Comments on: In The Eyes Of MTV, “Kazaa” Is Now Just As Bad A Word As “Shirt”

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 08:01:20 +0000

the cops in the video have worse aim than the A Team.

By: rubinow

rubinow — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 07:20:48 +0000

@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."

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 05:55:26 +0000

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.

By: Maura Johnston

Maura Johnston — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 04:58:47 +0000

@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:

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 04:53:59 +0000

Is Idolator aware that these MTV embeds are unviewable outside of the US?

By: Maura Johnston

Maura Johnston — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 03:17:41 +0000

@rubinow: the no. 1 song in the country would prove otherwise:

[www.mtvmusic.com]

By: rubinow

rubinow — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 03:09:54 +0000

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.

By: Captain Wrong

Captain Wrong — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 02:42:46 +0000

@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.

By: Maura Johnston

Maura Johnston — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 02:22:32 +0000

@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?

By: relaxing

relaxing — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 02:09:11 +0000

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?

By: KinetiQ

KinetiQ — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 01:18:36 +0000

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.