@@A_massive_wog hayes code was abandoned in the 1960s, and at that point even the oldest of baby boomers were in their 20s, which makes it a bit generous to attribute that to boomers
One of the reasons big budget movies based on stories from the Bible were so popular under the Hayes Code was that the adherence to Biblical accuracy could be used as a way around the code, allowing way more sex and violence than normal.
@@rill9000 nope because it personally attacks your political beliefs and WILL silence your 1 out of 1949596937274859 voice of opinion, therefore cancel Hollywood for a skunk and cancel anything satan looking because ooga booga satan scary
I love JJ’s countries/cultures content-that’s why I subscribed to the channel in the first place, but I must say that I’m really enjoying his more recent art/media centric videos. I think it’s cool how he manages to get me interested in stuff that never really interested me beforehand. Keep up the good work!
@@JJMcCullough I know you didn't ask me, but I think a really good idea would be something like trying to define the middle class in America/Canada by the numbers, and extrapolate on the story that tells? I know you've done videos on that before, but I think seeing changes in what exactly defines the middle class in North America, their problems, their anxieties, their successes, and thus how different types of media change in their appeal to that same but changing middle class, is really interesting.
@@JJMcCullough I don’t really have any ideas. Just keep making videos about stuff that interests you! You always find a way to make it informative and entertaining regardless of the subject matter.
I was wondering if somebody else was gonna say that! With that hair AND that moustache, he totally looks like some '70s folk rocker. XD (I mean hey, I'd listen to it if that album existed. :P)
If you ever make a part 2, I'd suggest you talk about the PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center), that is responsible for the "Parental Advisory: Explicit Content" that appears in many records. In the 1980's they began to target many rock and heavy metal bands for their "filthy music" and even had a senate hearing where Dee Snider, Frank Zappa and John Denver testified against it.
@@stephanosnormandusdelacroi8570 Cancel Culture? And your statement seems to imply that Republicans of the time were opposed to the Parental Advisory Label. Source?
@@stephanosnormandusdelacroi8570 Yeah I remember when the left started burning Beatles records after John Lennon said the beatles were bigger than god.
lol I remember being a kid and calling in to the Nintendo hotline to complain about the often hypocritical standards they had. For instance we had a blood-free Mortal Kombat because Nintendo said "no blood." Meanwhile they also said "no religious symbols" but the background of Sagat's stage in Street Fighter 2 is a giant Buddha statue.
I think they did only to satisfy western audience. Most asians don't Care about this bc they see more as a cultural thing than an reference to religion.
All countries have censorship. It's not just political. Some censorship is used to protect children from fully undressing and such, while adults can (with an R or X rating)
One of the quaint things during Catholic Ireland was that the Monty Python's "Life of Brian" was banned for a few years for being offensive to Christians.
I remember buying a whole lot of Vertigo (a “mature audiences” imprint for DC) comics in the early 2000s and I think I maybe got questioned once--and the comic book store clerk went “eh, it’s probably fine” to a 13 year old buying a volume of The Sandman
TBH, the edgy, almost-nudity, gratuitous violence, semi-mature stories of Vertigo are MADE for 13 year old boys. I've been disappointed trying to go back to some of those Vertigo books as an adult.
@@exquisitecorpse4917 , comics like Sandman are more made for older teenagers and young adult males, and 13 years old is still classified as a young teenaged male in the United States.
Alot of those vertigo books where originally just published under the DC brand. And back then DC didn't have an internal rating system. You could usually guess which ones where aimed at youger audence depending by if it had the CCA stamp but it's usually a gamble because they wouldn't consistantly rate their books. For example plenty of Batman graphic novels where made for mature audences (The Cult, Arkham Asylum ASHOASE) and plenty are made for teens and younger (often main continuity books or cartoon adaptations).
@@exquisitecorpse4917 definatley plenty books, though I wouldn't call Sandman gratuitous, it's not shock porn like preacher or anything Mark Millar has made.
You know that music censorship has gone too far when John Denver has to step in. societyofrock.com/33-years-ago-john-denver-left-congress-floored-with-a-stunning-testimony-about-music-censorship/
I really want to be in that room that jj films in to look at all the little trinkets and culture references he has laying around. Seem like such an interesting room
I think the dungeons and dragons scare is also a relevant part of the story, and I know for a fact that music has consistently been an important part of the discussion, with everything from jazz to rock and roll to hip hop being feared and censored at some point or another.
Funny how most of the "evil genre"s of music were what was seen as "black people music" at the time. I know that white folk in the past have had fears their daughters might have sex with black men, but we shouldn't gaslight ourselves into thinking there was an actual moral panic about these genres.
The amount of research that goes into your videos as well as your emotional and political neutrality when discussing controversial topics is really inspiring and quite a relief from all the other videos on UA-cam. It’s why I keep coming back and watching your videos, even if it *seems* like a topic that I wouldn’t find interesting.
I wonder if the Comic book code is the primary reason modern Western cartoons are almost exclusively aimed at children or comedies. Japan draws heavily from Manga to produce Anime with more adult themes, whereas in the West when cartoons originally drew from comics it tended to be mainly child/superhero focused. The Simpsons kind of broke this mold with a cartoon with more adult comedic themes, but most subsequent cartoons aimed at an older audience have stuck firmly in the comedy genre, rather than branching out into other genres. It's a sad to think that these codes, while initially good intentioned, stifled a lot of creative development.
That's an interesting view that have never thought of. There were attempts to branch out into other genres of adult animation in the 80s, 90s, and early 00s than comedy but those never caught on, and were, unsurprisingly, almost exclusively based on comic books. Also I would argue that in actuality much manga and, at least TV, anime are still primarily marketed towards children, it's just that Japanese culture has different standards as to what is and isn't appropriate for children.
actually, now that I think about this a bit more, I think, at least in the North America, cartoons being for kids and comedic probably has more to do with a combination of how the Hays code and the fact that they were light fluff to be shown before movies shaped theatrical cartoons and the budget constrictions of television in the late 40s - mid 60s. The whole concept that cartoons were for kids started in the TV era, and television cartoons were both based on the theatrical cartoon format and aimed at children, most likely because by necessity early TV cartoons were very low budget and the thought probably was that children were the most likely audience to accept the sort of janky stilted animation that resulted in. Then people naturally started to associate cartoons with children's entertainment over time.
More like protestant (at that time) standards for protestants. Hays code was explicitly racist, Roman Catholic Church was openly antiracist and against segragation in those times (Hays code prohibited showing of interacial couples etc.).
@@melvinklark4088 evangelical churches and most of the mainline were racist of corse #not_all because black protestant churches and quakers were and still are the thing.
Or the Italians for that matter. The U.S. admittedly did hold back during Vietnam, if only due to the hippies, but once the War on Terror started all bets were off.
I think a rating system that the creator can self-impose is a good way of going about it. Newgrounds does this and I haven't seen anyone make a fuss about that.
There was a big stir a couple of years ago about the fact that UA-cam actually had a secret rating system for channels and videos, not sure if that's still a thing, but advertisers were allowed to select which videos could play their ads by age rating (M, G, PG 13 etc). Not sure of that's still a thing or not though.
I'll never forget watching the scene from the Matrix where Neo murders like 12 security guards and police, and the only part that was censored was when one of guards before dying says “Sh$t.
In the 1970s people remembered him as a pervert. everyone forgot the details and the fact he was exonerated. They would still play silent movies on t.v. in those days. Now everyone forgot him so his reputation died. Some of his movies are on UA-cam. Most of them were destroyed though... and he was once number one box office.
