes that aren't funny?

There is a reason it plays on ADULT Swim.....

Farplaner, I'm sure that plenty of pre-teens and some early teens found the episode hilarious. They are, after all, Adult Swim's target audience these days.

I do like the idea of the FCC only allowing what I find funny, though. Television needs more black humor and absurd humor.

Arrested Development and Scrubs all day every day.

OK, I'm going to stop digging myself any deeper.

Thanks, for your replies :)

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Originally Posted by Dr Aum

Censor it? Why? To keep people from hearing about penises? About Asian stereotypes? About bad programming?

Penises, Asian stereotypes, and bad programming exist. Pretending that they don't by censoring this sort of thing has no logical benefit--in fact, I would argue that it harms those from whom it is censored by making them less prepared to face reality.

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My point exactly

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Originally Posted by Dr Aum

By the way, this applies to children as well. Innocence, schmennocence. Censorship from children is just a power game for those who already have power.

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You obviously are not a parent. :)

Children are not as prepared to deal with satire and absurd humor and they copy a lot of what they see on TV, without understanding it.

When a kid tries to cut your penis to build a ship you will blame the kids parents, no ?

Let the parents judge what the kids are ready to see or not. They are the ones with the responsibility to raise their kids, they should have the means to do so. :tongue:

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Originally Posted by Renmiri

You obviously are not a parent. :)

Children are not as prepared to deal with satire and absurd humor and they copy a lot of what they see on TV, without understanding it.

When a kid tries to cut your penis to build a ship you will blame the kids parents, no ?

Let the parents judge what the kids are ready to see or not. They are the ones with the responsibility to raise their kids, they should have the means to do so. :tongue:

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No, children are not prepared to deal with sexual abuse, starvation, horrendous diseases caused by unclean water and unadequate sanitation, rape, the death of loved ones, and indentured service. Satire they have less trouble with.

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Originally Posted by I'm my own MILF

No, children are not prepared to deal with sexual abuse, starvation, horrendous diseases caused by unclean water and unadequate sanitation, rape, the death of loved ones, and indentured service. Satire they have less trouble with.

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I was talking about children with a somewhat adequate childhood. In the sense that they don't have to deal with all that.

So sad that a lot of kids do have this thrust upon them :(

Mmm, I'm not sure it's a relative thing. If you treat a kid like they're smart, they'll generally become smart. They might not get it right away, but they'll learn quickly. I have great difficulty in understanding how satire or irony or anything of the kind could harm a kid. They need to be educated to understand it, and so that they can deal with it when they grow up and they don't have parents to keep them coddled.

It just annoys me when people talk about innocence. If it exists in the first place (Which I doubt) it's ruined by far more serious things than offensive media.

I'm sorry MILF but you are wrong. Some material is simply unsuitable for young children. Would you really allow, say a ten year old, to listen to something like XXX Maniak (a band that sing about necrophilia in extremely graphic terms)

A parent has a responsibility to raise their children in the manner they judge best and should censor to a degree what that child is exposed to. The child will still hear and see stuff the parent would prefer them not to anyway but it provides boundaries which a child needs.

If we are talking about 10 year olds with good common sense, less censorship is needed. But kids aren't born 10 MILF. Takes a long time and tons of teaching and protecting / nurturing to get there. And a 4 year old will not know cutting penises is bad, including cutting his own. Will you give scissors and put on an Adult Swim tape of this episode on the VCR in front of a 4 year old ? What would you call a parent who did ?

The parent is the person legally and morally responsible for anything the kid does wrong. How can you make someone responsible for ANYTHING without letting him / her have the means to control the person / thing he is responsible for ?

Also, the parent knows a the kid since he / she was born and is the person who has spent most time with the kid. Ergo, the best person to judge how ready the kid is for stuff is the parent.

EDIT: Judging by your id, are you a mom too MILF ? Wow, that is surprising, I usually see this kind off opinions on people who never had kids of their own. How old are your kids ? Did you really never censor their TV viewing ?

If you don't like what you see, then don't watch. It's that simple, stop complaining. Censorship ftL

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Originally Posted by Renmiri

If we are talking about 10 year olds with good common sense, less censorship is needed. But kids aren't born 10 MILF. Takes a long time and tons of teaching and protecting / nurturing to get there. And a 4 year old will not know cutting penises is bad, including cutting his own. Will you give scissors and put on an Adult Swim tape of this episode on the VCR in front of a 4 year old ? What would you call a parent who did ?

The parent is the person legally and morally responsible for anything the kid does wrong. How can you make someone responsible for ANYTHING without letting him / her have the means to control the person / thing he is responsible for ?

Also, the parent knows a the kid since he / she was born and is the person who has spent most time with the kid. Ergo, the best person to judge how ready the kid is for stuff is the parent.

EDIT: Judging by your id, are you a mom too MILF ? Wow, that is surprising, I usually see this kind off opinions on people who never had kids of their own. How old are your kids ? Did you really never censor their TV viewing ?

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I'm a 21 year old childless guy, the username is just for :skull::skull::skull::skull:s and giggles. :p And don't worry, I'm sure I'll be protective as well. Much more than I think I should be now. But that doesn't make me right to be, just natural.

Anyway, you're correct in saying really young kids need more supervision and whatnot. I wasn't talking about them so much as older kids - 10 and up, basically. They shouldn't be thrown in at the deep end, but they shouldn't be coddled either. As far as I'm concerned, the sooner any kids I have are able to think for themselves and critically evaluate what they see and hear, the better. I don't think hiding kids from reality is the way to do that. I think that what should happen is a parent sits with the kid while something other than Barney is on, and explains what's going on, why, what the consequences are, and makes the child think. That's my plan and I'm sticking to it. :p

Edit: So to clarify, I do think that kids need the aforementioned teaching and nurturing, but I think that can be done in the frame of things they will encounter, not distinct from it. I think the education will be the better for it.

The episode where Carl gets continually raped by a giant dog/hand/banana was far more offensive. That one was actually funny as well.

Just for the record, the main reason why that episode was created was due to the rating of ATHF being boosted to MA. The writers used the opportunity to put far more offbeat humor in their episodes. They seem to have gotten it all out of their system though, as the ‘Dick-Ship’ episode and ‘Handbanana’ are the only episodes I can think of that have used the more offensive jokes.