The other F-word

Posted by ESC on May 02, 2006

In Reply to: The other F-word posted by Gary on May 02, 2006

: : : : Last night (April 31, 2006) I had CNN on as background noise. Imagine my surprise when I heard the commentator say that something would "go over" "like a f*rt in church." Since when did it become OK to use the other F-word on television?

: : : : I doubted my hearing. Maybe she said "art in church." But I googled and found several instances of the phrase being quoted on CNN -- "fart in church" cnn. I am appalled. Simply appalled.

: : : :

: : : Someone, somewhere, is keeping track of the moving boundary. It seems "son of a bitch" is now ok on American television, judging by the frequency it's heard on the few shows I watch. I am old enough to remember when "hell" was never said on the air. (I'm sure British tv has different boundaries.) My wife predicts that s*it will appear next year. We are, as a nation, quite squeamish about certain words, but the murders, rapes and torture are all over the tube. No problem there.

: : The NYPD Blue producers negotitiated with the network censors and got one "bulls**t" per episode in their last two years, but they pulled the bare buttock shots for the final season, in the wake of the Super Bowl problem.

: Fart is commonplace on UK television. The BBC's mainstream news for children programme used it the other day in an item - 'Scientists have invented fart-free beans'.

And here I thought Americans were supposed to be crude and the British refined.