There is nothing more embarrassing than raving about a movie, book, or television show from your youth, sitting down with friends and family to watch it, and then coming upon an explicit scene or hearing a barrage of foul language.
“I don’t remember that part!” you protest.
What probably happened is that you watched it on television in the days when editing for time and content removed most of what would be considered objectionable. I remember telling everyone how funny Turner and Hooch was at a family gathering. We had to stop at the store for snackage, and I picked it up at the video store. We all sat down with our young children to watch. I found myself jumping up to stand in front of the screen on a couple of occasions. Either they edited the dog shampooing with Tom Hanks running around in his skivvies, or I was traumatized and blanked it out of my memory. And I must have completely forgotten about the sexy scene in the kitchen…
Then there was the time when I was in Bible college, I bought a book at a library sale that I had read and loved, and let a friend borrow before I reread it. She handed it to me and gave me the hairy eyeball.
“I’m surprised that you’d buy this book.”
“Why? It was great!”
“I had to put it down. There were too many cuss words and a sex scene. I didn’t know you read books like that.”
“What are you talking about?”
So I sat down and read it for myself. Where did all these scenes come from? I don’t remember any of this!
Then I went home on a weekend, and realized that it had been in one of my Reader’s Digest Condensed Books. Oy vey.
The thing is, this happens more often than I’d like. I forget that what I found funny as a teenager is NOT so funny as an adult. Not to mention the double entendre that went over my young head suddenly smacks me in the face so that I choke on my popcorn.
“Mom, what does ________ mean?”
“I’ll tell you when you’re older, Like, when you’re 30.”
With much eye-rolling and shaking of the head, I read Watch Out! Cursing in “Family” Movies WHAT did that character just say?! A guide to movies with more four-letter words than you remember by Betsy Bozdech.
Movies you remember as being innocuous when you were young may have more four-letter words than you remember — or maybe it’s just been years since you saw anything besides the edited-for-TV version.
They’ve made a list of movies you may have seen as a kid, and you might be surprised by the content of movies and television from ‘the good ol’ days’.
There are several review sites that do a great job of informing parents of content so that they can make appropriate choices for their kids. I advise using them all- what one reviewer overlooks or doesn’t think is objectionable will be mentioned by another:
Have you ever been surprised by the content of a book or movie you thought you remembered?
