A Censor for our Times

One of our favorite TV shows recently is "Big Bang Theory".  I am constantly amazed at how humorous a couple of nerds can be, given the right lines.  And what would normally be obscure, inside joke references can often be made clearly funny with the addition of waitress Penny, an everybody's anybody if ever there was one.  But I've also become fascinated by Chuck Lorre, producer of “Big BangTheory” and his "vanity cards" one of which is shown at the end of every episode - for about half a second.  Unless you're an extremely fast reader you have to video record the sign then freeze frame it on playback.  Or you can find the whole list to date on Chuck's website at http://www.chucklorre.net/index.php .

I flipped through half a dozen cards and was mildly amused at some, dismayed at others, sometimes both.  For example #217 was amusing because it illustrates the intellectual level our TV shows have to be aimed at to be economically viable and it's dismaying because it illustrates the intellectual level our TV shows have to be aimed at to be economically viable.  (spoiler alert:  none of these words is a "dirty word" except perhaps CBS and censor)

CHUCK LORRE PRODUCTIONS, #217 (CENSORED)

words that confuse the CBS censor

fecund, penal, taint, titmouse, cockamamie, cockatoo, cocksure, coccyx, ballcock, cockeye, prick, prickly, kumquat, titter, cunning linguist, insertion, gobble, guzzle, swallow, manhole, rimshot, ramrod, come, fallacious, lugubrious, rectify, Uranus, angina, paradiddle, spotted dick, dictum, frock, cunctation, engorge, turgid, stiff, bush, uvula, crapulence, masticate, Dick Butkus, gherkin and, of course, the always bewildering lickety-split.