"You started it.... You invaded Poland!" - BBC censors Fawlty Towers

Apparently BBC did a rerun of the episode 'The Germans' but a segment involving the drunken major was removed due to racist language.

The language and that very scene was so outrageously funny that there is no need to censor it in my opinion. I'm pretty sure the majority of BBC viewers know the word is offensive. But it's still comedy and comedy can be quite harsh. But the greatness of comedy is that you can handle a sensitive subject with a more humorous approach. What do you think?

Read all about it:
‘You started it,’ he screeches. ‘Yes you did . . . you invaded Poland!’ BBC censors Fawlty Towers — War History Online

 

Yet again political correctness gone stark raving mad. I could rant on further,but is not the place and I would probably be rebuke for me comments anyway. lol,so I shall leave it at that.

 

I note it's not available on iPlayer.

Seemingly it was cut with John Cleese's "approval".

It seems clear that the original intention was to focus on a casual use of language by an "older generation".

I suppose also that the timing of the showing of the rerun at 730pm might have meant that the comic irony of the phrasing would have been lost. Why wasn't it put on at the same time as it was in 197x..9pm and without cuts.

best

 

Where is the [northern European] [non-Caucasian] parrot?

 

Yet again political correctness gone stark raving mad. I could rant on further,but is not the place and I would probably be rebuke for me comments anyway. lol,so I shall leave it at that.

So Tommy, for you the vor is ova!
What the hell is the matter with this country! Are you not allowed a sense of humour now?

cheers

Kevin

 

Where is the [northern European] [non-Caucasian] parrot?

This parrot is no more, it has gone to a better place. It has ceased to be. This parrot is dead!

cheers

Kevin

 

I like the fact that the charactors were actually based on real life hoteliers in Torquay where John Cleese stayed.

Just glad thatI never stayed there in the 70's and tried to order

sandwiches

Regards
Tom

 

It has joined the choir invisible.

One of the things that American fans LIKED about Cleese and the Pythons was their lack of any kind of prudishness. I suppose British people took that for granted about their television, but it was a delightful surprise to us. And now Cleese is allowing his work to be censored? In the 70's, he would have had a screaming radical fit if anyone had tried that, and quite rightly. What has happened to him since, and to the rest of us?

 

I like many hundreds of thousands of others have the boxed set so they can cut to their hearts content.

My daughters 28 & 20 watched it for the first time last year and burst a stitch.

First question was why did they make so few episodes? That show is amazing!!!!

 

Offensive....... or true

 

Offensive....... or true

Some confusion here, apparently; the excised portion of the episode has nothing to do with the main plot line about the German guests or the Second World War (which makes me wonder why this thread is here at all, incidentally), but involves a quite separate scene in which a well-known racial pejorative is used, and which I expect seemed a lot, lot funnier in 1975 than it does now.

No doubt the usual whingeing about Political Correctness Gone Mad will now break out. I wonder whether posters would maintain the same position if the pejorative in question was aimed at them, and not at others.

Best, Alan

 

First question was why did they make so few episodes? That show is amazing!!!!
"Always leave them wanting more" (PT Barnum)

IIRC Cleese and Connie Booth felt they'd done all they could with the characters. Added to which they were going through their rather messy divorce at the time!

Plenty of TV series go on for one too many series. Bergerac, Minder and Lovejoy to name but three which come immediately to mind ...

I'm pretty sure the last time I saw "The Germans" on Gold - not all that long ago - it was uncut.

 

Some confusion here, apparently; the excised portion of the episode has nothing to do with the main plot line about the German guests or the Second World War (which makes me wonder why this thread is here at all, incidentally), but involves a quite separate scene in which a well-known racial pejorative is used, and which I expect seemed a lot, lot funnier in 1975 than it does now.

No doubt the usual whingeing about Political Correctness Gone Mad will now break out. I wonder whether posters would maintain the same position if the pejorative in question was aimed at them, and not at others.

Best, Alan
Helps when you read the link!....as I have now done, so the Cleese scene ref Poland was left in.....which is what I referred to in my first post, as for the Majors comments language of a older generation, my father in law still uses a particular word.......but there is no malice or hate implied by its use.

 

I think it is time that we all grew up and learned to fit in with the demands of the politically correct cranks who rule the world today. My Dad, and millions like him, gave up the best years of their lives, and often gave their lives, to fight for the freedom of speech. That's not a British phenomenon, it covers all of the free world, to give us the right to have a laugh, to have a sense of humour and to say what we think. Any decent person will stop short of being deliberately offensive without the need for interference of politically correct air heads to tell them what they can or cannot say. Very few of the said PC airheads will have ever had to stand up and fight against REAL oppression (Thank God!).

In comedies like this, some of the funniest characters were the stars who showed themselves up as bigots and did a far better job of condemning racists etc than our current PC masters will ever do. They did it by making people think about it and not by being dictated to by a bunch of people who are almost incapable of rational thought - but who often make a very good living out of taking the PC line.

Ah well, those who can..., do! Those who are useless for any practical purposes, make a damned good living out of PC-ism!

 

On a parallel track... the sensitive souls at the BBC always used to cut the scene in Blazing Saddles featuring cowboys and the effect of many plates of baked beans - whether it were shown at two in the afternoon or two in the morning. For heavens' sake. Last week ITV4 shows it. Uncut. And no-one ever complains about the Yiddish Red... errrr 'Native American' chief: "Has du in den leben g'sehn? Dey darker dan us!"

I missed this controversial rerun - I assume it was Ballard Berkeley's remark about what start at Calais, to the generation of my parents and grandparents.

 

No doubt the usual whingeing about Political Correctness Gone Mad will now break out. I wonder whether posters would maintain the same position if the pejorative in question was aimed at them, and not at others.

Best, Alan

I haven't posted on the thread but I'm up for Alan's challenge. Come on chaps, insult me and see if I take offence. It's true that I'm more or less white (we won't talk about the Spanish ancestry) but I'm a working class, bald, grumpy old git who the Turks at work refer to as 'That f*cking Englishman' and I really don't care.:p

Societies that can't banter and p*ss-take are the ones that I worry about.

 

I haven't posted on the thread but I'm up for Alan's challenge. Come on chaps, insult me and see if I take offence. It's true that I'm more or less white (we won't talk about the Spanish ancestry) but I'm a working class, bald, grumpy old git who the Turks at work refer to as 'That f*cking Englishman' and I really don't care.:p

Societies that can't banter and p*ss-take are the ones that I worry about.

Spot on.

The Lanky Git

 

Any other white men who want to pat themselves on the back for how broad-minded they are may want to consider the possibility that they come to this issue from an oh-so-slightly privileged perspective.

But enough of this nonsense.

Best, Alan

 

It is where the major explains the difference between Indian and West Indians.

See it here in the 3rd conversation:


Fawlty Towers quotes - What's your favourite? - Germany

 

It's not about being broad-minded (I do find that a bit of an insult as I'm narrow-minded and bigotted)...it's about learning in the playground that the fastest way to a good kicking is to react to verbal taunts, and learning in the workplace that reacting to perhaps thoughtless remarks will only make things worse.

A little self-mockery and not taking oneself too seriously goes a long way.

Political correctness is an American concept, isn't it ? I find Americans (white or otherwise) to be one of the hardest nationalities to make fun of, because 99% of them just don't get it.