Spoilers for Monday 16th August 2021 (Series 81, Prelim 35)

[Philip A]

Incredibly bad luck for Roy Gerrish. This is his second appearance; his first was in 2007 and on both occasions he lost on a crucial conundrum.

[Rhys Benjamin]

I think POOFTER should have been bleeped.

[Toby McDonald]

RAMICORNS in R10

[L'oisleatch McGraw]

I think POOFTER should have been bleeped.

Agreed... like when WANKERS was on the show.
I wonder why they decided to keep it uncensored?

[Gavin Chipper]

I think POOFTER should have been bleeped.

Agreed... like when WANKERS was on the show.
I wonder why they decided to keep it uncensored?

I disagree. It's a word that can be offensive in context but in isolation is more funny. WANKER is more of a "swear" word, though, fuck it, I wouldn't bleep that either.

[Tom S]

Yeah, think it would have been fair to bleep the answer. I'm sure they'd have made alterations if someone had declared the N word...

[Gavin Chipper]

Yeah, think it would have been fair to bleep the answer. I'm sure they'd have made alterations if someone had declared the N word...

I think it says something that Rhys spelt out the P word in full, whereas you didn't with the N word. Obviously, two different people with two different thresholds, but the N word offends people in isolstion (wrongly in my opinion but whatever) in a way that the P word doesn't.

[Gavin Chipper]

It's also worth looking over the history of this forum regarding the word. Here is the general search and I think it's worth looking at this thread, and this one, and the word even has its own thread.

[Gavin Chipper]

Rhys mentioned in the recap about it being discussed on Twitter. There's this and this, for example.

However, I maintain as with other words, it's what it's used for that matter, not that someone has put those letters together in some order.

But I suppose it's a good way to control the masses. Racism and homophobia used to be much more rife in society than they are now (not that they've gone way), but attitiudes change, partly because people are easily led and follow the crowd, rather than because they've just really thought about it and decided they were bad. The people that think about things and are generally good people weren't racist or homophobic to begin with. Anyway, where I'm going with this is that since this is a reprogramming exercise for unthinking people rather than some sort of moral or intellectual transformation, you can just program them to think the very words themselves are BAD THINGS, rather than the attitudes behind them, and it will probably keep them on the straight and narrow.* We, as intelligent people, however, should be able to see past that though and be able to watch people declare these words on Countdown without getting upset about it.

*As a society, we haven't really been programmed to think that the P word is instrinsically bad in the same way as we have with the N word anyway.

[Rhys Benjamin]

I have no compunction with spelling out racist terms when required (such as in recaps). Would f*ggot have been bleeped? Probably.

[Jon O'Neill]

It's also worth looking over the history of this forum regarding the word. Here is the general search and I think it's worth looking at this thread, and this one, and the word even has its own thread.

I'm always a bit nervous when these old threads get dug up, especially on issues where the playing field has changed over time. Actually I really enjoyed the re-read of "Frustrated by the programme marginalising her sexuality" once it gets going and I think that thread could be considered one of the all-time great c4c threads, with brilliant contributions from George Jenkins, Ralph Gillions, Phil Reynolds and more. It is refreshing to read something on the Internet where there seems to be genuine open-mindedness and willingness to learn. Sadly the odd troll is mixed in.

[L'oisleatch McGraw]

I'm sure they'd have made alterations if someone had declared the N word...

Which N word?
Noodles?

[L'oisleatch McGraw]

This article is awful. It would make you want to root for the racists and homophobes. But then again -Pink News- they are beyond hope.

While I have some sympathy for Gevin's arguments above, I still maintain -given the times we live in, and the reaction from the likes of Richard Osman- that the word should have been bleeped; unless the afternoon TV show Countdown wishes to find itself at the forefront of the culture wars, fighting the good fight against PC-gone-mad and the LGBTQIABCXYZ+ agenda... but that's really not a route that the show would want or need to go down.

Edited to include:-
"C4 have now apologised. They said: “The airing of the word was an error of judgement. It does not align with our values and we apologise for any offence caused.”"

A quote from this article from The Mirror. I recommend skimming past the article right down to the comments section. They are like a breath of fresh air, and further evidence that the clock is ticking on woke-ism.

[Fiona T]

Feel sorry for Matt. I'm sure being caught up in this must have put a downer on a great octorun. Hope it doesn't get to him too much - comes across as a pleasant fella.

[Rhys Benjamin]

I loathe Pink News, it has to be said.

[Gavin Chipper]

Feel sorry for Matt. I'm sure being caught up in this must have put a downer on a great octorun. Hope it doesn't get to him too much - comes across as a pleasant fella.

He'll be dining out on this for years.

[James Robinson]

Interesting that no-one has talked about the conundrum scramble in this one…

Especially, as only two letters were switched from the scramble…

Up there with SHIRTLOST and STICKPOLE…, although much more discrete.