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Comedy
- Hudson & Landry's "Obscene Phone Bust" and Jim Backus' "Dirty Old Man" affects sound effects in place of the blue material that gets their laughs. Example from "Obscene Phone Bust":Officer: Go ever there and sit down, bad mouth.
George: Ah, go (horn sounds), copper.
Officer: I'm gonna lock you up and throw away the key, boy.
George: You can take that key and tie it to your (ascending slide whistle), Sherlock!
Officer: All right, tough guy, now you're askin' for it!
George: Why don't you go take a (horse whinnying and three sneezes) in a rolling doughnut?!
Fan Works
- The author of the Total Drama Remake Fanfic Series has strict censorship, so when Puff-Puff Humbert was singing in TDR: My Version...She threw her fist so I crashed that piece of- *cue sudden blackout*
Films — Animated
- A Running Gag in Megamind is that the "background music" is provided by Minion with a boombox. When the song "Highway to Hell" is used, all the "Hells" are cut off by Minion having trouble with the stereo.
- From Open Season 2:McSquizzy: (to a Doberman) You muscle bound sack of sh—(gets cut off by someone loudly drinking coconut juice with a straw).
- Rango: Rock-Eye gets carried off by a hawk, then yells to Rango: “You son of a—“. Cue the hawk crowing.
- At Didi's baby shower in The Rugrats Movie:Charlotte: How's the little man doing?
Didi: I told you, Charlotte, Dr. Lipschitz says it's a girl.
Charlotte: Well you know what they say, "Born under Venus look for a—(her cellphone rings) Hello?
Films — Live-Action
- Alien vs. Predator: The gore and the cursing associated with the Predator series got a setback in this PG-13 crossover, with Lex referencing the "You're one ugly motherfucker" line to a Xenomorph before shooting it dead but with the f-word being cut short by the alien monster screeching at her.
- Back to the Future Part II: In 1985-A, Marty gets chased on the roof of this timeline's Biff Tannen's hotel.Marty: What about the police, Biff? They're gonna match up the bullet to your gun.Marty: You son of a-(Biff cocks his pistol)
- In Battleship, Rihanna gets "Mahalo, motherfu-" as she shoots an alien with a deck-mounted cannon.
- In Blazing Saddles:Gabby Johnson: Hey! The sheriff's a nig- [clock bell chimes]
Harriet Johnson: What did he say?
Dr. Sam Johnson: He said the sheriff's near.
Gabby Johnson: No, gone blame it dang blammit! The sheriff is a nig- [clock bell chimes again] - In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Grandpa George is in the middle of saying Mike Teavee is an "ungrateful little ba-" when Charlie's ears are covered by his father, plunging the movie into silence for the remainder of Grandpa George's rant.
- Doctor at Sea:
- During Easter's explanation of the location of Dr. Sparrow's cabin, he is cut off by a flushing toilet:Easter: It's them pipes, sir. You are situated, as you might say, indelibly below the Captain's-
- Captain Hogg's orders to Fellowes are cut off by the ship's horn:Captain Hogg: Mr. Fellowes, you'll oblige me by having this engine room telegraph cleaned up. It looks as it been out all night in a shower of-
- During Easter's explanation of the location of Dr. Sparrow's cabin, he is cut off by a flushing toilet:
- The Funhouse Massacre: The park overseer is telling off his employees for smoking when they should be working as he is about to say "bullshi-(loud intercom feedback).
- At the end of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Tuco is staggering after Blondie who's departing with the gold they were chasing after all film. He expresses his negative opinion of Blondie's parentage, but gets cut off at the last word by the opening riff of the ending theme.
- Apparently, what Eli Wallach actually yelled, since he knew it would be dubbed over anyway (as was common practice for Italian films of the era) was, "YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE?!? JUST A DIRTY MOTHERFUCKER!"
- Jaws: "Smile, you son of a (explosion)", for censorship reasons.
- A Good Day to Die Hard: "How about...yippee-ki-yay, motherfu-(BANG!)" (for the PG-13 version, averted in the uncut version)
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- Guardians of the Galaxy: After a ruckus is made in the Collector's shop by an explosion, Peter and Gamora come from under the rubble.Peter: "...What the-" (electric blast)
- Spider-Man: No Way Home begins immediately where Spider-Man: Far From Home left off, with Spidey's "WHAT THE FU-?!" from the end of that film now cut off by a car horn going off.
- Guardians of the Galaxy: After a ruckus is made in the Collector's shop by an explosion, Peter and Gamora come from under the rubble.
- In Ocean's Twelve, a character is complaining about the censorship of his music, and the bleeps over the soundtrack playing exactly match up with his swear words. He then interrupts himself to tell someone to turn off the censor machine.
