Executives at American TV network ABC have forced Robin Williams to axe a song poking fun at anti-gay political pressure group "Focus on the Family" from his time on stage at the Oscars tonight.

The group, headed by James C. Dobson, went on record last month as saying that cartoon characters including SpongeBob SquarePants were "promoting homosexuality" in America. The New York Times reported late Sunday that Williams had planned to use his minute on stage singing a satirical gospel-esque song about Dobson's claims - but that ABC's broadcast standards unit wanted 11 out of 36 lines of the song cut or rewritten.

Williams had planned, according to the Times, to sing the song in the voice of a preacher as if he were identifying, fire-and-brimstone style, other threats to American society. Lines such as "Pinocchio's had his nose done! / Sleeping Beauty is popping pills" were, however, deemed too strong for the primetime broadcast.