305
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] RegalPotoo@lemmy.world 20 points 7 months ago

As others have pointed out, US first amendment laws generally protect shows like South Park because it's generally understood that the characters in the show that resemble real people are parodies, and the show runners aren't stating a fact that the real person said or did a thing in reality.

Funnily enough, the UK has much stricter laws about defaming people - the country has a strict class system, and it wouldn't do if poor people could embarrass rich people - there is a significant carve out for "vulgar abuse". If I was to go on TV and (for sake of example) called Boris Johnson three shit-stained jugs of fetted piss wearing a trench coat, that would be ok, because people understand that to be a euphemistic insult, not a literal statement of fact. If I went on TV and said that he was a drunk, that wouldn't be - unless I can prove that he is an alcoholic, he could sue me for libel. The outcome of this is that an equivalent show to South Park could be made in the UK, it would just have to be utterly filthy

[-] silasmariner@programming.dev 7 points 7 months ago

The UK has a lot of shows with celebrity parodies... As in the US it's entirely protected speech...

[-] Skua@kbin.social 1 points 7 months ago

Spitting Image seems like the most immediately obvious one. It's older, of course, but I think the point stands

[-] Nollij@sopuli.xyz 5 points 7 months ago

In Penn & Teller: Bullshit, they did something similar. They pointed out very early they would be more vulgar than most people expect. This is because words like fraud, quack, scammer, etc were specific allegations that could land them in court. But words like asshole were not, and were much safer.

[-] dhork@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago

The outcome of this is that an equivalent show to South Park could be made in the UK, it would just have to be utterly filthy

I never wanted to see a hypothetical show as badly as this

[-] WhyTFNot@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago

Relevant QI fact: youtube

Sorry YouTube link - you know the game

[-] tobogganablaze@lemmus.org 3 points 7 months ago

I'll sue you in England!

[-] RobotToaster@mander.xyz 1 points 7 months ago

the country has a strict class system

Yanks pretending their country doesn't have a class system on the internet has to be one of my favourite delusions.

[-] imaqtpie@lemmy.myserv.one 14 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Nobody said the US doesn't have a class system? Also the person you're responding to appears to be a kiwi, not an American.

Non-Americans making fools out of themselves while trying to casually denigrate the US is one of my favorite internet traditions. It's especially entertaining because there are plenty of valid criticisms, but people often seem to go for the most lazy, inaccurate generalizations and reveal their ignorance.

[-] BakerBagel@midwest.social 10 points 7 months ago

Our class system is based entirely on how much money you have. The UK still has a legal aristocracy based on how much land your direct ancestor owned 800 years ago.

this post was submitted on 12 Apr 2024
305 points (97.2% liked)

No Stupid Questions

35868 readers
425 users here now

No such thing. Ask away!

!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.

All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.



Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.

On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.

If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.



Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.

If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.



Credits

Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!

The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS