MTV Hyper-Sexualizes Kids with New Show, Pushing the Soft-Core Envelope

by Sarah Parker June 14, 2010 06:18 AM (PT) Topics: Child Trafficking 

RJ Berger has a gigantic penis. He’s also the main character of MTV’s newest scripted comedy, “The Hard Times of RJ Berger.” Did you snicker at that a little? It’s okay. I did too. Then I learned he’s a sophomore in high school.This new half-hour comedy premiered on MTV June 6th and takes place in a “typical American high school” where the boys are obsessed with sex, the girls are obsessed with sex, their parents are obsessed with sex, the entire school has seen RJ’s member, expresses envy of it or desire for it in various hi-larious ways, and adult women want some sexy time with the well-endowed minor too.What’s the problem? Coming of age movies filled with off-color jokes about horny teenagers are nothing new. “American Pie” and “Superbad” did it. And it isn’t like “Berger” is getting rave reviews. Its plot and characters are tepid and unoriginal according to the L.A. Times. The problem I saw after watching the pilot (and wishing I was watching something better written, like”Dinosaurs“), is that these are, for all intents and purposes, underage children. (And don’t give me that BS about adult actors playing teens.)  All of America gets to watch kids masturbating, stripping, and exposing themselves on basic cable. Stellar programming, MTV!Here are some of the appalling things I saw in the 20-minute pilot:

• RJ masturbating in bed followed by RJ’s sex-crazed friend Lily masturbating violently in the school library.
• Lily tells RJ she’s available to him, “Any time. Anywhere. Any orifice.”
• In the “popular hot girl fantasy sequence,” the teen rips off her dress to reveal sexy lingerie.
• At dinner, RJ’s swinger parents and their guests lob sexual innuendos in front of RJ, who calls them on it, and later has to listen to them having group sex.
• When RJ’s endowment is finally revealed to the whole school via pantsing at a basketball game, Lily’s response is, “I’m soaked.” Classy.
• In an anime sequence recounting why RJ kept his endowment a secret for so long, we get to see RJ and a teen girl preparing to have oral sex but then she chokes because he’s so darn huge. Funny. Riiiight.
• At the pool party with the popular kids, it’s littered with teens in tiny bikinis, anatomical close ups, including a girl’s exposed butt crack, and RJ’s male sidekick in nothing but his briefs. 

MTV is marketing this show to America’s youth. It’s even been called “Hung for the Young.” Since when do children need a show like “Hung?” But I’m even more disturbed by how much shows like this can feed the fantasies of child predators and encourage the sexual exploitation of children in brothels, on the streets, inside their own homes, and in pornography, which “Berger” is verging on in my opinion. The Parents Television Council agrees.Tell MTV it should be spending more time bringing its human trafficking campaign to the U.S. and less time exploiting our children.