This was subject to censorship: some unnatural-sounding audience laughter (taken from another part of the show) was washed over the word ‘shit’, completely destroying the punchiness of the delivery. This was possibly a compromise job by producer Jo Clegg, although - on this occasion - one is tempted to argue in favour of a bleep: if it was out of the question to include the profanity intact, a bleep would at least preserve the impact of the line. This ‘impact’ was presumably the reason for its censure: a more casually-delivered ‘gobshite’ was tolerated elsewhere in the show, as was a double entendre concerning ‘Fokker 50s’ and references to ‘snorting a big load of Charlie’. The line ‘I was so full of shit’ was also delivered intact during an a capella number a couple of weeks later. The same ‘washing’ trick was used over Leggy Nuala (Sue Collins)’s line ‘you’ve ruined my life, you bastard’. Both lines were still censored during the shows’ 11pm repeats. This practice makes the material sound awkward and bland, and it is worrying that it is considered an acceptable editorial technique.

[NOTE: When The Nualas appeared on The Stand Up Show in January 1998, the introductory dialogue to the song ‘Hey Manolo!’ was edited. One edit was the joke about Guitar Nuala (Karen Eagen) seeing a vision of a woman dressed in white with a glow around her head, who was ‘looking for attention’. The punchline (‘Mother Mary of God, will you not leave me alone?’), which was later used on the radio series, was cut. It’s tempting to believe that this was due to blasphemy worries, but this seems unlikely given the late time slot. It is possible, of course, that The Nualas delivered a more profane version of the same tag.]