‘$#*! My Dad Says’ inappropriate if you make it that way

“”$#*! My Dad Says”” (pronounced “”Bleep My Dad Says””) is a watered-down sitcom on CBS, based on a more profane book that was in turn based on an insanely profane Twitter feed by Justin Halpern, who began posting after moving back in with his foul-mouthed father.

The sitcom spin-off has the Parents’ Television Council whining about how CBS is teaching children inappropriate language, despite CBS’s already drastic changes to the Twitter feed’s content, thus the symbols and the bleeping. This is because everyone and their kid knows that “”$#*!”” is actually “”shit.”” Except that CBS didn’t teach your kids that last part.

Maybe you didn’t either, but you can’t get them to unlearn it now.

I understand that I am not a parent, and that not everyone recognizes “”shit”” as harmless.

But I also understand that telling a child that a word is “”bad”” and off-limits is not the same thing as telling a child that sometimes the people on TV say things that you can’t say at school because it hurts people’s feelings.

The PTC’s concern is valid. No one wants to explain to a six-year-old that “”dollar sign hashtag asterisk exclamation point”” is actually a whole other word. But you can’t ask all of society to adhere to the moral standards you want to choose for your kids. It isn’t the responsibility of CBS to wash your kids’ mouths out with soap. Maybe telling the Internet about how angry you are that TV is making it difficult to raise your kids properly is the thing that’s making it difficult to raise them.

Telling children to never use a word is like handing them a present and saying, “”Have this.

But don’t open it. You are not allowed to open it. Do not even shake it.”” Suddenly, the gift has magical powers. They have to know what’s inside. That’s what parents are doing when they turn “”shit”” into “”$#*!”” and tell a kid that the word is forbidden. They’re giving magical powers to shit.

— Kristina Bui

‘$#*! My Dad Says,‘: Revenge of the $#*!

While I understand the need to regulate the $#*! your kids watch on television, it’s hard for me to justify the rampant complaining recently put forth by the Parents’ Television Council.

If you don’t like your kids watching a show, change the channel or shut the television off. To hold CBS accountable for the death of your children’s morality by merely putting a show on the air is like knocking a lamp onto the ground and breaking it, only to point at the guy who put it there and say, “”It’s your fault, you dip$#*!.””

Parents have every right to monitor what their children watch, read and otherwise participate in. No one is arguing against that (well, except maybe California’s upcoming bill to outlaw the sale of certain games to minors, period). But television is a huge part of our culture, and what should be a rather simple decision is not the responsibility of CBS to handle. Previous iterations of “”$#*! My Dad Says”” have been wildly popular with certain demographics and the upcoming sitcom looks to expand on that with some rather hilarious potential — anyone who’s seen William Shatner on “”Boston Legal”” knows how funny the man can be. Television is as much a free speech issue as it is a children’s morality issue, and in this case, one has to believe that the show deserves to stay on the air.

— Joe Dusbabek