The NYT writes about a spate of vulgarity in NBC’s new supposed “family hour” last Thursday. When papers like the Times chronicle such stuff, they are forced to resort to circumlocution. Hitsville is happy to anotate the elliptical stories that result:

In the case of “30 Rock,” the reference came in the form of an acronym — part of the title of a make-believe “Survivor”-like show — referring to a teenager’s crude designation of someone’s sexy mother.* In “The Office,” besides the bleeping, the character’s lips were even pixilated to prevent lip reading. But it was not difficult for many viewers instantly to realize what was said**.

Mitch Metcalf, NBC’s executive vice president for program scheduling, said in an interview on Friday that the shows were not breaking new ground: comedies on NBC and other networks have used the vulgarity before, he said, and cited a 1993 episode of “Seinfeld***.”

* The show-within-the-show in “30 Rock” is called “MILF Island”; MILF stands for “mother I’d like to fuck.”
** In “The Office,” Jan and Michael, hosting the dinner party from hell, engage in a “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf”-style face-off, culminating in an argument about having children in which it’s revealed that Michael has had a vasectomy, had it reversed, and then had another one because of Jan’s indecision. “Fine, let’s have a fucking kid,” she says sarcastically. “Do you mean it? Do you want to have a kid?” Michael asks, ready to have his second vasectomy reversal.

*** In the episode called “The Non-Fat Yogurt,” Jerry raves about the yogurt at the hot new frozen yogurt store (which is of course not non-fat). “This is so fucking good,” he says. He’s bleeped. A kid at the store hears him and for the rest of the show the kid’s mother rails at Jerry. “You know what he said to me the other day? ‘Where’s my fucking cupcake?’”