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Avoid the Dreaded G Rating (view source)

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That's right, changing the rating. Perception means a lot, and age-based rating systems tend to result in people using ratings to judge whether or not something is for them. R ratings tend to indicate something for adults ([[Rated "M" for Money|though not always]]), and G ratings tend to indicate [[What Do You Mean It's Not for Kids?|something for young children]], such as a non-violent animated film. In between are PG and PG-13, which indicate content for older ages, but not necessarily adults.
 
So what tends to happen with a lot of perfectly clean, family-friendly movies is that the word "damn" or "hell" (or both) might be added to the script, just to drop that dreaded G rating and move up to a PG so the movie has a better shot at avoiding the "kid stuff" stigma that keeps teen or adult viewers away. (Of course, this can still vary: the movies ''[[Airport]]'' and ''[[Star Trek: The Motion Picture|Star Trek the Motion Picture]]'' have the word "damn" in them and both had G ratings, and the G-rated ''[[Gone with the Wind]]'' has, in addition to the most famous use of the word "damn" in history, a lot of other distinctly non-G-rated things like barely off screen sex, open bloodshed, and a sea of dead bodies.) An advantage of very little swearing is that it makes it much easier for the film in question to be edited for TV and airplane flights without particularly interrupting the story. Sometimes even stronger profanity will be unnecessarily added, or the characters might pay an irrelevant and fleeting visit to a strip club, or in rare cases, a scene of mild violence might have blood added to it instead. Any way, the goal is always the same: to make people perceive the movie as not exclusively for children. Ironically, this may be counterproductive, as the average G-rated film makes more money than the average R-rated film (although this might simply be due to the oversaturation of R-rated films compared to the incredibly rare G-rated films, the latter simply getting more average business due to a total lack of options for young children).
 
There are also instances of content being added to create an intentional PG-13 rating, and in some cases, content being removed from an R rated movie for the same reason. It's all about trying to get a certain audience to watch the film; in the UK, the practice is sometimes known as "fifteening" since the target was the BBFC 15 rating, though this has faded since the advent of the PG-13-equivalent 12 (later 12A) rating.
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Ironically enough, in modern times, it's nearly impossible to get a G rating these days on any theatrical release done in live action without some serious, ''serious'' negotiation (in a strange [[Inverted Trope|inversion]] of the [[Animation Age Ghetto]], the MPAA is more than happy to rate something as PG for "nothing offensive" just because it's live action). As if assisting the production companies in the propagation of this attitude, almost nothing ever makes it to theaters with a G rating in the first place, but practically none of ''that'' is live action. Contrast this with some of the G rated movies of old, which not only included violence but sometimes even blood (for example, [[Disney]]'s 1954 movie ''[[Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea]]''<ref>which was made long before the ratings system, but received a G rating in 1970</ref> has a pretty high body count and has some unconvincing but definitely present blood during the death of a key character).
 
The existence of this trope is due to [[Flanderization]] of the MPAA rating system. Originally "G" ratings were for movies for a "'''G'''eneral" audience, not for "'''G'''randmas & babies." ''[[Star Trek: The Motion Picture|Star Trek the Motion Picture]]'' was rated G despite a couple of horrific deaths by transporter malfunction. ''[[Planet of the Apes]]'' was rated G and you saw Charlton Heston's bare butt, not to mention all the violence, "damn dirty ape" and [[Earth All Along|"God damn you all to hell!"]] The G-rated ''[[The Andromeda Strain]]'' also had bare butts along with a dead woman's breasts. ''[[Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger]]'' was rated G and it showed Jane Seymour naked and almost raped. As a broad generalization: when the PG-13 rating started, all the PG movies became PG-13 and the higher end G movies became PG, leaving G to [[Disneyfication|Disney]] and the like. By the same token, the "X" rating originally denoted any film with content deemed unsuitable for minors, not just porn. It's probably no accident that the only G-rated film to win a Best Picture Oscar (''[[Oliver!]]'') and the only X-rated film to do the same (''[[Midnight Cowboy]]'', although that film has since been downgraded to an R rating due to the same dynamic we're talking about) were released in 1968 and 1969 respectively, right after the MPAA system was first instituted.
 
The "G is for Grandma" effect is probably the motivation for the US TV rating system, introduced years after the movie version called the bugs into sharp contrast, to have both a TV-Y rating and a TV-G rating: TV-Y is "specifically for kids", and TV-G means "nothing offensive". The ESRB ratings for video games, since interactive media have to account for both content and playability, also have both the "E for Everyone" and several ratings for different younger age groups (some lower-end E10+ games suffer as well, albeit to a lesser extent). Incidentally, even though the video game industry is [[Rated "M" for Money|no stranger to edginess for marketing's sake]], this trope is probably least common in video games. That said, the original name for the all-inclusive rating for games was "K-A for Kids to Adults," with the name changed specifically because games sold better among older gamers when the rating didn't have "kid" in it.
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* Probably the reason why Ralph Roach said "fuck" once in ''[[Joes Apartment]]'', other than that, the band's name being "Shit", and some violence and innuendo the movie is relatively tame.
** I don't know. Even without the f-bomb, I'm pretty sure the movie woudn't have recieved below a PG-13.
 
