Source: Morgan Lieberman / Getty
Just a few months ago, many parents were in an uproar after a Sesame Street writer revealed that the characters of “Bert and Ernie” were based on a gay couple. Parents complained about kids’ shows entertaining the topic of sexuality with their children way too early and robbing them of the opportunity to prepare for those discussions. But it appears some kids are getting their sex ed from the salacious talk shows that dominate and TV and actress/singer Keke Palmer recently shared that’s specifically where she first learned about oral sex.
The 25-year-old who stars in Lee Daniels’ PIMP made an appearance on E! Network’s Busy Tonight last Thursday. She revealed to host Busy Phillips that as a child she grew up watching talk shows like The Oprah Winfrey Show and The Maury Povich Show. Palmer shared that during one of his famed “lie detector test” episodes she was introduced to the term “oral sex” although she wasn’t quite sure what it was at the time:
“I will never forget the time I was watching Maury. I shouldn’t have been watching Maury, right? But I grew up in a very small Midwestern area, so it’s like you just watched those shows.”
“I remember they mentioned the lie detector test. ‘Did you have oral sex? Lie detector test determines you did,’ and my mom overheard and she’s like, ‘Oh my God, my daughter’s watching Maury.’ And you know what she did? She said, ‘Do you know what oral sex is?’ And I’m like, ‘No…’ ”
She says her mom then instructed her to get the dictionary for some clarification:
“She says, ‘I want you to look up in the dictionary what oral is and what sex is.’ And then I was horrified, and I knew that I shouldn’t have been watching Maury.”
Palmer went on to share that her early sex education may have helped prepare her for her latest role. In PIMP she stars as a lesbian named Wednesday who was raised in the Bronx by her sex worker mother and her father who runs a prostitution ring. Palmer, who landed the role by filming a documentary-style audition in her childhood neighborhood, told Phillips she needed a break after playing the intense role:
“When you really invest yourself, it becomes difficult once the filming is over to kind of shake it. You take it on, and Wednesday’s like — she had a hell of a life. That’s not a life you want to take on.”
You can watch Palmer talk about her impromptu sex-ed lesson below:
