There are few things more unintentionally hilarious than FCC complaints. Who are these magnificent, morally outraged people who see something they don’t like on TV and, instead of just changing the channel, actually have the wherewithal to contact a government agency about it? While it’s understandable that the FCC might get a lot of complains when an athlete lets loose a string of swear-bombs on live TV, the people who complain about edgy comedies, that they have elected to watch, are a whole other beast.
As such, the Atlantic recently delved into the past three years of FCC complaints for Saturday Night Live (records only go back three years), and the results are pretty much on point. The whole piece is worth a read, but here are the highlights:
Although it aired in 2006, people still have their panties in a bunch over “Dick in a Box,” which several people complained about, with one person expressing a “general distrust” of Justin Timberlake.
It was the Christmas show suggesting that men should give women their penis in a box as a present. I was offended, let alone thinking that younger children would have the opportunity to see the program.
It was not funny and it was beyond vulgar. The segment even includes Justin Timberlake whom was involved in the Janet Jackson superbowl stunt.
Not surprising at all, lots of people complained about the Jamie Foxx-hosted episode, which featured that Django Unchained parody:
Jamie Foxx is offensive. I am sick and tired of people being racist on TV because they are non-white. If this were a white person it would have been pulled off the air.
I do not like hearing Jamie Foxx on TV talking about killing all the white people. When this country is at a time with all the killings with guns. And now we have Jamie Foxx on TV trying to be funny and racist … I am outraged that was allowed to be aired on TV.
This has me very concerned for my safety and many others.
Then, of course, there were the general complains about sexual situations and language:
The ‘Drunk Uncle’ character made several vulgar and inappropriate statements regarding breasts—[he] used several nicknames for them.
Simply put an actress portraying a porn star made a direct reference to manually stimulating a horse. The term ‘Jacked off a horse’ was used.
The word ‘son-of-a-bitch’ was used in a parody of Kris Kringle’s elves … I am offended that we are allowing our culture to devolve language that is not uplifting and only reduces the quality of communication.
Long story short, as long as television exists, people will find things to complain about. If every channel went out of business tomorrow, and there was nothing left but reruns of Wheel of Fortune, people would complain about seeing too much of Vanna White’s skin.