- A combination "Sound Effects Bleep" and "Cut to Another Scene" in Sex and the Single Girl happens when Natalie Wood starts to yell something like "Why you don't go..." into a phone. Cut to the person on the other end of the line, and "cuckoo" sounds coming out of the phone.
- In SHAZAM! Fury of the Gods, Darla of all characters has one while the Shazam siblings are riding unicorns:Darla: Taste the rainbow, motherf-!Unicorn: (brays loudly)
- Smokey and the Bandit: Texas Sheriff Buford T. Justice is chasing the Bandit across several states in his increasingly damaged police car. An Arkansas State Trooper looks at the severely dilapidated automobile, and says "You can't drive this piece of shit on the highway." Sheriff Justice proceeds to "tear him a new one" both for his unprofessional use of foul language, and the fact he's been chasing a criminal who's violated a number of state and federal laws. As the trooper apologizes, we hear the faint sound in the distance of an approaching big rig. As Sheriff Justice prepares to put the car in gear and leave, he says, "I accept your apology, now ..." his words are obliterated by the truck horn as it passes, but his lips clearly show him saying, "...fuck off."
- Done in Wayne's World, where a curse near an airfield is obscured by a jet. We still get to hear the ending.
Literature
- In the Animorphs novel where the character David is introduced, David is seen carrying the alien "blue box" around. When Jake is informed of this, he begins with "Oh—" just as the school bell rings.
Live-Action TV
- In The IT Crowd, Jen unleashes a tirade of swears to a Japanese man who stepped on her feet with Doc Martens. These are conveniently bleeped out by an employee nearby using a button. Made even more funny when said employee is out of time with covering up Renholm's swearing at Jen.
- NCIS had one of these in "Bete Noire" when the autopsy is taken over by a terrorist (later revealed to be Ari) and is torturing Gerald:Kate: You bastard.
Terrorist: You're a qualified agent, and that's the best you can come up with?
Kate: You [Gerald screaming] bastard!note - Spoofed by Pimp My Ride. Xzibit discovers that the car for that week has a broken horn, so the driver has to use an air horn instead. Then he says "Send the censors home. We gonna edit ourselves from now on. Why, you little..." He then blows the horn while mouthing curse words.
- In a Pushing Daisies episode, a nun spouts off several obscenities, all of which are masked by the ringing of a church bell.
- And in the episode "Circus Circus", Ned's apparently quoting obscenities, while a firebreather is loudly practicing his trade directly in front of the camera.
- On Seinfeld, Jerry warns Elaine that George won't be too happy with what she's doing. "Well, I don't really give a sh-" (slams the bathroom door behind her)
- Square One TV: In the Mathnet case "The Case of the Parking Meter Massacre", George Frankly asks a witness, Fred Furd, what kind of guy George Steinbrenner is. He answers, "Aw, George is a...", and the honking of cars drown out what he was saying. George Frankly stops smiling and says, "I heard that about him," while Kate just looks shocked at what she just heard.
- In Stargate SG-1, Carter is having a discussion with Jonas about his inability to ask a girl out on a date.Carter: You are such a chicken s— [incoming wormhole alarm sounds]
- In an episode of Three's a Crowd, Jack Tripper is serving some upper crust obnoxious guests on a cruise ship. When they ask him what it is, he replies:Jack: "It's called [loud ship horn] on a shingle."
- Subverted in The Strange Calls. Gregor (in the context of a conversation about catching a cat) says, "I love catching p-" and the rest of the word is cut off by a loud truck passing by. Immediately afterward, he says "Pussy. I was going to say pussy. I love catching pussy."
- In The White Shadow, as they are walking along a busy city sidewalk, a high school student confides in a friend that his girlfriend has just told him she's pregnant. The astonished friend responds, "Pregnant! No sh..?" just as a bus passes by them and honks loudly.
- In an episode of Will & Grace, Will mentions an old friend of Grace's. Grace mentions that she once made fun of the girl's lisp, and proceeds to do it again. Will mentions that the friend died, and Grace moans, "Oh, shit." However, she's still making fun of her lisp, so it comes out more like a combination of "sit" and "slit".
- The X-Files had two of these in season 7 episode "Fight Club":Mulder: (on a cell phone) No [static] Sherlock.
Mulder: (on a cell phone) Somebody's got to get to that fight and keep those two women apart or else this time the [static] is going to hit the fans.
Music
- In Huey Lewis & the News' "Heart Of Rock And Roll", the line "But it's still that same old back beat rhythm/that really really kicks them in the..." ends with a drum riff.
- In Queens of the Stone Age's Fairweather Friends, it's how singer/guitarist John Homme ends the song. He abruptly stops playing mid-chorus, saying "I don't give a sh*t about them anyhow". The swearing is censored out by the sound of a single Film reel countdown bleep.
- Cue fridge brilliance as this line actually fits the attitude of next song Smooth Sailing better than it does its own.
- The pub song "Woman from Belfast" has several examples of this particular trope.Now this is the end of this old Belfast farce
And about my poor friend's undependable [guitar twang] - "Poison Ivy" by The Jonas Brothers, where the narrator describes a poisonous relationship/girl:"Everybody gets the itch
Everybody hates that *guitar riff*"
Professional Wrestling
- Subverted on a 2006 Raw, during a match pitting super-hot diva Maria against the bloodthirsty Samoan monster heel Umaga, when Umaga did his avalanche move on a prone Maria, announcer Jim Ross cried out in disbelief, "Oh Jesus!" with Jesus muted out on U.S. broadcasts, leaving the impression that he had uttered "Oh shit!"
- Also subverted at the 2006 Royal Rumble, where The Undertaker returned and summoned lightning to strike the ring that one Kurt Angle was standing in at the time. The ring fell apart, causing commentator Tazz to cry out "Holy shit*BEEP*! What the hell's going on?!". The beep however, came the second after Tazz finished saying the word. The censors probably weren't too happy.
Theatre
- "The Adams Administration" in Hamilton has Hamilton yell "Sit down, John, you fat motherfuckstick!" with the spoilered bit being censored as seen here
. It's a bit of Genius Bonus, because Adams passed the immensely unpopular Alien and Sedition Acts, which made criticizing the government illegal.- Averted in "An Open Letter", the full, eventually cut version of the rant on The Hamilton Mixtape. Watsky ends the song with an uncensored "Sit down, John, you fat motherfucker!", complete with someone letting the air out of "Hail to the Chief".
Video Games
- In Half-Life 2, as Gordon is entering the Citadel, Barney makes a request of him:Barney: If you see Breen, tell him I said fu— [Grinding sound of metal debris and rubble collapsing] —you!note
- In Persona 3, Junpei's All-Out Attack quote is stopped by the sound effect of the Big Ball of Violence.Junpei: "Get back here, you son of a-"
- Done at the end of Team Chaotix's theme in Sonic Heroes. "They're gonna kick your... (gong sound)"
- In the opening scene of StarCraft, some of the Terran scavengers have the following exchange:"You girls strapped in nice and tight now?"
"Tighter than your momma's—"
(The bay door opens loudly)
"That's a good one, man!" - At the beginning of the Team Fortress 2 short Meet the Pyro, as Scout tries to take off the mic attached to his chest, he says "How do I get this *mic bumping sound*-ing thing off?"
- Needles Kane gets in on this during his introduction in Twisted Metal: Black.Shut up and bleed, you motherfu—[Scare Chord]
- Done in the first PlayStation version of You Don't Know Jack during one of the production chatter openings. Someone makes a rude remark to a stagehand only to be responded with, "KISS MY... (BULLHORN)."
- Mega Man X: Command Mission does this with a Fight Woosh in the cutscene just before the Chapter 3 boss fight.Massimo: Feeble Massimo? FEEBLE MASSIMO?! You sonnuva—[guitar riff]
Webcomics
- Gunnerkrigg Court: Near the end of chapter 11, "Dobranoc, Gamma", Zimmy gets cut off by thunder, with the onomatopoeia covering her speech bubble. It's the page image for Sound-Effect Bleep, too.Zimmy: Rain, you bast—KRAKOOM
- In Rusty and Co., by a well-placed Written Sound Effect.Handsome D'an: I don't care! Shoot them up their <DING>
Web Original
- In cs188's "Hollaback Girl but interest was quickly lost":Gwen Stefani: Uh huh, this my sh—*trumpet noise*
- This rather long exchange, originally posted in Finnish on Facebook, ends each part with a curse cut short, and the next part then subverts the dirtiness by ending the word differently.
- YouTuber NerdECrafter often features her sister Sika in her videos. Sika likes to curse, but NerdECrafter has sensitive ears, so she bleeps out all of Sika's curses with silly sound effects and says to her "Watch your mouth!"
- Supermarioglitchy4's Super Mario 64 Bloopers use this a LOT. Here are a few common examples:
- The Policeman's "BULLSH*T!"
- Mario's "Mama F***er!"
- Game Reviewer (from "Ssenmodnar 3") has a lot of censored words, taken from The Angry Video Game Nerd.
- "D'oh, sh*t!"
