The Count Censored is an interesting exploration of the effect that
censorship of music and audio has had on the modern American psyche. You can find the video by searching for "
Censored Count" or some other similar string on Youtube, Google or other media outlets on the internet. The video is simply a copy of The Count's song about how much he likes to
enumerate the world and objects around him. But this childhood standby has been twisted. Almost every instance of the word 'count' in the song has been bleeped in the manner that virtually every FCC regulated piece of modern media containing expletives is bleeped. The resulting piece appears dirty, to hilarious effect.
So when The Count states:
"You know that I am called The Count
Because I really like to count"
The resulting lyric in this video is:
"You know that I am called The Count
Because I really like to *bleeeeep*"
As you can see it goes from a song about counting to a very song about whatever one thinks of when one hears the sound of a censor's stamp.
The meaning of the *bleep* has, from its use, been contextualized as meaning something that would otherwise be offensive. In other words, because it has been used to in place of a word, then it becomes the symbol for that word and takes on the emotional meaning that the word carries. And so its use here results not in a removal of obscenity but an injection. If censorship results in the injection of such expression then what possible removal of expression can be made in the typical use of censorship? The result of censorship is not the removal of obscene language, but the generation of a new obscenity. It does nothing but make it so you cannot hear a word, but that does not keep you from figuring out what the speaker or singer means.
One can say that this is simply a product of our culture forbidding the use of certain vulgarities for a number of reasons relating to class structure and as a result attempts to police thought by way of language are ongoing. But the versatility of human language renders these attempts at centralized control vain and pointless.
By the way, Fuck Censorship.
(Also, anyone who knows some name or handle for the original creator of this mashup, please tell me)