Entertainment

Jack White F-Bomb During Grammys Performance Escapes The Censors

Published on: February 11, 2013 at 3:42 AM
By Chris Greenhough

A Jack White F-bomb reportedly slipped past CBS’ censors on Sunday night as the former White Stripe performed at the Grammys.

White was on stage to perform “Love Interruption” with Tennessee musician Ruby Amanfu when he appeared to add the words “f— me” to the lyrics. As the word isn’t part of the original song, it’s safe to assume the Jack White F-bomb was planned prior to the show.

However, CBS has denied the word ever passed White’s lips. Martin Franks, Executive VP of Planning, Policy and Government Affairs at CBS, told The Hollywood Reporter that the f-word heard during White and Amanfu’s performance was actually “fight.” He added that CBS editors had used high-end equipment to verify the word, and were confident enough not to edit the performance for the later West Coast broadcast. Franks said:

“We had 10 editors, and three people on site, and all are experienced, all with multiple Grammy, multiple Big Brother, multiple Tony experience, experience with doing these delays. They went through all of the rehearsals. They have prepared meticulously. And not a single one of them heard anything other than ‘fight.’ “

The Grammys, which air on a 10-second delay, has heard its fair share of big boy language in previous years. This year, when Mumford & Sons collected their Album of the Year gong, CBS censors caught one of the band members saying the F-word.

Social media lit up in response to the Jack White F-bomb, which (if it was an F-bomb) happens to be the second time the word has evaded CBS censors in the past few days.

Last week, Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco was heard to utter , “This is f—ing awesome” after winning the Super Bowl.

On that occasion, CBS was criticized by the Parents Television Council for letting the language through uncensored, but the network’s Sean McManus defended the mistake, describing it as part of the nature of live events:

“It’s unfortunate, but in the heat of battle sometimes it happens. We try to avoid it, but sometimes it happens in live television.”

Do you think a Jack White F-bomb was dropped Sunday night, or is most of the Internet hearing things? Either way, the White and Amanfu performance seems to have gone down a storm with fans:

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