Two million fewer people than last year tuned in to see this year’s Academy Awards – but that might be because there was less of this year’s Oscar show to see.

That’s because ABC pulled the plug on a comic song that was to be performed during the show by Robin Williams. The song would have mocked the culture war that has turned SpongeBob SquarePants into a controversial figure.

That censorship was why Williams came out to present the award for best animated feature with a piece of white tape over his mouth.

This whole saga began during last year’s Super Bowl, when Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction outraged some (but not everyone – it was the most TiVo’d “play” of the Super Bowl). Federal regulators, always on the cutting edge of freedom of speech issues, have responded by voting to raise the maximum indecency fine to $500,000 (from $32,500). And Big Brother is definitely watching.

The post-wardrobe malfunction wave of conservative-inspired political correctness has been led by groups such as the Parents Television Council (responsible, according to Mediaweek magazine, for 99.9 percent of indecency complaints to the Federal Communications Commission in 2004) and Focus on the Family. This has led to censorship and criticism of movies like “Saving Private Ryan” (shelved by some ABC affiliates on Veteran’s Day for its language) and even shows such as “The Simpsons,” which was criticized for a recent episode that was sympathetic to gay marriage. Even a commercial for www.godaddy.com mocking last year’s wardrobe malfunction was censored on Super Bowl Sunday this year.

And most famously, the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants was ridiculed by James Dobson of Focus on the Family for appearing in a video with other cartoon characters to promote tolerance. Opponents called the video “pro-homosexual.”

This is what Robin Williams’ song was going to parody. Songwriter Marc Shaiman, whose past efforts include previous host Billy Crystal’s much beloved Oscar night medleys, wrote a song that was to have Williams, in the style of a preacher, “discovering” the “sins” of other cartoon characters, singing for example: “Fred Flintstone is dyslexic/ Jessica Rabbit is really a man/ Olive Oyl is really anorexic/ and Casper is in the Ku Klux Klan!”

Parts of the song were even more controversial, claiming that the “Road Runner’s hooked on speed” and that “Pocahontas is addicted to craps” – seen as celebrating drug use and potentially offensive to Native Americans, respectively. But these parts were in the song to mock those points of view, not to endorse them. They shouldn’t have been cut, and neither should Williams’ performance of them.

But it was all just too much for Gil Gates, the producer of the show, who wanted the song to be “less political.” Shaiman was asked to rewrite or delete almost a third of his song. He refused, deciding instead to remove it entirely.

For his part, Williams, like a lot of us, thought it odd that today’s culture wars have so many people afraid to criticize, or even make jokes. “For a while you get mad; then you get over it,” he told the New York Times. “They’re afraid of saying Olive Oyl is anorexic. It tells you about the state of humor. It’s strange to think: how afraid are you?”

Columns reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of the Northern Star staff.