Sports broadcasts catching cursing is relatively common, whether that’s from event commentators aware they’re on air, event commentators on hot mics, mic’d up players, athletes on field mics, or fans on field mics. There are also plenty of times where cameras catch players cursing without broadcasting the accompanying audio, which is of course mostly notable to those who can lip read (or can at least lip read to that extent). But it is a little unusual to see a broadcaster apologize for showing that lip-read-only profanity, and that’s what Eurosport did Sunday during their coverage of a Stephen Maguire– Shaun Murphy World Snooker Championship 2022 match after Maguire missed on a safety shot and mouthed something notable to himself:
"A few words uttered of the … industrial variety." 🤬🤬🤬
— Eurosport (@eurosport) April 17, 2022
The linked video there won’t play in most US locations, but it does include the commentator’s “Apologies for those who are very adept at lip reading.” And, for those who are not that adept, here’s the video with an (explicit) caption:
https://twitter.com/marjayhan/status/1515769856079151111
The “apologies for those who are very adept at lip reading” is particularly of note here, though. It makes some sense in this particular instance considering how the camera was closely zoomed in on Maguire here, but it’s still unusual to see. At any rate, Maguire bounced back against Murphy (a long-time rival of his) for a 10-8 win in the end. So hopefully he can be a little kinder to himself after that.
[Eurosport, @Marjayhan on Twitter]
