Go "Fleeting Expletive" Yourself!

Wow! The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the FCC's policy regarding the "Fleeting Expletive" FCC Ruling that was on their docket(s) this week. Now Fox and ABC, for example, can't be fined for moments when people slip out the "F" or similar words on a network, nor be all fussy about a few seconds of someone's butt on a TV show flashing by the lens. And so on - to where, I have no idea, but something's moved forward.

First off, I love the title of the issue - "Fleeting Expletive". I just love it! My mind conjures moments of future "fleeting" bleep-bleeps not bleeped-censored or fined. And then, when the person who makes the world turn on its axis by using unacceptable-to-polite-society language on TV does it, they can stop, cover their mouths, and giggle-out, "Oooops! I just did a Fleeting Expletive! Tee hee!" What exactly is a "Fleeting Expletive" you may ask? Just as the above scenario, when it deals with words, it is an unintentional blurt-out (thus "fleeting") "bad" word (as in the "expletive" part). With nudity on TV beyond a certain second or less, I have no idea what the court means for the future, although I grasp their ruling with regard to a pre-2004 FCC Vagueness on what entails indecency or what does not.

See This for details.

I'm so amused (easily, apparently) by "Fleeting Expletive" that I hope everyone starts using it in their daily conversations. One could be talking about the most banal thing in the world with a group of friends, but once one of them uses "Fleeting Expletive" a passerby will think everyone in the group are/is/was/were discussing chemistry or something. Impressive, eh?

If you intend to follow my whimsical mood and use the words in the company of others, make sure you are pronouncing "expletive" correctly. Sometimes the word can become a foreign language in your throat and your tongue will turn it into an wretched mess halfway through the utterance. I know. I've done it. In the ears of close to 1 million people en masse.

Yep. That was a grand moment of DJ/Announcer Nightmare Shame: mispronouncing words. For some reason I decided that saying "expletive deleted" during a little in-between music yammerings would be cute - or smart - or whatever I was thinking when this happened over 30 years ago. When the time came, I made "expletive" into something incomprehensible and my timing on the almost "joke" was botched. Oh well. That's what happens when you're putting yourself out there and miss the mark.

I survived. But don't ask me how I mis-pronounced the street name "Sepulveda" during my first live on-air commercial in the LA Radio Market after I'd been in Los Angeles for less than a week.

Hilarious! That's when I should have pulled a "Fleeting Expletive".


Image via: Unknown