This might be my favorite video you've made, JJ. The way you compared censorship through the decades was interesting, but your comparison to current anxieties regarding social media really grabbed my attention. Great work!
i heard a anecdote that in a movie screening one of the censors watching an scene said: If this is a ball gown ok but if this is a night gown you have to cut it out .
"13:00 it's strange that the killing off of horror/crime comics isn't really mourned today..." Not sure about that- I'm not American, but I'm a comics fan, and in comics circles, tge Comics Code is pretty universally seen as a bad thing, and especially in the 'indy comics' (or, everything except Marvel/DC superheros) scene, it's common opinion that the Comics Code single-handedly killed a potential rennaissance in American comics, for adults- EC (the main company making horror/crime comics, essentially targetted and killed by the Code- the people who made 'Tales From The Crypt', 'Vault of Horror', etc) are still hugely respected, as producing much more innovative, mature content, and often better quality, than the superhero stuff. In fact, the whole genre of "Independent Comics" was basically a response to the Code, and the death of EC, with small, innovarive artists who made more mature work, starting underground comics like 'Zapped' or 'Skull Comics', and later whole brands like Fantagraphix or Dark Horse, outside of Code standards, with guys like Robert Crumb, Vaugn Bode, Dan Clowes, etc. American today woulf probably accept comics as a medium for adults, with a huge industry behind it, same way Japan thinks of manga, if the Comics Code hadn't (almost) reduced comics down to ONLY superhero books, and 'funny papers' for kids, thru the late 20th century. Tl-dr.It absolutely WAS a goddam tragedy, to be mourned... (but also resulted in some good stuff, in a round-about way)
To be fair I don't think comic books are really seen as kids stuff anymore. The majority of comics are targeted to teens to adults now, and plenty of R Rated comic book films have been made recently, and have proved profitable. Even the big publishers, especailly DC have been publishing adult Graphic Novels scince the 80s, like Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns, the Killing Joke, and V for Vendetta. I think the comics code definatley has had a negative effect on the industry but I don't feel the general consensis that comics are kids stuff really exists in much scale anymore. Now independant comics are just as popular in shops as the big red and blue. And even Horror and Crime comics are back in full swing. (Although less sexist and dated.) If anything the CCA was more of a detuer than a roadblock, and it's power was much less strong than the MPAA still is.
Fun fact: "Publishing a Crime Comic" was prohibited under the Criminal Code of Canada up until 2017 (or thereabouts). I'm not sure if it was ever enforced, but it clearly was a law written to respond to the moral panics of several decades before.
I just found your channel and I have to say I absolutely LOVE your content! You're charismatic, passionate and the best thing overall is how educational you are without over sensationalizing or click-baiting like other content creators that do similar categories of videos =)
I can't speak for non-comic fans, but when speaking to other comic book fans, the question of whether or not, or to what degree the comics code led to homogenization of the US comic book market gets brought up quite a lot. A number of comic fans think that the comics code killing horror and crime books decades ago is a big reason why non-superhero books are less common in the US market today as opposed to European and Asian comic markets.
This was a good analysis! Also with regard to the Hays Code, certain relationships were not allowed to be depicted on screen, including miscegenation (i.e. mixed couples) and non-heterosexuals. Boy, how times change.
As a German, censorship especially around videogames was very prevalent for a long time. Wolfenstein releases had the Nazis replaced by "The Regime", led by Hitler without a mustache. South Park Stick of Truth put black bars on top of the swastikas and Nazi salutes of the Nazi zombies. GTA SA removed headshots and the ability to gain money from killing pedestrians. HOI4 doesn't show an image of Hitler but just a shadow, while some Civilization releases replaced him with Franz von Papen. Some online multiplayer games even were incompatible to global releases. Games with Nazi symbolism or excessive violence landed on an "Index", which prohibited over-the-counter sales and advertisements. So for a long time, it used to be quite common here to get "uncut" releases from Austria or the UK. This changed a while ago though because it is now similarly treated like movies or art. The media used to use a term similar to "murder simulator" as well, called "Killerspiel" (killer game).
To be honest I think this is a relatively benign form of censorship. Edgy allusions to the Nazis play differently in a country where the national shame still lingers.
@@alexpotts6520 That is somewhat understandable obviously, but it also extends to just very violent videogames, such as the older GTA games (Vice City was indexed here), or Doom 1 and 2 (which also got indexed), or Half Life 1. Most of the indexations are not valid as of now. And it hasn't been an issue here to show swastikas in movies or somewhere else (if it obviously isn't blatant propaganda), so it was just seen as quite hypocritical in its nature to prohibit it in videogames.
In Australia luckily we're not censored the harsh truth of most controversial subject matter in our video games but it still lingers in banning extremely violent (and maybe sexual idk) video games such as Manhunt which I really wanna play but since it's a Killerspiel we're not allowed to have it :'(
Note that South Park Stick of Truth was self-censored despite them not needing to do that. They probably wanted to make some sort of "message", but what was the message? They've not been clear on that, since they didn't even have to censor it.
The Wolfenstein thing is really silly. It would be one thing if you played as a nazi, but wolfenstein is the most blatant anti Nazi media scince Inglorious Bastards.
Funny how we're now at a point where any corporation pretending they know what good morals are will be almost instantly met with mockery. Good video JJ.
"Your attention please. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the part of J J McCullough will tonight be played by … Doug Henning. thank you and enjoy the show."
Censorship of media makes things worse. It created an inaccurate cultural haze where no one save those who lived from 1930-1968 can really describe the times since cultural depictions were a cheesy fantasy. Also, I'd like to offer a third evaluation: In all three cases, to some degree, it was protectionist. It kept out upstart movie producers in the 30s, it kept out upstart comic authors in the 50s, and it tried to keep upstart game developers out in the 80s, but Tengen and friends beat Nintendo in the courts, thankfully. Never let a good moral panic go to waste.
Movies, comics and videogames have proven ratings do work. I remember a story where Saving Private Ryan was banned in India because of the violence, until the man in charge of censorship watched it and decided to unban it.
1:45 Wait, I just watched 'Scarface' the other day... and I'm 90% sure it DID have Jimmy Cagney in it, and DIDN'T have Boris Karloff- Is my memory even worse than I thought?
Id love to watch a video on censorship in the name of defending the nationstate, like how Belgium banned pro-Dutch papers to defend its own national identity
Not allowing negative representation of Nazis wasn't due to the Hays Code. It was because Germany was a huge market for US movie studios and the German government had a person in their LA consulate whose job was to review all films in production and let the studios know that would not be allowed in the German market without the following changes. A similar thing is going on now with the studies being very concerned with portrayals of China that will get them banned in the huge Chinese market.
Did you know that the Comics Code came to Britain when children had a IT styled encounter with a tall vampire with iron teeth in Glasgow at the Southern Nercopolis with people believing the kids whom had weapons the vampire was a shared delusion birthed from the popular Gothic horror comics at the time.
Now that we in America have ceased the comics code. It nice to see Horror and Crime comics have come back and whilst not as popular like pre CC. The fact they’ve come back as an option of genre is still great.
I think there's something to be said about old school "hard" censorship vs. "soft" censorship that's more common today. While it was certainly restrictive and stymied artistic expression, there was at least an incentive to make it as clear and easy to follow as possible. Written rulebooks with specific do's and don'ts at least allow artists to know where they stand. With soft censorship these morph into nebulous and subjective guidelines that are constantly in flux.
