Funimation and swearing

[Dagon]

As far as the "r-word" goes, I know autistic people that use it. Like I'll say something funny and they'll say "that's r******d." In today's climate it's better to steer clear of it though.

[KBABZ]

As far as the "r-word" goes, I know autistic people that use it. Like I'll say something funny and they'll say "that's r******d." In today's climate it's better to steer clear of it though.

For the record, I'm autistic and I don't use that word.

[Dagon]

As far as the "r-word" goes, I know autistic people that use it. Like I'll say something funny and they'll say "that's r******d." In today's climate it's better to steer clear of it though.

For the record, I'm autistic and I don't use that word.

You better steer clear of the bodybuilding dot com forums because they use "autistic" to describe any time a man has an awkward social moment. If that keeps up, autistic will become a slur eventually.
Benign words become slurs when frequently used derogatorily. It's sad that this happens.

[KBABZ]

As far as the "r-word" goes, I know autistic people that use it. Like I'll say something funny and they'll say "that's r******d." In today's climate it's better to steer clear of it though.

For the record, I'm autistic and I don't use that word.

You better steer clear of the bodybuilding dot com forums because they use "autistic" to describe any time a man has an awkward social moment. If that keeps up, autistic will become a slur eventually.
Benign words become slurs when frequently used derogatorily. It's sad that this happens.

Ugh, that's like saying any time someone's angry they're acting "Tourretes-y".

[MasenkoHA]

You better steer clear of the bodybuilding dot com forums because they use "autistic" to describe any time a man has an awkward social moment. .

Bodybuilding dot com forum is also a cesspool

[Kunzait_83]

You better steer clear of the bodybuilding dot com forums because they use "autistic" to describe any time a man has an awkward social moment. If that keeps up, autistic will become a slur eventually.

Pfffft. That already happened a looooooooooooooooooooooooooong time ago. Thanks in large part to places like 4chan, which throws around "autistic" as one of its most common and prevalent insults. The word has since years and years and years ago become a pervasive slur all across vast (and particularly slimy and grotesque) corners of the internet.

That having been said though: in all seriousness, and without in ANY way even remotely or vaguely intending to insult anyone who has autism in the absolute slightest... I do think that there are a TON of genuinely important and fascinating social phenomenon that occur within massive fanbases and online communities like this one thanks in large part to significant portions of them which do indeed suffer from some form of diagnosable, clinical autism of some kind.

I think autism being used as a slur in online discourse, while horrendously disgusting and morally reprehensible, is also at the same time one of those things that has at least some slight vestige of footing in reality: like it or not, people with actual autism are VERY much heavily attracted to things like Dragon Ball, Pokemon, Power Rangers, Sonic the Hedgehog, Yu Gi Oh, My Little Pony, etc. in significant numbers. And there are indeed actual clinical reasons for why that is that can be plainly and demonstrably evident by comparing some key elements of these various properties with some of the common symptoms and signifiers of someone with autism (things such as color-coding, broad and unsubtle character quirks, a massive presence of animals or animal-like figures, etc).

And I think that having a significant presence of people with a social and developmental disorder like autism is certainly something that does indeed heavily color and impact a whole ton of significant aspects of various fan communities (such as this one) in some incredibly major and important ways. Its something I've probably looked WAY too deeply and thoroughly into throughout the last decade or so, and that's thanks in no small part to my time in this community and a few others similar to it throughout much of the past 14 years now.

But this is hardly the thread (and probably not the forum in general) for that type of topic. Still, its a fascinating subject that sheds a LOT of light on why and how certain fan communities evolve in the ways that they sometimes do over time.

[ABED]

I can see how some would see "damn" as somewhat offensive but.. piss? That's a strange one. "Piss off"? Yeah. Piss? No.

I don't think it's offensive, but it's not something you say in polite conversation, certainly not something kids say in polite conversation.

[KBABZ]

That having been said though: in all seriousness, and without in ANY way even remotely or vaguely intending to insult anyone who has autism in the absolute slightest... I do think that there are a TON of genuinely important and fascinating social phenomenon that occur within massive fanbases and online communities like this one thanks in large part to significant portions of them which do indeed suffer from some form of diagnosable, clinical autism of some kind.

I think autism being used as a slur in online discourse, while horrendously disgusting and morally reprehensible, is also at the same time one of those things that has at least some slight vestige of footing in reality: like it or not, people with actual autism are VERY much heavily attracted to things like Dragon Ball, Pokemon, Power Rangers, Sonic the Hedgehog, Yu Gi Oh, My Little Pony, etc. in significant numbers. And there are indeed actual clinical reasons for why that is that can be plainly and demonstrably evident by comparing some key elements of these various properties with some of the common symptoms and signifiers of someone with autism (things such as color-coding, broad and unsubtle character quirks, a massive presence of animals or animal-like figures, etc).

Speaking for myself, I think it is worth mentioning that one of the facets of autism is obsessions, wanting to know as much information about a particular subject as possible. For myself Ratchet & Clank and Dragon Ball certainly count, but over the years I've seen folks obsessed with everything from London's Routemaster buses and The Smashing Pumpkins right up to doors and door hinges (yes, really!). I don't think it's that austistic people are attracted to the franchises mentioned above so much as that there's so many of us out there there at a certain point it's inevitable that some of us will land on them.

[PhoenixEX]

What happened was that the franchise was moved to Adult Swim rather than Cartoon Network.

Adult Swim is a programming block for Cartoon Network not its own separate channel. But I digress.

As for Z Kai, they don't curse at all in the Nicktoons version but they do in the Adult Swim version.

Yes, because the Nicktoons and CW4Kids is edited for a Y7 FV rating and Adult Swim allows it to keep its PG rating.

This thread was never about “Hey did you notice the characters don’t swear when the show is edited for content to air on a kids programming block?”

Adult Swim is NOT a programming block for Cartoon Network, it is its own separate thing. Both CN and AS are owned by Turner Broadcasting System.

[ABED]

Adult Swim isn't separate. It's on CN for the time that children aren't usually up to watch, ergo it's a programming block.

[Cipher]

I'm personally of the opinion that they overdo it. Just as it's unnatural to write out all instances of swearing (real people are going to say "hell" and even more colorful things when they're in a pinch), it's equally unnatural to write in as many "damns" and "bastards" as Funimation does. I ... I don't know anyone who actually uses "bastard" as an insult, on that note. They actively feel like safe, PG-13 signals that this isn't for kids (even though it is), rather than something a character would actually say in the moment.

As with all things related to translation, it's subjective and your mileage may vary.

[ABED]

I'm personally of the opinion that they overdo it. Just as it's unnatural to write out all instances of swearing (real people are going to say "hell" and even more colorful things when they're in a pinch), it's equally unnatural to write in as many "damns" and "bastards" as Funimation does. I ... I don't know anyone who actually uses "bastard" as an insult, on that note. They actively feel like safe, PG-13 signals that this isn't for kids (even though it is), rather than something a character would actually say in the moment.

As with all things related to translation, it's subjective and your mileage may vary.

Bastard is hardly a rarely used insult, even if people in your social circle don't use it, and I use damn an awful lot. It's basically a filler word at this point.

[Doctor.]

For the record, I'm autistic and I don't use that word.

You better steer clear of the bodybuilding dot com forums because they use "autistic" to describe any time a man has an awkward social moment. If that keeps up, autistic will become a slur eventually.
Benign words become slurs when frequently used derogatorily. It's sad that this happens.

Ugh, that's like saying any time someone's angry they're acting "Tourretes-y".

I've heard people ask "Do you have tourette's or something?" if they're acting weird, so that wouldn't be a new thing. Either that or schizo. It's been around for a while.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

The irony of how much FUNimation peppers their more modern dubs including DBZ Kai with butt loads of swearing during tense moments of action and such lies in that it's the complete opposite of the original version, mostly because of the simple fact that the Japanese language really has no true curse words in the fashion by which we know them here. The closest thing they have are somewhat rude phrases used in anime like "kuso" which literally means "excrement" but most official subs by translation crews will often translate these into "shit" or "damn" when that isn't actually what the phrase means at all, much of that lies in the need to adapt these into something that can be understood in English.

I have to say, comparing the old in-house dub of DBZ with it's near avoidance of cursing of any kind and the Kai dub with it's numerous uses of damn and bastard is like night and day.

[ABED]

Shit does mean excrement, so I don't know what the problem is there.

the Japanese language really has no true curse words

What exactly does that mean?

It's certainly different, but the entire dub is practically night and day. It's not perfect and has weird holdovers, but it's definitely far better, and using even light cusswords like "damn" and "hell" is better than using pseudo-cuss words (for lack of a better term) like "darn" or "heck" of HFIL.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

Shit does mean excrement, so I don't know what the problem is there.

the Japanese language really has no true curse words

What exactly does that mean?

It's certainly different, but the entire dub is practically night and day. It's not perfect and has weird holdovers, but it's definitely far better, and using even light cusswords like "damn" and "hell" is better than using pseudo-cuss words (for lack of a better term) like "darn" or "heck" of HFIL.

A. Ok, guess i must have just been confused there

B. I guess i was talkin' out my ass on that one

C. Yes, i think it shows that the people at FUNimation aren't the wusses they used to be about having cursing in the scripts, compared to the Z dub when they pretty much avoided it at all costs and went out of their way to include tamer ones like you mention.

I recall some of the small exceptions in the old dub even with that mindset like when Vegeta claimed he was a friggin' genius and of course there was Dende's infamous "Don't piss off the God of love" line after Porunga was summoned which was so hilariously ludicrous.

[Lucky_Deity]

Are words like damn, hell and ass really swear words to some people, blows my mind XD

[ABED]

Are words like damn, hell and ass really swear words to some people, blows my mind XD

Damn and ass are certainly cuss word. They're light, but still cuss words. Dunno why you find that funny of why you think they aren't cuss words. Hell is another name for The Bad Place, but also a word you generally don't say in polite conversation.

[KBABZ]

Are words like damn, hell and ass really swear words to some people, blows my mind XD

There's are different levels of swears and cuss words. When I was really little, calling someone an idiot constituted as a swear, but in retrospect it was more that my parents didn't want me talking to people like that, so it was low on the tier. From there you get to hell and damn, and then words like ass(hole) are a tier above that, alongside words like bastard and, in certain regions, fanny. And then you get to the genuine swears like shit, fuck, that sort of thing (in my household, motherfucker is considered super-offensive, and in the UK/Britain, the word crap is on this tier). And then you go one step above that into words that are actually really offensive like faggot, retard and nigger, that you can't really use anymore today if you want people to take you seriously.

Remember that when it comes to damn and hell, they can be considered offensive because they touch on subjects that most Americans take more seriously than others due to the fact that most Americans are also Christian. So for them, hell is a legit horrible place that they believe in and being "damned" means being stuck in that place for all eternity, so it means a lot more to them than it would to an atheist like myself.

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Personally, I think the use of swearing in the modern Funi dub is well-handled, with the possible exception of Goku calling Frieza a bastard after Krillin is killed (it's appropriate, but how does Goku even know of that word?). They aren't used excessively and, when they are used, there's usually a good justification behind it, usually the situation being tense/desperate enough or that the character saying it is a villain.

[MajinMan]

One of the few times Funimation tried to “edge it up” a little too much was when Vegeta said “son of a bitch” in the Future Trunks arc. It felt so unnatural and forced, and like 2 episodes later, Future Mai said it too. I don’t know if they’ve since used son of a bitch or bitch again since then, but those two times they did were certainly NOT appropriate. Damn, hell, or bastard is fine, but Vegeta and Mai calling people bitches just feels so wrong for Dragon Ball.