The Big Bleeper is a lost and banned episode of Hey Arnold! that was originally part of Season 6(2004-2006), but the episode was immediately banned, rejected and never aired by executives due to the excessive use of profanity, which is deemed too extreme for Nickelodeon's core demographic of kids. The episode, uncut and uncensored, was screened at the 2003 World Animation Festival, similar to how the infamous banned episode of Dexter's Laboratory "Rude Removal" was shown. Creator Craig Bartlett claims to have used this episode as a comeback in response to the sudden cancellation of The Jungle Movie, in a recent interview with the Associated Press. The episode was finally being released online by Comedy Central on October 2, 2021.
Plot[]
One night, while Harold is watching television, he discovers a show in which older kids are transformed into superheroes, where they use vulgar language to fight crime. Amazed and shocked by how the kids use the language, Harold decides to teach Stinky and Sid to use these words.
The next morning, Harold, Stinky, and Sid curse loudly at each other during recess, using sentences such as "What a fucking lovely day this is, isn't it?" and "That movie last night was a complete load of dogshit!" Other kids become interested, but when Rhonda attempts to make her own comeback, Harold completely rigs it by shouting in her face "Fuck off, you lousy shitty bitch!". This causes the whole school to be involved, including Principal Wartz, and Arnold is definitely not impressed.
The boys are then suspended for pervasive profanity, but the trouble doesn't stop there. They hijack the radio station by cursing through the mic, they advertise their foul language by spray painting the dirty words around the town, and becoming rude and offensive. Eventually, Arnold finds a way to teach them that swearing a no being offensive isn't okay, and how censorship can really mess up their lives. The episode ends with the entire class getting their mouths washed out. When the camera zooms in on Arnold, we hear him say "What the fuck have I gotten into myself?" before fading to black.
Controversy[]
When Bartlett pitched the episode to Nickelodeon, it was immediately banned due to the extreme amount of language in the episode. He issued a rebuttal as it was censored, claiming that the episode of SpongeBob SquarePants, Sailor Mouth had the same use of language and was aired, but Nick declined, as executives told Bartlett that the excessive use of such language was unacceptable for a show. It only had one airing however, dated October 2nd, 2004, but due to the outrage it caused many parents due to its constant use of vulgar language, it was pulled from the schedule the day after. It was also pulled to the use of Straight Outta Compton, which was copyrighted at the time, Bartlett said a rouge devoloper put that in the script
Release[]
The episode was finally uploaded to YouTube and Comedy Central's website on October 2, 2021. The released episode is censored.
source: my ass
