Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy was on regular television over
the weekend, so I made a point to record it just to see if there was
any ridiculous dubbing going on. Surprisingly, the movie was mostly
untouched. It never really struck me before, despite my having seen it
well over 100 times, that the film just really isn't grotesquely
profane. Boobies, balls, whale's vagina... almost everything like that
made it through.
One edit came during the "massive erection" scene. Veronica says "Mr.
Burgundy you have a massive e..." and they just eliminate the rest of
the word. Then the shot is digitally zoomed in ever so slightly so you
cannot see the joke erection.
But there was one supremely goofy edit about two-thirds of the way in.
In the original film, as Ron and Veronica are feuding, she changes
something in the teleprompter and Ron blindly winds up reading "Go fuck
yourself, San Diego" which then gets him fired. I knew this would pose
a problem for the TV version, and I wondered what word they'd dub over
to make it suitable for television. They couldn't cut the scene
entirely, since it is what launches the film into the third act.
What ends up happening is they get to the point where he's about to say
the line, then they cut away to people watching the newscast and dub
in an entire line from earlier in the film. So in an entirely
different voice you hear "You're a dirty bitch" and then they cut back
to the original "...San Diego" end to that sentence. No effort
whatsoever, and yet I laughed for five straight minutes at how
ridiculous the edit was.
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