History Main / GettingCrapPastTheRadar

Compare DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything. Contrast with DefyingTheCensors, in which the creators fight to have their controversial work shown to the masses; and {{Surprisingly Lenient Censor}}, in which the censors are more easy-going than the creators expect. See also CrossesTheLineTwice, which can be the end result of gradually increasing the level of inappropriate content.

---> Clutching your pillow and writhing in a naked sweat,
---> Hoping somebody someday'll do you like I did!

The naming of Thoroughbred racehorses in the US is governed by Jockey Club Registry Section 6:E(x). Banned are "Names that are suggestive or have a vulgar or obscene meaning; names considered in poor taste; or names that may be offensive to religious, political or ethnic groups." Despite this, some horse owners manage to sneak in names like [[https://www.equibase.com/profiles/Results.cfm?type=Horse&refno=4343590&registry=T&rbt=TB Peony's Envy]]

* Music/LadyGaga's debut album The Fame has large amounts of innuendo. While that doesn't seem to mandate a sticker nowadays, there's a very audible PrecisionFStrike in the chorus of Poker Face, in a sexual context, which was missed because it is not in the official lyrics. Most of the radio stations didn't notice it either [[https://youtu.be/uMeZ8ZlnI6Y?t=109 until KISS.FM called her on it]].

* The reason why Japanese porn is censored is due a widely accepted loophole in Article 175 of the Penal Code of Japan that bans "obscenity". Since what is considered obscene is left vague, many have interpreted it to mean that genitals cannot be shown uncensored[[note]]With the exception being young boys or in the context of it being drawn cartoonily since they aren't considered to be inherently sexual[[/note]]. This is also where the phenomenon of "tentacle porn" comes from-- makers of drawn and animated pornography in Japan, wishing to remain compliant with the penal code, replaced genitalia with more absurd things.

* The ''Comicbook/{{Viz}} strip ''Sweary Mary'' is built around this trope; her entire schtick is trying to dodge censorship so she can swear as much as she wants. In her last appearance she finally achieved her life's dream of being allowed to swear on the cover, but lost her voice and was ridiculed by the other characters.

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* The ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTensei'' subseries ''VideoGame/DevilChildren'' had two entries localized by Atlus as the ''[=DemiKids=]'' series. While they are LighterAndSofter than the main series, as the E rating would have you believe, they still contain SuccubiAndIncubi -- without as much as a "Suggestive Themes" descriptor -- despite both demons being highlighted in ratings information for SMT titles with higher ratings. And yes, the Incubus in ''[=DemiKids=]'' still has the same "phallic-shaped torso" that catches the ESRB's eye [[https://www.esrb.org/ratings/34693/Persona+5/ every]] [[https://www.esrb.org/ratings/37916/Shin+Megami+Tensei+V/ time]].

* ''Literature/JinxHigh'' has an in-universe example. The novel is set in the Bible Belt, and the high school prom opens with a Maypole dance. Diana and a minor character who was a hippie in the 60s both recognize the signs of an accurate fertility-ritual Maypole and have to hide laughter. [[spoiler:Until Diana realizes it's the full Sex Magick version instead and finds herself running mystic damage control.]]

* The series three opener of ''Sherlock'', "The Empty Hearse". While the show is considerably more R-Rated than the majority of 12-rated programmes on the channel, it still clearly couldn't get away with a proper PrecisionFStrike, so it sneaks one in- Mrs. Hudson asks Sherlock what Watson said to him [[spoiler:discovering he was alive]]. Sherlock begins to say "Fu...", then SmashCut to Watson, giving a patient a physical: "Cough."

** This is the first American movie with a scene inside what is obviously a gay bar; while the Code never specifically mentions homosexuality, it does forbid "sex perversion", under which homosexuality would have falled in 1962.