I'd say I'm inclined to be quite anti-censorship, but the idea of a ratings system on social media generally sounds pretty amazing. Obviously there's an issue of content production, but creators could self-rate, and those ratings could be flagged for review if the audience thought they were wrong. The problem might then be that, in order to prevent most people from rating their gorey sex talk as "K: for All the Kids," youtube might have to punish creators for getting their rating wrong, which in turn could lead to bad situations for gray-line videos. Documentaries might also face issues - anything discussion the Holocaust in a purely factual manner already deals with this, and I wonder how a UA-cambot might calibrate this. So I love the idea and think it could solve many problems, but I can imagine the implementation as a bit nightmarish for creators and the platform.
Sliced bread was 1st introduced in 1928. Bread sales soared because of the ease it could be used for sandwitches, etc. By 1933 Wonderbread was offering 'thick & thin' slicked bread in the same sliced loaf. Life couldn't be better. Between 28 Jan and 08 March 1943, sliced break was made illegal in NY as a 'War Woke' enconomy measure. Still can't get thich & thick slices in the same loaf.
A lot of Americans complain about censorship nowadays, and I will admit that I think big tech companies have far too much power over us, but this really makes me appreciate how much Americans have adopted a much more broad cultural attitude towards free speech in the past.
Here in the UK are rating system is U, PG ,12A 15 18. U is universal for all, PG stands for parent guardian so parents might need to sit with their kids. 12 or 12A is anyone under 12 needs an adult I think. When I was young it just used to be 12 which meant no one under 12 could watch and that's what 15 and 18 mean. In regards to UA-cam videos having a rating I don't think it could work unless UA-cam forced people to prove their age and I wouldn't enter my passport stuff on youtube just to watch a vid. I think it would kill off a lot of UA-cam so they probably won't do it... hopefully. Great vid btw JJ 😊
I think an issue with applying a ratings system to internet platforms is that there is so much content being posted by so many people. The only way to enforce it on everything would be algorithmically, yet algorithms have no inherent ethics, as ethics are difficult to quantify analytically. Logically then, the way to properly enforce ethics would be by humans, which would grind content release to a halt.
I'm more interested the restricting the algorithms than imposing ratings. People finding stuff on their own is one thing, force feeding people toxic content on a super human scale is madness.
I remember how Congress was so disgusted over games like Mortal Kombat in the early 90s, but yet you don’t see them saying crap about the latest MK11 game. That games violent graphics makes mk1 mk2 look like a childrens game.
The people who blanket argue against the early censorship of film/tv and video games are ignoring the fact that were it not for that censorship the politicians of the day would most certainly have had a much more strict solution given that the average voter, at least those who would write to their congressperson on the topic, wanted pretty severe restrictions on their content. tl;dr censorship might be a little dumb and archaic from our point of view but without it early on these industries likely would have stifled.
I believe there’s some form of “ratings” on UA-cam videos in that you have to identify if your video is for a kids’ audience. Not necessarily suitable for kids, which is what a ratings system would do, but if it’s produced and meant for kids.
That's a separate thing -that's for compliance with COPPA which forbids collecting data from individuals under 13. So it's an attempt by YT to avoid liability. I do believe there's a "ghost" ratings system in the backend that's similar to age ratings, some folks have dome videos on it.
I always thought a content rating rather than an age rating was appropriate. Like: This content is rated Catholic. or This content may not be suitable for transgendered individuals. or This content contains graphic depictions of 20 year old baked goods. etc.
I think the last of those - giving the specific thing people may find objectionable - would be useful (and indeed is usually featured as part of age ratings) but the idea that certain content may not be suitable for certain groups (like transgender people) assumes a degree of homogeneity which doesn't exist, and is still a condescending attempt on the part of states or corporations to decide what content other people should view. Of course the claim that it "may not" be suitable is strictly true but the same could be said for any content of any group in society.
@@eoghan.5003 We already do it, though. It's just that at the moment, we unexaminedly believe that anything can be suitable for everyone and objectionable to no one.
Another great video! I really appreciate the research and historical context you put into the topics you present, and the concise yet understandable way you present them. As a kid, I was very frustrated with Nintendo's censorship, coming to a head with Mortal Kombat for the SNES in 1993. The SNES version had superior graphics and sound to the Genesis version, but my friends and I always wanted to play the Genesis version instead because it wasn't censored. I now understand that Nintendo, as the industry leader, was just trying to get ahead of the censorship train for its industry before it left the station. I am still frustrated with their approach, but more understanding of how it happened. Well done!
The problem with internet ratings is how easy it is to lie and say "Yes I am 18" Ratings would require age verification, which would be a whole other can of worms
@@Alex-zs3kn yes you're right about that if it was going to be a age verification, but what I was thinking of more on the lines how TV operates w/ a warning of the following program's rating.
Very interesting! The issue with vaguely worded guidelines is that it’s pretty easy for someone to censor you for political reasons. You might be Left wing or right wing-if your views are deemed inconvenient then an excuse will be found.
Funny thing about ratings on internet content, the website Newgrounds already does this, allowing people to toggle the content they want on off from E for everyone to A for adult content.
unlike with things such as video games and movies if you go to a shop or theatre and your not the right age and can't prove otherwise they won't sell to you where as online especially because of people's privacy concerns it is very hard find a way for people to prove their age and or identity online that works and that people agree to this has caused a debate in the UK as the government try to pass the new internet safety act (to force people to prove their identity before useing sites that allow you to communicate with people and pornographic sites) so I don't think she ratings would work online
Video games do still self censor, mainly to preserve the age rating across localizations, though this is becoming increasingly rare and I can't remember any specifically after 2016. But most notably is blood being removed from games released in japan, skeletons from Chinese releases, and for Japanese games localized for the west (USA) you often see further covering up of nudity.
UA-cam used to have a warning for mature content before you clicked a video and if you did have an account, or wasn't logged in, you were denied access to a mature video. I don't understand why this went away. With that said, I guess it could be done to have some kind of ratings but the internet enforcement of regulations is still pretty complicated to truly enforce. For example you have enter a birthday to enter a beer brand's website. That doesn't stop an underage kid from changing their birth year to one that is of age.
I still see these content warnings from time to time but they usually only appear on videos getting mass flagged by trolls/tencent army to demonetize them and keep them off people's feeds.
It didn't go away, and it's infuriating. Most of the time I get one of these it just seems to be a controversial opinion that got mass flagged or something (left leaning content). And since I have no interest in giving google any thing more then I have too (I guess it's a lost battle, but idk), I'm just locked out.
I recall an early comic I read which featured bugs in a junk filled open field. I didn't see it as exceptional at the time, but in retrospect I later realized that the dialogue was rhymed iambic pentameter. I don't remember much else about it. I also recall a comic which tried to compete with the 3D comics but didn't require colored glasses. Instead they used drawings which broke through the four walls and were on a black page background.
Dude, Having a UA-cam content rating system for more direct ages up would minimize the amount of unnecessary censorship needed for a creator's demographics. It isn't the end all to be all solution perhaps. But it would be a welcomed step forward for coppa, large broad sweeping age gating, shadow suppressing, and leave less room for biased strikes/demonization. Smaller and more precise rating measuring tools would easily be best for everyone. Also probably tags for more subjective topics people may be interested in or trying to avoid. Tags you can turn on or off in some easily accessible feed settings off to the side. Like for instance, some times I want to see what politics are happening around me and some times I just need a break for the unrelenting barrage of rage that can come from that subject. _(Though we should be careful to not strengthen ideologic bubbles people already find themselves sorted into by an algorithm, admittingly in my opinion.)_ *BUT I WOULD AVOID* audience ranking systems because people already use the like and dislike buttons for targeted trolling campaigns. We should not give trolls the power to suppress what they do not like. *ALSO* we should distinguish the difference between a tag relating to the main topic of the video and just a passive mentioning. We should not be too strick in that regard.
