Frederick M. Brown/Getty ImagesOutspoken TV showrunner Chuck Lorre is making a big bang politically with his latest vanity card.
The writer-producer signaled his support of President Barack Obama in the card that aired after Thursday's episode of his Emmy-winning hit, The Big Bang Theory—at least indirectly. That's because, rather than submit the card for approval to CBS censors, Lorre said he opted to censor himself and instead confine the actual political content to his website.
"I know when I've crossed the line with these things and don't need a bunch of corporate lawyers getting their cotton blend panties in a bunch," he wrote on the version of the card that appeared after the episode. "Accordingly, I've banished the offending card to that dark place where all my offending cards go—the internet."
The censored version of Card #397, appropriately entitled "Censored by Me," makes clear Lorre's support of the Prez—and an apparent disdain for Republican candidate Mitt Romney—with a series of questions beginning with the phrase "What does it say about us." "What does it say about us when a black guy's in charge and we say things like 'it's time to take America back'?" Lorre wrote on his website. "What does it say about us when we think the institution of marriage is threatened by gay people who love each other, but not by idiotic game shows like 'The Bachelor'?"
Lorre, who's also the showrunner behind Two and a Half Men and Mike & Molly, also took the opportunity to mock Romney's Mormon (and fiscal) beliefs: "What does it say about us when we think a guy who doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, keeps his money offshore, stubs his toe and says 'H-E-double hockey sticks' and wears magical underwear can feel our pain?"
Ultimately, Lorre concludes at the end of the censored card, "The answer, my friends, is not blowing in the wind. The answer is, ‘We are f--ing crazy." (Tell us how you really feel, Chuck!)
In October, Lorre published a hardcover book, What Doesn't Kill Us Makes Us Bitter, a collection of his vanity cards, which began airing with his ‘90s ABC hit, Dharma & Greg.