By JOSH MASSEY
Entertainment Editor

Locals who love dirty jokes may have to stick with "South Park" and "There’s Something About Mary."

On May 20, Athens’ OnTV Channel 17 premiered "Damn!", a sketch comedy show starring University students. It never lasted past its first show.

Intermedia, which manages OnTV, cancelled it after airing the first episode for two weeks. The decision was based on the show’s content, which included a dog humping a sleeping bag, a Bill Cosby impersonator taking Jell-O shots, and a reference to pubic hair.

"We retain full control and editorial discretion," said Intermedia general manager Billy Porter.

Porter stressed that Athens had no public access channel, and Intermedia had no obligation to keep the show on the air. "There is no ‘bring us a video, we’ll put it on the air’ mentality," he said.

The creators of "Damn!" said their show, while not G-rated, was well-liked and deserved airtime.

"Athens is starving for something like this," said Waco O’Guin, a senior from Lakeland, and one of the creators of "Damn!". "(Intermedia doesn’t) realize more people watched that show than probably anything else on that channel."

Fellow "Damn!" creator Matt Chastain, a sophomore from Monticello, agreed.

"We could definitely build a better fan base than The Spy Girls (another Intermedia show)," Chastain said. "We got a lot of good response, some good E-mail. Everywhere we go, people recognize us. So we know people are watching."

Chastain and O’Guin both said it was not the content that led to their show’s cancellation, but to poor management at Intermedia.

"(Intermedia) put it on a Sunday afternoon. We didn’t ask them to do that," O’Guin said, adding they always meant "Damn!" to be on after kids went to bed.

Porter admits he isn’t quite sure how "Damn!" got on the air in the first place.

"There are still some questions," he said. "Specifically how it got on the air, I’m unaware of."

Chastain and O’Guin had originally dropped the first episode off at TCI Media Services, which is responsible for some of the local programming and advertising. According to them, TCI never screened it before putting it on the air. It had run nine times before Porter saw it.

Though Chastain and O’Guin claim Porter has avoided talking to them, Porter said he is more than willing to sit and talk the situation over with them.

"I’ve returned calls and I’ve written letters directly to them," Porter said. "If they called me, we’d listen to whatever anyone had to say."

For now, the creators of "Damn!" have started brainstorming for another outlet for their show.

"One thing we definitely are doing is we’re going to be on the dorm channels and on the dorm channels on some other campuses around here," Chastain said.

Chastain said they might also take "Damn!" to other campus channels, including Clemson and Georgia Tech. Currently, though, they are at work on a third show, with a second episode already in the can.

"The second one is much better than the first," Chastain said. "It looks more professional." They’ve also created a web site (http://www.damnshow.com), where the shows are available on video.