During the infamous Superbowl mishap in 2004 involving Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson, the FCC received well over half a million complaints following the act of Justin ripping away half of Janet’s top. Yet in Canada, where the game was also being broadcast, the number of complaints was less than a hundred. Canada obviously had no issue with what they were seeing, but America had a major problem with someone famous doing anything remotely violent to another famous celebrity. Look it up and you’ll find that a lot of people thought that Justin went too far and simply tore away half of Janet Jackson’s top when all he was supposed to do was expose the red bra underneath the outer layer. Unfortunately the entire thing fell away and Jackson’s right breast was revealed for a half a second.
That half a second was all it took to outrage thousands upon thousands of viewers in America as they reacted in a manner that was something just shy of a lynch mob. The idea of America’s morality going down the toilet was brought into focus during this time and the backlash from it was horrendous. Jackson firmly admitted that she and Justin had changed the final part of the performance without MTV or anyone else catching wind since they’d decided it needed a little more flair. She was exposed for half a second, and more to the point she covered up immediately, but the incident would live on for nearly two or three years afterward as the day when America’s morality began to slip slide down a dangerous hill.
And yet Canada really had nothing to say except that they enjoyed the show, if that. Their complaints were so few that it’s a wonder they were even recorded. Our neighbors to the north, those who watched the Superbowl at least, obviously didn’t see that much wrong with the performance and if they did they forgave it rather quickly. So why couldn’t America? The slip was obvious and the two of them were embarrassed enough about it without adding any fuel to the metaphorical fire by talking about for months on end. And as for being seen as a violent act, as many people complained about it, there’s more possibility of seeing greater violence in a Simpsons cartoon than there was in this one performance.
It’s amazing how Americans love to have the freedom of what to watch, how to think, and how to live in general, but if something challenges their way of thinking for even a moment the world is about to end as the sky begins falling in great, plaster-laden chunks. At that point many people seek a scapegoat to blame, a patsy that is responsible for the woes of the world and can be used to pin the decline of our moral code on. It’s about as hypocritical as it gets.
Anyone remember movies like The Road Warrior and A Clockwork Orange? Or how about The Snowtown Murders? If you want violent and disturbing actions the Superbowl was nothing compared to these.
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