I know that the US is known for somewhat strict restrictions nowadays on what can’t and cannot air on national television, well, ok, nowhere near as strict as say Japan and China censorship, but we are getting stricter it seems, as time goes on.  I didn’t really understand how much more leeway British censors give to their television shows until I saw the hilarious British version of the now popular in the US show, The Office.  Ricky Gervais, the creator, writer, and I believe also the director of the show, is brilliant.

Not only is their swearing (I even heard the F bomb a couple times), but there are also sexual inuendos on the show, as well as sexual talk, and even a dildo showed up on one of the episodes!  Try to get that by the censors over here and you’d be laughed at! 

It made me realize how prude we’ve gotten as a society when sexual content is considered “dirty” vulgar, and taboo, when sex is just a natural, and yes, many times funny, thing to not only talk about but to make fun and make light of in sitcom situational comedies such as the British version of The Office. 

The US version of the office is pretty funny, but it doesn’t get the same kind of deep, gutteral laughs as the British version, for the simple fact that sex and adult humor is just plain funny!  I’m hoping our censorship relaxes a little bit, but that is not likely, as we are seeming to go into a direction where the government and the religious right has more of a say in censorship than the people who actually watch tv or listen to music a lot.