
Fawlty Towers 'Don't mention the war' episode removed from UKTV - central_commit
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jun/11/fawlty-towers-dont-mention-the-war-episode
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throwablePie
> The original broadcast included a scene in which Major Gowen, a regular
> guest at the hotel, uses very strong racist language in relation to an
> anecdote about the West Indies cricket team. A decade ago many broadcasters
> began editing out this part of the programme, although the racist language
> can still be heard on the version hosted by Netflix.
> [http://archive.is/ZLIqs](http://archive.is/ZLIqs)

I'm African American and I'd prefer not to be turned into a perpetual victim
by people who mean well. Rather than infantilizing censorship, I'd like to
have the option to watch to watch this classic episode in its entirety. An
embedded disclaimer wouldn't be inappropriate.

Apparently, many Germans find this scene very funny:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfl6Lu3xQW0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfl6Lu3xQW0)

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doublesCs
What an extraordinary coincidence, I watched this episode yesterday on
Netflix.

In the show the Major is a running joke as a very old person with a very old
worldview. You can immediately know what he's gonna say when he opens he mouth
to talk about black people, so I wasn't surprised at all. I was more surprised
when in the same episode, Fawlty is startled and confused when he meets a
black doctor.

~~~
doublesCs
EDIT:

> Cleese told The Age newspaper: “If you put nonsense words into the mouth of
> someone you want to make fun of, you’re not broadcasting their views, you’re
> making fun of them. The major was an old fossil left over from decades
> before. We were not supporting his views, we were making fun of them. If
> they can’t see that – if people are too stupid to see that – what can one
> say?”

[https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/jun/12/john-
cleese-...](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/jun/12/john-cleese-
attacks-stupid-removal-of-fawlty-towers-episode)

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smcphile
The URL given doesn’t seem to be working (404 error). The correct URL seems to
be: [https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jun/11/fawlty-
towers-...](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jun/11/fawlty-towers-dont-
mention-the-war-episode-removed-from-uktv)

Update: The new URL states the episode is being reinstated:
[https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/jun/12/john-
cleese-...](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/jun/12/john-cleese-
attacks-stupid-removal-of-fawlty-towers-episode)

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nyanpasu64
And the article has been removed from The Guardian.

