I’m sure that when gay brothers Sam and Dan began The Amazing Race they didn’t expect their penises would cause the blogsphere to twitter with furvor. But they did and it has, though not for the reason you may think. There was no uncensored broadcast dick slippage like that of a Survivor contest’s member briefly flopping about during a challenge a while back. This time, the fury that set keyboards on fire is CBS’s censoring of Sam and Dan’s nether regions and why it was necessary.

While no official word from CBS has come on the subject, speculation abounds from wardrobe malfunction to erections to just because they are gay men playing in the mud with other men. The only thing that is clear is that the censoring has caused more of a fuss than had the show been left uncensored.

TAR’s Dan was in underwear and could possible have had a peek-a-boo moment, but what was wrong with Sam? Sam, who was wearing shorts, also had his crotch censored and had he not been blurred, this probably would’ve been a non-issue. It does make one wonder what the real problem was as there have been some questionable moments during the recent season of CBS’s Survivor where underwear-clad schemer Russell’s silhouette of his manhood has been clearly visible in several episodes.

I took a second look at the glimpses that weren’t censored, the guys movement and stance in the mud and how things were hanging (err… pointing). That combinded with Sam’s comment about “the hot Estonian guys” leads me to believe that CBS was running terrified that people would assume that in some shots the guys had erections. Whether they did or not no longer seems to be the issue as it has led to a larger concern… would CBS have been as quick to blur if the guys were straight?

Update 12/08/09 – Sam explains in interview with AfterElton: “Here’s the deal. Cheyne had black boxers on so you couldn’t see everything for him. Dan had lighter-colored boxers on, I had paper-thin little shorts on, and so you could just see too much. Apparently, the outline was too obvious, so they had to blur everything. No, we were not getting excited by the Estonian hotties, despite what everyone else seems to think. There’s not too much that’s erotic about playing volleyball with your brother in a little town in Estonia.”

On it being a gay issue on CBS’ part, Dan only said, “Trust me, that was my theory. But it happened and it was really funny. We were watching with our dad when that episode came on, and he was just like, ‘What’s going on?’”

Hmm…