The media pundit's pundit. Written by NYC insider Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine covers news, media, journalism, and politics.
Sing crow
: FoxNews says Janet and Justin have been invited on the Grammys if they give a one-sentence apology. One wonders what the sentence is: “We are so, so, so, so, so, so f’ing sorry!” And who gets assigned to check all of Janets snaps and zippers?
Mark my words that some star (Lil’ Kim, for example) will expose more than Janet did. Either that, or they’re doing to import the nuns who police proms to put shawls around the more nubile stars.
Or simply put it on a 6 second delay?
Nuns police proms? On what planet?
The only thing more I want to hear from the principals involved is for someone to admit, “yeah, we planned it, it wasn’t an accident, and we’re sorry.” Even the shop that sold Janet the “wardrobe” says it was sold riveted with studs, which ended up onstage being replaced by snaps. So just quit acting like you think we’re stupid enough to buy the “wardrobe malfunction” line, and we’ll quit feeling insulted.
And unlike Jeff, I predict this year’s Grammy show will make CSPAN look exciting. No one wants to be the next head on the public guillotine.
I can’t resist another one: here’s what Catholic proms are like today. Jeff, you’re still fighting the last generation’s war on sexual prudery; I’m afraid that, for better or worse, the Beat Prudes Now! ship has already sailed.
Andrea, “Jeff, you’re still fighting the last generation’s war on sexual prudery; I’m afraid that, for better or worse, the Beat Prudes Now! ship has already sailed.” So true. 200,000 complaints to the FCC is less than one tenth of one percent of the population “obsessing” over The Boob. America is not comprised of traumatized boob-ophobes. The media obsessed for a time (to re-air it) but that is on the wane. The most energy now expended on The Boob is by those protecting broadcast licenses and salary-justifying bureaucrats. And Jarvis. Cheer up Jeff. An R-rated dramatisation of sexual assault has been aired and *noone* has been agitated by the interracial component. The days of interracial sexuality as a taboo are gone. Declare boomer victory and and step away from The Boob.
America is not comprised of traumatized boob-ophobes.
True dat. But the boob-ophobes are still prominent enough to cower the FCC, obviously, mostly through the conservative punditocracy — designed to convey an illusion of speaking for a “silent majority” when the real majority could care less. Since the folks involved have made their apologies now (which is all that should have been needed to begin with), I frankly think it’s time for the people who cried hell and damnation and the end of Western civilization over the Boob to start knuckling up. But they’re not going to.
Hey, Doc, you still don’t get it. “Boob-ophobes” is a clever try at dismissing a lot of unphobic people’s objection to the stupidity of a network’s mix of incongruous metaphors. If I plan to see a film with nudity and sexual content, I don’t take my 8 year old kid or grandma. Maybe you do.
That the Super Bowl organizers, a family sporting event for God’s sake, added a R rated type performance without warning, could make a lot of non-prudish people mad. JJ’s boob was out of context. Kind of like strippers at your church’s family picnic. Or do you not see this? Is any one who would object to the strippers in that context also a Boob-ophobes in your mind?
Well, if that damned conservative punditocracy would just shut its collective prudish trap, we could see tits whenever and wherever we wanted.
And you know, I think people were right to expect something a little less… fleshy for the Superbowl halftime show considering that the 2003 and 2002 shows featured no stripping or simulated sex. Sure, Gwen Stefani showed her midriff, but that’s about it. And I have the U2 portion of the 2002 show on tape and can prove that Bono kept his hands off the Edge. We’ve come from No Doubt, Paul McCartney and U2 down to Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson’s tit. Do you really wonder that some people worry about the state of our society?
So, you wouldn’t be offended if some lesbian decides to flash your daughter or some guy flashes your son. Why is it against the law ?If I flashed a bunch of kids I’d be arrested. I don’t want to see Janet’s boobs–I have better ones of my own. She can do porn for playboy if that’s her thing but not during a football game–it cheapens the sport. Nothing the Jacksons do shocks me much–a truly dysfunctional family.
Janet, Justin and the Grammys were completely irrelevant to my life before the Superbowl, and all that this controversy has done is move them lower on the scale. RIAA take note: downloading is the very LEAST of your problems!
JLB