# Is tits worse than boobs? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 5, 2006, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tits-worse-than-boobs/371550 "2006-09-05T20:12:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tits-worse-than-boobs/371550/1 "2006-09-05T20:12:12Z")
On the radio this morning, the hosts were discussing the Mel Gibson incident, in which (amongst other things), he called a female police officer “Sugar Tits.” Yet, on the air, they avoided saying “tits” and instead said “Sugar (pause of hesitation) Boobs.” Is “tits” considered (by the FCC, or by society in general) to be a more vulgar euphemism for the female bosom than “boobs”? I found it really weird that the hosts had problems with one but not the other; I’d always throught they were roughly the same “vulgarity level” (if such a term exists). ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tits-worse-than-boobs/371550/2 "2006-09-05T20:24:39Z")
“Tits” is one of the big no-no words for broadcast radio and television. See [Seven words](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_words). Specific words aren’t enforced by the FCC. The decisiona are made by each station or network’s Standards and Practices department. When the FCC gets viewer complaints, they evaluate the material in context. CBS gets away with airing “shit” in _60 Minutes_ interviews all the time, but you wouldn’t be able to pull that off on a sitcom. “Boobs” has always been entirely un-vulgar, if childish, in my book. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tits-worse-than-boobs/371550/3 "2006-09-06T01:15:33Z")
> [@](#): > > Is tits worse than boobs? It’s **Are** tits worse than boobs? I like 'em both. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tits-worse-than-boobs/371550/4 "2006-09-06T01:30:37Z")
When I was growing up, we could say “boobs” but we couldn’t say “tits.” My mom did not allow swearing. She wasn’t all that keen about “boobs” either, but “tits” was like swearing, like a dirty word. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tits-worse-than-boobs/371550/5 "2006-09-06T03:04:00Z")
In general and especially in terms of broadcasting **tits** was absolutely verboten until about ten years ago, and even then it started gradually. You still won’t hear it on the networks during primetime (cable, sure). **Boobs** on the other hand, as someone said, is just silly, even when used as a double entendre. The old gameshow Match Game used it (to mean tits) since the early 70s! ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tits-worse-than-boobs/371550/6 "2006-09-06T03:09:18Z")
On the ABC showing of _Pearl Harbor_ the censors replaced the word “titties” with the word “boobies”. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tits-worse-than-boobs/371550/7 "2006-09-06T03:58:57Z")
From _Time_ magazine, Sept. 17, 1990: > [@](#): > > The networks are pushing the boundaries of language and subject matter more aggressively too. Uncle Buck, a CBS sitcom based on the John Candy movie, has already drawn fire for filling the mouths of its onscreen tykes with raunchy put-downs like “you suck” and “freckle butt.” In the first episode of Cop Rock, the topic of urination is discussed no fewer than three times. (“I gotta pee,” pleads a reluctant witness during a rough police interrogation.) CBS’s The Trials of Rosie O’Neill, starring Sharon Gless as an attorney with midlife problems, features the season’s most attention-grabbing opening line. In a conversation with her analyst, Rosie announces, “I’m thinking about maybe having my tits done.” ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tits-worse-than-boobs/371550/8 "2006-09-06T04:03:29Z")
You can talk about tits and boobies on the air, provided it’s a show on ornithology. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tits-worse-than-boobs/371550/9 "2006-09-06T05:18:37Z")
[QUOTE=panache45] You can talk about tits and boobies on the air, provided it’s a show on ornithology. [/QUOTE] Not to mention cocks.