I’ve always been mildly fascinated by the question of how radio and TV outlets choose which words to censor. Not obscenities, mind you — I’m talking about the 100% clean verbs and nouns that get muted because someone thinks, rightly or wrongly, that they imply something inappropriate. For example: The video for N.E.R.D.’s new single, "Everyone Nose," has entered heavy rotation on MTV recently… with one key phrase missing. On record, the chorus goes, "Hundred dollar bills, look at you, achoo!" Innocent enough, right? But I’ve noticed that the network mysteriously bleeps the "at you, achoo!" part every time.
This is presumably happening because everyone, er, nose that that hook is totally about doing cocaine, man. So clever, those N.E.R.D. guys. But how does bleeping an onomatopoetic representation of sneezing really do anything to obscure that theme? ("If only we hadn’t let our impressionable kids hear the word achoo at such a tender age, they never would have gotten caught up with that fast crowd!") I mean, this video and song are peppered with thinly veiled drug references — all unsubtle enough that everybody above the age of 12 will catch them, but none of them are actually spelled out. That doesn’t bother me, but isn’t anyone offended by "achoo!" going to absolutely flip out when they see those paparazzi-style shots of a dazed-looking Lindsay Lohan, or for that matter when they hear the droning vocal loop dedicating the song to "all the girls standing in the line for the bathroom" over and over and over again?
The full video, "achoos" and all — and thus kinda-sorta NSFW, I guess — is below, so judge for yourself if it’s offensive. And riddle me this: Can we ever truly be sure that Pharrell, Chad, and Shay didn’t write this song about a wicked allergy attack? (Pollen’s killer this time of year, lemme tell ya.)
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It’s probably because it sounds like he’s saying “Look, a Jew!”
I’ve been listening to this song a lot the last two weeks and never picked up on the fact that it was a cocaine reference.
But yeah, now that I think about, it makes a lot of sense.
They were on a british radio station a while ago and said this song is about young girls (rumor is Lindsay, Brit Brit etc) doing lines of of cocaine. So a $100 bill look atchu!! Drug reference=offensive to someone.
It makes about as much sense as MTV censoring Feist’s video for “I Feel It All” by bleeping out the word gun in the chorus. And I thought the song was all about gun violence, thanks so much MTV for protecting us all.
are we sure he’s not saying “look at you” quickly? but then again, why would MTV bleep that out? on a side note—when did MTV start playing videos again? i almost feel like marking this on my calendar, its such a historic moment
Wow–I really am getting old. When did MTV start going Republican? You used to be able to get away with *a lot* more on that station back in the day. Reminds me of a local classic rock station–they would bleep out the phrase “roll another joint” from Tom Petty’s “You Don’t Know How it Feels,” but had no trouble playing other songs with drug references, notably Eric Clapton’s “Cocaine.” And so many other songs with harsh language (“Jet Airliner” etc.) They’ve since stopped bleeping any songs. However, there’s a really conservative oldies station in the area that will bleep or remove phrases like “making love in the green grass” from songs like “Brown Eyed Girl.” Now that’s taking the “let’s not offend anyone” stance way too far.
It would be a much less obvious coke reference if every other girl in the video wasn’t walking out of the bathroom rubbung her nose.
As an adult, I knew. But when I was 18 in small town New England, I wouldn’t have any idea. Once, MTV bleeped it, I would have googled it though. MYV is only drawing more attention to it.
The Everlast song “What It’s Like” is censored on Clear Channel to a ridiculous degree. The song provides an empathetic message but at least 3 or 4 words each verse are bleeped.
Kinda like dubbing out the gunshots in MIA’s Paper Planes.
First of all, the song is awful. The first N.E.R.D. record In Search Of… was GREAT. The next one was not so good. The Pharell made that absolutely awful solo record. Now, this. Sounds like a typical 2 Live Crew song from 1990. What has happened to these guys? So much talent, squandered. Second, I also thought maybe its being misheard as “a jew.” Certainly a possibility. Sounds like “at you, at you” to me.
its says “look at u” its not even bleeped out either