No sex please, we're rabbits
Celebrity deaths seem to be quite the thing for closing the BBC's quiz of the week. This week's ended with the passing of Tony Bennett. But that's not what made it remarkable, at least for me, because I knew about Bennett's death already, albeit not that his stage name had been given to him by Bob Hope.
No, what made it remarkable was what I'd learned from one of the earlier questions. The British Board of Film Classification has uprated the viewer classification of 1978's Watership Down from U to PG. But which of these reasons were not cited: bad language; mild violence; or sex references?
I've seen Watership Down, and I recall that some of the bunnies met a grisly end, so that's the mild violence checkbox ticked. And it's about rabbits, so sex, natch. By process of elimination, therefore, the one reason that couldn't've been cited by the BBFC is bad language.
Wrong! (exclamation)
It was sex references. The film, based on the eponymous novel by Richard Adams, tells the tale of a group of rabbits who leave their burrow in search of a new home, facing tragedy along the way. After being resubmitted, its rating was raised to "remain in step with societal standards", because of “mild violence, threat, brief bloody images and bad language".
Bad language? Are they kidding? Back in those days, kids didn't even say arse
, let alone fuck
. I cannot, for the life of me, imagine what societal standards
have slipped to if a 45-year-old child-friendly cartoon is now deemed to include language bad enough to require parental guidance. I think the BBFC must be a bunch of fragile poopyheads. Oh yes. (snowflake) (poop)