The problem with this is that just on UA-cam, the content is being uploaded about 10000 times faster than it can be watched, so there is no way that every video can be inspected. It would probably be equally difficult to inspect whether or not everyone tagged their videos correctly, if it were left to creators.
I disagree that a rating system on YT would reduce censorship. YT cares more about censoring opinions and key words that challenge its ideology than about censoring violence or sexy content.
The music industry also had it's own escapade with congress in the 80's when you had Frank Zappa and Twisted Sister talking to congress (Al Gore on the panel) about the ill's of music censorship when the PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center, made up largely of spouses of politicians) wanted to censor music.
In Australia an R18+ rating here means "restricted to persons 18 or over", so it does mean "adults only". The American R sounds more like our MA-15+ rating.
@@Roxor128 I’ve also noticed that different countries have different standards for how they rate things. I remember the Liam Neeson movie “Unknown” being rated PG-13 in the states, but 18 in the UK, thereby allowing me to watch it freely in America as a then 13 year old, but denying access to my British 14-15 year old cousins across the pond.
1921: "Can you imagine how vulgar, violent, and graphic these picture shows will become if we do not censor them?" 2021: *Fast and Furious 14: Vin Diesel just defeated a clone of Anakin Skywalker in a pod race.... because family*
One thing I wonder about comics censorship is whether the American comics industry would have evolved into a more Japanese manga like direction earlier, where comics cover a wider variety of genres than just superheroes, and whether there would be a stronger female presence in American comics. Nobody might have mourned the crime and horror comics but killing off the romance comics probably really caused a big dent in the girl's comic market and made comics an all boys thing for a lot longer in the West than they were in Japan. I'm also interested in why Japan never seemed to develop the moral panics over children's entertainment that people in the West, particularly in the English speaking countries did. There is a lot of manga and anime aimed at the upper elementary school or middle school set that involves a lot more violence, romance, toilet humor, etc., than their Western counterparts. Like Inuyasha was kid's viewing in Japan but had to be aired at late night on Cartoon Network. Ranma 1/2 would be pretty much be considered totally not kid safe despite it being for elementary and middle school kids in Japan.
They did, if you look into some manga like Cutie Honey they up set some people. The thing is those business fought back and now a days the industry has a lot of weight to through around when some parents group attacks them.
That the manga and anime business could even fight back rather than meekly accept that the best option was self-censorship shows that they were dealing with an entirely different cultural mindset than other comic and animation industries.
My problem with the current censorship regime on the Internet is that I have no idea what the rules are. If a rating system is adopted it must be published and enforced fairly. But there is a problem often overlooked. Many countries and cultures are offended by various practices, images, etc. that Americans or Canadians, for example, would not find objectionable or would say should be adult only content for example.
One of the most interesting round of rating systems being put in place was that trial where the supreme court or whatever had multiple music artists in the 80's and the lead singer of twisted sister came in wearing this really typical hair metal look and still made a mockery of the trial
My favorite description of the Hayes Code was "Catholic censors teaming with Jewish filmmakers to make movies for a Protestant audience."
Films were much better before the Hayes Act was removed.
@@A_massive_wog ok boomer
@@martonolajos5276 Boomers repealed Hayes coomer.
@@A_massive_wog hayes code was abandoned in the 1960s, and at that point even the oldest of baby boomers were in their 20s, which makes it a bit generous to attribute that to boomers
@@hydrogen3266 Okay maybe not literally. But Boomers led the Sexual Revolution.
One of the reasons big budget movies based on stories from the Bible were so popular under the Hayes Code was that the adherence to Biblical accuracy could be used as a way around the code, allowing way more sex and violence than normal.
just like why they always painted goddesses and nymphs in the reinessance instead of ordinary ladies! cuz then they can be nuuuude :)
“What made you censor basic human rights?”
Blizzard: “Money.”
Oh, how the censorship has turned...
no no
THREAT OF LOSING MONEY
@@chronosschiron aka money
Now it’s just what offends young liberals and boomer conservatives the most.
@@cranklabexplosion-labcentr8245 lmao right?? Is it impossible to just ignore things we don't like now? 😂
@@rill9000 nope because it personally attacks your political beliefs and WILL silence your 1 out of 1949596937274859 voice of opinion, therefore cancel Hollywood for a skunk and cancel anything satan looking because ooga booga satan scary
I love JJ’s countries/cultures content-that’s why I subscribed to the channel in the first place, but I must say that I’m really enjoying his more recent art/media centric videos. I think it’s cool how he manages to get me interested in stuff that never really interested me beforehand. Keep up the good work!
Thank you friend! Any ideas for future videos?
@@JJMcCullough I know you didn't ask me, but I think a really good idea would be something like trying to define the middle class in America/Canada by the numbers, and extrapolate on the story that tells? I know you've done videos on that before, but I think seeing changes in what exactly defines the middle class in North America, their problems, their anxieties, their successes, and thus how different types of media change in their appeal to that same but changing middle class, is really interesting.
@@JJMcCullough I don’t really have any ideas. Just keep making videos about stuff that interests you! You always find a way to make it informative and entertaining regardless of the subject matter.
@@isayeet would like him make geopolitics videos considering he is very interested in countries
Only true fans remember a shaved JJ talking about censorship with the National Post
Even I don’t remember this
@@JJMcCullough I guess you aren’t a true JJ fan then
@@JJMcCullough ua-cam.com/video/XdX_7su4vcs/v-deo.html
Someone’s not a true fan
@@JJMcCullough if UnAmerican is communism, what in un- Canadian?🇨🇦
Pitchforks ready!
Can't wait for J.J. to drop the hot new Prog Rock album that he's obviously making given that hair.
I believe he's actually joining the musketeers 😋
Here I thought he was becoming the new bassist for Sons of Huns.
I was wondering if somebody else was gonna say that! With that hair AND that moustache, he totally looks like some '70s folk rocker. XD
(I mean hey, I'd listen to it if that album existed. :P)
Giving off somewhere between Gojira and Oingo Boingo vibe to me, would definitely listen
J.J.'s hair is mighty!
As soon as JJ uploads my whole Saturday becomes a whole lot better.
Indeed!
If you ever make a part 2, I'd suggest you talk about the PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center), that is responsible for the "Parental Advisory: Explicit Content" that appears in many records. In the 1980's they began to target many rock and heavy metal bands for their "filthy music" and even had a senate hearing where Dee Snider, Frank Zappa and John Denver testified against it.
And go more in depth about ratings. Like how PG-13 films tend to be more violent than R and how parents got fooled by Deadpool dispite being rated R.
To bring up this subject without mentioning Democrats Al and Tipper Gore is negligent. The left has been doing cancer culture a long time.
@@stephanosnormandusdelacroi8570 Cancel Culture? And your statement seems to imply that Republicans of the time were opposed to the Parental Advisory Label. Source?
@@stephanosnormandusdelacroi8570 Ha, sorry dude, right-wing Christianity started and perfected cancel culture from Queen to Pokemon to DnD.
@@stephanosnormandusdelacroi8570 Yeah I remember when the left started burning Beatles records after John Lennon said the beatles were bigger than god.
lol I remember being a kid and calling in to the Nintendo hotline to complain about the often hypocritical standards they had. For instance we had a blood-free Mortal Kombat because Nintendo said "no blood." Meanwhile they also said "no religious symbols" but the background of Sagat's stage in Street Fighter 2 is a giant Buddha statue.
