It's Funny When The Times Can't Say "MILF"

Last week's episode of Tina Fey's NBC comedy "30 Rock" was a hoot, especially the frequent clips from the fictional NBC reality show "MILF Island," which featured 20 sexy mothers and 50 eighth-grade boys in a "Survivor"-style competition. MILF, in case you haven't heard, stands for Mother I'd Like to Fuck. Rather saucy for an 8:30 sitcom. On the same night, a similar phrase was used - and bleeped - on "The Office." Thus the New York Times decided to, ahem, clear its throat and inquire if NBC felt it was, ahem, adhering to the, ahem ahem, standards of what used to be known as "family hour" on network TV.

But this being the Times, the ol' grey mama, they couldn't actually mention the offending word, or EVEN THE OFFENDING ACRONYM, even though it was mentioned over and over during an 8:30 sitcom in prime time.

So Edward Wyatt had to write, "The reference came in the form of an acronym — part of the title of a make-believe 'Survivor'-like show — referring to a teenager’s crude designation of someone’s sexy mother." The tortured phrasing I guess preserves the delicate sensibilities of all those adolescents and devoutly religious grannies poring over the arts section of the Times on Monday mornings. Or maybe it just adds one more brick in the wall of irrelevance that increasingly separates newspapers from readers under the age of 50.

The capstone of silliness here is that while the term MILF was verboten, the Times had no problem with noting that the tribal council on the fictional show takes place in - wait for it - "Erection Cove."

The NBC online store really does offer "MILF Island" t-shirts, by the way.

Here's the whole episode:

Comments

[Tony Figueroa]

If you can S.N.A.F.U. then you should be able to say M.I.L.F. otherwise these standards are F.U.B.A.R.