* ''[[The King's Speech]]'', a biopic about Prince Albert, the Duke of York; later King George VI, and his struggle with stuttering. It was rated R after two scenes that involved [[Cluster F-Bomb]]. Other than that there are no violence or sexual situations.
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* The Australian movie ''Playing Beatie Bow'' bears the PG label on the DVD cover. The reason? Abigail says "Oh, shit" towards the end. It even ''feels'' forced, as otherwise the movie is clean (and based on a YA novel to boot)
 
* ''[[Psychonauts]]'' features a few tiny uses of barely-visible red blood and a few awkward usages of "ass," presumably to bump the game up to a T rating. Without them, there's very little in terms of objectionable content in the game to justify a rating higher than an "E," but the ''themes'' it deals with are heavy and/or creepy enough that marketing the game to kids wouldn't have really worked. They just needed to add things the ESRB would actually object to.
 
* ''[[The Queen]]'' is a dialogue and mood driven character study, and got a PG-13 rating. No sex, no violence. But there's a lone f-word buried in the dialog so deeply it's easy to not even notice. Not that the movie really appeals to anyone under the age of 13. Similarly and for the same reason, it was rated 12 in the UK.
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* ''The Score'' is a nice caper movie about a bunch of robbers. It would've earned a PG, maybe a PG-13, if not for the few dozen [[Cluster F-Bomb|swearwords]] the characters used at every opportunity. It got an R.
 
* Don Bluth wanted ''[[The Secret of NIMH]]'' to have a PG rating to appeal to a larger audience (and the fact that it has more frightening scenes than most of the Disney canon films combined). Defying all logic (and one "damn"), the MPAA gave them a G. Then again though, [[Animation Age Ghetto|there's another reason it was rated 'G'...]]
 
* The film of Austen's ''[[Sense and Sensibility (film)|Sense and Sensibility]]'' was sneakier; the filmmakers there avoided the G rating by inserting some profanities into the background din of a ballroom scene.
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* According to Hollywood legend, ''[[Star Wars]]'': ''[[A New Hope]]'' came back from the ratings board with a notice that it had fallen squarely between G and PG. The producers requested it be given the PG rating.
** Han making a preemptive strike was [[Bowdlerise|bowdlerized]] [[The Dog Shot First|into him reacting to Greedo]] in ''Star Wars: Special Edition'' specifically so that Star Wars would retain its PG rating rather than being bumped up to PG-13. [[Fan Dumb|Certain fans]] were [[Single-Issue Wonk|not happy about this]], and also think [[Mis BlamedMisblamed|George Lucas did it because he hates the true fans]].
*** The funniest thing about blaming Lucas is that he's been seen on multiple occasions wearing "Han Shot First" T-shirts, suggesting that he isn't any happier about the mandated change, or possibly just pandering to the fans.
**** Probably because Lucas made such a big deal for so long about everything being his 'original vision', rather than ever being willing to slip out a tacit admission that perhaps he got nudged into a few decisions. In doing so, he basically absolved the ratings people of any blame for the changes and took it all upon himself. Oops.
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* ''[[Topsy Turvy]]'' would bore kids, but if you want to make it G, all you have to do is cut an optional scene with topless (and fleetingly bottomless) prostitutes.
** Also, one character uses the word "fucking" which was not in general use as a swear word at the time. He immediately [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] it by saying "Pardon my [[Foreign Cuss Word|Anglo-Saxon]]."
 
* The infamous line "Oh shit, what are we gonna do now?" from the 1986 ''[[Transformers]]'' [[Transformers: The Movie|movie]] was there to give it a PG rating (and "Open, dammit, open!" may have served that purpose too). Like ''[[Star Wars]]'', this didn't work in the UK, where it got a U rating (though the line is missing from some DVD versions).
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* ''[[Macross]]: [[The Movie|Do You Remember Love?]]'' featured some jarring scenes of detailed alien deaths, human decapitation and a naked Linn Minmay spinning in zero gravity. It was released in the US initially only as a heavily-edited version (under the name ''Clash of the Bionoids''), but later a less-edited or unedited version was released (under the name ''Superdimensional Fortress Macross'', and a running time of 115 minutes). The film was released uncut on VHS in the UK, with a PG rating.
 
* [[Manga Entertainment]] became notorious during the 90s for generously peppering their dubs with [[Cluster F-Bomb|profanity]] in order to get "18" ratings in Britain, with the results being [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVpwJbLLivU quite] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo1gm4pC1ck often] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ipr-wS5iBv0 hilarious].
 
== Television ==
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Avoid the Dreaded G Rating]]
[[Category:Creator Speak]]
[[Category:Rated I for Index]]
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
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