Based
How'd that go?
Also, Zelda has religious symbols, Yokai are religious symbols, etc. It is hard to censor every religious symbols because religion is everywhere.
And Roman gods were acceptable..little did they know people had started to practice these religions again!
I think they did only to satisfy western audience. Most asians don't Care about this bc they see more as a cultural thing than an reference to religion.
Censorship: If it's something you like, it's 1984. If it's something you hate, it's based and redpilled.
This is literally animal farm
@@sahirde This is literally just like George Orthodontist 1974 Animal Planet 😳
@@sahirde kinda, censorship wasn't really the focus of Animal Farm but it kinda applies
@@sahirde A little bit ironic that you are saying that to someone that literally has Napoleon as his profile picture
All countries have censorship. It's not just political. Some censorship is used to protect children from fully undressing and such, while adults can (with an R or X rating)
Breen is still the most powerful man in Hollywood in my heart. Just not the same Breen.
How am I not surprised to see you here :)
Who am I? What am I?!
I *cannot* believe you committed suicide.
surprising seeing you here haha
Ah, a true man of culture recognizing Neil's brilliance
One of the quaint things during Catholic Ireland was that the Monty Python's "Life of Brian" was banned for a few years for being offensive to Christians.
It is such a good movie though.
@sdrawkcabUK I'm not even a Catholic, but those types of jokes are quite a generalization (which they do have a problem with).
@sdrawkcabUK catholic paedophilia is just a far-right evangelical conspiracy
It's both a generalization and a real thing that happens
@@catarinamelchiorgomes8750 Well THAT'S another generalization (as I guess what you call "evangelical Christian", although I'm not in the US)...
I remember buying a whole lot of Vertigo (a “mature audiences” imprint for DC) comics in the early 2000s and I think I maybe got questioned once--and the comic book store clerk went “eh, it’s probably fine” to a 13 year old buying a volume of The Sandman
TBH, the edgy, almost-nudity, gratuitous violence, semi-mature stories of Vertigo are MADE for 13 year old boys. I've been disappointed trying to go back to some of those Vertigo books as an adult.
Highlight of your life, eh?
@@exquisitecorpse4917 , comics like Sandman are more made for older teenagers and young adult males, and 13 years old is still classified as a young teenaged male in the United States.
Alot of those vertigo books where originally just published under the DC brand. And back then DC didn't have an internal rating system. You could usually guess which ones where aimed at youger audence depending by if it had the CCA stamp but it's usually a gamble because they wouldn't consistantly rate their books. For example plenty of Batman graphic novels where made for mature audences (The Cult, Arkham Asylum ASHOASE) and plenty are made for teens and younger (often main continuity books or cartoon adaptations).
@@exquisitecorpse4917 definatley plenty books, though I wouldn't call Sandman gratuitous, it's not shock porn like preacher or anything Mark Millar has made.
Good video JJ. Music also has an interesting history of censorship
You know that music censorship has gone too far when John Denver has to step in.
societyofrock.com/33-years-ago-john-denver-left-congress-floored-with-a-stunning-testimony-about-music-censorship/
@@pummisher1186 there is a good video about this From foundation for economic education
Die Fahne hoch die Reihen fest geschlossen... something doesn't add up
I really want to be in that room that jj films in to look at all the little trinkets and culture references he has laying around. Seem like such an interesting room
Each one has a story to tell!
He has a video about his trinkets. :)
the president of motion picture assoication Jack Valenti cameoed on popular 90's cartoon Freakazoid
Cool
I think the dungeons and dragons scare is also a relevant part of the story, and I know for a fact that music has consistently been an important part of the discussion, with everything from jazz to rock and roll to hip hop being feared and censored at some point or another.
Funny how most of the "evil genre"s of music were what was seen as "black people music" at the time. I know that white folk in the past have had fears their daughters might have sex with black men, but we shouldn't gaslight ourselves into thinking there was an actual moral panic about these genres.
This is very underrated. Ratings is definitely the way to go. We should be able to pick and choose what we want to see on platforms.
Yes, there should be a "not safe for people over 60" rating on the interwebs
"Warning, this content is rated T for This could turn your uncle into a raging anti-vaxxer"
I would like the comment but it’s at 69
@@5.7moy 🤣
I see your logo in public and it's a Target.
@@stephanosnormandusdelacroi8570 Damn, you're so tough dude 😲
The amount of research that goes into your videos as well as your emotional and political neutrality when discussing controversial topics is really inspiring and quite a relief from all the other videos on UA-cam. It’s why I keep coming back and watching your videos, even if it *seems* like a topic that I wouldn’t find interesting.
I wonder if the Comic book code is the primary reason modern Western cartoons are almost exclusively aimed at children or comedies. Japan draws heavily from Manga to produce Anime with more adult themes, whereas in the West when cartoons originally drew from comics it tended to be mainly child/superhero focused. The Simpsons kind of broke this mold with a cartoon with more adult comedic themes, but most subsequent cartoons aimed at an older audience have stuck firmly in the comedy genre, rather than branching out into other genres. It's a sad to think that these codes, while initially good intentioned, stifled a lot of creative development.
That's an interesting view that have never thought of. There were attempts to branch out into other genres of adult animation in the 80s, 90s, and early 00s than comedy but those never caught on, and were, unsurprisingly, almost exclusively based on comic books. Also I would argue that in actuality much manga and, at least TV, anime are still primarily marketed towards children, it's just that Japanese culture has different standards as to what is and isn't appropriate for children.
actually, now that I think about this a bit more, I think, at least in the North America, cartoons being for kids and comedic probably has more to do with a combination of how the Hays code and the fact that they were light fluff to be shown before movies shaped theatrical cartoons and the budget constrictions of television in the late 40s - mid 60s. The whole concept that cartoons were for kids started in the TV era, and television cartoons were both based on the theatrical cartoon format and aimed at children, most likely because by necessity early TV cartoons were very low budget and the thought probably was that children were the most likely audience to accept the sort of janky stilted animation that resulted in. Then people naturally started to associate cartoons with children's entertainment over time.
naah, the movie kickass was a movie from a comic. although not a cartoon movie it shows pretty much violence
@@rayzek7750
An exception that proves the rule; adaptations of more adult comics tend to be live action.
It has been said that the Hays Code effectively required predominantly Jewish movie producers to teach Roman Catholic morality to Protestant America.
Which sounds weird until you understand Catholic, Protestant and Jewish morality are the same morality.
More like protestant (at that time) standards for protestants. Hays code was explicitly racist, Roman Catholic Church was openly antiracist and against segragation in those times (Hays code prohibited showing of interacial couples etc.).
@@alsatusmd1A13 yeah... Not quite.
@@prkp7248 which protestant sect since protestanism tends to be way more varied than catholicism you can't just say all protestants were racist
@@melvinklark4088 evangelical churches and most of the mainline were racist of corse #not_all because black protestant churches and quakers were and still are the thing.
I wonder if that restriction against protraying the other in a bad way was also for the Japanese.
Not during WW2.
Not during any war
Well... not during EVER
Or the Italians for that matter.
The U.S. admittedly did hold back during Vietnam, if only due to the hippies, but once the War on Terror started all bets were off.
I think a rating system that the creator can self-impose is a good way of going about it. Newgrounds does this and I haven't seen anyone make a fuss about that.
Exactly. I mean youtube kinda does this, though to a lesser extent
@@pufflepoint guess it's a case by case basis.
There was a big stir a couple of years ago about the fact that UA-cam actually had a secret rating system for channels and videos, not sure if that's still a thing, but advertisers were allowed to select which videos could play their ads by age rating (M, G, PG 13 etc). Not sure of that's still a thing or not though.
