<font color=skyblue>I saw a video news bit on MSN that said that there is a popular new commercial for Australia tourism where this chick in a bikini says, "How the bloody hell are you?" Well...British censors have bleeped out the bloody word, even though that word is said to be used frequently on TV, movies, commercials, and everything else in Great Britain.

What's going on?</font>

You're certainly not the only country.

I'm all for someone taking a stand actually as I deplore the lapse in standards of etiquette that has occurred and really get fed up of hearing the f-word every five minutes.

However, 'bloody' is not the first word I'd start with, I must say!

<font color=skyblue>My in-laws have been able to trace their ancestry back to England to as far back as a Duke, and their last name is "Blood".

What's that about?</font>

I heard somewhere some time ago that there were 9 words whose use was totally banned on US (network) airwaves - ie there was no legitimate situation in which they could be used (b**** does not count, because it can be used as referring to a female dog, for example.) I could only ever figure out 2 or 3 of them.

Found any eye-patches or peg legs in the bottom drawer? :D

You're better than me, I could only guess at two.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_dirty_words <font color=red>WARNING CRUDE LANGUAGE</font>

That's the wikipedia article on it. It's also got some pretty interesting stuff about the FCC and how it's evolved over time.

Ironicly in the American south, censors censored the word "hell" but left "bloody".

In New Zealand the word "you" was censored, as censors believed the reference to a bloody ewe was disgusting.

The above post is completely nonfactually nonsensensical and should be read with a grain of salt.

Heheh, I saw a funny comic today, in response to England banning that add, instead of the "Where the bloody hell are you" it had a picture of a fat english bloke on a couch eating hot chips and it said "England, why the hell would you?" :D