The September 18 issue of Rolling Stone magazine is devoted to comedy, and among the amusing features is a section entitled "Please Pick Your Ass & Other Low Points in Comedy Notes." The piece deals with bizarre recommendations from TV networks' standards-and-practices reps -- the folks charged with making sure nothing too objectionable gets on the air. Example: A story told by Matt Walsh, a writer for Upright Citizens Brigade, whose shenanigans aired on Comedy Central a few years back. It involves what was allegedy John Denver's secret lyrical touchstone: the word "nutsack." Read on. -- Michael Roberts
Matt Walsh: Writer, Upright Citizens Brigade"We wrote a scene called 'John Denver's Nutsack.' The joke was that people found the original lyrics to Denver's songs and saw that he had used the word 'nutsack' all the time. Comedy Central first said we couldn't say it. But then we were negotiating via fax how many times you can say the word 'nutsack.' We were like, 'How about five "nutsacks"? Three?' They said, 'Well, three makes it too serious, but we'll let you say it eight times to make it sound more silly.' We were like, 'You can give us a hundred if you want!'"