- "AHHH F***-"
- When Ghost of True Capitalist Radio rages, the sound of his cans sometimes interrupts his cursing.
Western Animation
- In the American Dad! episode “The Last Ride of the Dodge City Rambler” a suitcase falls on Stans’s foot he yells “motherfu...” before being cut off by the train whistle.
- In the 'Gee Whiz' episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Meatwad goes on a little curse rant constituted by various SFX used as bleeps.
- Family Guy has a similar gag:Lois: You see Meg, I'm like one of those Bald eagles on the Discovery Channel. Beautiful to look at... but mess with one of my baby chicks and I'll use my razor-sharp talons to rip your
[oven dings]
Lois: ... ing eyes out. Cookies are done. Who wants chocolate chip?- In the first episode when Peter tries to win money on a talent show:Emcee: And the prize goes to The von Trapp Family Singers!
Peter: That is bull... (drowned out by applause) - Also in that episode after finding out that Peter got all that money from welfare Lois says "What the fu—(gets cut off by Peter blowing an air horn)".
- In "PTV" the FCC tries to censor real life, they blow an air horn to cover up swear words.Peter: Oh, Lois, you are so full of (BEEP)! WHAT?! Now I can't say (BEEP) in my own (BEEP)ing house?! Great, Lois. Just (BEEP)in' great. You know, you're lucky you're good at (BEEP) my (BEEP) or I'd never put up with ya. You know what I'm talking about, when you (BEEP) lubed-up (BEEP) toothpaste in my (BEEP) while you (BEEP) on a cherry (BEEP)Episcopalian (BEEP) extension cord (BEEP) wetness (BEEP) with a parking ticket. That is the best!
- In the first episode when Peter tries to win money on a talent show:
- In "Der Fuehrer's Face":Oh, when der Fuehrer yells,
"I've got to have more shells!"
We heil! Heil!
For him we make more shells!
If one little shell should blow him right to (Donald Duck gets hit in the head by a large shell) * CLANG*
We heil! Heil!
And wouldn't that be swell! - In the Justice League Unlimited episode "For The Man who Has Everything''. In the comic it's based on, Wonder Woman says "hell".Mongul: Oh, dear. Is that a neural impactor? I didn't know that they were still making those. I'd advise you to try the plasma disruptor. It's more of a woman's weapon.
Wonder Woman: Go to * SHBOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!!* - Metalocalypse does this frequently with pinch harmonics.
- The Powerpuff Girls (1998) episode "Curses" has the girls overhearing the Professor spouting a blue word (obscured by sound effects) after injuring his thumb, and they spend the rest of the episode repeating it because they think it's neat.
- In The Ren & Stimpy Show episode "Royal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen" a line in the Yaksmen National Anthem goes like "And we will probably go to hell" when they sing that part "hell" is droned out by a farting sound and it can be seen when the lyrics go by with the word crossed off.
- In an episode of Rugrats, Angelica is appearing on a kid's show whose host was… not fond of them, to say the least. She came up with a "real" new Happy Fun Phrase for what she thinks of them. Also combo'd very well with a Running Gag.Angelica: No. mommy. The new happy fun phrase is: She thinks we're all little....(A truck goes by and honks loudly as Angelica says a "new word" she learned).
- The Simpsons
- Homer's other Catchphrase, "Why, you little...!"
- James Woods wants to leave his job at the Kwik-E-Mart after being told his movie role has been changed while cleaning the microwave:
Woods:...What do you mean, I gotta give two weeks' notice? Why you frickin', no good, motha [beep] [beep] cheese! ...No, not you, I'm just talking to my oven. - In the Space Ghost Coast to Coast episode "King Dead", Space Ghost saying "fucking" is cut off by his megaphone crackling, so all we hear is "Just don't touch my TV, OK? Or you're... king dead!" The episode also begins with Space Ghost saying "-king dead!", after having been locked outside of the studio by Zorak and Moltar.
- In SpongeBob SquarePants, it turns out that the seemingly incidental or censorial noises of a dolphin chattering and/or boat horn honking are the bad words to the undersea dwellers.
- Zig-zag: Tex Avery's MGM cartoon "The Early Worm Gets The Bird" has a cat (chasing the bird who is chasing the worm) getting konked on the head. The soundtrack goes silent with the word "Censored" put on the screen as the cat mouths profanities.
- In the Young Justice episode "Secrets", Artemis shoots at Harm while making her escape, only for him to catch it with his bare hands. Unfortunately, she races out slamming the door behind her, while Harm notices the gas filling the room from the open stove. Then the arrow ignites...Harm: Oh, that little.... * BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM!!!* (The house explodes)
