Comedy Central has fallen foul of the broadcasting regulator over trailers for Inside Amy Schumer and South Park featuring crude and explicit references.
The Paramount-owned pay-TV channel, which was recently rapped for running crude promotions for shows, was also found to have broken broadcasting rules with a South Park trailer.
Ofcom felt so strongly about the explicit content of both trailers that it moved to ban them for breaching the broadcasting code even though they both aired at 10pm, well after the 9pm watershed that usually marks the line when more risque content can be aired.
The trailer for Schumer’s TV show featured the comedian and Zach Braff, the former Scrubs actor who plays her husband in the promo, making explicit references to sex acts.
The South Park trailer featured a crude song celebrating a new season of the animated show with references to explicit content such as the movie The Human Centipede.
Ofcom was concerned that while the trailers aired relatively late at night they were timed to run in shows such as Friends and Two and a Half Men where audiences would not expect to encounter such content.
“We concluded that the content was so offensive that in our view it would have exceeded viewers’ expectations even when broadcast at 10pm (and afterwards) on a specialist comedy channel,” ruled Ofcom.
Ofcom ruled that the trailers breached rules relating to generally accepted standards around sex and offensive language.
“Comedy Central accepts Ofcom’s findings and would like to apologise for any offence caused,” said a spokeswoman for the channel. “These breaches took place ahead of the recent changes we made to simplify and strengthen the compliance procedures and creative guidelines governing our on-air promos.”
