Into the Sewer - WARNING: Article contains offensive language

Townhall ^ | Feb. 2,2004 | Jeff Jacoby

[Molly Pitcher]

Into the sewer

February 2, 2004

Note: This column contains language that may be offensive to some readers.

When Jack Paar, television's late-night talk show pioneer, died last week at 85, every obituary mentioned the time he walked off his NBC show in a huff, angry that the network's censors had cut a joke he'd recorded the day before. The joke turned on a misunderstanding of the letters "WC" -- the initials of "water closet," an Anglicism for toilet. By today's standards, it was an almost completely innocuous story -- a somewhat labored yarn about an English tourist writing to ask whether a Swiss hotel room came with a "WC" and receiving an answer that described the charms of a wayside chapel.

But standards were different in February 1960. Bathroom humor -- even bathroom humor that didn't actually include any vulgar language -- was impermissible in public. Paar himself eventually thought better of his outburst. He returned to the show in March, and said his behavior had been "childish and perhaps emotional."

Those were the days.

Forty-four years later, vulgarity is well on its way to becoming a television mainstay. The crudeness is most intense on cable, where programs like "Sex and the City" and "Queer as Folk" revel in their smutty plotlines and pornographic dialogue. But network TV isn't far behind. (Warning: offensive language ahead.)

In 1987, it was still startling to see a character on NBC's "St. Elsewhere" pull down his pants, moon another character, and bark, "You can kiss my ass, pal." Who is shocked to encounter such stuff during prime time now? By the late 1990s, viewers of "Chicago Hope" were hearing characters deliver such lines as "You couldn't organize a urinating party in a brewery," "Have you ever licked a mole on an Italian woman's ass before?" "I don't watch TV; I masturbate," and, (in)famously, "Shit happens."

It's hard to think of anything that a network censor would automatically blue-pencil today. Even the F-word is no longer off-limits. When U2 won a Golden Globe award last year, millions of NBC viewers heard Bono's exultant reaction: "This is really, really, f---ing brilliant!" Some people objected, but the Federal Communications Commission dismissed their complaints. Bono's language was not "patently offensive," the FCC ruled in October, since he "used the word 'f---ing' as an adjective or expletive to emphasize an exclamation."

Got that? The F-word is okay as long as you use it correctly. The way Nicole Richie did: During Fox's live broadcast of the Billboard music awards last month, the co-star of "The Simple Life" uncorked this witticism:

"The simple life? Have you ever tried to get cow shit out of a Prada purse? It's not so f---ing simple!"

(FCC Chairman Michael Powell has urged the other commissioners to overturn their October ruling. A decision is expected soon.)

This verbal sewage would be bad enough if it were limited to television. Unfortunately, it isn't limited at all.

Go into a card shop these days, and you can peruse a vast array of rude, obscene, or otherwise nasty -- sometimes unbelievably nasty -- messages. No insult is too extreme, no four-letter word too offensive, no bodily function too taboo, to be featured on a greeting card. Or on several.

The potty-mouthing of American culture is on display almost everywhere. Spend $100 on a ticket to "The Producers," Mel Brooks's smash musical, and early in the first act you get to hear the main character bellow: "Who do you have to f--- to get a break in this town?" Drive to work and you can sample the boorishness that too many ad agencies confuse with "edginess." Currently on display around Boston are large ads proclaiming: "Live to be an old fart." Billboards last year for Columbia Sportswear read, "They say hoods are the rage in Paris, but who gives a crap?"

Candidates for public office, however blue their language in private, used to take pains not to be heard uttering obscenities in public. Now some of them take pains to make sure they *are* heard uttering them. John Kerry to Rolling Stone: "Did I expect George Bush to f--- it up as badly as he did?' Wesley Clark on C-SPAN: "I'll beat the shit out of them." And (in 1999) George W. Bush to Talk magazine: "They think it's like a high school election. . . . They've lost their f---ing minds."

The vulgarity that has become so ubiquitous is both a cause and an effect of the coarsening of American society. We spend vast amounts of money and mental energy protesting air pollution and second-hand smoke, but the culture pollution and second-hand profanity that now occupy our public spaces get, at most, only the occasional rebuke. We tell ourselves that "mere words" can't do any harm -- we don't want to be thought rubes and prudes, after all -- and thus grow ever more hardened to the ever cruder language surrounding us.

The slope that leads from "WC" jokes on late-night TV to the feculence of modern life is a slippery one. It isn't easy to know just when to stop sliding. But somewhere on that slope is the line that separates the decent from the indecent. We passed it long ago.

[Molly Pitcher]

And this article doesn't even mention last night's Super Bowl half-time "entertainment" and commercials...

[proud American in Canada]

Wow... great article...

