Entertainment Ave! - The Dude on the Right's Weekly Plight.

The Dude on the Right's Weekly Plight	For the weeks: July 11th -24th	To The Plight Question	To The Last Plight Result

So, the other day, I’m cruising in the dude-mobile, flipping some stations, trying to see what the kids are into these days, and I come across the local Top 40 station. The new Black Eyed Peas’ song is playing except it’s not the new Black Eyed Peas’ song, it appears to be a radio edit version where instead of the line "Don’t phunk with my heart," the Peas have changed it to "Don’t mess with my heart." As I sat there listening, stunned for awhile, I was just amazed that they had to change the "phunk" to "mess" because people were apparently hearing a different word instead. Now I say apparently because the only information I could find in my exhaustive five minute search of the internet came from some fan forums, and we all know how truthful those might be. I suppose I could have gotten more adventurous and maybe called the station to find out if they have a reason, but that would have taken too much work. "Fine," I said to myself, "I suppose if you’re the Peas and the way to guarantee a lot more airplay is to change one word, what the hell, it worked for them on the ‘Get It Started/Retarded’ song, go for it."

But then the utter hypocrisy of radio occurred to me as the next song started playing.

That song – "Candy Shop" by 50 Cent, featuring lyrics such as 50 rapping "I take you to the candy shop, I'll let you lick the lollypop, Go 'head girl, don't you stop, Keep going 'til you hit the spot (woah)," then the girl rapping "I'll take you to the candy shop, Boy one taste of what I got, I'll have you spending all you got, Keep going 'til you hit the spot (woah)" and later in the song 50 raps "Got the magic stick, I'm the love doctor, Have your friends teasin you 'bout how sprung I gotcha, Wanna show me how you work it baby, no problem, Get on top then get to bouncing round like a low rider, I'm a seasons vet when it come to this shit, After you work up a sweat you can play with the stick, I'm tryin to explain baby the best way I can, I melt in your mouth girl, not in your hands." Yes, they do edit out "shit" in the song on the radio.

So let’s see, you make a band change a word that sounds like "fuck" because, well, it sorta sounds like fuck, but you have no problem playing a song with more sexual innuendo, than, well, what am I saying innuendo, it’s pretty much put right out there for all the kids to hear.

Look, I’m not looking for anyone to censor these things, I just am amazed at the hypocrisy of radio. My opinion, and I guess this is easier because I have no kids, is that the parents should be the ones doing the censoring. Culture has a way for determining what should and shouldn’t be on the air simply because for the companies that put it out there, if the ratings don’t support the product, the product goes away. Then again, I’m also of the opinion we need some new vulgarities because what used to be taboo has become pretty much part of our culture anyway. It might as well be on the radio, kids and adults are saying it. George Carlin had his seven dirty words act, you know, shit, piss, cunt, fuck, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits. Those in the cleaned-up world are now sometimes referred to as sh.. (thank you Gwen Stefani), pee, the "c" word, the "f" word, c-sucker, m. f-er, and boobs, but for the most part you might as well just be saying the real thing because we know what you mean. My guess, for the majority of those of you who might read this, the one you might even be a little leery about saying is the "c" word. I think it's really the only vulgar word left. Why do I say that? Maybe I added a few of them to my Word dictionary along the years, but right now it's the only one that Microsoft tells me is misspelled.

Enough preaching, let’s get to the plight, which this week will simply be: Do you think the phrase "Don’t phunk with my heart" is vulgar?


This Week's Plight
Do you think the phrase "Don’t phunk with my heart" is vulgar?		Some info about you please (optional)
Yes No		Male - Female - Age -
Finished? Submit your plight response ------>

Last Week's Plight Results
Did you see the new Star Wars film, Revenge of the Sith, yet?
Yes - 72.3% No - 27.7%