Before I begin to try to unpack this, I will note that, just like with HBO Max and "GWTW" (and I will caveat that I am very much behind on that thread, so if this was raised there, apologies), the fundamental point of the stories, the actual press release, is repeatedly quoted without being ever linked to or printed in its entirety in stories about it. This continues to infuriate me from a journalistic perspective. The web is not a piece of paper: you have as many pixels as you need to republish the item in question. If organizations (WarnerMedia and the BBC) refuse to publicly release the statement (my quick look couldn't find either), then I expect journalists and outlets writing about the item to share it.
(Adam, please keep me honest here.) Since no one from the BBC will actually identify the specific problematic item(s) beyond "racial slurs", let's assume, as Adam says, that it's not about the variations on the "Don't mention the war" jokes (since the third act becomes unwatchable without them) and instead refers to the Major's conversation with Basil about halfway through act one. In the middle of telling a story about a woman, he diverges into a back-and-forth between them. It's a 19-second clip. You could excise it easily enough and have no clue it wasn't there unless you knew about it. And it sounds as though John Cleese (through his management company) approved of a version <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Germans#Production> that removed this clip in 2013. To take a blind stab at this: I'm guessing that people guessed it was the "don't mention the war" jokes because Cleese had previously blessed removing the clearly-offensive-then-and-now jokes. It appears that Gold has two parts to it: the channel and the on-demand library. On the channel, it sounds to me like both versions of the episode aired, with the version depending on the time of day. It reads as though the unedited version was in the on-demand library, and that was removed. To keep to the item at hand: this *still* seems absolutely stupid. How hard would it be to just replace the unedited version with the authorized edited one and put an intertitle of "This episode has been slightly edited for content." at the start? To pull the entire episode in a knee jerk reaction is the Clear Channel memorandum <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clear_Channel_memorandum> all over again. This is easily solvable to me by asking Cleese to confirm in 2013 he approved removing the jokes. If he did, then the BBC are morons. If he didn't, then ask him if it's okay now. If he says yes, then put it back; if they won't, then the BBC are morons. If he says no, then Cleese is the moron. Idiots keep pissing me off. One of these days I'll start to get over it. Today ain't it. On Fri, Jun 12, 2020 at 10:35 AM Adam Bowie <a...@adambowie.co.uk> wrote: > I think it gets a bit more complicated than has been portrayed. The > original reports suggested that it was about Basil saying, "Don't mention > the war!" to some German guests at his hotel. This episode has become so > famous in British culture for this scene that it trumps everything else. > The major does use offensive racist language that today simply wouldn't be > allowed to be broadcast pre-watershed (pre-9pm) in the UK. And that > episode, which is in pretty solid rotation on channels like Gold in the UK, > is regularly edited to remove that language. So this is nothing really new. > > I do think that leaving it in situ on streaming platforms seems more > sensible. But language does change, as does our reactions to what that > language conveys. We've also seen a number of other comedies like Little > Britain (something I've never liked) and Bo' Selecta being withdrawn from > iPlayer, Netflix and All4 since characters appear in blackface. Last night > on Newsnight, a talkshow presenter who was mimicked on Bo' Selecta by the > white impressionist Leigh Francis, explained how her kids were bullied at > school over the portrayal. Both of those series aired in the early 2000s. > Not exactly an age ago. > > Sadly, I'm not sure that Cleese would be my go-to for the last word on > this sort of thing today. > > On Fri, Jun 12, 2020 at 3:28 PM 'Bob Jersey' via TVorNotTV < > tvornottv@googlegroups.com> wrote: > >> >> Joe Hass, to moi, today (6/12): >>> >>> This is literally on par with saying "We're never showing Blazing >>> Saddles again because they say the n-word". >>> >>> I know there's a stronger word than "stupid", but this has pissed me off >>> so much I can't think of it. >>> >> >> That, and Cleese already used that. >> >> >> https://variety.com/2020/tv/global/john-cleese-fawlty-towers-uktv-1234632743/ >> (link) >> >> B >> >> >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "TVorNotTV" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >> To view this discussion on the web visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/e9bf78d2-0a28-4624-9768-537b9abeecfco%40googlegroups.com >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/e9bf78d2-0a28-4624-9768-537b9abeecfco%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAD_sJGBNLavHtzo0JxLe9tULXimLDxPmeH6fxq8QTHUS-T4m-Q%40mail.gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAD_sJGBNLavHtzo0JxLe9tULXimLDxPmeH6fxq8QTHUS-T4m-Q%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. 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