Movies - TV
A Made-Up Swear Word Got Family Guy In Deeply Ironic Trouble With Fox
By WITNEY SEIBOLD
In the “Family Guy” episode “Patriot Games,” Peter (Seth MacFarlane) joins the New England Patriots after rushing through a crowd at a high school reunion to reach the bathroom.
Fired for showboating, Peter finds joy in meeting Tom Brady. Transforming into a snobs-vs.-slobs story, he becomes the coach for a British football team, the London Sillinannies.
Early in the episode, two characters watch the news on television. After the main story, the newscaster announces, “Coming up: America's hottest new curse word, ‘Kleeman.’”
Fashioned as a playful substitute for a censored term, “Kleeman” ended up on Urban Dictionary. Its popularity prompted Fox to ban its use on the air, creating an ironic situation.
Writer Chris Sheridan via CinemaBlend shared that the choice was influenced by restrictions on using the word for female genitalia: “They said, 'You can't say vagina on the air.'”