# Why Can't You Swear on Cable?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-you-swear-on-cable/142245>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [December 12, 2002, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-you-swear-on-cable/142245 "2002-12-12T14:27:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\
**Post date:** [December 14, 2002, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-you-swear-on-cable/142245/21 "2002-12-14T23:17:00Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Rilchiam \*  
> \*\*Parker and Stone paid all the applicable fines **before** the show went on the air. \*\*

I’d like to see a cite for this. I’m just about 99.9% sure that there _are no_ applicable fines for saying ‘shit’ on tv, especially if the FCC doesn’t receive any complaints. And I’m pretty sure I read that they didn’t receive any.

Also, fines typically increase with each repeated offense. Imagine if the fine for saying shit was a mere $50 but doubled after each infraction. Do you think they would waste that much money to say it 162 times?

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**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-you-swear-on-cable/142245/22 "2002-12-15T00:13:41Z")

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[Well, I’ll be.](http://secure.mediaresearch.org/columns/entcol/col20010626.html)

> [@](#):
>
> Since Comedy Central is a cable and not a broadcast network, the FCC wasn’t a factor. \<snip\> Legal mandate or no, the FCC is a toothless entity. But what about good old corporate responsibility? Well, Comedy Central is co-owned by Viacom, the conglomerate that disseminates the wit of the World Wrestling Federation and the wisdom of Howard Stern, so, predictably, there were no obstacles there, either. (AOL Time Warner, itself no enemy of cultural envelope-pushing, is the other owner.)

I heard the “applicable fines” right here on this board. Perhaps I should have asked that person for a cite.

(But since you ask, I don’t know **precisely** how much $$ Parker and Stone would spend for this purpose, but I imagine they’d go pretty high. They have the money; why not put it back into the show?)

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**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-you-swear-on-cable/142245/23 "2002-12-15T00:43:25Z")

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According to [this](http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,1759,00.html), Howard Stern’s parent company paid out 1.715MUSD in 1995 alone for roughly 100 FCC fines.

If that is any indication then the average FCC fine would be along the lines of $17,150. Multiply that by 162 (the number of times ‘Shit’ was said on South Park) and you get $2,778,300. Parker and Stone may not be hurting for money but I doubt they’d drop more than a couple thousand on a single episode of South Park, much less 2.7 million.

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**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-you-swear-on-cable/142245/24 "2002-12-15T00:49:05Z")

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Hm.

Well, the episode got on the air one way or another! If they didn’t drop 2.7 million, then what’s your theory?

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