Censorship in TNA

[BradXXX]

Is the word "ass" censored on TNA Impact broadcasts? Are they rated G now and I missed it? Are you telling me they can have all those jokes insinuating sexual acts and everything else, but they CAN'T SAY ASS?!!! How weak is that? This can't be from Spike TV can it? They have shows with plenty of swearing, and they even have a show which comprises of stories of people getting killed in brutal, weird ways. BUT THEY BLEEP THE WORD "ass"?!!

Sorry, that's just one of those little things that absolutely bugs the shit out of me when I'm watching Impact. I mean if they are going to bleep every word anyways, why not just say "fuck" and "shit" on all the shows and just bleep it out?

I don't know whether this deserves it's own thread or not, I was just wondering if anybody had any insight out there on why that word is actually bleeped out on broadcasts.

 

[Shocky]

I think if you have such a problem with it, then you need to question yourself as a wrestling fan. It's just a word, who honestly cares? If someone not being able to say a cuss word on TV is that big of a deal, and it's distracting you from enjoying the in ring action, then I think that's a problem. It's just a word, it's not that big of a deal.

 

[JulesWagner]

Although I do not believe this warrants an overreaction, and seeing as how this is not quite relevant to this forum, I admit it is a somewhat valid point. Is it really just a word? Of course it is but then again humanity, for hundreds of years, has thrived and sunk on "just a word". Those words are still part of the essence of what we are, or else we would never have bothered to refine the art of vulgarity and insult. But that's the larger, pretentious scheme of things. For the sake of it, let's just keep this argument in the context of wrestling. Still, it definitely applies here too. If they were "just words", they wouldn't bother cutting promos. If they were "just words", there wouldn't be trademarks and catch phrases. Dare we even imagine how things would have been had Stone Cold Steve Austin built a legacy out of threatening to whoop some "bum"? Austin 3:16 says I just whooped your "rearend"!! My, my! Wouldn't you have felt the electricity, the adrenalin flowing upon the protagonist uttering those sugar-coated words? He wouldn't have lasted 2 months. So... just a word? I think not. It's just another hypocritical portrait of those who label themselves our protectors, our moral guides. It's just laughable that they would censor one word while at the same time promoting much more vulgar and unproper ones. To me, it's an insult to my intelligence that one would pretend to protect me and yet not even bother doing a decent job of it as I can myself see that if I were to have real ethics and profound morals, I wouldn't even do things that way. And I'm left wondering "How the hell did this come to be?" and "Who's supposedly in charge of my morals as a viewer?". So, in conclusion, I believe "Why in the hell..." is a legitimate albeit distracted thought...

 

[Code Red]

It doesn't make sense why words like "ass" and "bitch" are censored in TNA, especially on a network that shows UFC programming and TV-MA rated programming such as Afro Samurai. I think they also censor words like "****e" and "****" as well. Are we regressing in some way? I thought the taboo would have been broken from these words being so commonly used in wrestling in the past, like in the real ECW and WWE during the "Attitude" era.

As far as Shark Boy goes, I'm not sure if he actually said "ass" - instead he said "Shark Boy 24-7 says I just whooped your BASS". Which I don't think of as censorship, but as an interpolation of his character with the Stone Cold personality, just like the use of the phrase "Gimme a SHELL Yeah!".

 

[Rusty]

As Shocky mentioned, its just a word really. It annoyed me a little at first but now Ive adjusted to it. It doesn't make you change the channel and doesn't distract you from viewing the show so you have nothing to worry about. You shouldn't let something as small as that annoy you as there are many things in TNA that annoy the hell out of people much more than the bleeping of the word "Ass". Bad gimmicks and too many promos to name a few. A simple word like that shouldn't upset you if you watch TNA for the wrestling.

 

[absent]

Sometime a swear word can have a bigger impact if it's bleeped out, especially a mild one. People are so used to hearing swearing on TV, someone saying "ass" might barely register with a viewer but bleep the word out and it might prick up their ears a bit more, especially if they're only paying half attention to what's being said.