If you've been slumped in a corner, hugging your knees and rocking back and forth since Sunday night's Golden Globes broadcast, too scared to close your eyes lest you see Darren Aronofsky's vile finger lunging menacingly toward you like some grotesque, obscene dagger, well, you should probably calm down. But the help you desperately need has finally arrived. No, not in the form of psychiatric drugs, but in the form of possible indecency fines for NBC. Yes, the FCC has come to your rescue, thanks to the brave complaints of a bunch of super-sensitive whiners.
From The LA Times:
After receiving multiple complaints about NBC's Sunday telecast of the Golden Globes, the FCC said Wednesday that it is reviewing the program for possible violations of indecency rules.
Toward the end of the program, director Darren Aronofsky was caught on camera jokingly making an obscene gesture — "flipping the bird," as it's commonly called — at actor Mickey Rourke, who was onstage accepting an acting award for Aronofsky's film "The Wrestler." Rourke and other attendees also salted their speeches with occasional off-color language, some of which was bleeped by NBC censors.
So how many viewer complaints does it take to spur the FCC into action?
"We received 18 complaints about the Golden Globes telecast," FCC spokeswoman Edie Herman wrote in an e-mail to The Times, "and the commission is reviewing the matter."
Eighteen complaints, Edie Herman? No. I think you should call them what they really are: 18 beacons of luminous truth-light in a world of hideous, filthy darkness. The people who took the time out to tell the FCC that a film director just flashed the bad finger on television aren't just vigilant viewers, or tiresome complainers, they're heroes. Stupid, annoying, whiny heroes who think television is one long high school hallway, and they're the self-appointed hall monitors.
It's worth noting that the Parents Television Council, the proudly easily-offended parents' "watchdog" group who won't be happy until all the sharp edges on television are padded with cotton, the organization whose unofficial slogan is "What about the children?!?" and whose official logo is this:
even they couldn't be bothered to complain to the FCC about the Golden Globes.
From Time:
"It was disappointing that a small number of narcissistic performers placed their need to be vulgar ahead of any consideration for families and children in the viewing audience at home." The PTC chided NBC for rating the broadcast TV-PG, but also credited the network for removing the gesture from the West Coast feed and—at least so far—does not seem to be launching one of its legendary write the FCC campaigns.
Yes, it truly is disappointing that Darren Aronofsky's finger pointed the way to the seedy underbelly of society for that one child who was watching the Golden Globes. He or she will never watch another awards show again—which is probably why the PTC chose not to complain to the FCC about it.
So, congratulations, 18 Golden Globes complainers! You're more overzealous and irritating than a parents' group that chooses to represent their organization with a snarling blue cartoon bulldog. By the way, you do realize that complaining about stupid things to government agencies won't ever result in a free shipment of super-cool sunglasses, right? Summer School can be so misleading sometimes. No one should live their lives according to Mark Harmon movies.
Still, it's great that 18 people can essentially dictate programming decency for an entire country.