History Main / CensorBox

* ''{{Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt}}'': It appears in ''If the Angels Wore Swimsuits'' to cover various naughty bits as the starfish Ghosts replace bits of clothing, as well as in ''{{HELP! We are Angels}}" when Panty is singing about a delicious crotch.

* ''{{Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt}}'': It appears in ''If the Angels Wore Swimsuits'' to cover various naughty bits as the starfish Ghosts replace bits of clothing, as well as in ''HELP! We are Angels" when Panty is singing about a delicious crotch.

[[BlackLagoon http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Revi_Censored.jpeg]]
[[caption-width:424:[[AnimationAgeGhetto What do you mean, it's still not for kids?]]]]

** All except the one guy who proudly proclaims, "I ''win''."

** [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] near the end of the show's run (in "The Clotharian Contamination Protocol"), when our heroes receive a staticky, blue-tinted video transmission from another planet. The speaker uses some saucy language (actually, he's referencing [[Film/DieHard an Earth catchphrase]]), and naturally he gets a censor box... except, hilariously, the box is part of the transmission, complete with static and blue tint.

** [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] near the end of the show's run (in "The Clotharian Contamination Protocol"), when our heroes receive a staticky, blue-tinted video transmission from another planet. The speaker uses some saucy language (actually, he's referencing [[DieHard an Earth catchphrase]]), and naturally he gets a censor box... except, hilariously, the box is part of the transmission, complete with static and blue tint.

** [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] near the end of the show's run (in "The Clotharian Contamination Protocol"), in which our heroes receive a staticky, blue-tinted video transmission from another planet. The speaker uses some saucy language (actually, he's referencing [[DieHard an Earth catchphrase]]), and naturally he gets a censor box... except, hilariously, the box is part of the transmission, complete with static and blue tint.

-->--Brett Elrich, ''TheRottenTomatoesShow''

[[caption-width:424:[[AnimationAgeGhetto What do you mean, it's still not for kids?]]]]The CensorBox is used to cover up an offending sight with something that obviously doesn't belong, less physically part of the scene than any sort of [[SceneryCensor fig leaf]]. Most typically, this is a heavy black bar or box, but sometimes bizarre stickers are used.

A variation is for the bar to appear over a person's ''eyes'', rather than their naughty bits. Rather than censoring nudity, it's used to censor ''identity''. This may be used when the subject in question is fully clothed, and is often used to [[WritingAroundTrademarks Draw Around Trademarks]] in order to show a famous person to whom the author doesn't have the rights while stil maintaining PlausibleDeniability. This was also commonly done while showing naughty bits in vintage porn magazines and older medical books.

* The late-night ''GirlsGoneWild'' commercials will usually cover up the naughty bits of the aforementioned girls with either their logo or, ironically, a big bar labelled, "UNCENSORED!"

* An Australian animated ad for Red Bull was set in a nudist camp. There were black censor bars over everyone's naughty bits. One fellow had an exceptionally large censor box that rose as he drank his Red Bull.

* Used in the U.S. version of the French comic book ''{{Sillage}}'' (''Wake'' in English). In the first issue the heroine Navis/Navee is living as a kind of JunglePrincess, wearing only a pair of briefs. Conveniently for the censors she has a set of white bars tattoed on various parts of her body, one of which just happens to be across her breast. So for the US edition all they had to do was paint her breast tattoo black, and presto!

* In ''{{Series/Weird Science}}'', there is an early episode in which Gary orders Lisa to be naked for him. She does, and there are censor bars covering her rude bits. It quickly becomes clear that Gary and Wyatt are seeing the censor bars, same as the audience: apparently this is a safety feature because actually seeing Lisa naked would ruin Gary and Wyatt for normal women....

* Adam of ''{{Mythbusters}}'' saved the show's editors the expense of pixilating people's mouths by constructing a physical "censor visor" that cursing participants in a myth-test ("Does swearing increase one's ability to tolerate pain?") could wear to obscure their mouths. Being Adam, he decorated the plastic strip with [[SymbolSwearing cuss-substitute wingdings]].

* The music video for Make the Girl Dance's "Baby Baby Baby" features nude models walking down a street in Paris with censor boxes covering up their naughty bits. The lyrics to the song appear in the censor boxes, one or two words at a time, as they are sung.

* In the ''Police 911'' series, the eyes of criminals in their portraits are censored out, not unlike in Japanese television broadcasts. When you fight them, their faces are pixelated.

* ''TheCyantianChronicles'': A male fox's naughty bits are covered by a black censor bar saying "We Have a Shivae-13 Rating To Maintain!"*

** Also used to hilarious effect in a strip club. The dancers hadn't finished stripping and weren't actually showing their naughty bits, but the censors still thought they were showing too much. Rather than redesign the costumes, the animators just slapped some black bars on them, which turned out to be funnier anyway.

* ''TheSimpsonsMovie'' didn't have the black box in the theater. They lampshaded it when the movie recently ran on FX. The black box appeared during Bart's nude skateboarding scene that said "European Version Only".

* The TV adaptation of ''KodomoNoJikan'' is victim to a ridiculous amount of censorship in the form of swirling banners, often leading to total confusion about what is going on unless you read the manga first.
** Note that the uncensored DVD version reveals that most scenes blocked by these were far more innocent then the presence of a censor box implies. [[http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cit_bloomers_are_verboten.jpg See the previous picture for the trope]] for an example

** Censoring ''Sillage''? Come on, it's a book for 12-year-olds, that shows nothing more than all other French comics... What is the next step: censor Tarzan's chest?
*** That sounds like ''{{Mike Lu and Og}}'', where island native Lu has a white paint stripe across her breast in the pilot episode (she gets a proper tube top in the series).

