You ever see someone write “f*ck” or something similar, as if that absolves them of writing a bad word? Like we can’t figure out what the word could possibly be, especially when taken in context?

Or when a TV censor bleeps a word but you can still tell from the context and the speaker’s mouth what the word is? Or when a comic book character says “&%@(!!” instead of what you know they’re really saying?

Who are we protecting here? You think kids haven’t heard these words before? You think they’re too dumb to figure it out? The very young ones, maybe, but then they’re not reading “f*ck” or watching the kinds of shows where those words might be used. (Or in comic books and comic strips that kids might read.)

For network TV, which has to apply for licenses from the government, it makes a bit more sense. However, I see that most cable stations don’t censor any more (Jon Stewart and the cast of “South Park” are finally free to say what they think without bleeping), and clearly we’re moving in that direction. Even our President and other politicians use words that would have destroyed their careers when I was young.

These kinds of silly word censorships are sort of like those fashion pictures you’ve seen where the beautiful female model is topless but she has her fingers covering her nipples … Gee, what could possibly be under her finger? I can’t imagine! (And seriously, it’s not the nipples we care about anyway. If all I wanted to do is see nipples, I could look in a mirror…)

Anyway, the point I was trying to make before I distracted myself with nipples is this: I sometimes have to laugh at silly censorhip. I mean, come on. No one is going to be hurt by it. It’s just a f*cking word.