Each Sunday night for 23 years, America tuned in to watch “The Ed Sullivan Show.” At its peak, from 1956 to 1957, the show had an audience of nearly 40 million, which accounted for more than a third of households with a television, according to an article in the [Los Angeles Times](http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/04/entertainment/la-et-ed-sullivan-20110704).
Sixty million tuned in Sept. 9, 1956, to watch an up-and-coming singer perform for the first time on the show, according to The Ed Sullivan [website](http://www.edsullivan.com/artists/elvis-presley/). His name was Elvis Presley and on that night he did something so vile that the cameramen would only film him from the waist up.
He shook his hips.
Fifty-five years later LMFAO performed its hit song “Sexy And I Know It” on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.” As the first chorus started, RedFoo tore off his pants to reveal a bright blue banana hammock. After that, he did more than shake. He rhythmically air-humped with no camera angles hiding the charade.
Each new generation has offended the last, with the line between entertainment and obscenity becoming less defined, if it even remains.
The only way to make LMFAO’s performance more shocking would be if RedFoo started thrusting, dick exposed. Although that wouldn’t fly on national television, it’s still acceptable elsewhere.
Jason Segel did just that in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.” He drops his towel, waves his piece and gets dumped without putting on so much as a sock.
In the last decade male nudity has become more commonplace in films, especially comedy. In “Borat,” Sacha Baron Cohen, as the movie’s namesake, fights his friend Azamat while the pair wears matching birthday suits. A black bar covers Borat’s member, but his opponent doesn’t receive the same censorship. What ensues is a disturbing fight scene that could just as easily be called a sex scene.
We’ve become desensitized to male nudity, though women have been fully exposed for much longer.
Female nudity is so prevalent that I’m waiting for it to pop out of every corner. While watching shows on HBO I sometimes have to double check that I’m watching Entourage and not the after-hours programming. Nothing is more awkward than explaining to your mom that you’re not enjoying a porno in the middle of the day on your living room couch — you’re just waiting to see if Vinnie Chase will stop doing blow and banging a porn star.
Even the alternative explanation wouldn’t have been acceptable 50 years ago.
It goes beyond nudity. Everywhere I look I find things that would make my poor grandmother blush.
Tyler, the Creator won best new artist at the VMAs for a video in which he eats a cockroach, vomits it and hangs himself as the finale. These are just the visuals to accompany his lines about killing pop stars, popping Xanex and having threesomes with dinosaurs. He’s both controversial and successful. Protestors often congregate outside his concerts, but the crowd inside is always bigger.
Meanwhile, one of the most popular shows on cable television features Internet clips that range from bizarre to disgusting. “Tosh.0” has shared with us an angry gamer trying to shove a remote up his ass, a 7-year-old who likes to “do hood rat stuff with his friends,” and a man taking a dump in plain view at the mall. Daniel Tosh then one-ups the videos with jokes that are usually racist, sexist or simply mean.
To our future children, good luck trying to shock us. Our culture is unapologetically crass, vulgar and indecent. Ed Sullivan’s 15 million viewers would look at our entertainment with confusion and disgust.
I love it.
