I thought this was a joke when Matthew Cobb told me about it, but I don’t think it is. On a report by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on the mass emergence of periodical cicadas this year, the network actually pixillated a video of the insects mating. Here’s a screenshot. When the video shows them mating, the reporter says, “You really don’t want to watch—it’s kind of yucky.”
Is the CBC really that prudish?
That is both hilarios and absurd at the same time. God forbid one of their viewers should be offended by watching cicadas mating.
Hahahaha! Hilarious! Well, the CBC is weird and also talks funny (they say “shhhhedule” for “schedule” when most Canadians say “skedule” like “school”, they say “harris” for “harass”) so I’m not surprised they did this.
They say shhhhedule because that’s how we Brits say it!
Yes but Canadians don’t so my Canadian Broadcasting Company is speaking Canadian English wrong.
I am Canadian and speak that way. GTFO westerner, you aren’t all of Canada because you got some shitty oil
Civil war breaks out!
I just can’t tell if you are serious or not.
Perhaps you’d like try again at that? If it’s humour maybe put a smiley….if it’s not maybe try harder at civilness?
You mean you really can’t tell that humour was intended?
You mean you really can? What would be different if it wasn’t? What would be different if it was?
hey i’m from the east and don’t speak that way enough with the fighting, 😛
I know, I never thought on this site I’d be told to get the f*ck out and be accused of being a “westerner”.
I am a Canadian who moved to the US 28 years ago. I still say ‘shedule’ once in a while but usually just to wind someone up. Let’s face it, how can you say ‘school shedule’ with a straight face? I have almost completed the elimination of letter ‘o’ from my speech – ‘praaahject’ instead of ‘project’ – and otherwise, I knew I’d had passed the point of no return when, listening to a Canadian documentary one day, I heard someone say, “Oot and aboot” (no, really); I previously had had no idea what they were all talking aboot!! 🙂
PS Who let the CBC go off the deep end while I was away??
I think it depends where you’re from. I never used a long “o” for process or project and it was Americans who told me that’s how Canadians sound so I looked it up and apparently both pronunciations are acceptable and I’ve heard both preference in different urban areas. I also have always, as with a the Canadians I know said the hard k for schedule and we save harass not harris.
Other words, Canada : US
Foyer, Faux-eh : four-er
Semi, sem-ee : sem-ay
Futile, few-tile ; few-del
Garburator, garburator : insinkerator
Toronto, Tor-ran-na : Toronto
Yeah, and there seems to be an awful lot of British wannabes here (stateside), lately. The slang terms, the pronunciations…and what’s with all the English-accented news broadcasters? I thought we got over our inferiority complex long ago.
They also, say ‘militant’ when they describe and west hating, violent, murderous lunatic with a disgusting religious/political point of view that causes them to be continually outraged at the slightest hint of an insult or slight to their monstrous beliefs, when they actually mean …. ‘muslim terrorist’.
OMFSM- I can’t be sure because of the pixellation but that male cicada looks hung like a horsefly!
ROFL!
It’s just crazy! Here in the Netherlands no one, including the Evangelical Broadcast Assocation, would do this censuring of hexapod sexual intercourse.
IMO this was just dry Canadian humor. (I mean humour!)
Well, I wondered…
Methinks it was a little pixilated pixel-poking 🙂
Just to confirm, yes this was meant in jest, our humour is something between the generally broad (and not to stereotype as there are many exceptions, but the perceived) in your face scatological slapstick of the US and the dress up as women and talking in funny voices (all though that just may be the Newfies — who are also the only people I know who can burn doughnuts in the snow) oddly intellectual humour of the Brits.
It is actually a bit satire aimed at the prudishness of the general US public as seen from the Canadian perspective.
I would like to apologize for all Canadians, recommend reading Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” and the history there of, and invite you over for some oatmeal, bacon, and maple syrup for breakfast, just come in the doors not locked :o)
While appreciative of the invite and the humor, I will need to hold the Canadians collectively and forever responsible for missing a red maple leaf opportunity to stick it to the US by titillatingly pixillating everything except the part that was pixillated, as the cicadas are already quite modest in covering themselves with two layers of wings! Extra credit could have been had by leaving the area covering the males tymbals unpixillated as well.
All-in-all though, good show!
“…and the dress up as women and talking in funny voices…”
———-
You mean like…Kids in the Hall ?
Arguably the funniest comedy troupe ever to come out of Canada used that as one of their primary schticks.
Your cheap shot at Newfies shows that your idea of ‘funny’ sets a pretty low bar.
Unless Maple is itself a Newfie, no?
“I would like to apologize for all Canadians, …” By what authority, if you don’t mind my asking?
Ha, ha, well done, Maple. 🙂
Haha that’s the CBC’s attempt at humour. Canadian humour at it’s finest….
Does CBC stand for Children’s Broadcasting Corporation? Amazing! ‘Kind of yucky” -?!!!
That reminds me, John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten) said sex was “three minutes of squelching noises”…
Depends. It is all a matter of perspective. For willing participants it is usually much, much more than that. Of course, I might be biased.
If it showed one cicada nomming on another that would be ok. Sheesh.
You mean cicada fellatio?!
Stop that, right now. Also, I laughed.
+ 1
😀
They aren’t that prudish. It was a joke on their part. I know, not funny.
And any killing would have been left uncensored.
I love the sound of cicadas. I checked out the video on CBC and yes its pixillated!
Scintillate? No, pixillate!
It’s a good thing that the CBC has no interest in covering my garden, or else they would have to pixillate most of it, especially the stink bugs who are still going at it though spring is winding down. 🙂
Here is some more censored insect porn. Click on the ‘Mating’ jpg.
FlyMating
I think they got this idea from Japan.
