Basic Trope: Saying that something that depicts nudity can't be pornography on the grounds that it's art.
- Straight: Alice finds a picture of a naked woman under Bob's bed and calls him a pervert. Bob says that it isn't porn, it's art.
- Exaggerated:
- It's ridiculously badly drawn with emphasis on the breasts and the vulva, but Bob insists it's art.
- Bob has a whole Porn Stash, but insists all of it is art and he collects art/is an artist.
- Bob goes so far as to actually learn about art to sell his lie that his porn is art, leading to a "Fawlty Towers" Plot.
- Downplayed:
- The picture looks quite well-drawn, so it may or may not be art. Alice was just suspicious because it was under Bob's bed.
- Bob draws explicit art. When Alice finds it and confronts him, Bob gives very thought-out explanation that explains the entire picture. He then admits that he also did add quite a bit of Author Appeal and that he does get why people would assume it's porn.
- Justified:
- Bob doesn't want Alice to think he's a pervert, so he tells the first lie that comes into his head.
- Bob was hiding shunga under his bed, which historically was a bit of both.
- Bob actually does collect nude paintings for artistic purposes, so it's not difficult to believe his genuine porn is also art.
- Inverted:
- Bob claims that a landscape painting is porn.
- Bob passes off his art collection as porn because he's less embarrassed to be a porn user than an unmanly artist.
- Subverted: It turns out it is art. Bob is a practicing artist and hid the picture under his bed so that people wouldn't mistake it for porn.
- Double Subverted:
- He sometimes uses it as porn.
- Alice seemingly believes Bob's argument, but then says I'll Be in My Bunk and retreats to her bedroom with the "art".
- Parodied:
- It clearly is art, but Alice insists it's porn just because she's naked.
- It's just as pornographic as Alice thought it was, but Bob genuinely believes it has artistic merit.
- Bob actually masturbates to art works, so he pulls out the excuse when Alice finds them under his bed.
- Averted:
- Alice does not find porn.
- Bob does not insist porn is art.
- Zigzagged: Alice sees a picture of a naked woman under Bob's bed. He says it's art, but isn't much of a liar and the picture is pretty well-drawn. It turns out Bob is a practicing artist but hid the picture under the bed because if people saw it, they'd think it was porn. He admits that he sometimes gets aroused by it...but that he doesn't try to and wishes he didn't.
- Enforced:
- Lampshaded: "It's art...because who says porn can't be art?!"
- Invoked: Charlie suggests that Bob "just say it's art" if Alice finds his porn.
- Exploited:
- Someone can legally sell pornography by claiming it's art.
- Alice is interested in art and uses the opportunity to force Bob to learn more about art.
- Defied:
- Bob refuses to lie.
- Bob refuses to keep porn and censors any pornographic-seeming art he possesses.
- As soon as Alice sees Bob's porn, she shouts, "And don't tell me that's art!"
- Discussed: "Is that porn or art?"
- Conversed: "How come nudity is sometimes porn and sometimes art?"
- Implied: There are ratings tags applied to various pieces. Despite featuring two nude lovers embracing it is labeled "G". Either this trope is in effect or there was a labeling mistake.
- Deconstructed: Due to his reputation for saying it, Bob can't look at any pictures of naked people without people thinking he masturbates to it. If it's a girl, he's a horndog; if a guy, he's got the hots for him. The fact that he does keep a couple of naked pictures around as fap material does not help his credibility.
- Reconstructed:
- Played for Laughs: Porn magazines are shown going utterly pretentious in order to get wider acceptance as art. Surprisingly it works even when it is clearly nonsense like adding Nonsensical French titles.
- Played for Drama: Bob is secretly gay, and he passes off his gay porn as art to avoid the embarrassment of coming out.
Back to It's Not Porn, It's Art.