** Actually, ''{{MADtv}}'' (SNL's rival show on FOX which, as of 2009, has been canceled) was the one that did "Boys Gone Wild!", though SNL did do a Girls Gone Wild parody focused on college coeds in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina happened and Doug Stanhope (played by Jason Sudeikis) offers them fresh water in exchange for the coeds flashing their breasts and going wild.
** There actually is a "Guys Gone Wild" movie out there... but it's pretty terrible, as the guys they caught on tape only really lifted their shirts to show off their pecs...

* Wasn't this one parodied in ''I Bet You Will'' (or one of the various shows with the same premise), with two people running a race clad in nothing but a censor bar made of cardboard? As I recall, for one of them it fell off.

* ''{{X-Play}}'' has often censored violence, gore, and nudity in games they review with little kitten heads. Adorable mewing kitten heads. It is this troper's favorite part of the show.

* In ''{{Series/Weird Science}}'', there is an early episode in which Gary orders Lisa to be naked for him. She does, and there are censor bars covering her rude bits. Somewhat subverted because it quickly becomes clear that Gary and Wyatt are seeing the censor bars, same as the audience: apparently this is a safety feature because actually seeing Lisa naked would ruin Gary and Wyatt for normal women....
* Averted in a promo for ''Memphis Beat'', in a scene where a robber is arrested with his pants down. In the actual late-evening broadcast, he's naked from the waist down, but in the promo, a black patch obscures enough of his buttocks to let the clip be aired at mid-day. The aversion is that the concealing black patch is specifically shaped to blend into the scene, resembling a pair of black briefs.

* In a non-graphics subversion, Adam of ''{{Mythbusters}}'' saved the show's editors the expense of pixilating people's mouths by constructing a physical "censor visor" that cursing participants in a myth-test ("Does swearing increase one's ability to tolerate pain?") could wear to obscure their mouths. Being Adam, he decorated the plastic strip with [[SymbolSwearing cuss-substitute wingdings]].

* An issue of the ''National Geographic'' magazine in [[{{Recon 5}} this troper]]'s home country arrived in the mail with the pictures of [[NationalGeographicNudity topless native women]] scribbled over with permanent marker. Apparently by the censorship board, no less.
** Wow... I guess this is the kind of thing that make you feeling bad for living in your country. :(

** DoubleSubverted in that, if [[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife watched slowed down, one frame at a time]] to catch all of the {{Easter Egg}}s, it says on the next frame [[spoiler:"And then they did you-know-what. With ''each other''."]]

* A piece of video art by [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible performance artist]] Pina Bausch featured a shot of a topless woman sitting in a room with a censor box over her eyes. Opinions in [[NoSoup4Me this troper's]] class on the meaning behind the image were varied, but it made me feel dirty.

* I can't remember the name or find videos of the game in question, but I recall seeing previews for an Xbox party game in which one character was a busty blue-haired woman whose only clothing was a set of censor bars. Whacked.

** That wasn't just ANY man's penis. That was the penis of Dr. Jonas Venture Sr. And it was using it's cycloptic visage to glare menacingly at Rusty (it was a hallucination brought on by Dr. Killinger). This troper may not be a psychologist (apparently you actually need a degree for that) but Dr. Freud would just LOVE to have a word or two with the creators of this show.

* In a non-graphics subversion, Adam of ''{{Mythbusters}}'' saved the show's editors the expense of pixilating people's mouths by constructing a physical "censor visor" that cursing participants in a myth-test ("Does swearing increase one's ability to tolerate pain?") could wear to obscure their mouths. Being Adam, he decorated the plastic strip with cuss-substitute wingdings.

* One episode of ''MysteryScienceTheater3000'' used a superimposed [=MST3K=] logo to cover up nudity, OrSoIHeard.
** That would be the episode ''Devilfish'', where the audience is given an [[FanDisservice unwanted look up a male character's shorts]].

* Played with frequently in Japanese comedy shows, like {{GakiNoTsukaiYaArahende
]]. Often, the censored part (usually a man's butt or genitals) is covered by ''their own face'' superimposed over their crotch.

* Played with frequently in Japanese comedy shows, like {{GakiNoTsukaiYaArahende]]. Often, the censored part (usually a man's butt or genitals) is covered by ''their own face'' superimposed over their crotch.

* In ''Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'', a large "Censored" box will cover Indy when he changes his clothes. It also shows up if he gets killed in some violent way, usually accompanied by a pool of blood appearing at the bottom.

* Used in [[ThatGuyWithTheGlasses The Nostalgia Critic's]] review of ''Red Sonja'', when [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment the naked dancing woman]] appears.
** Then amusingly used ''again'', when the [[DistaffCounterpart Nostalgia Chick]] reviews ''{{Showgirls}}'', where she covers up the womens [[MostCommonSuperpower boobs]]...with ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booby Boobies]]'' (don't worry, it's not dirty)!

* Parodied in ''{{Patlabor}}'' during the obligatory HotSpringsEpisode. We see all the main male characters go into a communal shower, with black dots covering their modesty. then, after they go behind a opaque wooden screen, they throw the dots over the top of the screen like towels!