* Steve L. Kent in ''The Ultimate History of Video Games'' discusses how Nintendo's censors went out of their way to censor things that could even be ''considered'' offensive from the NES port of ''VideoGame/ManiacMansion'' (which Douglas Crockford corroborates [[https://web.archive.org/web/20071012031110/http://www.crockford.com/wrrrld/maniac.html here]]. They went through all of that trouble to have the creators remove even some innocent things... and completely missed the fact that you can put a [[MicrowaveTheDog hamster in a microwave]] and essentially ''nuke'' it, then give the exploded remains back to its previous owner! They fixed this only in the international release, when it was too late to revoke it from the original US port.

* In ''Film/AFaceInTheCrowd'', part of the rebranding for Vitajex that Rhodes masterminds involves hinting as much as possible for TV in TheFifties that it boosts the male sex drive.

* In ''Literature/FearLoathingAndGumboOnTheCampaignTrailSeventyTwo'', under [[spoiler: Rumsfeld, the film industry was highly censored]], but some filmmakers were able to sneak in [[spoiler: some anti-Rumsfeldian themes. ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' featured an ending in which Marty discovers that his alteration of the past wrote him out of existence, which was an attempt by Spielberg at drawing a metaphor about Rumsfeld's Orwellian alteration of history]]. The movie ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife'' is used to convey another [[spoiler: anti-Rumsfeld message by drawing comparisons between Rumsfeld and [[MorallyBankruptBanker Mr. Potter]], but its history as a beloved American classic means that these themes were ignored by censors]].

* The song "On Your Marks, Get Set, Ready, Go" in ''WesternAnimation/TheRugratsMovie'' contains the lyric "So fast the wind'll blow dry your asshole" ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCz2Ob5_-bg see here]]). Perhaps because the lyrics are [[IndecipherableLyrics nigh-indecipherable]], the movie was rated G.

** Harpie Girl. The censorship was missed in the first run and was fixed later, but it was too late. It's harder to find the ''censored'' version.

* In a 2002 interview with ''Empire'' magazine, Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman say that the American censor was concerned about Pussy Galore's name in ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}'', but they persuaded him to let them leave it in by taking him out to dinner and claiming to be big supporters of the Republican Party.

* A visual example in ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' has Sheldon Cooper displaying, in an argument with Leonard hoftadter, [[ToDumbToLive what a highly-educated idiot he is]]. The camera angle frames Sheldon against a whiteboard covered with the usual abstract advanced mathematical equations. It's no accident that just to the right of Sheldon's face, a set of extravagantly-bracketed equations are drawn in such a way that they resemble the classic toilet wall cock-and-balls.

* In Disney's ''WesternAnimation/TheRescuers'', during the scene where Bernard and Miss Bianca are flying aboard the back of Orville through the city, a small image of a topless woman is visible (for two nonconsecutive frames) pasted in the window of a building in the background. [[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/disney-recalls-sabotaged-video-1045806.html The 1999 Masterpiece Collection VHS tapes containing the image were recalled almost immediately]], and all subsequent releases of the film have, of course, have been edited to exclude the image. There have been many urban legends surrounding Disney movies and purported hidden risqué content, but this remains the only incident to have been clearly deliberate and of an unquestionable nature.

Getting Crap Past the Radar refers to instances in which a writer, artist or other creator puts inappropriate content -- stuff that directly violates the censorship standards they are working under -- into their material with the deliberate intent to get past this censorship.

** In 2013's "Chopped Champions: Part 1", Chef Sylvain Harribey said "This is all shit!" But [[BilingualBonus he said it in French]]

* Creator/TexAvery's ''The Shooting of Dan McGoo'' has a town named Coldernell, which sounds almost exactly like "colder than Hell"; the Hays Code specifically forbade the word ''Hell''.

* On 21 February 2017 episode of ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'', during the College Tournament, Stanford student Viraj Mehta displayed an extended middle finger for at least seven seconds, supposedly to illustrate his interview subject, the geometry of folded pizza slices. [[https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2017/02/142375/jeopardy-viraj-mehta-middle-finger Mehta layer confirmed on Twitter that his gesture was deliberate]].

