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Today's Poll!Toddler’s cuss word on ’Modern Family’ draws ire
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
LOS ANGELES (AP) — An anti-profanity crusader on Tuesday asked ABC to pull this week’s “Modern Family” episode in which a toddler appears to use a bleeped curse word.
“Our main goal is to stop this from happening,” said McKay Hatch, an 18-year-old college student who founded the No Cussing Club in 2007. “If we don’t, at least ABC knows that people all over the world don’t want to have a 2-year-old saying the ‘F-bomb’ on TV.”
“We hope they know better,” said Hatch. He’s asking his club’s members, whom he said number 35,000 in the United States and about three-dozen other countries, to complain to ABC.
ABC has yet to respond, he said Tuesday. The network had no comment, a spokeswoman said.
In the episode titled “Little Bo Bleep” airing 9 p.m. EST Wednesday, 2-year-old Lily shocks parents Mitchell and Cameron (Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Eric Stonestreet) with her first expletive.
The dads, who are preparing Lily to serve as flower girl in a wedding, now have an added parenting challenge.
The tot is played by Aubrey Anderson-Emmons, who says the word “fudge” during taping. It will be bleeped on the air and her mouth will be obscured by pixilation, and viewers will get the impression that her character used the actual F-word.
Steven Levitan, creator and executive producer of the sitcom with Christopher Lloyd, told the Television Critics Association last week that he’s “proud and excited” about the F-word plotline that ABC was persuaded to allow.
“We thought it was a very natural story since, as parents, we’ve all been through this,” Levitan said to EW.com. “We are not a sexually charged show. It has a very warm tone so people accept it more. I’m sure we’ll have some detractors.”
The program, which won the Emmy Award for best comedy last fall, was named best musical or comedy series at Sunday’s Golden Globes ceremony.
Hatch, who is from South Pasadena and attends Brigham Young University in Rexburg, Idaho, said he began his anti-profanity club in 2007 when he noticed how rampant cursing was at his school and how it was linked to bullying.
“If kids are accountable for their choices, then adults should be as well,” and that includes media, he said.
TV profanity was an issue before the Supreme Court last week, which heard arguments about whether regulating curse words and nudity on broadcast stations is sensible when cable and satellite services offer channels with few restrictions. A decision is expected by late June.
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Comments
karaokequeen 1 year, 5 months ago
Big bleeping deal!!!!
JMO 1 year, 5 months ago
Haven't any of these people seen "A Christmas Story"? This is hardly anything new.
tonto_goldberg 1 year, 5 months ago
These are the people who wanted those obscene parts removed from the movie "Titanic". They should mind their own (censored) business.
tonto_goldberg 1 year, 5 months ago
They love offending people, but most of all they enjoy messing with right-wing fanatics. When someone has no sense of humor and the joke is on that person, everyone else gets bigger laughs.
JMO 1 year, 5 months ago
There was something obscene in Titanic? I must have missed something.
tonto_goldberg 1 year, 5 months ago
You have to look carefully, and use your imagination a little. There was that portrait, and you know the unmarried young couple did the mommy-daddy thing in that car, right?
JMO 1 year, 5 months ago
Oh my! I shall have to rewatch that movie and keep my eyes peeled for the naughty bits! So I can be all offended and make a stink about it. Honest, that's the only reason.
tonto_goldberg 1 year, 5 months ago
You might be better off just getting offended without wasting a lot of time trying to see it all for yourself. It's a great chick flick, though. Somehow, the idea of a guy dying of hypothermia is romantic. I don't get it, but I sort of understand the concept.
JMO 1 year, 5 months ago
Being a chick, that's right up my alley. But I did always wonder why he didn't try a little harder to get on the darn piece of wood...or at least take her life vest. Big dummy.
wow 1 year, 5 months ago
I bet a lot of these people live in Jefferson City and also protested Cirella's, Lap Dances, Tata Bars and all that sexual intermixing of the species going on in the Little Mermaid and the many Star Trek episodes where Jim got his groove on with some fine Alian thang:)
Gee...it's a cartoon and besides. All ya have to do is not watch it and or not let your kids watch it.
Gabrielle 1 year, 5 months ago
what's a cartoon?
tonto_goldberg 1 year, 5 months ago
Is this something like criticizing a TV show character who decides to have a baby without getting married first? Inquiring minds, and all that.
cmnsense 1 year, 5 months ago
Don't these morality groups know that they're just creating more publicity for the "offenders"? The show still aired and was probably watched by more people than it normally would've been, just to see what all the effin' fuss was about. I don't normally watch shows like this (and didn't watch this one), and didn't even know it's been running since 2009. Just like I had no idea what Cirella's was until that person started protesting (I've never been there, and don't even know if I spelled that right). So why draw attention to things like this? It's like they're looking for anything to complain about, then saying "gasp LOOK!! Would you look at that! That's terrible! Don't you dare look at that!" Pretty silly.
JMO 1 year, 5 months ago
Completely correct. I've never seen this show and don't intend to - I'm just not much for sitcoms - but I admit I've watched movies and other shows simply because I heard other people talking about how shocking they were.
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