From: "Albert Sims" <albert65@nospambellsouth.net>

EDM wrote:

"Albert Sims" <alsims65@nospamhotmail.com> wrote in message news:dhJZg.21139$O65.15398@bignews5.bellsouth.net...

EDM wrote:

I have some off-the-air recordings of MPFC episodes, and in one
of the animated bits ("Rampage of the Cancerous Black Spot"),
Michael Palin tells a story of an enchanted prince who finds a
black spot on his face. Now in my recording the line goes,
"Foolishly, he ignored it...and three years later he died of
syphilis", but in every rerun I've seen of that episode the word
syphilis is overdubbed (rather obviously) with either "cancer", or,
in one
case, "gangrene".

Anyone know the history of this edit? Was the word syphilis
considered too risque by British censors at the time?

First time I've heard "syphilis" being used. In the original
airing, Carol Cleveland is narrating the story, and says "cancer".
In later years, a male voice is dubbed in JUST over the word
"cancer", that says "gangrene". Not sure why the change, unless the
group was just being sensitive to Graham's throat cancer...

Ah ok, I wasn't remembering it correctly. I came across this: http://web.ukonline.co.uk/sotcaa/sotcaa_python.html?/sotcaa/pythonpages/pytho

n_press_1990_99.html

"Gilliam: The BBC censored something on repeats, the 'Black Spot'
thing. [In an animated section in the second series, a handsome young
prince discovers a spot on his face. 'Foolishly he ignored it,' says a
female narrator, 'and three years later he died of cancer.' In later broadcasts, the word 'cancer' was replaced with 'gangrene', spoken
by a male.] It's extraordinary that the word 'cancer' was so
frightening
to them that they had to cut the word out."

So strange, I could have sworn the word syphilis was used in
that line.

I have an audiocassette of the episode in question I recorded from PBS in the late 1970's. The word "cancer" was there back then. In the DVD box set released
by A & E, they use the "gangrene" edit.
--
Albert Sims
West Monroe,Louisiana

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From: Nullibicity <nullibicity-news@SPAMBLOCKnullibicity.com.invalid>

In article <FxRZg.30520$zF5.8632@bignews1.bellsouth.net>,
"Albert Sims" <albert65@nospambellsouth.net> wrote:

EDM wrote:

"Albert Sims" <alsims65@nospamhotmail.com> wrote in message news:dhJZg.21139$O65.15398@bignews5.bellsouth.net...

EDM wrote:

I have some off-the-air recordings of MPFC episodes, and in one
of the animated bits ("Rampage of the Cancerous Black Spot"),
Michael Palin tells a story of an enchanted prince who finds a
black spot on his face. Now in my recording the line goes,
"Foolishly, he ignored it...and three years later he died of
syphilis", but in every rerun I've seen of that episode the word
syphilis is overdubbed (rather obviously) with either "cancer", or,
in one
case, "gangrene".

Anyone know the history of this edit? Was the word syphilis
considered too risque by British censors at the time?

First time I've heard "syphilis" being used. In the original
airing, Carol Cleveland is narrating the story, and says "cancer".
In later years, a male voice is dubbed in JUST over the word
"cancer", that says "gangrene". Not sure why the change, unless the
group was just being sensitive to Graham's throat cancer...

Ah ok, I wasn't remembering it correctly. I came across this: http://web.ukonline.co.uk/sotcaa/sotcaa_python.html?/sotcaa/pythonpages/pyt

h

on_press_1990_99.html

"Gilliam: The BBC censored something on repeats, the 'Black Spot'
thing. [In an animated section in the second series, a handsome young prince discovers a spot on his face. 'Foolishly he ignored it,' says a female narrator, 'and three years later he died of cancer.' In later broadcasts, the word 'cancer' was replaced with 'gangrene', spoken
by a male.] It's extraordinary that the word 'cancer' was so
frightening
to them that they had to cut the word out."

So strange, I could have sworn the word syphilis was used in
that line.

I have an audiocassette of the episode in question I recorded from PBS in
the late 1970's. The word "cancer" was there back then. In the DVD box set released by A & E, they use the "gangrene" edit.

I don't think I've ever heard the cancer version. Actually, I think the gangrene version is better, both because the edit is so blatant (I first thought it was supposed to be like that) and "gangrene" is a funnier word than "cancer."

--
Nullibicity
http://www.nullibicity.com/

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From: "P" <pnj6@hotmail.com>

I don't think I've ever heard the cancer version. Actually, I think the gangrene version is better, both because the edit is so blatant (I first thought it was supposed to be like that) and "gangrene" is a funnier
word than "cancer."

The "cancer" version has most certainly been aired and is possibly part of one of the Python stage shows, German episodes, or something - I can't definitively
recall, but I know I've heard it. Coincidentally, it's Graham who overdubbed the word "cancer" with "gangrene" on television. When I first saw the episode in the late '70s I assumed the overdubbing was a good old "nudge nudge" joke in
the best British tradition and that in fact the foolish man HAD died of syphillis, gonhorrea or something similar.

The powers that be (were?) at the BBC were very nervous about many aspects of Python and flailed the censorship quill many times. Examples of this are outlined in Robert Hewison's brilliant book "Monty Python: The Case Against". On this particular occasion, as I recall, someone in upper management deemed that the concept of cancer was too serious to be heard uttered in a comedy. The reason the Python's used the word in the first place was simply a matter of
- why SHOULDN'T we put it in? After all, these were 6 young men whose very existence in the public eye was built on a degree of subversion.

There is only one recorded case of self-censorship by the Pythons themselves. It was a Terry Gilliam cartoon filmed for an early episode, in which a telephone linesman is seen hammering away at a telegraph pole... which, as we zoom out, we see is really one of the three crosses of Calvary. Given what the boys achieved later on with Life Of Brian it's rather amazing that they, particularly Cleese, were so nervous about this cartoon. But there we are.

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From: "Pimpleboy" <pimpleboy71@tiscali.co.uk>

Methinks that the CANCER version of that sketch is shown in the 1971 film, "And
Now For Something Completely Different". I'll gladly eat my cat if
I'm mistaken.

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From: "P" <pnj6@hotmail.com>

Methinks that the CANCER version of that sketch is shown in the 1971 film, "And Now For Something Completely Different". I'll gladly eat my cat if
I'm mistaken.

You could well be right. This is one Python work I rarely revisit - the whole thing was a mistake.

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