I'll never forget watching the scene from the Matrix where Neo murders like 12 security guards and police, and the only part that was censored was when one of guards before dying says “Sh$t.
I think it's worth mentioning that "Fatty" Arbuckle was acquitted. It's almost universally agreed nowadays that he didn't do it.
In the 1970s people remembered him as a pervert. everyone forgot the details and the fact he was exonerated. They would still play silent movies on t.v. in those days. Now everyone forgot him so his reputation died. Some of his movies are on UA-cam. Most of them were destroyed though... and he was once number one box office.
This might be my favorite video you've made, JJ. The way you compared censorship through the decades was interesting, but your comparison to current anxieties regarding social media really grabbed my attention. Great work!
i heard a anecdote that in a movie screening one of the censors watching an scene said: If this is a ball gown ok but if this is a night gown you have to cut it out .
"13:00 it's strange that the killing off of horror/crime comics isn't really mourned today..."
Not sure about that- I'm not American, but I'm a comics fan, and in comics circles, tge Comics Code is pretty universally seen as a bad thing, and especially in the 'indy comics' (or, everything except Marvel/DC superheros) scene, it's common opinion that the Comics Code single-handedly killed a potential rennaissance in American comics, for adults- EC (the main company making horror/crime comics, essentially targetted and killed by the Code- the people who made 'Tales From The Crypt', 'Vault of Horror', etc) are still hugely respected, as producing much more innovative, mature content, and often better quality, than the superhero stuff.
In fact, the whole genre of "Independent Comics" was basically a response to the Code, and the death of EC, with small, innovarive artists who made more mature work, starting underground comics like 'Zapped' or 'Skull Comics', and later whole brands like Fantagraphix or Dark Horse, outside of Code standards, with guys like Robert Crumb, Vaugn Bode, Dan Clowes, etc.
American today woulf probably accept comics as a medium for adults, with a huge industry behind it, same way Japan thinks of manga, if the Comics Code hadn't (almost) reduced comics down to ONLY superhero books, and 'funny papers' for kids, thru the late 20th century.
Tl-dr.It absolutely WAS a goddam tragedy, to be mourned... (but also resulted in some good stuff, in a round-about way)
To be fair I don't think comic books are really seen as kids stuff anymore. The majority of comics are targeted to teens to adults now, and plenty of R Rated comic book films have been made recently, and have proved profitable. Even the big publishers, especailly DC have been publishing adult Graphic Novels scince the 80s, like Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns, the Killing Joke, and V for Vendetta.
I think the comics code definatley has had a negative effect on the industry but I don't feel the general consensis that comics are kids stuff really exists in much scale anymore. Now independant comics are just as popular in shops as the big red and blue. And even Horror and Crime comics are back in full swing. (Although less sexist and dated.) If anything the CCA was more of a detuer than a roadblock, and it's power was much less strong than the MPAA still is.
Fun fact: "Publishing a Crime Comic" was prohibited under the Criminal Code of Canada up until 2017 (or thereabouts). I'm not sure if it was ever enforced, but it clearly was a law written to respond to the moral panics of several decades before.
I just found your channel and I have to say I absolutely LOVE your content! You're charismatic, passionate and the best thing overall is how educational you are without over sensationalizing or click-baiting like other content creators that do similar categories of videos =)
I can always sense a JJ upload within a minute. 😂
Every Saturday around 11:30 for me haha
I can't speak for non-comic fans, but when speaking to other comic book fans, the question of whether or not, or to what degree the comics code led to homogenization of the US comic book market gets brought up quite a lot.
A number of comic fans think that the comics code killing horror and crime books decades ago is a big reason why non-superhero books are less common in the US market today as opposed to European and Asian comic markets.
I'm honestly surprised they haven't put ratings on internet content.
Don't jinx it, we've had a great run so far.
See you in a decade, when everything'll be squeaky-clean and inoffensive.
We already have verify your age by I'd or driver's license on UA-cam ...it's a start
@@ThatOneGuy0006 no for too long
UA-cam has in a way.
Came across your channel in the last couple of weeks, I don't think I've seen a more engaging, well produced and informative channel on UA-cam.
This was a good analysis! Also with regard to the Hays Code, certain relationships were not allowed to be depicted on screen, including miscegenation (i.e. mixed couples) and non-heterosexuals. Boy, how times change.
As a German, censorship especially around videogames was very prevalent for a long time. Wolfenstein releases had the Nazis replaced by "The Regime", led by Hitler without a mustache. South Park Stick of Truth put black bars on top of the swastikas and Nazi salutes of the Nazi zombies. GTA SA removed headshots and the ability to gain money from killing pedestrians. HOI4 doesn't show an image of Hitler but just a shadow, while some Civilization releases replaced him with Franz von Papen. Some online multiplayer games even were incompatible to global releases. Games with Nazi symbolism or excessive violence landed on an "Index", which prohibited over-the-counter sales and advertisements. So for a long time, it used to be quite common here to get "uncut" releases from Austria or the UK. This changed a while ago though because it is now similarly treated like movies or art. The media used to use a term similar to "murder simulator" as well, called "Killerspiel" (killer game).
To be honest I think this is a relatively benign form of censorship. Edgy allusions to the Nazis play differently in a country where the national shame still lingers.
@@alexpotts6520 That is somewhat understandable obviously, but it also extends to just very violent videogames, such as the older GTA games (Vice City was indexed here), or Doom 1 and 2 (which also got indexed), or Half Life 1. Most of the indexations are not valid as of now. And it hasn't been an issue here to show swastikas in movies or somewhere else (if it obviously isn't blatant propaganda), so it was just seen as quite hypocritical in its nature to prohibit it in videogames.
In Australia luckily we're not censored the harsh truth of most controversial subject matter in our video games but it still lingers in banning extremely violent (and maybe sexual idk) video games such as Manhunt which I really wanna play but since it's a Killerspiel we're not allowed to have it :'(
Note that South Park Stick of Truth was self-censored despite them not needing to do that. They probably wanted to make some sort of "message", but what was the message? They've not been clear on that, since they didn't even have to censor it.
The Wolfenstein thing is really silly. It would be one thing if you played as a nazi, but wolfenstein is the most blatant anti Nazi media scince Inglorious Bastards.
Funny how we're now at a point where any corporation pretending they know what good morals are will be almost instantly met with mockery. Good video JJ.
Considering 95% of people either hate wokeness or hate capitalism, woke capitalism is a bafflingly omnipresent phenomenon
@@alexpotts6520 Yeah, that's Neoliberalism for you
Never heard of the book The Ten Cent Plague, but even from just you holding it I could tell that Charles Burns did the cover. Amazing
"Your attention please. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the part of J J McCullough will tonight be played by … Doug Henning. thank you and enjoy the show."
I love this channel. Its such a breath of fresh air that balanced even if I don't really agree with everything here.
I just noticed one of my local theaters at 0:51! Neat!
Censorship of media makes things worse. It created an inaccurate cultural haze where no one save those who lived from 1930-1968 can really describe the times since cultural depictions were a cheesy fantasy.
Also, I'd like to offer a third evaluation: In all three cases, to some degree, it was protectionist. It kept out upstart movie producers in the 30s, it kept out upstart comic authors in the 50s, and it tried to keep upstart game developers out in the 80s, but Tengen and friends beat Nintendo in the courts, thankfully.
Never let a good moral panic go to waste.
I dont understand people who click on a video really early just to dislike it
Your commentaries are always so informative! Keep it up
J.J. Greetings from free Florida. Great content as per the norm.
what
Hello fellow libertus.