* Many radio stations played Music/{{Prince}}'s "Erotic City" uncensored for over a decade, [[https://web.archive.org/web/20130206065259/http://www.lyricstime.com/prince-erotic-city-lyrics.htmlincorrectly]] [[https://web.archive.org/web/20120715031518/http://articles.latimes.com/1989-10-28/entertainment/ca-726_1_radio-stations believing]] the lyrics with the F-bombs to be "We can ''funk'' into the dawn" and "''Thoughts of'' pretty you and me". One station was fined by the FCC in 1989 for playing it, but it wasn't until the 2000s that all radio stations switched to a version with either the F-bombs muted or another part of the song played over the offending lyrics.

* The title of the ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'' episode "The Beagle Birthday Massacre, a reference to the Valentine's Day Massacre, was eventually caught on Disney Channel's radar, who changed the title to "The Beagle Birthday Breakout". Disney+ still retains the original title, though.

* The ''Westernanimation/{{House of Mouse}}'' episode "Donald's Fish Fry" has a scene where Donald ends up naked and thrown into a house, afterwards he is kicked out while a woman is heard calling him a "masher", which is [[https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=masher slang for a man who performs unwanted sexual advances on women he does not know]]. ''House of Mouse'' is rated TV-Y7, which is not supposed to have any language of this sort.
* ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'': In "[[Recap/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehogS01E47MagnificentSonic The Magnificent Sonic]]", Sonic ends up partaking in StripPoker with Scratch and Grounder, mentioning the game by name and explaining how they need to strip themselves if they lose. While Scratch and Grounder are robots and thus don't have any clothing besides their metal frames, strip poker is a notoriously adult game. Even in the Toon Disney rebroadcast, where a scene was [[{{Bowdlerise}} edited out]] of Robotnik ordering Scratch and Grounder to shoot themselves, the strip poker game went unedited.
* ''WesternAnimation/HamsterAndGretel'': One of the recurring side characters is named Hiromi Tanaka. This is literally one keystroke left of being the name of a very famous Japanese Adult Video star...

%[[folder:British Phonographic Association]]
%The British Phonographic Association (BPI) is the British industry group responsible for promoting and self-regulating music and audio dramas in the UK. In 1995, they adopted the %"Parental Advisory - Explicit Content" labels already in use by the Recording Industry Association of America to identify if a CD or digital song contains strong language or %themes. The criteria for when to apply the label can be read [[https://www.bpi.co.uk/media/1047/parental-advisory-guidelines.pdf here]].
%* Music/{{Busted}}'s song "What I Go To School For" includes the word "ass", uncensored. And yes, it's explicitly referring to a bum and not a donkey. Justified, as the word is %less offensive in the UK.
%If it's "justified" by the word being less offensive, then it didn't "get past" the radar, the radar didn't care. The linked pdf refers to "strong or coarse language", but doesn't define it.
%[[/folder]]

[[folder:British Phonographic Association]]
The British Phonographic Association (BPI) is the British industry group responsible for promoting and self-regulating music and audio dramas in the UK. In 1995, they adopted the "Parental Advisory - Explicit Content" labels already in use by the Recording Industry Association of America to identify if a CD or digital song contains strong language or themes. The criteria for when to apply the label can be read [[https://www.bpi.co.uk/media/1047/parental-advisory-guidelines.pdf here]].
* Music/{{Busted}}'s song "What I Go To School For" includes the word "ass", uncensored. And yes, it's explicitly referring to a bum and not a donkey. Justified, as the word is less offensive in the UK.

[[folder:Bulletin (literary journal)]]
* Australian poet Gwen Harwood submitted two poems, "Eloisa to Abelard" and "Abelard to Eloisa", to ''Bulletin''. Those poems were acrostics; the first letter of each line spelled out "So long Bulletin" and "Fuck all editors". [[https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/12361661 Somehow no one at the paper noticed this]] and the issue had to be recalled.
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