Censor proves the biggest winner at Oscar ceremony

Robin Williams makes a point on Oscars night by taping his mouth. Picture / Reuters

At the Oscar awards, what was not said was probably more interesting than what was.

Hollywood's big night was beamed to the world with a five-second time delay, and broadcaster ABC ordered some controversial quips cut before the show, sparking debate about how far political correctness should go and how much freedom of speech was controlled.

Comedian Robin Williams said it all when he walked on stage with tape over his mouth.

Williams was to have performed a song lampooning conservative critic James C. Dobson, whose group had criticised cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants for appearing in a video it branded "pro-homosexual".

He was going to do it by concentrating on the dark underside of other cartoon characters, asking, for example, whether Casper the Friendly Ghost wore that white sheet as a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

Marc Shaiman, who wrote Williams' original routine, said he decided to withdraw the material after ABC raised objections that would have led to him re-writing 11 of 36 lines. ABC declined to comment.

"It's ironic because I feel the song is silly and the situation is silly and yet on the other hand it's extremely serious," Shaiman said. "This is the most blatant, immature censorship that I've ever come across."

Williams did eventually develop an act questioning cartoon characters' sexuality.

But it was a pale imitation of some of the lines origfinally planned and he looked pained performing it.

"The show lost what would have been the best minute-and-a-half they would have had," said Shaiman.

Chris Rock, the edgy black comedian called in to host the show, and, some say, to boost flagging ratings, was also in trouble long before the Oscars started.

He previously joked that straight, black men did not watch the Oscars, drawing an angry response from commentators such as Jake Lamar, an African American who called Rock's comments "a massive generalisation" and "depressing".

Then Oscar producer Gil Cates weighed in, calling ABC's decision to introduce a time delay in transmitting from Kodak Theatre a "terrible idea" and a concession to political correctness.

Federal regulators may boost fines for US broadcasters following last year's infamous Super Bowl "wardrobe malfunction" by singer Janet Jackson in which she bared her breast.

Earlier this month the US House of Representatives voted to raise the maximum indecency fine to as much as US$500,000 ($681,840) from US$32,500.

On the one hand, commentators predict that the more networks are forced to sanitise shows, the less people will be inclined to watch.

But at the same time, the more a show's producer warns viewers they may be offended, the more they are likely to tune in.

"People wanted to make sure they were present if the next Janet Jackson moment happened," said Robert Thompson, director of the Centre for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University.

In the end, Rock's content was political and racial but avoided becoming the main issue.

Williams told the New York Times, "For a while you get mad, then you get over it. They're afraid of saying Olive Oyl is anorexic.

"It tells you about the state of humour. It's strange to think: How afraid are you?"

- REUTERS