FCC Won't Take Action Against Stephen Colbert For Trump Joke

(RTTNews) - The Federal Communications Commission or FCC will not take any action against CBS Corp.'s "Late Show with Stephen Colbert" despite receiving thousands of complaints about the talk show comedian's controversial joke about President Donald Trump.

"Consistent with standard operating procedure, the FCC's Enforcement Bureau has reviewed the complaints and the material that was in the subject of these complaints. The Bureau has concluded that there was nothing actionable under the FCC's rules," the FCC said.

During the May 1 broadcast of the show, Colbert criticized Trump for abruptly ending an interview earlier with CBS News' "Face the Nation" host John Dickerson.

"You have more people marching against you than cancer. You talk like a sign language gorilla that got hit in the head. In fact, the only thing your mouth is good for is being Vladimir Putin's c--k holster," Colbert said in his opening monologue.

The final statement by Colbert was bleeped in the broadcast. But observers criticized Colbert for making a homophobic joke and it also led to a #FireColbert Twitter campaign.

The FCC had earlier confirmed that it received thousands of complaints following the broadcast, with the vast majority calling the joke homophobic and offensive.

According to the FCC, for content to be ruled obscene, it must meet a three-pronged test established by the Supreme Court: It must appeal to an average person's prurient interest; depict or describe sexual conduct in a "patently offensive" way; and, taken as a whole, lack serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.