“We can say ‘pussy’ now!”
It’s official. Comedians on Comedy Central are now allowed to say the word whenever they please.
This great moment in Comedy Central history happened due to the tireless fight of comedian Amy Schumer and her executive producer Dan Powell. Previously, Schumer was not allowed to say the p-word on her show Inside Amy Schumer on the cable network; however, other references to male organs were allowed if they weren’t used in reference to sex.
“Dan decided that it wasn’t fair that they bleep the word ‘pussy,’” Schumer said.
“Because you are allowed to say the word ‘dick’ on Comedy Central,” added Jessi Klein, head writer and executive producer.
“Halfway through the first season, we started to realize that a lot of the show was addressing women’s issues and gender politics,” said Powell. “I’d written a letter, sort of like write I’d write to my congressman, and I guess it struck a chord.”
After a conference call with the bigwigs at Comedy Central, the network assented.
“That was Dan’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” said Schumer.
The word was used for the first time in the sketch Acting Off-Camera in which Schumer does a voice-over gig for a kids animated movie with Jessica Alba and Megan Fox. When Schumer goes to the studio to record she finds out that her animated character, unlike the other two curvaceous ones, is “really fat, with twigs in its hair, and a huge [visible] vagina.”
A few seconds later Schumer deadpans, “My character has a pussy.”
During a Q&A with fans at the New York Comedy Festival, Schumer told fans she knew her series had finally arrived because she saw that “someone dressed up as that meerkat with the exposed pussy for Halloween.”
Panel with the writers for "inside Amy Schumer" #paleylive pic.twitter.com/hfTsul98fs
— Amy Schumer (@amyschumer) November 8, 2014
“It was a great moment in U.S. history,” said Klein.