Linking to a past Trope Repair Shop thread that dealt with this page: Can't be character's own preference?
, started by nrjxll on Aug 15th 2011 at 10:17:35 AM
"Some characters just don't swear and have their clean tongue as a personality trait."
It's not entirely clear to me; should that be on the page or not? There are some such characters listed, like Omar Little or Alan from The Hangover. Should that be a separate trope?
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"No swearing at all" is a different trope from "mild swearing only" I would say.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
My point was that there are characters listed here who use no or only mild swearing as a matter of principle in shows that allow profanity. This seems to be a different trope.
This never resolved, but three years later there still seems to be the same issue: this trope's definition doesn't clearly distinguish between minced oaths enforced by the writers to keep things G-rated, and minced oaths as a character trait in an otherwise uncensored work, where it's the individual in-universe character, rather than the writers, the meddling executives, or the Moral Guardians, that has an objection to strong profanity.
If minced-oath-as-characterization is covered by this trope, then the definition (both long-form and laconic) should be edited to reflect this.
If it's not covered, then a new trope should be launched to cover it, because I'm pretty sure it is an actual characterization device that many works use.
Edited by BURGINABC
Two-bit blockhead
I'm not sure about listing Mirage's TMNT comics on here. While, "dung" is definitely used as a minced oath, there were still mild swears like "damn" and "hell" thrown around, which I don't think counts as the trope.
Weird in a Can (updated M-F)
I am newly known and learning how to do these things. I've just added an entry under Live Action Television to note from the TV series "Bewitched" Samantha's catch phrase of "oh my stars" as well as the use of "my fat aunt Harriet" as a scoff. At this stage I have linked the cross-reference to "catch phrase" incorrectly, but as the article is currently checked out I cannot correct it. If someone catches it before I can, I would appreciate the assist.
PS: Bowdlerizing a page on profanity is nucking futs.
Edited by BradyLady Hide / Show Replies
Yeah, the page shouldn't be bowdlerized, but if the edit history is to be believed that was done by you. Do you have a browser plugin that automatically filters such words even in input forms like the edit screen or something?
It would appear that someone recently went through and bowdlerized the entire fucking page. I'm not sure if this was intended to be ironic or not, but it renders large parts of the description incomprehensible. I don't have the time now to revert all of it, but I'll try to start . . .
Infinite Tree: an experimental story Hide / Show Replies
I agree. It's basically unreadable. Reading the page history, it was a Troper named Niddik. We likely have either a troll or and idiot who was replacing everything, including changing the word "Passenger" to "P***enger". Even the word "God" is censored.
EDIT: I reverted everything before The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob. Somebody else can do the rest.
Edited by Allhailthetv
Well, unless I've overlooked something, the revert is finished. Thanks to everyone who helped out!
Infinite Tree: an experimental story
I was about to say, last time I was here, there was definitely evidence of a Bluenose Bowdlerizer at work. I'm glad it's fixed now.
FC: SW-1445-0294-1719/PSN: TekkenGirl4Lyfe/Currently playing: Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade
Someone's at it again. I'm reverting it - there's hardly any point at censoring a page that's supposed to provide information about swearing. If said user wants to reinstate the edits, please discuss it here.
I'm a newbie. I'm not sure I caused the trouble here, but if so it was entirely an accident. I have a swear filter on my browser, because I want to censor what *I* see. However, I would never take it upon myself to censor what *others* see. Unfortunately, when my swear filter turned all of the f-words and g-d's into ****, and I sent in my edit, apparently the asterisks carried through to the page. I apologize sincerely and will remember to turn off filters before I edit again.
These examples from the Real Life section are problematic. Firstly the Real Life section is for real life examples, not fictional examples. Secondly, they aren't examples of the trope. They aren't uses of a weak swearword as a strong one, they are unintentional swears in a cross-cultural context.
- Guybrush Threepwood of the Monkey Island series needs to get termites onto a piece of wood. On examining the wood, you see the termites chomping away, to which Guybrush notes "Look at the little buggers go!". This was our first clue that "bugger" can't be particularly rude in America.
- Although not a children's franchise, Halo has marines fearfully refer to insectoid aliens as "buggers", which adds a hilarious sexual implication to British ears. On a not-so-interesting sidenote, the Australian marine uses the word bugger in the same context and meaning as a British person would, which is just in line with Australian culture, although bugger is perhaps considered somewhat less offensive, and not particularly related to any sexual situations. It's also interesting that Cortana tells a character to "Piss off!" in the novelization while her line in the game is "Sod off!".
- It's also used in Chrono Trigger to describe a model of robot in the After the End era.
- In Super Mario RPG, Croco calls Mario a "persistent bugger" at one point; when the Virtual Console version of the game was released in Europe, this was changed to "persistent pest" instead, which is not only completely innocent to UK ears but has the bonus of having Added Alliterative Appeal.
- Bluto once used "bloody" in a Popeye cartoon set in England.
- Chumly the Troll often says "bloody" in Robert Asprin's Myth books.
- In the (awful) Darkstalkers Animated Series, Australian zombie rock star Lord Raptor says "bloody marvellous".
- In a Youtube Poop based off of that episode, not only is the word repeated several times, but after a few repeats, a subtitle pops up saying "HE'S SAYING 'BLOODY' ON A CHILDREN'S SHOW!"
- In the movie based on Batman The Animated Series "Mask of the Phantasm", after a bit of a spat between the two, Batman's butler, Alfred, says "bloody".
- A one-off use of "buggers" was the cause of Sonic Rush Adventure getting a 12+ rating in the UK.
- A concerned housewife once wrote to a British computer magazine about a Dora The Explorer kids' game that apparently features Dora calling out "Bugger" in one scene.
- Mighty Max used the term "bugger" as a description of large bugs. American Donald Duck comic books have included stories called "Bugged by Humbuggery" (a phony exterminator fills Donald's house with bugs) and "The Think Box Bollix" (Gyro's "think box" inventions go berserk). On the other hand, UK Disney comics routinely used the word "hell," considered far too racy for US use.
While I don't see it mentioned on the page, this trope page (like many) is clearly for US television. There's a fascinating example imho - where translations meant for the US of some foreign-language programs (from specific countries, I think- I've noticed this of translations of the programs I've seen originating from South Korea) consistently use "gosh" and a few others while not similarly weaken all swear words. This habit of modern translators is probably under a different trope name, though...
(Actually, who needs love when one has music?...)