American Putz: Is FOX Going To Hell Riding A Very Happy Horse?

"It's Like Getting Hate Mail From Hitler"

I was scared. All forty of us were. We went from the showers through the foot disinfectant and into the cold, subterranean vault of tile walls and floor. There were no windows, which was just as well because we were all naked. I was fourteen and, with the exception of my father, I had never seen naked men. Or naked boys called “men.”

No, this was not Auschwitz. Instead, it was the first day of swimming class in my Catholic college prep school. It was then that I sadly realized: all men are not created equal. And that keeping this knowledge from young "men" (like me, at least) was criminal.

Likewise for getting a hissy-fit over a male mammal function.

Last Sunday, FOX aired its episode of American Dad, titled Never Look a Smith Horse In The Mouth. The animated program is definitely adult in content in that it has scenes and references that children would not comprehend: its send off of "The Rapture", Jesus meeting Sam in a bar to tell him that the Anti-Christ has taken Francine and an episode titled "Fake Jesus." One of the most notable was when Roger the alien talks about Christianity:

Roger: Oh, I love your religion ... for the crazy! Virgin birth. Water into wine. It's like Harry Potter, but it causes genocide and bad folk music.

But this time, the program really pushed the envelope with a scene implying the masturbation of a horse! The Parent's Television Council is `now starting to get American Dad punished by the FCC since it thinks the episode "depicted scenes of a man masturbating a horse. " Explicit bestiality!! So how does the creator of American Dad and Family Guy, Seth MacFarlane, take all the criticism?

"That’s like getting hate mail from Hitler. They’re literally terrible human beings. I've read their newsletter, I've visited their website, and they're just rotten to the core. For an organization that prides itself on Christian values—I mean, I'm an atheist, so what do I know ?—they spend their entire day hating people."

BTW, a poll was taken and 40% of those polled thought the scene was harmless and very funny.

Now here's the primary attack: From PTC:

A broadcast television network aired an animated program on a Sunday evening when children were in the audience, and the program featured a man masturbating a horse," said Tim Winter, president of the PTC. "Up until now, I never imagined that those exact words could ever be spoken in that particular order. But sadly, here we are.

Fox declined to comment on the backlash.

I wish I had a copy of the aforementioned scene, but the only one you can view is on the PTC's site HERE. Do you see Stan actually touch the horse's penis and stroke it? No. Is masturbation implied? Yes. Implied. And to the people of the PTC, implying masturbation is just as bad as the act itself. Imagining sex is just as bad as the act itself. And with all that imagining and implying going on, the PTC exploits people's assumptions that something wrong happened.

The PTC is trying to penalize Fox and MacFarlane due to implications and not actual fact. They are also arguing that since American Dad airs at 9:30PM, it violates the law that says more adult content must be shown after 10:00PM.

A question: just where does bestiality come in on all of this? The horse may have ended the episode very happy, but did Stan get pleasure out of it? Obviously not. And if Stan didn't derive any pleasure, is there, in fact, any bestiality going on at all?

There wasn't. The PTC wants you to think that. They also do not want you to see a mammalian appendage ever again, unless you have to.

Like when you're in swimming class.