FCC, New York Times, Sex, Television, Weirdness

Pick Your Poison: Janet Jackson's Exposed Breast, or a Horny Manatee

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Near the top of the NYT “Most E-Mailed Articles” list sits a piece entitled So This Manatee Walks Into the Internet. And, oddly enough, there’s a legal angle to the story:

At the end of [a recent] skit [on “Late Night With Conan O’Brien”], in a line Mr. O’Brien insists was ad-libbed, he mentioned… www.hornymanatee.com.

There was only one problem: as of the taping of that show, no such site existed. Which presented an immediate quandary for NBC: If a viewer were somehow to acquire the license to use that Internet domain name, then put something inappropriate on the site, the network could potentially be held liable for appearing to promote it.

In a pre-emptive strike inspired as much by the regulations of the Federal Communications Commission as by the laws of comedy, NBC bought the license to hornymanatee.com, for $159, after the taping of the Dec. 4 show but before it was broadcast.

Congratulations to NBC on its latest acquisition. If you develop any comedic material inspired by the meme of the horny manatee, please email it to conan AT hornymanatee DOT com.
So This Manatee Walks Into the Internet [New York Times]
HornyManatee.com [official site]

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