Daily Urban Legend

Fred “Mr.” Rogers was about as clean living a man as one would expect of a Presbyterian minister who hosted a children’s television show. Naturally, he didn’t drink, smoke or do anything that could be considered remotely hedonistic. Also, those urban legends about him being a Vietnam sniper covered in tattoos are complete fiction.

However, despite all of this, Fred Rogers did have one shortcoming, and that was his proclivities towards cursing when the camera was off. Given his squeaky clean image, Rogers was deeply ashamed of his toilet mouth and tried to break himself of his cursing habit. His producers put a “swear jar” on the set and made Rogers throw some change in every time he swore between takes. At the end of the year, the contents of that jar were donated back to PBS during the annual pledge drive. Every year, PBS received at least 500 dollars in change from the jar. No word on how many tote bags they gave Rogers as thanks.