BSA decisions
May 29th, 2008 at 12:15 am by David FarrarTV3 tonight reported that a number of complaints by David Benson-Pope against TV3 (over the Dunedin South selection) were all rejected by the Broadcasting Standards Authority. This got me interested enough to go to the BSA website. Now sadly that decision is not yet up, but oh what fun it is to go through some of the other recent decisions. Where do I start?
How about this one, where a Martin Taylor complained about Jeremy Wells on Eating Media Lunch starting the programme by saying:
Good evening, kia ora, fuck your mother.
Now this is classic EML, and you wonder why someone would watch it if they were not going to enjoy Wells in your face offensiveness. But Mr Taylor said:
In Mr Taylor’s view, the comment was equivalent to the host “labelling me a ‘motherfucker’”.
TVNZ responded with the wonderful:
he was not suggesting that the audience literally “fucks their mother”.
Mr Taloyr then wrote to the BSA:
Dissatisfied with the broadcaster’s decision, Mr Taylor referred his complaint to the Authority under section 8(1B)(b)(i) of the Broadcasting Act 1989. He maintained that “sex with your own mother is not humorous in any context”,
Well personally what I am laughing at is the complaint itself. If all the complaints are like this, I’d love to be appointed to the BSA – it would be great fun.
Then another complaint against EML A Jim Brock complained:
I object to the way an erect penis was waved and whacked about in the forefront of the screen in the item satirising infomercials.
Alas the said penis was in fact only a dildo.
One also has a complaint about a 60 minutes item regarding Jackass imitations.
And finally we have a complaint against South Park. No not the Bloody Mary episode, but the “bi-curious one”. The BSA summarises the episode:
Another character then told Cartman that he was now gay and that the only way to “cancel out the gay polarity” was for Butters to put Cartman’s penis in his mouth. The following scene involved Cartman trying to trick Butters into allowing him to put his penis into Butters’ mouth. Cartman blindfolded Butters and told him that he had a “surprise” for him. Cartman then took down his pants and was about to put his penis into Butters’ mouth when Butters’ father walked into the room and saw what was happening. Butters was still blindfolded and he did not realise what Cartman had been trying to do to him. Believing his son was “bi-curious”, Butters’ father sent him to a Christian camp to “cure” him.
It was a hilarious episode. People either love or hate Southpark. It is crude and offensive but has some very sensible messages underlying it. This one was about tolerance, but anyway onto the complaint:
The complainant argued that the character Butters had been raped while asleep by the “fat child” (Cartman). PB maintained that “the fat child said he was going to give Butters some cough mixture so that he would go to sleep…and the fat child performed oral sex [on Butters] and took a photo”.
I suspect PB has never watched South Park before if he doesn’t know Cartman is not fat, just big boned!
TVWorks responded:
The broadcaster maintained that Cartman’s behaviour was always placed in a context that highlighted his lack of ethics, as opposed to trivialising his lack of ethics. It argued that although Butters was unknowingly suffering abuse at the hands of Cartman, an adult audience would take it for granted that this occurred between two eight-year-olds and not an adult and a child. It considered that while still immoral, this made the item less sinister.
TVWorks stated that “part of the comedy of Cartman’s character was the contrast between his sadistic nature and the innocence he has as an eight-year-old. It pointed out that Cartman was “initially naive to the impression that the photo of Butters’ penis in his mouth gave until his friends pointed out how it looked”.
The broadcaster pointed out that South Park was in its eleventh season and that it was “unlikely that any regular viewers would have been offended by the programme”.
I also note the following:
The complainant maintained that the episode contained rape and scenes of sexual violation, and that the actions of Cartman came under the broad definition of rape on the Wikipedia website.
Hmmn I like Wikipedia, but I’d rather not have it cited as the authority on what constitutes rape – as oppossed to the Crimes Act!
I am going to have to check out the BSA site more often.
And for all those who are offended by Eating Media Lunch and South Park – I respect the fact you find it offensive. I hope you will respect the fact that hundreds of thousands of people like myself find them bloody hilarious, and you of course have the option of simply just not watching them.
Tags: Broadcasting Standards Authority, Eating Media Lunch, South Park
May 29th, 2008 at 12:41 am
Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil – Isaiah 5:20
Vote:May 29th, 2008 at 2:14 am
Absofuckinglutely correct.
For those of you who love being offended may I suggest some further viewing/listening in Jimmy Carr (who, in his own words, “doesn’t know where the line is until he has stepped over it”).
Vote:May 29th, 2008 at 2:15 am
“and you of course have the option of simply just not watching them”
Well, I don’t. What worries me is the relentless cheapening of the culture that’s going on. Profanity and vulgarity is not particularly clever or amusing. I draw the line after the Caddyshack “chocolate bar floating in the pool gets mistaken for a turd” gag.
