Some Complaints To The FCC About John Cena's 'Naked' Oscars Bit Are Over The Top
The complaints to the Federal Communications Commission over John Cena’s near-naked bit during the Oscars are getting their close-up.
Rolling Stone submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to report on the messages ― and it was worth the trouble.
The chiseled Cena spiced up a relatively tame ceremony by appearing nearly nude on stage to present the award for best costume design. The pro wrestler and actor pretended to be reluctant to follow through with a joke about streakers, and instead showed up with (ostensibly) just the winner’s envelope covering his private area.
Not everyone was into it, as the FCC learned.
“There is no reason why a grown man will come to national television like a streaker and molest and abuse all the children who will hear and see this in TV and in the various media the following day,” one viewer from Newark, New Jersey, wrote to the broadcast regulator. “There is need for Cena and the Oscar organizers to be cancelled for promoting gratuitous and inappropriate nudity in such horrific levels that they deserve boycott in the first order.”
“What more can I say....other than an undresses [sic] man coming out on stage with only and piece of paper covering his private parts!” wrote a person from Bluefield, West Virginia. “Do your job! Get this filth off our TVs!”
The missives seemed to be much ado about nothing ― no offense, John.
Backstage photos showed the actor wearing a skin-toned hybrid of a jock strap and thong to cover his sensitive parts front and back in case of an envelope malfunction. The envelope was also Velcro’d on as even further backup to appease Standards & Practices, a Disney executive told TV Line.
But thanks for the entertainment, complainers.
A naked John Cena and Jimmy Kimmel bicker on stage at the 2024 #Oscarspic.twitter.com/1JYd5qth6F
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) March 11, 2024
Read yet another complaint and discover more about the outraged mail at Rolling Stone.