ABC Reportedly Censors Anti-Obama Communist Joke in Sitcom 'Last Man Standing

Actor Tim Allen, star of ABC's "Last Man Standing," made a fascinating claim in a recent interview with The New York Post. In the show's season premiere episode, which is scheduled to air just before the election, Allen told the Post that the network, which is owned by Disney, yanked jokes about U.S. Presidents Barack Obama, and Bill and Hillary Clinton.

In the show, Allen plays a conservative -- and in the episode at hand he is apparently trying to convince his daughter to vote for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. The actor told the Post that ABC's standards department refused to allow a joke in which his character called Obama "a communist" to air. A separate line likening the Clintons to "shingles" that "pop back" "just when you think they are gone" was also axed.

The Post has more regarding what was cut -- and kept -- in the upcoming episode:

“I love communist jokes,” Allen said. “The right sees everything as a communist.” [...]

Among the lines that survived:

* “Romney is a doer. It’s easy to be consistent, like Obama, when all you have done is ‘organize communities.’ ”

* “He did a great job with that South Side of Chicago. It runs like a watch down there. Of course, you can’t wear one.”

Allen said there are plenty of jokes aimed at Romney — because the network thought it was necessary to give the show some balance.

The latest issue of TV Guide confirmed the fact that there was a battle over the controversial Obama and Clinton jokes -- a notion that frustrated the Media Research Center's Tim Graham.

“ABC won’t allow certain buttons to be touched,” wrote Graham, director of media analysis at MRC. “It’s almost funny that the censors would be so lax on sex and violence, but will clamp down like Bonnie Bluehair on Obama jokes. Is this their only Thou Shalt Not?”

(H/T: Fox News Radio)