Pearl Clutchers in Hot Spring County

IS THE FILM Night of the Living Dead too racy for daytime television? What about double entendres about "spotted dick" pudding? Or a travel documentary about Paris featuring burlesque dancers and a museum with nude paintings? These were just some of the federal obscenity complaints that made Hot Spring County, Arkansas, the most prudish place in America.

- Matthew Petti

The most infamous job of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is to punish obscenity on the airwaves, and it's always relied on public feedback to do so.

In the 1970s, a complaint about George Carlin's "seven dirty words you can't say on television" routine led to a Supreme Court ruling allowing the FCC to regulate "obscene, indecent, and profane" content on the airwaves.

New technologies have made this power less relevant, since cable news and online streaming fall outside the FCC's jurisdiction.

They've also made it easier to see who's complaining. For a decade, the FCC has published the time stamp and ZIP code of each individual obscenity complaint online.