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You can't say **** on the internet

By Tom Parnell on Jun 24, 08 12:20 PM in The joy of web

I was somewhat saddened yesterday to see that US comedian George Carlin had died.
He's probably best known in this country for his role as Rufus in the Bill and Ted films, but he was a really funny standup and one of the few who managed to stay sharp as he grew older.
His most famous routine was probably The Seven Words You Can Never Say on TV, which managed to make an interesting point about the strength of language, whilst still being utterly hilarious. Now I'm not going to suggest you go out seeking a profanity-filled performance (somebody has to think of the children), but I also can't stop you Googling Carlin and finding a rendition on, say, Youtube.
The whole thing got me thinking about censorship and the dangers of letting people say whatever they like (see how I seamlessly introduced this topic? You couldn't see the joins with a microscope).
With our web forums, although we can keep an eye on them and take down anything offensive if it appears, we still can't regulate them 24/7. With this in mind it seems the programmers who built the forum software created a list of banned words which are automatically replaced by asterisks if any scurrilous rogue tries to write them.
Many of these words are perfectly understandable and the sort of thing which would have made Mary Whitehouse turn an odd shade of purple and smack you with her handbag. However, some of them are somewhat more mysterious and I feel we may have become a bit overzealous in our attempts to make Harrow profanity-free.
The strangest example of this, which is coincidentally quite relevant today, is the fact that you can't write 'John Leslie' on our forum. Now I know he's reportedly been a bit of a scoundrel, but you can still happily discuss Hitler, Robert Mugabe or even Simon Cowell with no fear of censorship.
I don't know who particularly picked on Leslie (and I hope I'm not accidentally creating mass offence every time I repeat his name), but the logical conclusion is that he is to programmers what Macbeth is to actors. I can only assume therefore that he's known online as 'The Scottish rogue' or something similar.
If anyone has any other celebrities they think should be blanked out I would love to hear from you and will consider all entries.

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3 Comments

Giles said:

I'd like talentless totti like Daisy Lowe to be banned, she's not even pretty!

Philippa said:

Boris Johnson (except in connection with negative publicity).

Jackie Raynaud said:

Billy Connolly is my personal "bete-noir" of comedians; being rude and swearing is his stock in trade. Tho I enjoyed his acting as the Ghillie in the film about Queen Victoria.(was this called "Mrs Brown"?)

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