Aerosmith's Steven Tyler: Prude Looks Like a Lady, Wants FCC to Police Indecency on the TV
As the Supreme Court wrassles with the issue of whether "indecency" even exists as a legal category (short version: it shouldn't) and whether the Federal Communications Commission has the right to regulate such speech, Aerosmith frontman and plastic surgery cautionary tale Steven Tyler has got something to say. He doesn't want broadcast TV (and presumably radio) to become a sewer filled with the cuss words and the nudity.
Says the 63-going-on-150 year-old, who has cursed several times on air as a judge for American Idol:
"There's a certain charm and passion and magic in not showing full-frontal nudity" or using constant profanity, Tyler said, as the high court prepared to take up a First Amendment case on the regulation of the airwaves.
"It's really hot when you only show a little," he said.
"If you start surfing channel to channel and you're on NBC and it's (expletive) and channel 4 and it's (expletive) and channel 7 and it's (expletive), it wouldn't be fun to surf," he said. Besides, he said, where's the creativity? A pun about an "American Idol" contestant's revealingly short outfit may be fun — "Here's to looking up your old address," offered Tyler — but the use of blunt language "turns it into something crass."
Recall the instances that triggered the whole stupid argument—Janet Jackson's nipple; Cher, Bono, and Nicole Richie using "fleeting" profanity; some buttocks on NYPD Blue—and boy is this a stupid discussion to be having in a world of ubiquitous porn and online everything.
Hat Tip: Reader John Seetch.
For Aerosmith fans only (and even then, I'm not sure): The boyz circa 1977 performing "Big 10 Inch…Record"