And yeah, written before last night's "cr*ptacular," as some other Freeper put it so well.

[Molly Pitcher]

Yes, maybe it'll take something like last night to finally reach people. We're the consumers, and it's up to us to say "enough is enough." My opinion...

[Riley]

When I recently moved from one coast to another, I decided not to bother with TV service. I am not enormously offended by the crass language, there just isn't anything worth watching anymore, aside from a few of the premium channels.

I refuse to pay for the rest of the nonsense to get them.

[SerpentDove]

This is the first I heard of GWB dropping the F-bomb o Talk magazine. Not that it didn't happen--but I am skeptical, because if it did, why haven't the Democrats made a bigger deal out of it, even if just to defend their own?

[eiffel]

On the other hand, I've heard there were very little problems with obscenity in Afghanistan under the Taliban.

[headsonpikes]

Solution?

First, ******* kill your ********** ****** TV ****** set!

It's a start, anyway.

[lormand]

Every-once in a while, someone asks my wife and I if we will put a TV in our kids' bedrooms.

My reply is yes, when they turn 18, if then.

[Ben Hecks]

Read it again - it was Kerry that used the F word.

[kayak]

Some words our society needs to take seriously ...

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy - meditate on these things. ~ Philippians 4:8

[Between the Lines]

We're the consumers, and it's up to us to say "enough is enough." My opinion...

Already have... haven't had cable in 6 years and don't watch anything on network TV that isn't pure as snow. That leaves me with a handful of how-to shows on PBS left to watch. This doesn't bother me, but I am not sure any of the simpleminded mass consumers that thrive on this drivel could ever wean themselves from it.

Maybe we could get television listed as a life threatening addiction. No one could argue that is doesn't ruin lives.

[Between the Lines]

Read it again

And (in 1999) George W. Bush to Talk magazine: "They think it's like a high school election. . . . They've lost their f---ing minds."

[altura]

Yeah, I'm wondering too.

Never heard this mentioned before. Wouldn't it have been mentioned?

Particularly in view of the fact that there was a bit of flack about Kerry's use of the word.

Hope somebody can find out for sure.

[SerpentDove]

>>And (in 1999) George W. Bush to Talk magazine: "They think it's like a high school election. . . . They've lost their f---ing minds."<<

That's the first I've heard of it.

???

[LibWhacker]

Those were the days. Forty-four years later, vulgarity is well on its way to becoming a television mainstay.

Hate to think where we're going to be in another 44 years. Hollywood and the left will never stop trying to lower the bar on what is seen as acceptable primetime entertainment. So I expect, if things continue the way they're going, 44 years from now they'll be trying to offend mainstream Christians -- for whom they hold a special hatred -- with unimaginably nauseating acts of depravity, all available for viewing by young and old alike, throughout the day on a million different channels.

[narby]

(in 1999) George W. Bush to Talk magazine: "They think it's like a high school election. . . . They've lost their f---ing minds."

I hadn't heard about this before.

I'm one of the first to criticize the left. But I really hate it when our side becomes the hypocrite and criticizes John F'ing Kerry when Bush was the first to break into the F word in print.

There's been another recent glaring hypocracy from our side, but I can't think of it now.

The worst thing is, the hypocrite looses his right to moral outrage when they point out Kerry's words, but leave out Bush's.

Let's criticize the left, heavy and often. But if we're guilty of the same offense, then cut it out.

[Viking2002]

Hey, under certain circumstances, I can swear with the best of them; so much so, I tend to parallel Darren McGavin's character in 'A Christmas Story': I can invent profanity on-the-fly. LOL But throwing it around for simple shock value - on national television - is beyond the pale. It has nothing to do with free speech - it's anarchistic self-gratification at the expense of the cultural baseline.

[Ben Hecks]

Sorry, you're correct. I obviously didn't read past the Kerry quote - odd that this hasn't been pounded home ever since if it was a GWB statement.

[Between the Lines]

From: Tucker Carlson's "Politicians, Partisans, and Parasites"

In the summer of 1999, Tuker Carlson wrote a piece for Talk magazine on then-governor Bush that wasn't taken very well by his staff, because Carlson noted that Bush used profanity, something that apparently isn't appreciated by voters. Bush's campaign deputy finance chairman, Jack Oliver, called Carlson after the piece was published and screamed profanities. Carlson observed that the Bush team covered up any and all references to Bush using profanities, and many accused Carlson of lying, that Bush never says the "F-word" even though he does all the time according to Carlson.

Also reported here: Salon.com's "A noble hypocrisy"

Roberto Rivera points to Bush's Talk magazine interview with conservative journalist Tucker Carlson, in which Bush used the F-word and made light of Karla Faye Tucker, a Texas double murderer and religious convert who is much admired among evangelicals.

