The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has decided to investigate The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, after the comedian/talk show host made a crude joke about US President Trump and Russian President Putin as part of a larger act skewering Trump.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai promised to “take the appropriate action” following an investigation of Colbert’s remarks, in comments to Talk Radio 1210 WPHT on Thursday, The Hill reported.
We are going to take the facts that we find and we are going to apply the law as it’s been set out by the Supreme Court and other courts and we’ll take the appropriate action. [...] Traditionally, the agency has to decide, if it does find a violation, what the appropriate remedy should be. A fine, of some sort, is typically what we do.Ajit Pai, FCC Chairman, to Talk Radio 1210 WPHT
The agency had received “a number of complaints” regarding the show earlier in the week. To be considered ‘obscene’, the FCC website states that content must meet a three-tier Supreme Court test.
It must appeal to an average person’s prurient interest; depict or describe sexual conduct in a ‘patently offensive’ way; and, taken as a whole, lack serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.FCC Website
So what was the joke? Amid a volley of insults, Colbert said of Trump, “The only thing your mouth is good at is being Putin’s c***-holster.”
Many from Colbert’s progressive fan base too balked at the joke, considering it “homophobic” and in bad taste, as well as a profusion of Trump supporters who naturally did not take kindly to the vicious satirisation, which sparked a #FireColbert hashtag.
For his part, Colbert responded to the campaign with an overall lack of repentance, but an acknowledgement that he could have been less crude, according to a USA Today report.
So at the end of that monologue, I had a few choice insults for the president in return. I don’t regret that. He, I believe, can take care of himself. I have jokes; he has the launch codes. So, it’s a fair fight. [...] While I would do it again, I would change a few words that were cruder than they needed to be.
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