That Ordinary Kid Sure Can Play A Mean Pinball

[The Mad Monk]

...was how they sang it at a local high school concert a day or two ago.

Because deaf dumb and blind are pejoratives.

I don't know what shocked me more, that the school would do that, or that some people were actually supporting the butchery.

Oh, you know the song, "Shot Through The Heart", by Bon Jovi? They sang that too.

...and that line, "Oh oh, I'm a loaded gun"?

Yeah. That part was dropped.

No article, I couldn't find one.

[Sava]

is it 5 oclock somewhere?

[The Mad Monk]

I'm not sure what's stranger, that question, or that "5 oclock" is an ad link for Stanley Furniture.

[snoopy369]

What exactly is pejorative about deaf, dumb, and blind? Pinball Wizard is perhaps one of the most celebratory songs for overcoming handicaps there is.

[SlowwHand]

5 o'clock somewhere refers to it's time for a drink, somewhere. And yes, the school is stupid.

[snoopy369]

It's really two separate stupidities; one, bowdlerizing the song, and two, bowdlerizing something that's not actually insulting.

[giblets]

What exactly is pejorative about deaf, dumb, and blind? Pinball Wizard is perhaps one of the most celebratory songs for overcoming handicaps there is.

Well, people do try to take "******" out of Huckleberry Finn even though Mark Twain obviously wasn't a racist. Certain words are deemed taboo and no logic goes into censoring them.

[snoopy369]

"Deaf", "Dumb", and "Blind" are taboo? I mean, I guess you could replace "Dumb" with "Mute" if you really objected to it (though I still think that's silly), but ...

[snoopy369]

Also, if you really don't like high schoolers to sing songs that are potentially offensive, I'd recommend removing Billy Joel from your list of songs entirely. He wrote the entire canon drunk as a skunk

[giblets]

"Deaf", "Dumb", and "Blind" are taboo? I mean, I guess you could replace "Dumb" with "Mute" if you really objected to it (though I still think that's silly), but ...

Not to my knowledge, but I guess they are now. Maybe it's been replaced with "visually, verbally and auditorily differently abled".

[giblets]

Also, if you really don't like high schoolers to sing songs that are potentially offensive, I'd recommend removing Billy Joel from your list of songs entirely. He wrote the entire canon drunk as a skunk

Was he considered offensive in the 1970's or something? Billy Joel seems harmless.

[snoopy369]

Humor, gribbler. Humor.

[regexcellent]

Just sayin' I go to the school which is home to the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and nobody, not even any of the deaf students which make up 8% of the student body, minds the word deaf.

[The Mad Monk]

Well, people do try to take "******" out of Huckleberry Finn even though Mark Twain obviously wasn't a racist. Certain words are deemed taboo and no logic goes into censoring them.

Every story, slenderized, starved, bluepenciled, leeched and bled white, resembled every other story. Twain read like Poe read like Shakespeare read like Dostoevsky read like — in the finale — Edgar Guest. Every word of more than three syllables had been razored. Every image that demanded so much as one instant’s attention — shot dead."

It feels like we're headed that way.

[Elok]

"Mother has an accordion which she plays quite loudly. It keeps everyone in the area from sleeping and we wish she would kindly cut it out."