Vote:May 29th, 2008 at 2:32 am
Isn’t it remarkable what passes for entertainment on the telly these days.
Oh tits, bums, turds etc, ad nauseam all very funny.
kiwitoffee (age 4)
Vote:May 29th, 2008 at 3:32 am
Guys and girls,
There are many items on television which I (and undoubtedly many others) find distasteful, puerile, and generally offensive to my (our) sense of good taste. Guess what? I (we) don’t watch them.
Caddyshack (1980) I recall watching as a teenager and being amused by the “chocolate bar floating in the pool gets mistaken for a turd” gag. 28 years later I wouldn’t watch that movie if you paid me. Would I try to get it banned? No!
I don’t generally watch South Park. My first (superficial) impressions of the show were not good. On one or two occasions I have ended up watching the show and finding it bitingly funny. Matt Stone and Trey Parker are obviously a lot smarter than most people think. The show is aimed at a higher reading level than “TV1 News” or “NZ Herald”. Admittedly it takes an open mind to appreciate and it pokes fun at just about everything.
So what is my point? If you don’t like it then don’t watch it.
Grant S: why don’t you have the option of not watching? I’d go nuts if I had to watch (for example) Paul Holmes. So I don’t.
-Jim
Vote:May 29th, 2008 at 3:55 am
“Grant S: why don’t you have the option of not watching? I’d go nuts if I had to watch (for example) Paul Holmes. So I don’t”
I mean I don’t watch it. I’m not wanting to ban anything, but I reserve the right to say that, in my opinion, some of the rubbish masquerading as entertainment these days is low in base and tasteless.
Vote:May 29th, 2008 at 7:46 am
Great post David, nearly spat out my cornflakes!
Vote:May 29th, 2008 at 7:46 am
Oh, and:
And for all those who are offended by Eating Media Lunch and South Park – I respect the fact you find it offensive. I hope you will respect the fact that hundreds of thousands of people like myself find them bloody hilarious, and you of course have the option of simply just not watching them.
Absolutely!
Vote:May 29th, 2008 at 8:11 am
South Park is epic. Grant, if you watched South Park you’d see some pretty powerful messages in their show.
Vote:May 29th, 2008 at 8:51 am
How many of these complaints came from Family First and its members, who … if you all remember, marched earlier this year apparently trying to defend freedom of speech and freedom of expression.
Vote:May 29th, 2008 at 9:05 am
The funniest thing of all is that they are called the Broadcasting STANDARDS authority, when it is patently obvious that we no longer have any.
Vote:May 29th, 2008 at 9:24 am
Isn’t it remarkable what passes for entertainment on the telly these days.
Oh tits, bums, turds etc, ad nauseam all very funny.”
As opposed to the toilet humour of Benny Hill, On the Buses, Love Thy neighbour and a hos tof other old comedy shows. Don’t like – switch off. I do.
As to the BSA – You see how many serial complainers there are. I think after two complaints people should get a template letter telling them to “go fuck their mother” or get a life.
Vote:May 29th, 2008 at 10:21 am
I’ve used the BSA complaints as a source of amusement for some time now…never ceases to amaze! Some people have far too much spare time…
‘Offensiveness’ is such a subjective thing, and like you’ve stated David, if you don’t like it…don’t watch it, but don’t FFS try to stop me from watching!
Vote:May 29th, 2008 at 10:46 am
Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil – Isaiah 5:20
Whats so evil about South Park or EML?
Vote:May 29th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
All I can think when reading this is what a pointless waste of time it all is. Do we really need a taxpayer-funded body catering to Angry of St Heliers and the windowlickers of the world? Surely it’s not too much to ask that we just stop treating children like adults and adults like children… without all the wet bus ticket slaps?
Vote:May 29th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
I particularly liked a line from David McPhail as Mr Gormsby:
“I wasn’t going to fuck you, boy; this isn’t a Catholic school…”
Vote:May 29th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
An amusing post DPF- unfortunate side effects for some of your readers tho.
Vote:Having vocabulary like that on your blog sends the workplace cybernanny filters of webshirking bureaucrats into screaming fits of alarm and indignation. I think you scored more “naughty word” points with this one post than any other web page I’ve ever visited from a work computer (actually, maybe there were a few Salient articles that have scored higher!).
Just for visiting kiwiblog.co.nz, “inappropriate use” notes in the personnel files of hundreds of govt employees will forever record that we’ve been surfing for material on incestuous and homosexual, oral, artificial and alternative, sex with elderly women and small boys.
Is this a bold attempt to spontaneously downsize the public service through mass suspensions for inadvertent indecency?
May 29th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
Letters of complaint – to the BSA or anyone – provide some of the best unintentional comedy available.
Vote:May 29th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Not quite, the line was actually:
Vote:“Of course I wasn’t going to roger you. This isn’t a Catholic school.”