Here’s a fact: If you don’t watch TV for about a year, it’s amazing how weird turning it back on feels. Your once desensitized self notices everything that goes on in that tube.
I know this because when I lived abroad I didn’t often have access to English-language programming. (And my comprehension of Chinese and Arabic is beyond lousy, which makes foreign sitcoms a lot less funny.) When I returned to the States for a few weeks, I was a little shocked. I still remember my jaw hitting the coffee table during American primetime. “What did he just say?!” I asked a friend after a TV character dropped various verbal bombs and used Christ’s name in vain. “I must be hallucinating! They can’t do that!”
“Knowing you, you probably are hallucinating about something, but not about the language,” said a supportive friend. “They can say just about anything they want to on TV now.”
Gone are the days of more effective FCC censorship—and a recent court ruling against tight regulation of profanity on live TV is discouraging. What’s more discouraging, though, is the fact most people aren’t outraged by it. So when I read this quote from NBC contributor Susan C. Young, I nodded my head in agreement—and with some sadness:
TV shows have been tumbling down [a] slippery language slope for quite a while now. First a few 'b--tards,' then a lot of 'd--ns' and the next thing you know, you've got a title of an upcoming CBS show that could easily forgo all the random symbols in $#*! My Dad Says. But as the new crop of viewers raised in the Wild West culture of the Internet and lax cable standards emerge, traditional TV barriers could change quickly. … Public watchdog groups have attempted to stave off the coarsening of our culture and encouraged the attempts by the FCC to regulate the few remaining entities under its control. TV stations have to adhere to FCC rules to keep their licenses and face hefty fines if they don't watch their language. But once the profanity genie popped out of the bottle on cable and the Internet, there was no going back.
I have to disagree with her on one point, though. Going back really can happen—maybe not on a cultural level, but on a personal one, at least. Because if I’m not mistaken, the remote control is not controlling us. If any desensitized souls want to experience the same level of shock I did when I returned to the States, it’s available at their fingertips. It’s called the “off” button.
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