No Swearing Please, We're British

Apparently not saying 'fuck' before the watershed is just as bad as saying it. At least, according to the twisted 'logic' of Ofcom it is. In the wake of the furore over Jonathon Ross and Russell Brand sexually harassing pensioners over the phone (or whatever it was they thought they were doing), the regulator has administered a 'slap on the wrist' to the BBC for the antics of Radio One's Scott Mills. In an item involving his sidekicks having to guess what the words bleeped from the soundtracks of TV and radio programmes were, one of the bleeped words sounded as if it might have been 'fuck'. Except of course, that it wasn't. Not only that, but listeners had already been told that none of the bleeped words were obscenities. Obviously, they couldn't be, as this was being broadcast in the afternoon.

Nevertheless, some idiot listening clearly thought that the word 'fuck' had been uttered. Or rather, not uttered. No, they feared that unsuspecting children who could be listening might think that an expletive had not been spoken, but bleeped out. Now, not only was the word 'fuck' not said, or bleeped, when the clip was played in full, it was obvious that it hadn't been bleeped, as it hadn't been spoken in the first place. However, Ofcom decided that even creating a suspicion that a swear word not only hadn't been spoken, but might have been bleeped, was just as bad as if it had actually been said. Even though it hadn't. Confused? I certainly am. The world has clearly gone stark staring mad.