Jon Stewart Unbleeped: \'The Daily Show\' Leaves Some Choice Words Intact

By BILL CARTER

“The Daily Show” is not changing its standards concerning which words it will bleep and which it won't, though it might have seemed that way Wednesday night.

That was when Jon Stewart unleashed his latest satiric takedown of the Fox News network that included repeated use of what used to be called a “barnyard epithet.” It also used to be a word that did not make it onto the air on “The Daily Show” without the bleeping erasure from the network's standards department.

So what happened Wednesday? Comedy Central executives did not want to comment on the record about the decision, because they did not want to signal that the show had done anything outside the usual standards of the network. But they said the tone of the piece, in which Mr. Stewart expressed some larger-than-usual incredulity at some reporting by the Fox channel, made it more important that the language stay intact in this one piece.

As it ha ppened, the singer Pink was Mr. Stewart's main guest, and her latest single, “Blow Me One Last Kiss,” contains the same epithet 11 times. The word was not bleeped any of those times (though another word was once).

Comedy Central executives emphasized that the decision to leave the words in affected only the initial late-night showing of “The Daily Show” and the ones run later at night. All the words were cut from repeats run during daytime hours Thursday.

A spokesman for the network, Steve Albani, said in an e-mail comment:

“Occasionally we allow certain language to go unbleeped on the show during its late-night premiere and encore. When we do, we have an alternate, bleeped version which runs during the daytime in its encore time slots, which receive a broader audience.”

The decision to allow the language this time had mostly to do with the substance of the comedy piece, another Comedy Central executive said, and did not signal a change i n the network's overall approach to what it will permit to be said uncensored on the show.

Bill Carter writes about the television industry. Follow @wjcarter on Twitter.