A combination of scheduling errors and using book titles verbatim led to an unexpected apology for profane language that aired during the fiscal cliff debate -- from C-SPAN, of all places.

Many thought the network had been hacked when the title "Just Plain Dick" appeared during the fiscal cliff discussion on New Year's Eve, Politico writes.

But the phrase that really took off on social media happened a little later on C-SPAN2, where "I Want You to Shut the F#ck Up" described the House's deliberation on Tuesday.

Buzzfeed's Andrew Kaczynski grabbed screen shots:

(Photo: Twitter/BuzzFeedAndrew)

(Photo: Twitter/BuzzFeedAndrew)

C-SPAN explained in an apologetic blog post:

During the New Year’s “fiscal cliff” debates, our 100% commitment to cover the House and Senate live caused frequent interruptions to our previously scheduled programming. As such, on some occasions our pre-written TV schedule was not in sync with what was actually live on the air. When this happened, live congressional debate was accompanied by incorrect TV schedule information. Unfortunately, two of our previously scheduled BookTV programs had titles that some might find offensive.

Politico adds that the titles were intended to refer to a work by Kevin Mattson on Richard Nixon, and political book by comic D.L. Hughley.

Steve Friess, who wrote the Politico article, remarked earlier on Twitter: "I suspect Americans think the programming on @CSPAN's CSPAN2 right now is awfully appropriate."

Others were simply amused by Washington's apparent descent into vulgar insults and profanity (particularly with John Boehner's reported "go f**k yourself" speech to Harry Reid last week).

"Funniest thing I've read so far today," one Twitter user wrote.

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