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Who knew that the names of nearly obsolete file-sharing services were considered dirty words by the bigwigs at MTV? Well, “Weird Al” Yankovic does now, thanks to the version of his Bill Plympton-penned video for “Don’t Download This Song” that’s on MTV’s new video-only site MTVMusic.com having the words “Morpheus,” “Grokster,” “Limewire,” and “KaZaA” dropped out of its lyrics. The bigger insult? MTV’s online standards and practices department didn’t even go the “dropping the vocal track when the offending words hit” route that has turned so many other pop songs into stutterfests–they actually stick in answering-machine-quality BEEPs, so you know something’s being blocked from sensitive ears. I think this might be the first time that’s ever happened to the stringently PG-rated Yankovic. Yay, Internet? [TechDirt via Artists Paid]
In The Eyes Of MTV, “Kazaa” Is Now Just As Bad A Word As “Shirt”
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Instead of getting really angry, I think I’m just going to tell myself this is the work of some masterful discordian who snuck into the corporate ranks at viacom and finally came out of hiding to detourne Weird Al.
Good sir/madam/mademoiselle/duck situationist/discordian/UCB agent, I salute you.
As Weird Al is a satirist, I’m pretty sure this was intended as satire. Ha ha, file sharing is a bad word to the record industry, geddit? That the industry does not actually “bleep out” bad words anymore should be your tip-off.
But why let humor ruin a chance to snark at eMpTyV?
@relaxing: Huh! That’s an interesting theory I guess. But since the version linked on Al’s YouTube page isn’t bleeped, and MTV has been known to take out ridiculous words before (click the MCR link if you don’t believe me), I have to take the other side. Bad faith, you know?
@relaxing: Jokes lose their funny if you have to explain them. Al’s jokes rarely need explaining. So, I’m guessing no, Al didn’t do this.
You work for MTV or something? You seem really upset by this.
I think that MTV has a policy of not allowing brand names in their videos. This was a big controversy when Neil Young did the song “This Note’s For You”. MTV simply beeped out the brand names of the file sharing services.
@rubinow: the no. 1 song in the country would prove otherwise:
[www.mtvmusic.com]
Is Idolator aware that these MTV embeds are unviewable outside of the US?
@Job: Ah, I thought they were just unavailable in UK and Canada. Sadly, the YouTube version of this clip a) doesn’t have bleeps and b) isn’t embeddable at all, thanks to SonyBMG’s YouTube policies:
This is certainly a nitpick, but who’s design decision was it to make the play button not clickable until you click the play button in the center of the video window? Lame.
@Maura Johnston: Well, here’s an article (albeit an old one) explaining MTV’s policy, the exceptions, and the erosion of the rule. [articles.latimes.com]
My point, though, was that MTV has a history of beeping out things they don’t want aired. The words don’t necessarily have to be “dirty.”
the cops in the video have worse aim than the A Team.