"Oh HELL No!": TV Moments That Make You Irate

[Spartan Girl]

How I Met Your Mother: I just love how an episode that initially calls out Ted for bringing his latest fling to Lily's birthday party without even letting his friends know beforehand and convince her to make the birthday cake, instead of picking up the one for the bakery that Lily asked for, and therefore putting them and her in an awkward position for the whole party...suddenly becomes an episode about how Lily is too judgmental. When Ted is the one constantly inserting his flings into his friends' lives regardless of how they work out and leaving his friends (namely Marshall) to pick up the pieces when the relationship inevitably falls out.

What makes it even more inconsiderate is that Marshall and Lily already ordered and paid for the cake. And Ted basically wasted their money just so he could love bomb this girl into coming to the party and convince her to make the cake herself so she could totally impress all his friends. Ugh.

Edited May 1 by Spartan Girl

[Blergh]

OK, on the old Match Game (1973-1979), one of the regulars Marcia Wallace (Carol from The Bob Newhart Show)  got into some hot water. How?

Well, there was a fill-in-the-[blank] phrase that went something like, "Bob said, 'On my new diet, I lost three inches. Unfortunately not from my waist but from my [blank].'"

Naturally, this totally cracked up the studio audience, players and celebs. When it got to Miss Wallace's spot, all the TV audience got to see was her neighbor Richard Dawson say something like Miss Wallace had an interesting answer. .. then there was a quasi-cuckoo sound with a large video 'OOPS' superimposed over Miss Wallace's evidently too-racy-for-afternoon-television answer [which didn't match the contestant's] before the show awkwardly continued.

Anyway, years later in her autobio, Miss Wallace revealed that the . ..er offending term she'd written was. ...genitalia.

Yep, even though this word can be found in virtually every medical text and English language dictionary under the sun (and this was what every viewer over the age of twelve first thought of when they first heard the phrase - though more likely a specific slang derivative ) - this prompted the producers to make a beeline to her desk and read her the Riot Act spelling out that was NOT 'a Match Game word' and if she didn't agree to NEVER attempt to write that term again, she'd be permanently blacklisted as a panelist on the show! Of course, they edited out that whole  Miss Wallace's nose-in-newspaper segment from the tape so all the viewers got so see was the 'OOPS!' then a junk cut before the show moved on.

I'm no fan of lewd lingo but that anatomical term wasn't even vaguely close, IMO- and the original phrase that the show put forth was by no means in the best taste!

 

[Mabinogia]

14 minutes ago, Blergh said:

I'm no fan of lewd lingo but that anatomical term wasn't even vaguely close, IMO- and the original phrase that the show put forth was by no means in the best taste!

That is kind of surprising given how racy/dirty that show was. Honestly, I loved it as a kid so most of what they were saying/implying went way over my head at the time. Watching it back now (Pluto TV) often has reruns and I'll go on a binge because I love Brett and Charles being all drunk up on the top row and Dickie Dawson being all sexy on the bottom, I see just how far that show pushed the envelope that I'm a bit surprised the network pushed back on genitalia. I guess that was one step too far for them? Wonder if they'd have allowed any of the slang words for it as you could pretend they were referencing other things, like kitties or hot dogs haha

[ABay]

Her mistake was using an adult word instead of baby talk or a double entendre.

[janie jones]

I remember seeing someone, I think Tina Fey, on a talk show once, and she was saying how the people who censored SNL only let them use X number of actual words for things per episode. So they'd make things up, and it would end up seeming raunchier than if they'd used the real word.

I guess the reasoning is if you use a euphemism, there's deniability as to what you're actually talking about?

[Annber03]

7 hours ago, janie jones said:

I remember seeing someone, I think Tina Fey, on a talk show once, and she was saying how the people who censored SNL only let them use X number of actual words for things per episode. So they'd make things up, and it would end up seeming raunchier than if they'd used the real word.

I guess the reasoning is if you use a euphemism, there's deniability as to what you're actually talking about?

There's been a lot of TV show writers who've talked about doing things like that, yeah. They'd put stuff in that they knew full well the censors would absolutely veto, and meanwhile, in the meantime, the stuff they actually did want to sneak through often managed to slip under the radar. 

I remember reading an article once about the weirdest/oddest notes that TV writers received from the higher ups/standeards & practices dept. One writer shared a story about how he got a note from the higher ups of a show saying that they'd used the word "ass" too many times in the script, that that word was only allowed to pop up every so often/every number of pages or something of that sort. 

The note requested that they narrow down when they wanted to use that word, and they made that request by saying, I kid you not: "Please pick your 'ass'." 

The TV writer said they actually framed that note, 'cause that was the funniest thing they'd ever received in the course of their job in television :D. 

Edited May 8 by Annber03

[Blergh]

On 5/6/2024 at 7:38 AM, ABay said:

Her mistake was using an adult word instead of baby talk or a double entendre.

I looked at the episode on YouTube and it seemed everyone else  besides Miss Wallace went with other parts of the anatomy (neck,nose,etc.). Oh well.

I suppose they were trying to use them for euphemisms.

[Ohiopirate02]

15 hours ago, Annber03 said:

There's been a lot of TV show writers who've talked about doing things like that, yeah. They'd put stuff in that they knew full well the censors would absolutely veto, and meanwhile, in the meantime, the stuff they actually did want to sneak through often managed to slip under the radar. 

