Sabrina Carpenter barely made a ripple Saturday night when she dropped not one but two F-bombs during her live performance of “Nobody’s Son.” Yes, the words were removed from the later YouTube video and West Coast feeds, but the live version of the show, both on NBC and Peacock’s simulcast, featured the once forbidden expletives dropped as casually as if Carpenter were saying “Domingo.”
Maybe the networks aren’t as afraid of the FCC as we thought. The agency’s authority to crack down on the F-bomb was neutered in the 2000s, when courts struck down the agency’s attempts to fine networks after Bono and Cher used the offending word during live awards shows.
Don’t Miss
But Saturday Night Live itself used to be more punitive to cast members and guests who let the word slip during the live show. “There was a kid on the show by the name of Charlie Rocket, and one night he did the unpardonable: He said the fuck-word on live television, and it went out to the whole network,” complained former NBC head Fred Silverman in SNL oral history Live From New York.
The slip, which Rocket said was unintentional, not only cost him a job on SNL. Producer and Lorne Michaels replacement Jean Doumanian, who tried to stick up for her Weekend Update anchor, got the ax as well. The F-bomb wasn’t the only reason, but its detonation was devastating.
Jenny Slate also got canned after she let an F-bomb slip in 2009, though she claims her faux pas wasn’t the reason. “Everyone always thinks I got fired for saying fuck: I didn’t, that’s not why I got fired,” she told InStyle. “I just didn’t belong there. I didn’t do a good job, I didn’t click.”
The F-bombs flew more frequently in the 2010s, almost always getting an “Oh boy, we’re in trouble now!” reaction from the naughty cast members. Kenan Thompson told Jimmy Fallon about a “What’s Up With That?” sketch with Samuel L. Jackson where the term was almost a given. “We kinda expect the F-word out of Sam Jackson, so no harm done,” he said. “Then he doubled down and said it again, and I was like, ‘Yo, my man, we got to pay for those.’”
As recently as 2017, Aidy Bryant, Kate McKinnon and Kristen Stewart all reacted like they were going to the principal’s office after Stewart swore during her monologue. Nothing happened, of course, but the cast’s reaction shone a light on the transgression.
But in 2025? Carpenter told us twice about a boy who “sure fucked me up,” and nobody blinked. No one on stage looked around to see who was getting in trouble. Michaels didn’t quickly cut to a commercial. It’s casual now, and forty-some years after Charles Rocket, it’s clear that no one cares what the eff people say.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: feeds.feedburner.com
