The People Have a Right to See...

Tim Cavanaugh | January 7, 2005

...Mickey Rooney's ass. Fox's standards department reviewed a Superbowl ad for cold remedy Airborne, in which the two-time honorary Oscar winner shows his crack, and, in the passive-voice description of a Fox Sports spokesman, "it was deemed inappropriate for broadcast."

Rooney objects: "What we're selling here is something I really believe in, which is an awareness of the germs we're all exposed to. There's nothing sensual about the brief exposure of my backside, and it's not gratuitous. ... It's a fun spot, and the public deserves to see it."

While it's good to see Rooney on the side of free expression* this time around, note that not too many years ago he was making news as the celebrity spokesman for a nationwide ban on crush video. What a difference when it's your own tail on the line.

Interestingly, Airborne is now trying to get the FCC to require Fox to broadcast the spot, an effort that is, obviously, going nowhere.

(* Blah blah blah private company yakity yak right to do whatever they choose with their own airtime gobble gobble gobble not censorship unless the government hickory dickory libertarians should be applauding Fox, etc.)

Comments

|1.7.05 @ 4:00PM|#

Interestingly, Airborne is now trying to get the FCC to require Fox to broadcast the spot

Now they're just making asses out of themselves.

|1.7.05 @ 4:02PM|#

the public deserves to see it.

Geez. What did we ever do to *him*?

Phil|1.7.05 @ 4:03PM|#

While it's good to see Rooney on the side of free expression* this time around, note that not too many years ago he was making news as the celebrity spokesman for a nationwide ban on crush video.

Nice strawman, Tim. Committing crimes -- in this case, animal cruelty* -- is not a matter of free expression. And speaking out against allowing people to trade videos of themselves or others committing crimes isn't either.

(*blah blah blah already illegal blah blah blah.)

Tim Cavanaugh|1.7.05 @ 4:11PM|#

(*blah blah blah already illegal blah blah blah.)

Not only that, but having followed the crush issue for a while with more interest than I should probably admit to publicly, I believe all the videos they looked into turned out to be fakes. (There may have been real crushies discovered after the furor died down; I highly recommend Hamrah's story, linked above, which delineates the many facets of this less-than-thrilling subculture.)

I don't care what gaius marius says, a society where even animal-murder fetishists are watching videos in which no animals have been harmed is a pretty civilized society!

|1.7.05 @ 4:15PM|#

Is it cruel to crush cockroaches, or does that only apply for "higher" life forms? Or on whether or not someone gets off on watching it?

Not that I have a personal interest, I just don't think we should be so critical of other people's "cultural differences". (trying to have a more open mind - wide wide open)

gaius marius|1.7.05 @ 4:43PM|#

What we're selling here is something I really believe in, which is an awareness of the germs we're all exposed to.

ok, howard hughes.

I don't care what gaius marius says, a society where even animal-murder fetishists are watching videos in which no animals have been harmed is a pretty civilized society!

to celebrate our return to civility, i think i'll go rent some snuff videos and shoot some smack.

|1.7.05 @ 4:57PM|#

"The People Have a Right to See...
...Mickey Rooney's ass."

I waive my rights! I waive my rights!

|1.7.05 @ 5:10PM|#

Unfortunately, Mickey's always been an ass.

|1.7.05 @ 5:27PM|#

And what do I get to say about it?

|1.7.05 @ 5:57PM|#

"My ass was the biggest star in the world... in the world. Bang!"

|1.7.05 @ 9:12PM|#

There is this woman where I work who should not be mimicking Britney Spears, but does.
As she has commerce with the various vending machines with her unusually low-slung ass, she gives "crack" a bad name. (Or a good name, as I love it... hers, that is, or in general.)

"Is it cruel to crush cockroaches, or does that only apply for "higher" life forms? Or on whether or not someone gets off on watching it?"

bigbigslacker,
Have you seen the Japanese movie about cockroaches who had to migrate from the bachelor pad when the bachelor shacked with a fastidious woman from across the way?

Someone can help us out here.
It's a good movie.

I loved it when the cockroaches, during their migration, encountered a steaming, talking yet, pile.

|1.7.05 @ 10:11PM|#

It's called "Twilight of the Cocroaches"

|1.7.05 @ 11:02PM|#

Mickey Rooney's holds no interest for me, but Donald O'Connor's ass always made me chuckle.

http://members.tripod.com/~horsefame/francis.html

Kevin

|1.7.05 @ 11:07PM|#

Holy Kevin Bacon! Francis & Mickey co-starred in the last pic in the series.

http://tinyurl.com/53nzw

Kebin

|1.9.05 @ 5:24PM|#

Brain cramp: The first time I read this, I mentally confused Mickey Rooney with Andy Rooney.

(Nasal voice) "Ever wonder what my aaaaass looks like?"

|1.9.05 @ 9:12PM|#

Andy Rooney's Ass; Now that should have been a Stevo Threadkiller post.

|1.10.05 @ 10:06AM|#

Seeing Mickey Rooney's ass might make you remember the commercial, but still might turn you off from the product. Now if it was a suppository...