So it would seem Tuker Carlson says Bush did say the f-word with no evidence to bake up his statement which has been disputed by Bush.

I did find that Bush used the f-word in privately while describing Saddam Hussein and also in private referred to a New York Times reporter as an a--hole. Links below:

Townhall.com and Also at Townhall.com

[squidly]

When curse words obtain common usage, and lose their shock value, are they even curse words any longer? I'm not sure that they are.

Seems to me that we're adopting a new batch of curse, or taboo words, such as the N word, the C word, etc. See, I couldn't even type them there!

[adam_az]

"This is the first I heard of GWB dropping the F-bomb o Talk magazine."

...that's becayse Talk NEVER interviewed W.

They interviewed TUCKER CARLSON in their September 1999 issue. (Talk has since gone out of biz.)

Best I could find was a partial quote on the web (I replaced the F-bomb with F* in the quote, since FR is a family friendly candidate. Except to little kids. Everyone knows that Republicans want little children to starve.

In front of staff, Bush stood up, grabbed Bullock by the shoulders, pulled him forward, and kissed him. "If you're going to f* me," Bush said, "you'll have to kiss me first."

"They think it's like a high school election, where if you beat up your opponent enough you can win. They've lost their f* minds." -- Bush

Bush enjoys saying what he thinks, and seems liable to at any moment. No presidential candidate can afford to be too candid -- "He used to say 'f*' a lot more before this all started," says one of his advisers -- but after five years as governor Bush still has the capacity to surprise.

Bush doesn't even wait for me to finish the question. "I don't care. I really don't care. Does anyone ever say 'F* you'? I don't care if they do," he barks.



In other words, there is no Bush quote, it's hearsay about how Bush talks in friends.

The lefties have liked to spin this into a "See, Bush cursed too!" type situation. They are totally off, though - Kerry dropped the F bomb on multiple campaign appearances and on television... Bush drops the F bomb around trusted friends once in a while, and he certainly wouldn't be the first president to do so!

Kerry took campaigning to a new low, however. I can't recall any other major political candidate for President EVER dropping the F bomb in public.

[adam_az]

not exactly.... see

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1070261/posts?page=21#21

[adam_az]

Bush didn't break the F word into print, Tucker Carlson was the interviewee and was relating a story.

The author either lied or didn't do any basic fact checking!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1070261/posts?page=21#21

[SerpentDove]

>>They are totally off, though - Kerry dropped the F bomb on multiple campaign appearances and on television... <<

You're right, and that is the distinction...Kerry did it as a PR move.

[Between the Lines]

not exactly.... see

Thanks for the info... Do you have a link?

[weegee]

Supposedly Shaq was dropping F-bombs on the air this weekend. When someone told him that he was on the air he reportedly said "I don't give a F---."

[Viking2002]

That uppity pituitary case couldn't spell 'cat' if you spotted him the 'c' and the 'a'. Take that round ball out of his hand, tell him to go try to swim with the rest of the fishes, and he'd end up in an orange prison jumpsuit, like most of them would.

[adam_az]

link to what, the entire article? it's not online since Talk is out of biz, though the excerpt is (google for it), as well as mention of the interview on Tucker Carlsons page.

[Ole Okie]

...Kerry did it as a PR move.

John F'ng Kerry-Heinz does a lot of things in an attempt to prove his manhood.

Teresa must really, really, really have him 'p**sy-whipped'.

[wbill]

And (in 1999) George W. Bush to Talk magazine: "They think it's like a high school election. . . . They've lost their f---ing minds."

Did I miss this? Or is the author just making it up? The reason I ask is because this sounds out-of-character for him.

[wbill]

Swearing for swearing's sake makes it lose its effect. My dad can curse like a sailor if needed, however, I can count on two hands the number of times he's done it.

It was an attention getter, for sure.

[Bella]

He's not a saint, you know...He's said somethings when he thought his mike was disconnected.

[SerpentDove]

So have I...

[DMZFrank]

I used to think how silly all those people were who said Elvis shaking his hips on Ed Sullivan would eventually lead us here. I guess they were right after all.

[altair]

Yeah I remember the bit about Adam Clymer, "major league asshole of the New York Times."

[Mr. Jeeves]

It's been going on for a long time, but the slope got noticeably steeper in 1993. With one of "their kind" in the Oval Office, the Hollywood Vulgarians felt it was safe to push the envelope.

[hosepipe]

Hi Mol;
The frequencies(TV,radio) belong to the people. Whoever is running the FCC is at fault.. With a republican Prez and Congress should be no problem.. Sounds like time for an UGH!.. "meeting" with the Prez(and congress's majority leaders)and the FCC officials...
over whos JOB is at stake...