History Main / SoapPunishment

* ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'' has a rather weird example in the episode "Captain Girl". When Toot's horrible parenting skills are causing her Nicaraguan Baby to start acting like a teenage tramp, she (very drunkenly) tells her to go to her room, to which the baby responds by flipping her the bird. Toot replies "Watch your mouth you [[HypocriticalHumor bitch]]! Don't make me wash my mouth with ham!" And then proceeds to do just that: wash her own mouth with a whole leg of ham.

* In ''The Luck Uglies'', a children's fantasy novel by Paul Durham, the main character uses "pigshanks" as a curse word, but it's noted that her mother would wash her mouth out with soap if she ever heard her say it. The book has a glossary in the back of terms used within it. Regarding "pigshanks," it has only this to say: "A bad word. Use it, and your mother is likely to scrub your tongue with soap and a horse brush."
* In ''Lucky You'' by Creator/CarlHiaasen, there's a white supremacist whose nice liberal parents once washed his mouth out for saying the N-word. Now he can be as racist as he pleases, but he can't bring himself to utter the N-word, much to the amusement of the other white supremacists.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'': In "Roll Over, Beethoven", Yakko, Wakko and Dot do this to Beethoven after he describes himself as a 'pianist'.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'', when Angelica uses a swear word, her mother asked Didi if she should use this as a solution. She then asked her if she should use toothpaste as a substitute if soap was too toxic.

* A common joke for parents that still use the practice (after having gone through Ralphie's version as kids) is that their offspring should be happy they use ''liquid'' soap instead of a bar, since the latter could leave soap shavings between the teeth while the former is (relatively) easy to rinse out.
* Some parents use hot sauce or some other spicy condiment to tame their offspring's potty mouths instead.
* There are documented cases of children dying due to the after-effects of having unpleasant substances placed/forced into the mouth. For example, trying to swallow hot chili powder can easily cause suffocation. This and other substances can also cause the child to vomit and then aspirate (inhale) their own vomit. This in turn can lead to suffocation and even if it doesn't, it may cause pneumonia leading to death.

* "Body Ritual among the Nacirema" by Horace Miner, an anthropological satire describing America as if it were an obscure tribal society, {{parodie|dTrope}}s the trope as "a ritual ablution of the mouth for children which is supposed to improve their moral fibre", consistent with the [[SdrawkcabName Nacirema]] obsession with [[UncleanlinessIsNextToUngodliness physical and moral cleanliness]].

* ''ComicStrip/JumpStart'' for [[http://www.gocomics.com/jumpstart/2011/12/16#mutable_727115 12-16-11]]. Marcy Cobb tells her husband Joe that she had to wash out their son Joseph's mouth for lying. Joe reminds her that washing out someone's mouth with soap is for cursing, not lying.

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3922556/54/A-Mother-s-Love A Mother's Love]]'' Chapter 54, Kushina punishes Tayuya with this at least four times for swearing in front of her and will sometimes threaten to get more soap. [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4296279/4/A-Mother-s-Love-The-Life-of-Kushina In her own backstory]], her mother did to her once when she was a child. Borders on HypocriticalHumor when she and other ninjas still swear on occasion.

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7468970/1/Uzumaki-Naruto-Birth-of-the-New-Demon-King Uzumaki Naruto: Birth of the New Demon King]],'' the Kyuubi threatens Tayuya with this punishment every time she swears. Unfortunately, since it's [[LadySwearsALot Tayuya]], she'd had ''forty-two'' bars of soap shoved in her mouth ''that past'' '''''week'''''.

* Wrestling/{{Ivory}} actually tried to do this to Wrestling/{{T|erriPoch}}ori during their [[GarbageWrestler hardcore]] [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wwe/wwf-wm.html WWE Women's Title]] match on the September 6, 1999, ''Raw'' as they started the match in the bathroom and proceeded to fight through the shower.[[note]][[FridgeBrilliance Her name is "Ivory," after all.]][[/note]].

* ''Webcomic/LatchkeyKingdom'': A cultist [[http://latchkeykingdom.thecomicseries.com/comics/269 gets grabbed]] by a Krampus after swearing, and promptly submitted to [[http://latchkeykingdom.thecomicseries.com/comics/270 the soap]].

* ''Webcomic/TiffanyAndCorey'': Tiffany does it to Corey in [[http://tiffanyandcorey.blogspot.com/2018/02/dirty-language.html this cartoon]], apparently after Corey picks up bad language at a golf course.

[[folder:WebOriginal]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/PepperAnn'' episode "The Way They Were" , 5-year-old Pepper Ann has a bar of soap stuffed into her mouth for saying "jerk", and is to stay in the bathroom to reflect on her own actions while her mom is still pregnant with her second child, who turns out to be Margaret Rose, or "Moose".

* In a ''Jessie'' ChristmasEpisode, after Bertram tells Emma [[AssShove he knows where she can put]] her decorations, Jessie warns him not to make her wash his mouth out with tinsel.

* ''Literature/AscendanceOfABookworm'' has a spell called ''waschen'' that consists of briefly summoning a swirling bubble of water to clean anything contained within it. At some point, one character is about to say something another considers best kept silent, so the latter casts a ''waschen'' around the former's head and insists they saw dirt around their mouth.

* In ''Fanfic/EverydayLifeWithUltiamteGirls'', Makoto does a variation on this, using sour mouthwash made by Seiko and Ruruka instead of soap on [[ThinSkinnedBully Hiyoko]] when she goes too far in her pranks, disguising it as fruit juice and using it to "do something about that mouth of hers".

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' episode "Curses" had the Mayor of Townsville summon Ms. Bellum to do this to the girls when they said the swear word they learned from Professor Utonium in front of him. In addition, the girls later use this punishment on the giant potty-mouthed monster after learning that it is unacceptable for children to swear. But Buttercup still uses the word at the end, so when the girls do their normal poses during SoOnceAgainTheDayIsSaved, she's the only one not posing, instead looking grumpy and having her mouth washed with soap.

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'': Mother Mae-Eye does to Starfire after Starfire breaks her conditioning and attempts to tell the other Titans what Mother is really doing in "Mother Mae-Eye".

* Wiki/TheOtherWiki has [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washing_out_mouth_with_soap an article]] about the topic. The practice has been around since at least the 1800s and a number of actual cases are noted in the article, with a note that it may not be advisable, due to potential health consequences.

->'''Ralphie as Adult:''' ''(narrating)'' Over the years, I got to be quite a connoisseur of soap. My personal preference was for Lux, but I found Palmolive had a nice, piquant after-dinner flavor - heady, but with just a touch of mellow smoothness. ''(long pause)'' Lifebuoy, on the other hand...
->'''Ralphie:''' YECCHH!

Starting to become ValuesDissonance to some folks in RealLife as of late due to the fact it can be dangerous (although it used to be TruthInTelevision), but mostly always PlayedForLaughs in movies, television, etc.

* ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKid'': Greg ends up with this as a result of a failed attempt to tell on Rodrick for saying a bad word. Rodrick got off scot-free.

* "Charles" by Creator/ShirleyJackson: This happens twice at the school the protagonist's son Laurie attends. The first time, Laurie says that a fellow student Charles tricked a classmate into swearing in front of the teacher and getting her mouth washed out with soap. Then, Charles says the swear himself several times, getting his mouth washed out each time.