The Fleeting Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword
October 2, 2008 at 8:52 am
We got a kick out of this item in the Post TV column today:
CBS, the network that gave us the Nipple That Knicker-Knotted a Nation, now brings us the Peekaboo Penis.
The self-appointed watchdog group Parents Television Council has filed an indecency complaint with the Federal Communications Commission over the season debut of “Survivor: Gabon” — ironically the first episode of this series to be broadcast in high-definition.
If you look closely at participants in a race, you see Marcus Lehman’s little colonel “falling out” of his boxer shorts as he runs to the finish line, PTC reports. “The image was not obscured in any way,” PTC notes in disgust. In fairness, the episode had a lot of pixelation — just not of Lehman’s male pride.
“Although this instance was brief, it was nonetheless shocking and purposeful,” PTC President Tim Winter said in a statement.
CBS, in a statement, insisted it was “a completely unintentional, inadvertent and fleeting incident that was virtually undetectable when viewed in real time.” “Fleeting” was the word of choice when the Super Bowl Nipplegate story broke, too. “In the first 24 hours after the broadcast, before freeze-frame images were widely posted online, we received one viewer comment from the 13 million who watched the telecast,” the network said.
PTC had this to say about that:
“CBS’s decision to hide behind excuses that the incident was ‘fleeting’ and didn’t generate an immediate flood of complaints is the epitome of irresponsibility. The number of ‘fleeting’ penises we expect to see on broadcast television is zero.”
When we read “fleeting penises” in the Post, we immediately had a flashback to our youthful glory days when this song came out …
Now we’re just happy to reprise this ancient Extreme Mortman joke: I’m so proud of my circumcision, you might say I have hu-bris.
Jack Kauffman said,
October 2, 2008 @ 10:40 am
“Virtually undetectable”? Isn’t that a subjective judgment? Which member of the staff made such an emasculating analysis of the chap’s anatomy?
How many times, and for how long, did he or she look at the footage? Does the viewing public get the courtesy of being informed whether a man or woman came to that conclusion? How hard to judge such a thing!
Certainly it was an unexpected part of the job to handle this, and whoever did must have probed deeply to do so, knowing they could have rubbed many people the wrong way, and that there was a jerk off his meds who could be thrust into impulsive reactive behavior.
A simple stroke of the pen, and the contestant is nothing but a tool for the wacky stiffs at the head office. Or was this all pulled off by master rating staff just to yank everyone’s chain?
Makes one chafe at how improperly this vast machinery went into motion so quickly, as though blinded to the sticky situation they had thrust into their laps. Makes one wax nostalgic for the days of female on-screen exploitation. Dennis Franz changed our cultural sliding scale forever in 1993 when he flashed his bloated backside. Yet any male would be let go instantly for saying a female’s Brazilian wax was virtually undetectable. Who’s going to get a firm grip on that angle of this piece?