-Texas
food for thought JJ... always enjoy.. well done
Movies, comics and videogames have proven ratings do work. I remember a story where Saving Private Ryan was banned in India because of the violence, until the man in charge of censorship watched it and decided to unban it.
1:45 Wait, I just watched 'Scarface' the other day... and I'm 90% sure it DID have Jimmy Cagney in it, and DIDN'T have Boris Karloff- Is my memory even worse than I thought?
Guess so
Id love to watch a video on censorship in the name of defending the nationstate, like how Belgium banned pro-Dutch papers to defend its own national identity
Not allowing negative representation of Nazis wasn't due to the Hays Code. It was because Germany was a huge market for US movie studios and the German government had a person in their LA consulate whose job was to review all films in production and let the studios know that would not be allowed in the German market without the following changes.
A similar thing is going on now with the studies being very concerned with portrayals of China that will get them banned in the huge Chinese market.
This video is rated “R” for “Really Good”.
I don't know why I love hearing this man talk, but I do.
Did you know that the Comics Code came to Britain when children had a IT styled encounter with a tall vampire with iron teeth in Glasgow at the Southern Nercopolis with people believing the kids whom had weapons the vampire was a shared delusion birthed from the popular Gothic horror comics at the time.
Now that we in America have ceased the comics code. It nice to see Horror and Crime comics have come back and whilst not as popular like pre CC. The fact they’ve come back as an option of genre is still great.
I think there's something to be said about old school "hard" censorship vs. "soft" censorship that's more common today. While it was certainly restrictive and stymied artistic expression, there was at least an incentive to make it as clear and easy to follow as possible. Written rulebooks with specific do's and don'ts at least allow artists to know where they stand. With soft censorship these morph into nebulous and subjective guidelines that are constantly in flux.
I love the new intro for yourself. Nice job.
What are you talking about
@@JJMcCullough The J.J. graphic instead of "Hi, friends, I'm J.J.."
@@rainmanjr2007 I have no idea what you’re talking about
@@JJMcCullough I wasn't really paying enough attention. I remembered @.48 as being the beginning. Very sorry.
I'd say I'm inclined to be quite anti-censorship, but the idea of a ratings system on social media generally sounds pretty amazing. Obviously there's an issue of content production, but creators could self-rate, and those ratings could be flagged for review if the audience thought they were wrong.
The problem might then be that, in order to prevent most people from rating their gorey sex talk as "K: for All the Kids," youtube might have to punish creators for getting their rating wrong, which in turn could lead to bad situations for gray-line videos. Documentaries might also face issues - anything discussion the Holocaust in a purely factual manner already deals with this, and I wonder how a UA-cambot might calibrate this.
So I love the idea and think it could solve many problems, but I can imagine the implementation as a bit nightmarish for creators and the platform.
JJ I love your content! You have a way of taking a topic that is not inherently interesting at first glance and proving otherwise!
Sliced bread was 1st introduced in 1928. Bread sales soared because of the ease it could be used for sandwitches, etc. By 1933 Wonderbread was offering 'thick & thin' slicked bread in the same sliced loaf. Life couldn't be better. Between 28 Jan and 08 March 1943, sliced break was made illegal in NY as a 'War Woke' enconomy measure.
Still can't get thich & thick slices in the same loaf.
Though if we're being honest, if you're getting sliced bread, you kinda want the whole loaf to be the same
9:35 that guy sounds like a super villain, I mean, just a little, but still it’s there.
You wonder if censorship is likely to come back. It never went away.
I think some of these rules did go away
A lot of Americans complain about censorship nowadays, and I will admit that I think big tech companies have far too much power over us, but this really makes me appreciate how much Americans have adopted a much more broad cultural attitude towards free speech in the past.
Here in the UK are rating system is
U, PG ,12A 15 18.
U is universal for all, PG stands for parent guardian so parents might need to sit with their kids. 12 or 12A is anyone under 12 needs an adult I think. When I was young it just used to be 12 which meant no one under 12 could watch and that's what 15 and 18 mean.
In regards to UA-cam videos having a rating I don't think it could work unless UA-cam forced people to prove their age and I wouldn't enter my passport stuff on youtube just to watch a vid. I think it would kill off a lot of UA-cam so they probably won't do it... hopefully.
Great vid btw JJ 😊
I think an issue with applying a ratings system to internet platforms is that there is so much content being posted by so many people.
The only way to enforce it on everything would be algorithmically, yet algorithms have no inherent ethics, as ethics are difficult to quantify analytically. Logically then, the way to properly enforce ethics would be by humans, which would grind content release to a halt.
Algorithms are also biased by the people who make them and folks will always want algorithms biased towards their views.
I'm more interested the restricting the algorithms than imposing ratings. People finding stuff on their own is one thing, force feeding people toxic content on a super human scale is madness.
I remember how Congress was so disgusted over games like Mortal Kombat in the early 90s, but yet you don’t see them saying crap about the latest MK11 game. That games violent graphics makes mk1 mk2 look like a childrens game.
The 1948 case against movie studios owning their own theaters was actually overturned in 2020. So we could get Netflix theaters at some point
Even then there were exceptions like El Capitan beforehand.
Incredible last question (youtube ratings) you raised there J.J. ! Love your content !!!
"Murder animals on camera for pornographic purposes"... The... What... The Fuck... WHAT!?
It's called crush porn and afaik it's illegal even in the unusually libertine US because of its depiction of animal abuse.
I love your content! I love deep dives on unique topics, it’s very entertaining!
The people who blanket argue against the early censorship of film/tv and video games are ignoring the fact that were it not for that censorship the politicians of the day would most certainly have had a much more strict solution given that the average voter, at least those who would write to their congressperson on the topic, wanted pretty severe restrictions on their content.
tl;dr censorship might be a little dumb and archaic from our point of view but without it early on these industries likely would have stifled.
Working on this video I was reminded of how new this idea that “the first amendment lets everyone say whatever they want in all contexts” is.
1:13 Outlaws, soldiers, mountain men, and writers were celebrities long before actors in movies.
I believe there’s some form of “ratings” on UA-cam videos in that you have to identify if your video is for a kids’ audience. Not necessarily suitable for kids, which is what a ratings system would do, but if it’s produced and meant for kids.
That's a separate thing -that's for compliance with COPPA which forbids collecting data from individuals under 13. So it's an attempt by YT to avoid liability.
I do believe there's a "ghost" ratings system in the backend that's similar to age ratings, some folks have dome videos on it.
Great articulation of this subject and informative. It's hard to find material that encapsulates this subject in a short amount of space.
I always thought a content rating rather than an age rating was appropriate.
Like:
This content is rated Catholic.
or
This content may not be suitable for transgendered individuals.
or
This content contains graphic depictions of 20 year old baked goods.
etc.
"Graphic depiction of 20 year old baked goods..."
Why does this sound like a college beach movie? 🏖😁
I think the last of those - giving the specific thing people may find objectionable - would be useful (and indeed is usually featured as part of age ratings) but the idea that certain content may not be suitable for certain groups (like transgender people) assumes a degree of homogeneity which doesn't exist, and is still a condescending attempt on the part of states or corporations to decide what content other people should view. Of course the claim that it "may not" be suitable is strictly true but the same could be said for any content of any group in society.
@@eoghan.5003 We already do it, though. It's just that at the moment, we unexaminedly believe that anything can be suitable for everyone and objectionable to no one.
