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Prince’s shadow has enraged the community of people who write angry letters to the FCC. During the Super Bowl halftime show, his guitar looked a little too much like something else. I pointed this out at the time, though I didn’t contact the government.
Read some of the letters after the jump, courtesy of The Smoking Gun. They’re a little crude. So if you’re easily offended, don’t click. I’d hate for a post about complaints to prompt more.
“…Everything was fine until the unveiling of the ‘cloth silhouette’ that showed Prince with his guitar! It makes me sick that my kids were in the living room of our home and watched this adult male on TV make graphic gestures with his guitar, making it look like he was holding onto a penis and testicles!!! I CAN NOT BELIEVE YOU ALLOWED THIS TOO AIR, then again, YES I CAN!!!…So, is this something we all get to look forward to from now on ’sexual gestures, nudity (Janet Jackson), and what-not’, or is the FCC going to do something to bring clean family friendly TV back to the air?”
“I find it highly unacceptable to have a family watching a sporting event only to find Prince stroking, manipulating and fondleing his guitar behind the curtain. This image only made him look extremely large which made the rest of us feel small, and unable to preform this evening.”
“…I fell as though Prince’s performance was VERY OFFENSIVE. The part of his act in particular that comes to mind it when they pull up a big sheet and his shadow is cast upon it. He is holding a guitar and in the shadow it looks as though he has a large penis with pitchfork on the end. It was not only profane it was very sadistic! I can’t believe this would be allowed after what happened with Ms. Jackson. Please look into this further. Thanks in advance!”
“It was obscene to show Prince, a HOMOSEXUAL person through a sheet, as to show his siluette while his guitar showed a very phalic symbol coming from his below-midriff section. I am very offended and I would preffer not to have showed it to my 4 children who love football. One of them has hoped to be a quarterback and now he will turn out gay. I am actually considering to check him for HIV. Thanks CBS for turning my son GAY.”
Comments (11)
Comment
Prince isn’t a HOMOSEXUAL person. Man, I hope that last one was a joke. The sadder thing, I have a feeling it isn’t.
posted by Scott on 3-12-2007 at 1:47 pm
Whoever wrote that last comment about his son now being gay b/c he saw that should be ashamed of themself…
posted by b on 3-12-2007 at 1:56 pm
just to let everyone know, I edited the last comment on this page from “b.” we rarely edit responses (in this case, I left the first sentence and lopped off the remaining). I just wanted to let the readers know that although we agree with the sentiment, we couldn’t post the rest of the blurb due to some of the language.
posted by Mangesh on 3-12-2007 at 2:32 pm
Anyone watching televised football & has a problem with Prince’s silhouette has a severe denial problem: almost all of the liquor ads are soft porn! Everything long & cylindrical is not a phallus…unless you think it is…because you have a Dirty Mind (A Prince album)Get your heads out of the gutter
posted by Phillip E. Banks on 3-12-2007 at 2:41 pm
I always get a kick outta reading ignorant rants with tons of spelling errors and obtuse CAPS to emphasize their shrewd observations.
posted by Johnny Cat on 3-12-2007 at 2:42 pm
What gets me is these idiots have no problem letting their kids watch a bunch of guys attack eachother and then pat eachothers butts.
posted by Sheldon Siegel on 3-12-2007 at 3:30 pm
why is everyone so offended by Prince’s little Guitar fun. It’s not like it was really his penis flapping in the wind. I was more offended by the dancing girls being paraded around with him. they could have used a bit more clothes. I’m sink of the “make the government gaurd the Air Waves and keep my kids safe” feelings of parents these days. What happend to “watch your own kids.” Parents these days need to take the full responceblity for their childern and stop expecting the Governmet to do it for them.
posted by bayliss on 3-12-2007 at 5:13 pm
I agree with Sheldon. It seems to me that watchng people tackling each other is going to affect a kid’s behavior more than watching Prince’s show is.
And as for that last complaint, I’m fairly certain that HIV isn’t just a gay disease anymore. Unless that person was wanting her child to become a monk, I think that if he has HIV, it’s a problem either way.
posted by Pointy-Hatted Geek on 3-12-2007 at 5:39 pm
Seems like the last guy was pretty worked up. Seems like I read about a homophobia study at UGA: men of varying sexualities were asked to rate their own homophobia, then had a sensor wrapped around their “guitars” (trying to keep this clean), and then watched 20 mins. of gay porn (no delicate way to put that). At any rate, gay men responded to the porn (I’m sure I don’t need to spell that out), but interestingly enough, men who had rated themselves as “very/extremely homophobic” also responded. We really do hate that most in others which we see in ourselves…
posted by Maria on 3-12-2007 at 6:42 pm
I really hope that last comment was a joke or something, there can’t REALLY be people who honestly think that watching a few seconds of mildly suggestive content would actually turn people into homosexuals(not that there’s anything wrong with that anyways)!
Personally, I was reminded of a similar scene in “Robin Hood: Men in Tights” where Robin is singing to Maid Marion behind a hanging curtain. Made me giggle a little :).
posted by Heather on 3-12-2007 at 10:44 pm
This is left over from last week, re the post on Ann Coulter. I was STUNNED by reader reactions. I had thought that Mental_Floss readers were intelligent, thinking people. Some of those comments made me despair.
Please excuse my tardiness, but it has been bothering me all week.
posted by Barbara on 3-12-2007 at 10:47 pm