Ed. note: Above is the SFW version of the video since Google has pulled down both uploads of the "NSFW" versions. Update and original version are below.
Until last week, I'd never actually listened to anything that Robin Thicke had released. Then someone dropped Blurred Lines into our group chat. And, well, I liked it. Because, well, nekkid. Rather than disappear into a cloud of censorship, the YouTube left the video up for six days.
Then, when they finally did pull it? They let the unrated, naked-filled version stay up on Vevo. Wait, what?
Clandestine uploads happen all the time, as the internet's horndogs race to beat back Google's censorship regime. But the extremely NSFW video being hosted on YouTube is from an official account. Thicke even pointed fans in its direction when it first went up:
According to YouTube's community guidelines, these are the rules regarding "Sex and Nudity":
Most nudity is not allowed, particularly if it is in a sexual context. Generally if a video is intended to be sexually provocative, it is less likely to be acceptable for YouTube. There are exceptions for some educational, documentary, scientific, and artistic content, but only if that is the sole purpose of the video and it is not gratuitously graphic. For example, a documentary on breast cancer would be appropriate, but posting clips out of context from the documentary might not be.
One could argue that the video is artistic since Thicke is an artist and it's not like anyone is humping unless you consider this particular scene to depict a sexual act in which, well, you know what I mean. (Also, just look down below in comments. There's lots of nakendess on YouTube.)
In all honesty, it's a very tastefully done music video, nudity and all, including this declaration that Thicke may indeed live up to his name:
And while it seems crass, even Thicke's wife—Mission: Impossible's Paula Patton—has endorsed it. In an interview with the AP last week, Thicke had this to say about his wife's approval of the prancing, naked models: "Obviously if she didn't like it, I wouldn't put it out."
Patton even took to Twitter to promote her hubby's nudity-filled video:
Still, porn(ish) is porn(ish). By the time YouTube got wise to the video, Blurred Lines had already amassed more than one million views and was pulled down over the weekend (Sat. March 30th). A second version of the track, with clothed models, was released at the same time.
But here's the kicker. The unrated version was uploaded again on the 28th to Vevo, from an official account and can still be viewed on YouTube! So far it has just over 350,000 views. What does this tell us about the never-ending race to scrub breasts from the internet? Or about YouTube's tragically inconsistent and ultimately unenforceable community guidelines? Something, probably. I'm mostly just sorry if this post gets the video yanked again.
YouTube did not respond for comment.
Update 1: And now it's down. But here it is on Vevo.
Update 2: YouTube and Google have nothing to add. But more on this later.