Swearing in the Beano!?

Discuss or comment on anything relating to D.C.Thomson's second longest running comic. The home of Dennis the Menace. Has been running since 1938.

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philcom55
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Re: Swearing in the Beano!?

Post by philcom55 »

There's a famous episode of 'The Clangers' where one of the little moon mice says "Oh, sod it - the bloody thing’s stuck again". As Oliver Postgate delivered all the dialogue with a Swanee whistle, however, nobody noticed! :)

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klakadak-ploobadoof
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Re: Swearing in the Beano!?

Post by klakadak-ploobadoof »

I've read somewhere that there used to be an inside directive prohibiting the use of certain innocent words in comics because they could look scandalous when printed. An example can be found in an early episode of When the Bell Rings from the Beano which I’ve shown in my recent blogpost here: http://kazoop.blogspot.com/2015/08/acci ... eness.html
Check out my blog about comics from other peoples' childhood: http://kazoop.blogspot.com

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suebutcher
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Re: Swearing in the Beano!?

Post by suebutcher »

Conversely, the "f-off" reversed-V sign wasn't known in the U.S. in the Seventies, and was accidentally featured in a series of Viceroy cigarette ads.

There was a uncensored reversed-V sign in the 1962 Banana Bunch "cactus" episode which was posted recently. Baxendale cleverly got it in under the cover of a bad imitation of Churchill.

(Personally, I hate the way kids say "ass" instead of "arse" these days!)

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tony ingram
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Re: Swearing in the Beano!?

Post by tony ingram »

klakadak-ploobadoof wrote:I've read somewhere that there used to be an inside directive prohibiting the use of certain innocent words in comics because they could look scandalous when printed. An example can be found in an early episode of When the Bell Rings from the Beano which I’ve shown in my recent blogpost here: http://kazoop.blogspot.com/2015/08/acci ... eness.html
This is well known. It's also, of course, what inspired the title of Mark Millar's CLiNT.

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klakadak-ploobadoof
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Re: Swearing in the Beano!?

Post by klakadak-ploobadoof »

[/url][/quote] This is well known.[/quote] Well, this wasn't so well known to me and I haven't come across an example before.
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Lew Stringer
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Re: Swearing in the Beano!?

Post by Lew Stringer »

klakadak-ploobadoof wrote:Well, this wasn't so well known to me and I haven't come across an example before.
It dates back decades, at least to the 1940s. It wasn't so much that the words were prohibited, but that the letterers had to be very careful to leave a bigger gap between L and I. It only really applied when comics were on newsprint, as that bled the ink more than litho or photogravure for example.
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Digifiend
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Re: Swearing in the Beano!?

Post by Digifiend »

Yeah, definitely wouldn't be a problem on the modern glossy pages. Page 3 of last week's issue has the words BLIND and LIST on it. The LI definitely cannot be mistaken for a U.
suebutcher wrote:(Personally, I hate the way kids say "ass" instead of "arse" these days!)
They're probably picking that up from US TV shows and movies.

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suebutcher
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Re: Swearing in the Beano!?

Post by suebutcher »

There's a story from the 40s about a US strip called "Dr Flicker And His Flick Gun" being cancelled at the last moment because of the risk.

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stevezodiac
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Re: Swearing in the Beano!?

Post by stevezodiac »

Looking through the 1972 TV Comics I won last week and one strip had the name CLINT in it several times and I thought they were dicing with death there.

Lew Stringer
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Re: Swearing in the Beano!?

Post by Lew Stringer »

stevezodiac wrote:Looking through the 1972 TV Comics I won last week and one strip had the name CLINT in it several times and I thought they were dicing with death there.
The web offset printing saved their bacon there. Cheap newsprint might have been another matter.
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TwoHeadedBoy
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Re: Swearing in the Beano!?

Post by TwoHeadedBoy »

From the Dandy, circa 2000:

Image
http://twoheadedthingies.blogspot.co.uk/ - My comics blog, mostly lesser-known UK stuff from the 1980s and 1990s

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ISPYSHHHGUY
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Re: Swearing in the Beano!?

Post by ISPYSHHHGUY »

Subversion like this must be great fun for those responsible for coming up with such stuff!

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joybot
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Re: Swearing in the Beano!?

Post by joybot »

I heard an apocryphal story that there was a bit of offensive name-calling in a particular Bash Street Kids episode (possibly a "Richard Head" kind of joke?). But no idea 1/ which era it was or 2/ whether it's true or not!
"Get off the road, you nutty old tramp!" Danny, the Bash Street Kids

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