There are many swears that have started to make their way on to television, and I don't mean just HBO and Showtime. I've heard "shit" and "asshole" sprinkled here and there.
But there's still one word that's a no-no, and that's the famous four letter word that begins with the letter "F." It's banned on network television, and I think even on cable you can only get away with it so many times during one show. In the movies there are limits to the number of times it is used and the context (exclamation or verb?).
After the jump are the top ten videos of the word being used on live television. This Digg post lists the Richard Simmons clip as number one, but that's not accurate because they're outtakes, not live segments. Still funny though!
10. Reporter keeps his cool after an anchor melts down:
9. Fox reporter gives his opinion on a rescue mission:
8. Sienna Miller. This one is quick and bleeped:
7. Joe Scarbourough really should know better, shouldn't he?
6. Tom Brady. I thought golf was a quiet, civilized sport?
5. Local Fox station meterologist screws up, isn't happy at all:
4. Ex-pitcher Bert Blyleven doesn't know he's live:
3. Bruce Willis swears at a basketball game for some reason:
2. Outtakes from a commercial:
1. Richard Simmons has a potty mouth:
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-21-2007 @ 9:56AM
Jim said...
Where are Charles Rocket (SNL, 1981-ish) and Tiger Woods (18th tee at Pebble)? Two most famous bombs I can think of.
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5-18-2007 @ 1:39PM
Gazzoo said...
Where's Charles Rocket?
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5-18-2007 @ 1:39PM
Jake said...
They definitely dropped the F-bomb a few times on NYPD Blue that I saw (and I didn't watch very often), but only first-run eps. Of course, those weren't live so I don't expect them on this list -- this only goes to the whole "banned on network television" thing.
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5-18-2007 @ 1:50PM
Jack said...
Bono's use of it at the Grammy's should definitely be in that list. The FCC had ruled that it was not obscene in the context it was used, and later reversed their position in the wake of Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" (AKA: the boob that screamed for censorship!)
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5-18-2007 @ 1:52PM
Tele-Toby said...
Didn't Cheri Oteri say it once when she was playing that crotchety old woman on the porch in an 'SNL' sketch? I remember she got her housecoat caught in a bedspring or something and that's when it flew out.
Could've been another word, but the F word seems so ready to use in all occasions!
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5-18-2007 @ 1:55PM
Myron said...
Shouldn't you link to the original article instead of copying it here.
http://www.uber.com/fbomb
Seems like stealing.
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5-18-2007 @ 2:14PM
Bob Sassone said...
Myron: I did link to the Digg posting that has the original article.
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5-18-2007 @ 2:20PM
Myron said...
Ah. But you copied the entire content of the original article. Sorry, I'm over 30 so I have trouble understanding what counts as fair with regards to blogs.
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5-18-2007 @ 2:32PM
Kyle K. said...
"...In the movies there are limits to the number of times it is used and the context (exclamation or verb?)...".
Geez Bob, do you just pull crap like this outta thin air? There is no "limit" or control on the number of times a word may be uttered in a film. What you may be feebly alluding to is the fact that the number of times...and the context in which...an expletive is spoken can be used to determine a films MPAA RATING.
A cuss-fest of a movie can theoretically get an NC-17 rating, with no nudity or violence. Theoretically. But are you saying that such a movie would not even be allowed to be made? Piffle.
There are guidelines that steer the rating, such as language, nudity, violence, and particularly sexual violence...and the relative amounts and contexts of each. I remember reading about films which were re-edited to eliminate a "bare boob" scene or two...or change the "s*its" to "shoots" and the "f*ck'ns" to "freak'ns"...in order to get a coveted PG-13 rating rather than the less demo-friendly R. There is obviously some sort of formula or score system but it relates only to the rating, not the content itself.
If what you wrote was true, how could a film like this http://www.consolationchamps.com/2006/05/05/fuck/
have ever made it to the screen?
Perhaps someone who purports to be a media reporter should know something about...umm...media?
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5-18-2007 @ 2:34PM
IN Mike said...
I remember Greg Lloyd of the Pittsburgh Steelers in a post-game interview after they won the AFC championship game in 1995. He said that "now we have to go win the f***ing Super Bowl>"
Someone in the studio (Bryant Gumbel?) quipped, "That was Greg Lloyd failing his on-air audition."
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5-18-2007 @ 2:37PM
Elf said...
Jake, NYPD Blue never got to drop the F-bomb. ABC would never have allowed that on one of their scripted shows. The closest they got was when they were allowed to use "bullshit" once an episode for a season or two until that permission got revoked.
I believe that Norm McDonald also pulled a "rocket" on SNL.
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5-18-2007 @ 2:44PM
Bob Sassone said...
No, Myron, I did not copy the entire article from that page. I simply used the same videos from YouTube that they did. How else am I going to show what happened on these shows, act them out with puppets in my living room. I didn't "copy" anything.
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5-18-2007 @ 2:51PM
Karen said...
Jon Stewart of "The Daily Show," of course, drops the F-bomb on a nightly basis, but it gets bleeped. There have been times, however, when the bleep-button didn't kick in, which Stewart has been properly abashed about the next night.
While giggling inside, I hope.
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5-18-2007 @ 3:25PM
pete said...
will clark, 1987, when they clinched going to the playoffs....
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5-18-2007 @ 4:16PM
RedStarRevolution said...
Two that come to mind are Norm MacDonald, I can't believe his SNL screw up that got him fired didn't make the list, and that dude named Chris that won Survivor, i don't remember which season, but he won and yelled out 'FUCK YEA' live on CBS LOL
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5-18-2007 @ 5:35PM
Brent McKee said...
I'm not absolutely sure, but I think you can use the f-word with relative impunity on Canadian broadcast TV. I know you can show bare breasts (and sometimes full nudity) and you can use other words with no apparent outcry to the broadcast regulators. Certainly I hear every "F" and "S" to pass Gordon Ramsay's lips when "Hell's Kitchen" is rerun on the Food Network in Canada. There's something vaguely satisfying about all of this.
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5-18-2007 @ 6:28PM
Barney said...
You ought to try watching some British TV - it's a regular fuckfest over here. Mind you, we lost our virginity in 1965, when critic Ken Tynan told presenter Robert Robinson, "I doubt if there are any rational people to whom the word fuck would be particularly diabolical, revolting or totally forbidden."
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5-19-2007 @ 12:12AM
David said...
About a year before the Super Bore meltdown the pointless FCC said that network shows could use the word if it was used as an adverb or something crazy like that. It didn't last long enough for a show to make an episode using it.
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