History Main / UnusualDysphemism

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* An entry on the WebComic/{{Homestuck}} KinkMeme featured a description of masturbation as "FIVE MINUTES POPPING YOuR SICKENINGLY TuMESCENT OBLONG BEEF ZIT". Dirk, who this description was aimed at, responded with: "I... Don't know whether to be disgusted by that metaphor, impressed that I'm disgusted by that metaphor, or insulted by the insinuation that I'd only last five minutes?"

* In the nonfiction book ''The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down'', a couple of doctors are mentioned as referring to someone who's become a vegetable with terminology like "gorked her brain out", "fried her brain", "crapped out" and "went to hell".

** This facility with words actually came useful in another episode, where a 13-year-old girl was experiencing complications after getting pregnant. House was legally obligated to hide her pregnancy from her parents, so he carefully phrased it as "she has an abnormal growth in her abdomen" and described the abortion as "a simple procedure we do here in the hospital all the time".

* Dave from ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}''[='=]s dialogue consists almost entirely of creative and obscene metaphors. Then later on Karkat is introduced, and he's just as bad, if not worse.

** This facility with words actually came useful in another episode, where a 13-year-old girl was experiencing complications after getting pregnant. House was legally obligated to get her parents permission to end the pregnancy, but he carefully phrased it as "she has an abnormal growth in her abdomen" and describing abortion as "a simple procedure we do here in the hospital all the time".

** This facility with words actually came useful in another episode, where a 13-year-old girl was experiencing complications after getting pregnant. House was legally obligated to get her parents permission to end the pregnancy, but he carefully phrased it as "a parasite she picked up from another student on a school trip" and they just signed the form without further questions.

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* ''Series/TheWire'' is full of them, usually avoiding the simple word "screwed" when graphically detailed homoerotica is an option, and re-instilling the evocative power of usually-cliché sexual metaphors by dragging them out.

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[[quoteright:350:[[Webcomic/{{xkcd}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/reverse_euphemisms_4840.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[AltText "I'm still waiting for a chance to use 'I have to see a man about a horse'."]]]]

Related to BlackComedy. Always takes RefugeInAudacity, and often in its neighbor [[RefugeInVulgarity Vulgarity]].

* Near the beginning of ''Literature/JohnDiesAtTheEnd'', John calls Dave and says, "Your pimp says bring the heroin shipment tonight, or he'll be forced to stick you. Meet him where we buried the Korean whore. The one without the goatee."
** That was code. It meant, "Come to my place as soon as you can, it's important." Code, you know, in case the phone was bugged.

* On the website Website/AlternateHistoryDotCom and the production based on its culture, ''Script/AHDotComTheSeries'', {{Wikipedia}} is nicknamed "The Armenian Genocide" due to the fact that a lot of arguments have focused on the fact that it is often subject to vandalism by ultranationalist trolls on that issue. This has in turn led to further Unusual Dysphemisms such as "genocide" being used as a substitute for any and every other verb when describing a news story involving Armenians.

The opposite of UnusualEuphemism, a character replaces an ordinary phrase with an unnecessarily [[BlackComedy harsh]], obscene, or [[VulgarHumor crude]] one, either as an expression or disrespect of merely for the RuleOfFunny. There are several examples in ordinary usage, see The Other Wiki for [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dysphemism examples]], but this trope is for particularly imaginative ones.

* On the website AlternateHistoryDotCom and the production based on its culture, ''Script/AHDotComTheSeries'', {{Wikipedia}} is nicknamed "The Armenian Genocide" due to the fact that a lot of arguments have focused on the fact that it is often subject to vandalism by ultranationalist trolls on that issue. This has in turn led to further Unusual Dysphemisms such as "genocide" being used as a substitute for any and every other verb when describing a news story involving Armenians.

* ''TheWire'' is full of them, usually avoiding the simple word "screwed" when graphically detailed homoerotica is an option, and re-instilling the evocative power of usually-cliché sexual metaphors by dragging them out.

* ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' has mentioned a few RealLife examples of doctors' acronyms, like "'''G'''et '''O'''ut of '''M'''y '''E'''mergency '''R'''oom", and ''{{QI}}'' described a few more creative ones.

* The notorious ''[[TabletopGame/{{FATAL}} F.A.T.A.L.]]'' would be bad enough without gems such as "fucksticks" and "cunt-pipes". The former appears to have been removed in most of the circulating versions, but the latter is present in all editions.

* Costello's mistress in ''Film/TheDeparted'' lampshades the potential UnfortunateImplications of this kind of dialogue. After he makes several references in a phonecall to giving a detective "a whiff of my ass" so that he'll "crawl right in", he hangs up and turns to his girlfriend, who is reading a book on getting pregnant;

-->That was code. It meant, "Come to my place as soon as you can, it's important." Code, you know, in case the phone was bugged.

* ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' comes up with the idea of "reverse euphemisms", where "taking a shit" ''actually'' means "dropping the kids off at the pool".

* Near the beginning of ''Literature/JohnDiesAtTheEnd'', John calls Dave and says, "Bring the cocaine shipment to the place where we buried the Korean transvestite."

The opposite of UnusualEuphemism, a character replaces an ordinary phrase with an unnecessarily [[BlackComedy harsh]], obscene, or [[VulgarHumor crude]] one, either as an expression of disrespect of merely for the RuleOfFunny. There are several examples in ordinary usage, see The Other Wiki for [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dysphemism examples]], but this trope is for particularly imaginative ones.

* ''TheWire'' is full of them, usually avoiding the simple word "screwed" when hideously graphic homoerotica is an option.

* Roy Brown's "Butcher Pete" (featured in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'') is about [[SleepingWithTheMilkman Pete being a bold philanderer]], but Brown [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar avoids singing about sex]] by using ''brutal murder and dismemberment'' as a dysphemism.

* Appears occasionally in ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''.

The opposite of UnusualEuphemism, a character replaces an ordinary phrase with an unnecessarily [[BlackComedy obscene]] or [[VulgarHumor crude]] one. There are several examples in ordinary usage, see The Other Wiki for [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dysphemism examples]], but this trope is for particularly imaginative ones.

* Literature -- and anything in printed form -- is said by [[OldMediaAreEvil internet aficionados]] to be in "Dead Tree Format".

Related to BlackComedy.