They need to bleep out cicada chirping too. After all, it’s their mating call, and children should not be subjected to listening to such filth.
I am a bit surprised that even an atheist would publish such filth on a family-oriented site such as this. I think that drawing such attention to bug sex by pixillating only the naughty bits is corrosive to their morality.
The bugs morality ?
Ha ha, “even an atheist” is a nice touch. It would be even funnier if you added “from a godless country like Canada who are probably Marxist because of the red in their flag” 😀
Actually Canada is a confederacy (used to be a dominion), not as entitled perhaps as a republic, but it does have a nice alliteration.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Canada
We’ve had a few, and their was plenty of interesting debate, alas wikipedia doesn’t show all the other interesting options…
Let’s not forget the Newfoundland Tricolour!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newfoundland_Tricolour
I fly this from time to time in honour of my daughter’s years attending Memorial University of Newfoundland. Nobody around here has a clue as to what it is. (“Here” being Milwaukee.)
This site is such a treasure trove of trivia!
😀
My Marxist remark is in reference to Pat Buchanan referring to us as Soviet Canuckistan. 🙂
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Canadianism
Yes. By the time I get to talking about the sexual mores of insects odds are I am just being silly. Unless it is about mantises or spiders, which are sometimes culpable on the subject of murder and cannibalism. And explaining it away by claiming that this is a biological site is no excuse. There are plenty of things about biology that shouldn’t be discussed openly. And, besides, this is a cat site. And we certainly don’t want to go there.
There is nothing to explain away. No excuses are necessary.
Wow. Please seek help Jim. It is OK to enjoy life every now and then.
By the way, this is a biology site and, what do you know, reproduction is sort of a major aspect of biology.
Oh. You were being satirical right? Never mind then.
Well, this must humour taken a notch higher! Would any of their viewers be disturbed if they saw the video? Or is it rated pg?
Mating insects = viewer warnings
Bob Rae skinny dipping with Ric Mercer in prime time = required viewing
Hey, bugs mating is obscene,
But the poster of two dudes blowing each other posted in a classroom full of 11 year olds….that’s just hunkey dorey to the CBC types.
Speaking as a Canadian, and frequent CBC watcher, I can safely state that the pixilation was done solely for humorous effect. They rarely pull punches on “serious” news pieces. At worst they’ll warn viewers if “salty” language will be uttered or graphic content will be shown, and let most things though uncensored to get an “accurate” portrayal. This, which is neither salty or graphic was clearly a tongue in cheek joke. I’m pretty sure any Canadian watching the segment (as I did) got it too.
My guess is that the graphics department was having some fun with a fluff piece.
I’m sure that’s it. Another demonstration of Poe’s law.
Mounted Police’s Flying Circus. Third Act. The Indecency.
I thought the position was…ah…interesting.
I had to watch a few times just to …. um… fully grasp the technique.
Thanks for bringing this up. A bit of background though: CBC isn’t the national news outlet that it used to be.
They seem to think that Canadians across the country care about pure speculation as to whether or not Toronto’s mayor smoked crack.
Their two biggest ‘news’ formats are to do an online poll and then report a story based on the results a week or two later. They also think that ‘news’ means publishing lists: “% things you need to know before…” and “10 ways to…”
CBC is entertainment, not news. Their comments section is the most active of any other outlet and is a good read in and of itself.
Checking out the comments at the CBC site someone is taking a lot of flack for pixillating the mating.Just one prude one hopes.Just a thought: CBC is taking a lot of funding cuts, not unlike NPR. Maybe afraid of offending.
CBC is hardly prudish, they have pioneered the staffing of perverts, LBGT candidates and douche bags for decades.
Hetro, white males need not apply.
Good points,
It’s funny you bring that up, as I was discussing the Staff at CBC with some friends a short while ago.
I think the CBC has a quota system.
50% gay males, colour not important
40% visible minorities
5% Lesbians
3% Evan Soloman
2% Peter Mansbridge.
Oh..but they need to be 100% opposed to anyhing conservative, or fiscally responsible.
I thought CBC was made up of bicycle riders of various genders and sexual orientations. 😉
This is so ludicrous!
I saw something equally ludicrous the other day, from a documentary about facial expressions in humans. In one shot, when the anthropologist was studying behaviour in an isolated tribal group, there was a shot of a bare-breasted woman. Just her nipples were blurred out. Gimme a break!
Oh, gotta agree with comment #19 about the cicada coital cover-up. It’s gotta be a joke.
🙂
// I thought this was a joke when Matthew Cobb told me about it, but I don’t think it is. //
+
It is. The meteorologist was still laughing when they turned to the weather report.
If there was anything missing from this piece, it was why the cicadas come out just every 17 [prime number, that] years.
You could fill that gap.
Google is your friend. 😉
I don’t know if this pixillating is meant to be funny or not. Last evening when the CBC evening news was on the radio (6:00PM Eastern), the nreporter used several pejorative words about the cicadas. I said to my spouse that if Matthew Cobb (of WEIT fame in this household) hears of this intentional putdown there will be trouble ‘fer shur, eh?’
Glad to hear it’s a joke, but it reminds me of the message boards that won’t publish “circumstances”, only “circ*mstances”. Not from Scunthorpe, obviously.
It’s subtle, sarcastic Canadian humour at it’s finest. Just ’cause the rest of the world can’t take a joke…
Seconded.
Unless you listen closely, the media coverage makes it sound like the cicadas are coming to all parts of the country.Here’s a table of all the different broods and their locations.
Et tu, Sesame Street?
I’m having fun reading all the responses and trying to figure out which ones are facetious and which ones aren’t.
It’s a bit sad when CBC were taking the piss out of prudery and get accused of prudishness themselves by people who didn’t ‘get it’.