In a 2017 “Ask Me Something” thread on Reddit, co-creator David X. Cohen was requested about any jokes they wrote that the “increased ups” made them lower. Cohen gave an instance of a joke that wasn’t notably intelligent or soiled, however which nonetheless received Fox’s consideration:
“…the place Bender debates towards the Professor to legalize robosexual marriage. When the present was edited for syndication and potential earlier broadcast instances, the Fox censor wouldn’t let Bender say ‘I am our A within the Gap.'”
You could be considering, “That is it?” The road is only a delicate play on the phrase “ace within the gap,” with Bender as an alternative referring to himself as an ass that no person desires to take care of. Though Comedy Central was nice with the road, if you happen to’re watching a rerun on Fox you will most likely hear Bender name himself “a grasp debater,” which Cohen mentioned “was deemed acceptable.”
It is a weird change, as a result of a pun about masturbation appears extra inappropriate than the unique line. However the Fox censors work in mysterious methods, as a number of Matt Groening-created exhibits have mocked through the years. Their most potent critique was most likely the opening to a “Treehouse of Horror” episode in “The Simpsons,” the place a Fox censor is proven crossing out all of the jokes within the script for the episode, even the jokes he finds humorous. The section ends with the censor being stabbed to demise, which ought to provide you with a good suggestion of the writers’ ideas on their fixed meddling.
The excellent news, as Cohen’s instance exhibits, is that their arbitrary guidelines are sometimes straightforward to work round. Once they tried to stop the “Futurama” writers from telling a risqué joke, the writers slipped an much more egregious joke proper beneath their noses.