I remember reading an article once about the weirdest/oddest notes that TV writers received from the higher ups/standeards & practices dept. One writer shared a story about how he got a note from the higher ups of a show saying that they'd used the word "ass" too many times in the script, that that word was only allowed to pop up every so often/every number of pages or something of that sort. 

The note requested that they narrow down when they wanted to use that word, and they made that request by saying, I kid you not: "Please pick your 'ass'." 

The TV writer said they actually framed that note, 'cause that was the funniest thing they'd ever received in the course of their job in television :D. 

I remember Lin Manuel Miranda talking about editing Hamilton for Disney+ and how he was only allowed 2 fucks for the entire show in order to get the rating from the MPA that Disney wanted, PG-13.  Three fucks gets you a R rating from the MPA.  

I know TV gets even funkier due to the standards changing for the time slot the show airs on.  As much as I despise Trey Parker and Matt Stone, I bet they have some stories about what the regulators made them cut for South Park and what was allowed.  Somehow I imagine them being more lenient on the episode with all the shits than the one where Chef tells the boys to find the clitoris.  

[Mabinogia]

6 hours ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

I remember Lin Manuel Miranda talking about editing Hamilton for Disney+ and how he was only allowed 2 fucks for the entire show in order to get the rating from the MPA that Disney wanted, PG-13.  Three fucks gets you a R rating from the MPA.  

I just don't get the rational of it being okay to say fuck two times, but OMG three times will scar the kiddies for life!!!!! Either allow it to be said or don't. The idea of allowing it but only so many times is ridiculous. 

[janie jones]

I think they said in This Film is Not Yet Rated that if "fuck" is used once as a verb, it's an automatic R.

Of course that movie is way old. Who knows if the MPAA has updated anything.

Edited May 9 by janie jones

[Zella]

I was gonna ask if they made allowances for more fucks now. Because I could have sworn in the 90s, you only got 1 fuck and anymore got you bumped to R, but I might also have just misunderstood the rules.

Edited May 10 by Zella

[andromeda331]

8 hours ago, Mabinogia said:

I just don't get the rational of it being okay to say fuck two times, but OMG three times will scar the kiddies for life!!!!! Either allow it to be said or don't. The idea of allowing it but only so many times is ridiculous. 

It really is. Kids have either already heard the word or it'll go right over their head. 

[Bastet]

2 hours ago, Zella said:

Because I could have sworn in the 90s, you only got 1 fuck and anymore got you bumped to R, but I might also have just misunderstood the rules.

The problem is that the rules are unwritten, in terms of specifics.  You have the Title 47 FCC overall guideline, but individual network Standards & Practices rules interpreting and applying that rule are all over the place.  So a network like CBS can heavily skew in one direction.

(The MPAA, covering films instead of TV, has similar problems.)

[Zella]

1 hour ago, Bastet said:

The problem is that the rules are unwritten, in terms of specifics.  You have the Title 47 FCC overall guideline, but individual network Standards & Practices rules interpreting and applying that rule are all over the place.  So a network like CBS can heavily skew in one direction.

(The MPAA, covering films instead of TV, has similar problems.)

That makes sense--thank you! It also dawned on me that I might have been thinking of how basic cable seemed to have a one fuck per season rule about 10-15 years ago. Or at least AMC did because I remember Mad Men and Breaking Bad showrunners talking about being very artful in how they used it each season. LOL

[SVNBob]

16 hours ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

As much as I despise Trey Parker and Matt Stone, I bet they have some stories about what the regulators made them cut for South Park and what was allowed.

They definitely have stories about the South Park movie.  For example:

https://news.lettersofnote.com/p/ps-this-is-my-favorite-memo-ever

[Irlandesa]

22 minutes ago, Zella said:

That makes sense--thank you! It also dawned on me that I might have been thinking of how basic cable seemed to have a one fuck per season rule about 10-15 years ago. Or at least AMC did because I remember Mad Men and Breaking Bad showrunners talking about being very artful in how they used it each season. LOL

Those basic cable rules were network imposed, usually related what advertisers were willing to tolerate or what they thought the advertisers would tolerate.  There really was no reason why they couldn't use more curse words.

[Shrek]

The whole fucking thing with the FCC is fucking stupid. 

We have a 6 year old grandson & some of the words he hears at school & then asks about at home would send the FCC into a tailspin, it certainly raises eyebrows about what some parents say at home in front of their kids. And the grandsons parents are no angels when it comes to swearing around the kids. 

[Browncoat]

This fucking conversation reminded me of this:

 

 

[Shrek]

This is my favourite & the final word on the use of the F word.

[ABay]

One day, I will get this embroidered on a pillow, complete with Bayeux Tapestry-like figures. "Behold the field in which I grow my fucks. Lay thy eyes upon it and ye shall see that it is barren."

[SVNBob]

6 hours ago, ABay said:

One day, I will get this embroidered on a pillow, complete with Bayeux Tapestry-like figures. "Behold the field in which I grow my fucks. Lay thy eyes upon it and ye shall see that it is barren."

Here's a kit for you.

https://handiworkportland.com/products/behold-the-field-in-which-i-grow-my-fvcks

[andromeda331]

10 hours ago, Shrek said:

This is my favourite & the final word on the use of the F word.

That was hilarious!