Television Censors

How the hell does Family Guy get away with references to a woman’s “box”? Most recently was the line, “Feel free to use the seat warmers to keep that box hot” or something to that effect. This was said to a teenaged high-school student. It’s not like she was holding a box or anything that could possibly have dual meanings like the time Quagmire said, “I love watching her box… That means two things. Gigigity” when Lois was in the boxing ring. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not offended and I think it’s hilarious. I just can’t believe it makes it past the sensors.
Is it simply such an obscure reference that it’s assumed young people (or the easily offended) will not understand the reference?

It must be fifteen years since Home Improvement had Tim introduce the new bathtub jacuzzi to his wife as “Low, Medium, High and Who Needs A Man!” Shocked me out of my shoesies.

Let’s face it, Standards and Practices doesn’t work long hours these days.

Censors have a long history of being clueless enough about normal culture that all sorts of references can and do get slipped past them. I expect somebody who is in touch with the general culture wouldn’t want to be a censor in the first place. Or if they were they’d do a bad job because they wouldn’t really care that much.

I mean, you’d have to be pretty dedicated to watch thousands of hours of shows you probably don’t even like, while still staying focused enough to catch every last taboo word or phrase.

The purpose of a television censor is to defend the network from lost sponsor revenue, not to keep a particular person’s jimmies rustled.

I don’t believe the FCC is manning every station, 24/7 for what to cite people for, but instead rely on people lodging complaints.

As I recall, a housewive’s indignation at an early Married With Children plot line, while costing them some sponsors, mane the show so popular, the creators sent her a fruit basket every Christmas. Until she died. Which was before the show ended.

Hard to be sure, at this point, if Family Guy isn’t deliberately tying to court the same controversy, or just begging to be canceled so Seth McFarland can host the Oscars again.

“Hey, hey, can we even make that joke?”
“We just did my friend, we just did”

Heck, I heard “milf” used in a commercial.

I once wandered in the Christian music section in a book store. They had a CD player (to buy for your kids I guess) that filtered out profanity real time as the song played, and could be set to replace the words with alternates. The box had numerous examples listed, like, “F–k becomes duck”.

Dennis

Terry Rakolta. I can’t speak to the truth of the fruit basket story, but she is still very much alive.

That show is on FOX, right?
The people who censor… the Hayes-types. Haven’t some people said that they are on the Puritanical side?

Hypothetically, if a Network were to broadcast 99% puritanical family values that the Hayes-types want broadcast (The Wet Dream Network) but uses its 1% to go several toes over the line, is there a chance the Hayes-types would just wink at it and let it go when any other network would be slapped down hard?

I still recall, with unspeakable horror, the day the shared marital bed of one Fred and Wilma Flintstone was first shewn to the world. So violent was my self-flagellation that I rent my hairshirt!

FOX Network as the upstart against the Big Three back in the 80s sought to establish a tradition of more “street cred” with edgier content.

As was pointed out, (a) the Network Standards And Practices Department are watching out for what may generate complaints and fines and (b) the prodedure is that someone complains and the FCC acts. Up to now even during the terms of philosophically uptight administrators, the FCC necessarily will have to overlook many excessively hypersensitive and obvious cranks or else they could not get anything done.

By now, the audience for the McFarlane shows is looking to see what will push the envelope; while if you’re with the East Podunk Jack Chick Memorial Women’s Christian Book Club you are most likely never watching Family Guy, and thus are in no position to file a complaint.

Where are those good old-fashioned values on which we used to rely?

IIRC The Simpsons had a reference to “Lemon Party”*

*Do Not Google this while at work

I think it’s one thing to have somewhat oblique references to things which are inappropriate for broadcast TV (as defined by the FCC), and another to have direct depictions or discussion of those things.

In essence, I get the impression that they’re applying a sort of “Disney movie” rule, where if it’s something that a kid might understand to be naughty, or that might pique their interest in something, it’ll generate complaints and censure, but if it’s something that sails right over a kid’s head via the use of clean language and oblique references, then it’ll probably slip right by.

I mean, if a show had a lemon party reference, I’d get it, but my kids would probably think it’s some kind of party centered about lemon foodstuffs- lemonade, lemon bars, lemon drops. Hence no real issue. It would also sail right by my parents, my wife’s parents and probably my BIL and SIL.

I also sometimes wonder if shows like “Family Guy” so overwhelm the censors or reset their ideas of what’s inappropriate that they manage to get 95% of the off-color stuff, and 5% just slips by through censor fatigue or inattention. That might explain the “box” comment that made it through.

There’s also a certain phenomena of phrases and acronyms being sort of inappropriately appropriated by groups who don’t quite get it. For example, I’m willing to bet that there’s a big chunk of middle-aged people out there who in lieu of watching “American Pie” or porn, probably think that “MILF” probably means just a hot older woman, without actually realizing it’s an acronym, and that’s how it made it into that commercial, and why it hasn’t really caused any backlash so far. Basically the people who would protest, have a mistaken interpretation of the word.

I don’t know if the FCC does any monitoring at all, they mostly respond to complaints, and since the Rakolta incident backfired the Prude Brigade hasn’t been making the concentrated effort to call out sitcoms for dirty words. I don’t see anybody who watches the Family Guy being shocked and appalled at their humor, and the network censors know that aren’t going to do much censoring based simply on language, especially double-entendre.

You are probably thinking of this 30 Rock tidbit.

Don’t confuse Fox Tv with Fox News. Fox has also been edgy and pushed the envelope before the other 3 networks. Moreso on FX and FXX.

Nope. It’s not even close to being subtle.

About 25 years ago, on “Mad About You”:

She: How are you doing with sealing the flaps on those 200 invitations?
He: If I had two tongues, I’d the be the happiest person in the world.
She: No, Second happiest.

Not much left to the imagination there.

Television made a great leap forward back in the '70s when the NBC censor let SNL do a commercial for “Pussy Whip: The first dessert for cats!”

I seem to recall SNL noting the demise of NBC’s “standards and practices” dept by having a nudist colony sketch the purpose of which was to repeatedly say the word “penis”.

Here’s a good, wholesome number that the censors must have enjoyed.

I remember “glory hole” and “golden showers”, but must have missed “lemon party”.