Clean Air

So last night, I stayed up recockulously late. I went to bed around 3AM. I would have gone to bed at 1:30, but I saw something I couldn’t wrap my head around.
Oxygen channel was running DAZED AND CONFUSED. I not only think this movie is a classic, it has lots of sentimental value for me. It was the midnight movie at the Page Manor movie theater near Wright State (where I went to college). I went dozens of times, about 10 times or so with Mr. Chuck Moore. It was very good times indeed.
So on the Oxygen Channel, they heavily edited DAZED. Understandable, there are one or two F-bombs in DAZED and several shits. What did perplex me is this; they bleeped out all references to pot.
Now if some of you haven’t seen DAZED, I’ll fill you in…pot is another character in the movie. The flick is about kids in Austin, Texas in 1976 and kids in Austin in 1976 (apparently) smoked lots of weed.
Cutting the weed out of DAZED is like trying to cut the spice references out of DUNE (well, maybe that would have made it better)…OK, how about cutting the weed out of DAZED is like cutting the force from STAR WARS, stabbing from KILL BILL or even (God forbid) the cars from GONE IN SIXTY SECONDS…it’s what the movie is about.
What made it that much more odd is the fact that they couldn’t physically cut every scene where somebody is smoking. They did manage to change every dialogue reference to pot to something completely nonsensical. So there are scenes in the movie where the actors are –clearly- getting stoned, yet any conversations about pot are changed to something like:
"I’ve got a big bowl of Married Jan up in my room".

Who’s Jan? And why the hell is she married? Did that happen in your room…wait, what? What?

Ultimately, the deal is this; Why would Oxygen even want to buy DAZED if they don’t want to mention pot? I mean, it’s their cable channel, they can decide to air whatever the hell they want, and I’m all for that. But it doesn’t make sense to pay for a movie primarily about a bunch of kids smoking copious amounts of marijuana, (actually, the movie is "about" the lack of consequences during youth, but that’s a much more boring, filmy discussion) and then edit out all references to said marijuana…AT 3AM!!
Tonight, I hope to watch 9 ½ weeks with all mentions of Kim Basinger’s vagina edited out.