You could have both
Another great video! I really appreciate the research and historical context you put into the topics you present, and the concise yet understandable way you present them. As a kid, I was very frustrated with Nintendo's censorship, coming to a head with Mortal Kombat for the SNES in 1993. The SNES version had superior graphics and sound to the Genesis version, but my friends and I always wanted to play the Genesis version instead because it wasn't censored. I now understand that Nintendo, as the industry leader, was just trying to get ahead of the censorship train for its industry before it left the station. I am still frustrated with their approach, but more understanding of how it happened. Well done!
I feel that movie ratings & television ratings would work best on UA-cam, than to impose a Hays Code.
The problem with internet ratings is how easy it is to lie and say "Yes I am 18" Ratings would require age verification, which would be a whole other can of worms
@@Alex-zs3kn yes you're right about that if it was going to be a age verification, but what I was thinking of more on the lines how TV operates w/ a warning of the following program's rating.
Ratings on YT videos is a great idea, and you’re right, it hasn’t been tossed around much yet.
Very interesting! The issue with vaguely worded guidelines is that it’s pretty easy for someone to censor you for political reasons. You might be Left wing or right wing-if your views are deemed inconvenient then an excuse will be found.
Funny thing about ratings on internet content, the website Newgrounds already does this, allowing people to toggle the content they want on off from E for everyone to A for adult content.
unlike with things such as video games and movies if you go to a shop or theatre and your not the right age and can't prove otherwise they won't sell to you where as online especially because of people's privacy concerns it is very hard find a way for people to prove their age and or identity online that works and that people agree to this has caused a debate in the UK as the government try to pass the new internet safety act (to force people to prove their identity before useing sites that allow you to communicate with people and pornographic sites) so I don't think she ratings would work online
Video games do still self censor, mainly to preserve the age rating across localizations, though this is becoming increasingly rare and I can't remember any specifically after 2016. But most notably is blood being removed from games released in japan, skeletons from Chinese releases, and for Japanese games localized for the west (USA) you often see further covering up of nudity.
UA-cam used to have a warning for mature content before you clicked a video and if you did have an account, or wasn't logged in, you were denied access to a mature video. I don't understand why this went away. With that said, I guess it could be done to have some kind of ratings but the internet enforcement of regulations is still pretty complicated to truly enforce. For example you have enter a birthday to enter a beer brand's website. That doesn't stop an underage kid from changing their birth year to one that is of age.
I still see these content warnings from time to time but they usually only appear on videos getting mass flagged by trolls/tencent army to demonetize them and keep them off people's feeds.
It didn't go away, and it's infuriating. Most of the time I get one of these it just seems to be a controversial opinion that got mass flagged or something (left leaning content). And since I have no interest in giving google any thing more then I have too (I guess it's a lost battle, but idk), I'm just locked out.
I recall an early comic I read which featured bugs in a junk filled open field. I didn't see it as exceptional at the time, but in retrospect I later realized that the dialogue was rhymed iambic pentameter. I don't remember much else about it.
I also recall a comic which tried to compete with the 3D comics but didn't require colored glasses. Instead they used drawings which broke through the four walls and were on a black page background.
Dude, Having a UA-cam content rating system for more direct ages up would minimize the amount of unnecessary censorship needed for a creator's demographics.
It isn't the end all to be all solution perhaps. But it would be a welcomed step forward for coppa, large broad sweeping age gating, shadow suppressing, and leave less room for biased strikes/demonization.
Smaller and more precise rating measuring tools would easily be best for everyone. Also probably tags for more subjective topics people may be interested in or trying to avoid. Tags you can turn on or off in some easily accessible feed settings off to the side. Like for instance, some times I want to see what politics are happening around me and some times I just need a break for the unrelenting barrage of rage that can come from that subject. _(Though we should be careful to not strengthen ideologic bubbles people already find themselves sorted into by an algorithm, admittingly in my opinion.)_
*BUT I WOULD AVOID* audience ranking systems because people already use the like and dislike buttons for targeted trolling campaigns. We should not give trolls the power to suppress what they do not like.
*ALSO* we should distinguish the difference between a tag relating to the main topic of the video and just a passive mentioning. We should not be too strick in that regard.
The problem with this is that just on UA-cam, the content is being uploaded about 10000 times faster than it can be watched, so there is no way that every video can be inspected. It would probably be equally difficult to inspect whether or not everyone tagged their videos correctly, if it were left to creators.
I disagree that a rating system on YT would reduce censorship. YT cares more about censoring opinions and key words that challenge its ideology than about censoring violence or sexy content.
Ahh you missed talking about the glorious comedy of the music censorship of the 80s. Dee Sniders appearance in the Senate is quite a moment
JJ, ur going to have a new most viewed video in some hours, the Philippine flag is going to surpass the national anthem
The music industry also had it's own escapade with congress in the 80's when you had Frank Zappa and Twisted Sister talking to congress (Al Gore on the panel) about the ill's of music censorship when the PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center, made up largely of spouses of politicians) wanted to censor music.
R is not “adults only”, it’s no child 17 and under may see see it without accompaniment of someone over 21.
In Australia an R18+ rating here means "restricted to persons 18 or over", so it does mean "adults only". The American R sounds more like our MA-15+ rating.
@@Roxor128 I’ve also noticed that different countries have different standards for how they rate things. I remember the Liam Neeson movie “Unknown” being rated PG-13 in the states, but 18 in the UK, thereby allowing me to watch it freely in America as a then 13 year old, but denying access to my British 14-15 year old cousins across the pond.
1921: "Can you imagine how vulgar, violent, and graphic these picture shows will become if we do not censor them?"
2021: *Fast and Furious 14: Vin Diesel just defeated a clone of Anakin Skywalker in a pod race.... because family*
Gotta add the moustache back to your logo!
Thanks J.J. for the super informative video!
JJ your opinion about Bernier being arrested?
I’m a lawyer and I did not know that the Hays code wasn’t a law. I am embarrassed.
One thing I wonder about comics censorship is whether the American comics industry would have evolved into a more Japanese manga like direction earlier, where comics cover a wider variety of genres than just superheroes, and whether there would be a stronger female presence in American comics. Nobody might have mourned the crime and horror comics but killing off the romance comics probably really caused a big dent in the girl's comic market and made comics an all boys thing for a lot longer in the West than they were in Japan. I'm also interested in why Japan never seemed to develop the moral panics over children's entertainment that people in the West, particularly in the English speaking countries did. There is a lot of manga and anime aimed at the upper elementary school or middle school set that involves a lot more violence, romance, toilet humor, etc., than their Western counterparts. Like Inuyasha was kid's viewing in Japan but had to be aired at late night on Cartoon Network. Ranma 1/2 would be pretty much be considered totally not kid safe despite it being for elementary and middle school kids in Japan.
All good points
They did, if you look into some manga like Cutie Honey they up set some people. The thing is those business fought back and now a days the industry has a lot of weight to through around when some parents group attacks them.
That the manga and anime business could even fight back rather than meekly accept that the best option was self-censorship shows that they were dealing with an entirely different cultural mindset than other comic and animation industries.
My problem with the current censorship regime on the Internet is that I have no idea what the rules are. If a rating system is adopted it must be published and enforced fairly. But there is a problem often overlooked. Many countries and cultures are offended by various practices, images, etc. that Americans or Canadians, for example, would not find objectionable or would say should be adult only content for example.
That’s true, and a unique challenge of this globalized age of ours
Rated M for Mustache
One of the most interesting round of rating systems being put in place was that trial where the supreme court or whatever had multiple music artists in the 80's and the lead singer of twisted sister came in wearing this really typical hair metal look and still made a mockery of the trial