Censor And Sensibility

The Offspring are battling MTV over their latest video.

OFF COLOR The Offspring's video for their new single ''Original Prankster'' may be pretty fly (and a ''TRL'' hit), but it's less funny now that MTV has nixed several of its gags. ''It's interesting which battles they pick,'' says frontman Dexter Holland. ''There's one scene where two [naked schoolgirls] are on their principal's lap, and it zooms [to a newspaper clipping] that says 'Principal Arrested for Molesting Students.' They made us get rid of 'molesting.' They're okay with the pedophilia, but you've gotta take out that word. It just gets weird.''

MTV's biggest beef involved a smelly canine substance (it rhymes with ''goo''), which a kid puts in his dad's sandwich. ''First they wanted us to take the scene out,'' Holland complains. ''Then they were like, 'Okay, but you can't show him biting into the sandwich, although you can show him spitting it out.' It's amazing. MTV has their own show, 'Jackass,' where they show a guy with human excrement [all over him]. It pisses me off that they're not adhering to their own standards.'' Asked to comment on this apparent hypocrisy, an MTV spokesperson will say only that ''we don't eat shit here at MTV.'' And that's the straight poop.

By Rob Brunner, from Entertainment Weekly - November 31st, 2000